Cultural Understanding:

There are many examples today of music connecting different cultures. For example, the globalization of a Korean boy band, BTS, has become very popular across the world even though their songs are in majority Korean. They travel all over the world, performed on many shows, and have attended major award shows in the U.S.
All of these fans don’t speak Korean but they love the music and many have educated themselves on the Korean culture to understand members better. On social media you can see many BTS fans from across the world are becoming friends with each other despite cultural differences due to one common interest. CNCO, a Latin group, has also become popular among many who do not speak Spanish but they continue to enjoy the music and learn about their culture as their popularity continues to grow.

The article from Burlington County Times, listed in the Recommended Readings, is a good example of how music can lead to cultural understanding from a fan's perspective with many accounts from fans of BTS.
The article/interview with BTS from Time Magazine, listed in the Recommended Readings, is also a good source to understand how much of an impact music has on connecting people from all over the globe.

Music has helped many people become very interested in cultures other than their own. Music is just the threshold of culture and can lead people to other aspects of culture like food, traditions, and language.
My friend always talked about K-pop and how interesting the Korean culture is, but I didn’t understand why because I couldn’t speak Korean or understand what they were saying. But, she explained that you didn’t have to in order to understand the feeling of the song and enjoy. Just by taking a chance and listening to the music you become more curious and tend to look into other aspects of their culture.
Consequently, I began to watch some of their shows and learned more about their language and overall culture. If it weren’t for me being open or “passive” listening to their music I wouldn’t have been interested in learning more about their overall culture. In this way, music can help break barriers between different cultures and languages.