We listen to their songs, follow their dramas and turn to them for style inspo, making South Korea clearly the tastemaker du jour of Asia. So just how did we become so enamoured with all things Korean?
We listen to their songs, follow their dramas and turn to them for style inspo, making South Korea clearly the tastemaker du jour of Asia. So just how did we become so enamoured with all things Korean?
Making waves
Here are some K-Pop culture exports that have caught our eyes over the past few years.
Big Bang. Goblin. Running Man. BTS. Ombre lips. Aegyo-sal. “TT”. Descendants of the Sun. Unless you’ve been living under a pop culture rock for the past couple of years, chances are, you’d know exactly what all those words mean. From music to TV to beauty to fashion, most of us in the Asian region tend to consume a lot of Korean pop culture. But why is that so, considering the cultural and language barriers?
2008
The K-Wave
It all began with Korean TV dramas like Winter Sonata, Jewel in the Palace, Full House and Stairway to Heaven in the early ’00s. This was before streaming video sites were a thing, so most Singaporeans watch the dubbed and subtitled versions on our local channels. Then, in the next decade or so, came the proliferation of K-Pop bands and their carefully curated members, like Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, Big Bang and Wonder Girls. Their music videos were on YouTube, so pretty much anyone with an internet connection could listen to their favourite songs over and over again with the click of a button.
2009
And suddenly, the whole of Asia fell in love with South Korea. From housewives to working adults to youths, you’ll be hardpressed to find someone who hasn’t been exposed to some form of K-Export these days. The media named the sudden boom of Korean pop culture the K-Wave – also known as Hallyu (which means “flow of Korea”) – and the rest is history. But what’s puzzling about this phenomenon is that, despite being in a foreign language and culture altogether, it has managed to captivate a wide audience outside of Korea. It’s not like Western pop culture, where we can consume its exports directly, no subtitles needed. What gives?
In an interview with CNN , Sung Tae Ho, a senior manager from the Korean Broadcasting System, pointed out that because of similarities in Asian cultures, there isn’t much of a cultural 1 barrier. “Even though the languages are different, we share an Eastern mentality. We respect the father and mother, a very hierarchical society and Confucianism,” he said. This sentiment was echoed by Dr Liew Kai Khiun, assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information.
“Media and popular entertainment flows are generally very porous in the Asia-Pacific region, especially in multicultural societies like Singapore,” he explains.
He adds: “While Singaporean programmes may appeal to local sensibilities, it has lost out to intensely competitive Korean counterparts, who have also upstaged the Japanese in trendsetting modern lifestyles and values in Asia.”
2010
Mass appeal
For 25-year-old HR administrator Delight Ng, her gateway to K-Culture was SHINee, a five-member boy band with an infectious hit called “Ring Ding Dong”. “I wondered who were these men dancing in sync and singing in Korean, mixed with a smattering of weird English lyrics that made no sense,” she recalls.
“What caught my eye was that the band was packaged so perfectly, like a product to be marketed to the masses. They could dance, sing, and rap all at the same time and they were handsome as well!” she adds. That was eight years ago – the HR executive now speaks fluent Korean and even studied in Seoul for about a year.
2011
Much has been said about the pop music factory that is South Korea. The story of how bands are produced is familiar to those who have the slightest interest in the K-Pop scene: talents are recruited into agencies from as early as 13 years old, presented with airtight contracts that don’t leave room for the slightest misdemeanor, and put through a grueling training system that can last years before their debut.
2012
Pretty sells
Dollars and sense
Besides some clever business strategies from the content producers and entertainment companies, the government has also had a hand in elevating Korea’s status as a heavyweight pop culture exporter. In a The Straits Times report , an expert from Ernst & Young pointed out that the South Korean government invested 1.4 percent of its Budget – that’s a whopping approximate of US$5.2 billion – in culture and media last year. This year, the government plans to increase it to 2 percent – or US$7.8 billion.
These hefty investments have paid off. The Straits Times reported that according to data from the Korea Creative Content Agency, the content industry’s exports, which include music, games and broadcasting, increased from US$43 billion in 2011 to US$58.3 billion in 2014.
Just looking at the number of Korean artistes in recent memory who are holding world tours, overseas concerts, and overseas fan meetings, it’s safe to assume that Hallyu is making a significant contribution to South Korea’s economy. And it’s not just in the form of direct sales – it also helps to increase tourism dollars too. In the same report, tourism promotion officials estimated that around 10 percent of tourists who visited South Korea in 2015 were there “purely because of Hallyu”.
“Being a K-Pop fan for so many years has made me appreciate Korean culture as a whole: the food, the etiquette, the language, and so on,” says business development manager Valenisha, 26. “It was only natural that I started learning the language and visited the country for long holidays, not only to see the artists in real life, but also to experience for myself what Korea is like.”
World domination?
While K-Wave exports do very well regionally, it still remains to be seen if it will take off in the US market. A handful of Korean artists have tried breaking into the US mainstream – including CL, Girls’ Generation, Rain, Se7en, Wonder Girls and Big Bang – but none of them have become household names in America yet. So far, the only K-Pop act that has made a considerable dent in the American consciousness is Psy.
“The American market has generally been prejudiced against Asian-based popular music, which it considers to be too manufactured… Gangnam Style was popular as Psy’s unrestrained awkwardness projected some authenticity that playfully subverted the constraining politeness of daily living,” says Dr Kai Khiun.
“However, this is set to change with the increasingly popularity of some personalities in the West, like G-Dragon from Big Bang and CL from the recently disbanded 2NE1,” he observes.
K-Pop songs like “Nobody” by Wonder Girls and “Lifted” by CL have charted on the Billboard Hot 100, as have all of Psy’s post-“Gangnam Style” hits. Actor Lee Byung Hyun had major roles in Hollywood films like G.I. Joe and The Magnificent Seven, while Rain played the leading role in Ninja Assassin, which raked in more than US$13 million during its opening weekend in America, and even earned him an MTV Movie Award.
But the reality is, waves ebb and flow. Before the rise of Hallyu, the Asian region went gaga for Taiwanese pop culture (remember Meteor Garden, My MVP Valentine, 5566 and F4?).
And before that, J-Pop culture also enjoyed a period of popularity within the Asian region. Which prompts the question – will the K-Wave recede over time? Not for the next decade at least, says Dr Kai Khiun.
“For me, signs of decline and reduction in public interest comes when the turnover rate of productions and celebrities start to slow down… with new K-Pop groups and celebrities still being churned out, it’s unlikely that the fad will fade in the next decade or so.”
Images Getty Images, TPG/Click Photos, YG Entertainment, Viu, SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, SBS Text Sophie Hong. References 1.“’Korean Wave’ of Pop Culture Sweeps Across Asia”, CNN, 2010. 2.“How Can Singapore Learn From the Success of Hallyu?”, The Straits Times, 2016.
