K-pop looks West to overcome China ban
SOUTH KOREAN pop stars hope to take the United States by storm after being shut out of the lucrative Chinese market over an arms row.
Since last year, entertainers from the Korean music scene, K-pop, have been barred from performing in China in a barely disguised effort by Beijing to pressure Seoul not to deploy America’s THAAD missile defence system.
“The impact of THAAD has been substantial,” said Ellen Kong, chief executive of Elf Asia, a Hong Kong promotion company specialising in K-pop. “It’s meant China is no longer a viable market for K-pop touring acts.”
Media reports in September last year quoted Chaebul, South Korea’s leading stock website, as saying the dispute had caused more than $140 million (£108 million) of damage to South Korea’s entertainment companies so far.
However, the prospect of touring America came closer to reality yesterday after the South Korean boy band BTS beat Justin Bieber to become the first K-pop group to win a US Billboard music award.
The prize was a sign that China’s retaliation may backfire, with K-pop now going mainstream in the West. Despite not singing in English, BTS have already sold out venues in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.
American K-pop enthusiasts are delighted that an unexpected geopolitical twist has now brought many more of their favourites stateside.
In 2013, there were just seven K-pop concert tours in the US, compared with 20 in 2016. There have been 14 already this year.
The so-called “Korean Wave” of pop culture has long dominated
East Asia, and produced global hits such as
Psy’s Gangnam Style. The multibillion-dollar K-pop industry, with its promise of legions of adoring fans, has also become an enticing prospect for aspiring Western groups.
Jaden Smith, the 18-yearold son of the actor Will Smith, has said it is one of his “goals for 2017” to become a K-pop star. One commentator responded: “He knows the K in K-pop stands for Korean, right?”
But American attempts to break into Korean pop culture have not been universally well received. Last month, the all-american boy band EXP Edition was accused by infuriated fans of trying to take the “K” out of “K-pop” when it released its first Korean music video.
“Retweet if you think four white boys should stick to American pop. It’s really not that hard,” said one angry fan on Twitter, amid accusations of cultural appropriation. “K-pop is supposed to be a safe space for Asians to have a platform for entertainment that they often times aren’t given in the West,” said another.
Although the band relocated to Seoul to learn the language, fans questioned their perceived lack of training compared with South Korean artists who attend regimented “K-pop academies” for over a decade before their official debut.
But the band’s creators, Bora Kim and Karin Kuroda, claimed to The Daily Telegraph that criticism had “drastically subsided”.
Michael Hurt, a Korean culture expert and professor at Seoul’s Hangkuk University, highlighted the irony of appropriation accusations.
He said: “K-pop became a genre that’s really a fusion of appropriated other, mostly American and actually African American art, especially singing and dancing.”