South Korean trot singer Lim Young-woong

Rivalling the global superstars, South Korean trot singer Lim Young-woong shows there's more to South Korean music than K-pop with his billions of streams and a sold-out stadium tour.

Although K-pop still dominates South Korea's musical exports with artists like NewJeans topping US charts, local credit card data suggests trot is growing faster domestically with K-pop concert sales up just 34 percent. Once dismissed and widely ridiculed as music for pensioners, trot blends traditional Korean music with elements of Western jazz, swing and Japanese Enka.

Lim is one of a fresh crop of younger artists breathing new life into the genre, with its melodramatic ballads and upbeat tunes finding massive audiences in the South, helped by a wave of reality television shows.

The original and most successful of these, "Mr Trot" was won by Lim in 2020, with more than a third of all South Korean viewers watching the final.His songs now have a record-breaking 10 billion streams on Melon, the South's largest music platform; his official fan club has more than 200,000 members; and his stadium tours sell out in minutes.