Film/Television
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Kpop a Legitimate Global Force

9
Written by On February 22, 2011

I knew it, you knew it, now the rest of the world is finding out…  There was a great story about Kpop and how it is becoming a legitimate global force in the music industry on Monocle, an hour long show about international news, culture, and design run by the same team that runs the magazine of the same name for Bloomberg.  Based in London, the show’s hosts talked to entertainment industry leaders about the impact that Kpop is making around the world utilizing the power of social media.  It’s definitely worth watching, check it out below.

This is nothing new to us Kpop fans, but it just goes to show that we’re ahead of the bandwagon.

(OSEN)

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  • EmJaye

    Anyone else get a kick out of TOP and GD with British accents?? ^_^

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  • AtSadV

    Its a double edged sword since if you countries music is represented by a group like Snsd you have problems as much as kpop is good it lacks a whole lotta depth or ingenuity also kpop accepts a lot things we in the west have rejected like just being a pretty face or diehard fanclubs. For me Kpop has a shit load of bieber like performers and you can see how much he is despised here.

    • wartooth

      Yeah, everybody sure hates Bieber. You can tell by the platinum album, Grammy nominations, and Scrooge McDuck-style swimming pools full of cash.

      I won’t try to speak for the entire Western world but in the US, at least, we are more than happy to accept things that lack “depth or ingenuity”, we’ve certainly taken to McDonald’s, Bud Light, and reality TV. We love a bit of easy fun and escapism.

      I think, given the right circumstances, Korean music could be popular here. Everything is cyclical and the boy band/ girl group thing will have it’s time again. When is that time? I have no idea.

      • hapacalgirl

        Actually the grammy nods were mostly because he was popular, so I am glad he didn’t win and lost to actual artists. In regards to the platinum albums and riches, he’s a tween pop idol what do you expect, he’s basically the male miley cyrus in the eyes of the tweens. Most people past the age of high school do not take Beiber or his music very seriously. Yes kpop could possibly be popular here but probably with only the 17 and under crowd and not much else. I mean I used to be a boycrazy boyband fan when I was a highschooler so I get the tween crazyness but now as an adult I don’t really take any of that music very seriously.

      • petal blossom

        The West have a lot of tweens and little kids who make up a huge demographic which idols like Bieber can definitely crack, and those tweens and kids have parents who will willingly/grudgingly take them into concerts and buy merchandise for them if it takes the kids off their backs with the constant, “Justin Bieber this, Justin Bieber that” talk. And while I agree that everything is cyclical, I doubt that the boy/girl band craze will start up again soon.

        The Backstreet Boys themselves didn’t gain popularity in the US right away. They went to Europe and performed there in small venues, until England started paying attention and caught the craze, and then the US followed. The Jonas Brothers were hot for a while, but they didn’t last 5 years until the spotlight faded.

        The “Latin craze” in the 90s-2000s with Ricky Martin, Shakira, etc. seems like it hit at the time when the US music industry was ready to embrace another genre, but it quickly went back to rap, hip-hop, and pop.

        KPop artists, unless they can do various genres at once, won’t be able to succeed. The music scene right now is leaning towards gritty, raw, and ‘real’ performances. People who write their own music, who gives off the, “I don’t care what you think” image. The more shocking the artists are, the better. The “cute but sexy, non-threatening” image that is so carefully crafted certainly won’t cut it, especially now that Western society is getting more and more vocal about women’s independence and strength. Most KPop girl groups would just come across as childish and annoying, while some boy groups would seem try-hards and fake.

        • Kyana

          I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this but the music scene right now doesn’t really have any “real” performance. Everything is being digitally altered and just your average singing Joe off of youtube can become a celebrity. Right now the music scene doesn’t really have any genres everything is kinda mixing and meshing together which is why i think that with the right sounds and promotion some Kpop artist could be popular here. And with the whole boy band era thing… history is known to repeat itself, it’s bound to happen again sooner or later

  • lindsey

    That was a nice piece put together, but do I think kpop is a global force, meh, certainly in asia they are, but in the western world kpop is still low brow, but kpop popularity is rising. If anything I think kpop groups should be promoting english/korean songs in the UK rather than the US. UK still loves boy/girl bands.

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