The dark side of K-pop

[The Larch]

It might be of interest to Tim, Jacob, Yi and other assorted victims of yellow fever.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13760064

The dark side of South Korean pop music
By Lucy Williamson BBC News, Seoul

South Korea's pop industry is big business in Asia. As K-Pop sets its sights on Europe and the US, will this force a change in the way it treats its artists?

Selling singles is no way for a pop star to make money these days. Most artists find that touring and merchandise sales are more lucrative. So when it comes to concerts, size matters.

This is why the biggest date in the Korean pop calendar - the Dream Concert, at which up to 20 bands perform - is held in Seoul's 66,800-seat World Cup Stadium.

Teenage crushes come here for a once-a-year date in a national love story, where commitment is measured in coloured balloons, and devotion is knowing all the words.

Most of the bands, like Super Junior and Wonder Girls, are household names; highly produced, sugary boy- and girl-bands with slick dance routines and catchy tunes.

But the industry also has a less glamorous side: a history of controversy and legal disputes over the way it treats its young artists, which it is still struggling to shake.

K-Pop is a massive industry: global sales were worth over $30m (£18m) in 2009, and that figure is likely to have doubled last year, according to a government website.

Industry leaders are also ambitious - Korean stars are beating a path to Japan, America and Europe. This month, South Korea's biggest production company, SM Entertainment, held its first European concert in Paris, part of a year-long world tour.

In April, Korea's king of pop, Rain, was voted the most influential person of the year by readers of Time magazine. And earlier this year, boy band Big Bang reached the top 10 album chart on US iTunes.


Follow the money

Korea is excited by what this new musical export could do for its image - and its economy.

But some of K-Pop's biggest success stories were built on the back of so-called slave contracts, which tied its trainee-stars into long exclusive deals, with little control or financial reward.

Two years ago, one of its most successful groups, Dong Bang Shin Ki, took its management company to court, on the grounds that their 13-year-contract was too long, too restrictive, and gave them almost none of the profits from their success.

The court came down on their side, and the ruling prompted the Fair Trade Commission to issue a "model contract" to try to improve the deal artists got from their management companies.

Industry insiders say the rising success of K-Pop abroad, and experience with foreign music companies, has also helped push for change.

"Until now, there hasn't been much of a culture of hard negotiation in Asia, especially if you're new to the industry," says Sang-hyuk Im, an entertainment lawyer who represents both music companies and artists.

Attitudes are changing, he says, but there are some things that even new contracts and new attitudes cannot fix.

Rainbow is a seven-member girl-band, each singer named after a different colour. If any group could lead to a pot of gold, you would think they would.

But Rainbow - currently in a seven-year contract with their management company, DSP - say that, despite working long hours for almost two years, their parents were "heartbroken" at how little they were getting paid.

A director for DSP says they do share profits with the group, but admits that after the company recoups its costs, there is sometimes little left for the performers.

K-Pop is expensive to produce. The groups are highly manufactured, and can require a team of managers, choreographers and wardrobe assistants, as well as years of singing lessons, dance training, accommodation and living expenses.

The bill can add up to several hundred thousand dollars. Depending on the group, some estimates say it is more like a million.


Musical exports

But music sales in South Korea alone do not recoup that investment. For all their passion, home-grown fans are not paying enough for K-Pop.

The CD industry is stagnant, and digital music sites are seen as vastly underpriced, with some charging just a few cents a song.

Bernie Cho, head of music distribution label DFSB Kollective, says online music sellers have dropped their prices too low in a bid to compete with pirated music sites.

"But how do you slice a fraction of a penny, and give that to the artist? You can't do it," he says.

With downward pressure on music prices at home, "many top artists make more money from one week in Japan than they do in one year in Korea", Mr Cho says.

Company representatives say concerts and advertising bring in far more than music sales. "Overseas markets have been good to us," says one spokesman. South Korean musicians need to perform on home turf, but "Japan is where all the money is".

As acts start to make money overseas, he says this "broken business model" - underpricing - is creeping into their activities abroad.

A former policy director at South Korea's main artists' union, Moon Jae-gap, believes the industry will go through a major upheaval. "Because at the moment, it's not sustainable," he says.

Until that happens, he says, artists will continue to have difficulty making a living.

South Korea's government is keen to promote its new international identity, one many hope could rival Japan's cool cultural image.

The only question is whether the industry ends up more famous for its music, or for its problems.

The way they describe it I get strongly reminded of the studio system in Hollywood during the "Golden Age" rather than the Spice Girls on steroids, and ultimately that went down. People with a greater insight into the asian mindset and way of doing showbiz can expand on the attitudes described on the article.

Gratuitous pic of leggy Korean girls added as a bonus:

[jimmy olsen]

The way they describe it I get strongly reminded of the studio system in Hollywood during the "Golden Age" rather than the Spice Girls on steroids, and ultimately that went down. People with a greater insight into the asian mindset and way of doing showbiz can expand on the attitudes described on the article.

That's exactly how it is. The groups are all so huge for cost reasons as well.

[Monoriu]

Pretty much the same in Hong Kong.  The big entertainment companies need to invest huge sums of money on new singers.  But the truth is that the vast majority of them are duds.  Groups are a much more risky bet than lone singers, because the costs are multiplied, while the profits must be shared among more people.  New singers don't make money from selling songs or CDs.  The side jobs are the real money winners.  Like starring in advertisements, endorsing products, showing up in ribbon cutting ceremonies, etc. 

[Monoriu]

I don't know much about the music scene in North America or Europe.  My impression is that over there, a lot of people form bands, write their own music and lyrics, and perform the songs themselves.  That is not the case here.  Some people do that, but most don't.  The norm is that the big companies find pretty faces with no musical talent at all, train them up from scratch, write songs and lyrics for them, and teach them how to perform these songs.  There is a whole industry that comprises "shadow singers" - professional singers who sing really well but aren't good-looking.  Their job is to demonstrate to the pretty stars how to properly sing a song.  A few of these shadow singers actually make it to the big stage due to their superb performance. 

[Martinus]

Surprising. This is not the 1980s. This is the age of youtube and iTunes (and I know of artists who succesfully promote their own albums on both and earn cash in the process). It's surprising big media corporations would have so much power. Maybe Koreans just like to be slaves?

[CountDeMoney]

Surprising. This is not the 1980s.

The management companies sound more like they're in the 50s.

[The Larch]

I don't know much about the music scene in North America or Europe.  My impression is that over there, a lot of people form bands, write their own music and lyrics, and perform the songs themselves.  That is not the case here.  Some people do that, but most don't.  The norm is that the big companies find pretty faces with no musical talent at all, train them up from scratch, write songs and lyrics for them, and teach them how to perform these songs.  There is a whole industry that comprises "shadow singers" - professional singers who sing really well but aren't good-looking.  Their job is to demonstrate to the pretty stars how to properly sing a song.  A few of these shadow singers actually make it to the big stage due to their superb performance.

Manufactured bands and singers exist in the west as well, it's by no means an exclusive of East Asia. The whole phenom of boy and girl bands has been around for a while, and that kind of artists are created and organized by powerful producers, managers and/or companies as well, but even if they're comercially successful they are not as prevalent or monopolistic in the different scenes as it seems to be the case over there. We had our share of Spice Girls, Take Thats, Backstreet Boys and the like in the 90s and all the ones churned directly or indirectly by Disney in the 00s, like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera first and Miley Cyrus, The Jonas Brothers and the like afterwards.

But compared with what you describe, what the article says and the general impression of the scene, of which I admit plenty of ignorance and I'm willing to be enlightened about, the western manufactured artists seem like accomplished auteurs when compared with their Eastern Asian peers.

[CountDeMoney]

Most of the bands, like Super Junior and Wonder Girls,

In April, Korea's king of pop, Rain,

Rainbow is a seven-member girl-band, each singer named after a different colour.

Foreigners are stupid.

Bernie Cho, head of music distribution label DFSB Kollective,

Even their record executives are Jewish.

[Martinus]

Most of the bands, like Super Junior and Wonder Girls,

In April, Korea's king of pop, Rain,

Rainbow is a seven-member girl-band, each singer named after a different colour.

Foreigners are stupid.

Bernie Cho, head of music distribution label DFSB Kollective,

Even their record executives are Jewish.

[Martinus]

Now, I gotta say I am not that familiar with what teenagers listen to these days, but are "premade bands" so popular in the West the way they were during the 1980s and 1990s?

It seems to me that if anything, that role was taken over by shows like X-Factor or Glee (which may give a better perception of "deserved stardom", as opposed to some band coming out of nowhere). Or you have pop stars like Lady Gaga who, for all their pop appeal, seem to be much more self-made (or at least have a greater creative control).

[Martinus]

I mean, from what I understand, even he whose name shall never be spoken (the kid who looks like an old lesbian with a gay haircut) started on youtube, as far as I understand.

[The Larch]

Now, I gotta say I am not that familiar with what teenagers listen to these days, but are "premade bands" so popular in the West the way they were during the 1980s and 1990s?

It seems to me that if anything, that role was taken over by shows like X-Factor or Glee (which may give a better perception of "deserved stardom", as opposed to some band coming out of nowhere). Or you have pop stars like Lady Gaga who, for all their pop appeal, seem to be much more self-made (or at least have a greater creative control).

Talent shows are only a refined version of the same model of artificially creating artists by grooming unkowns into manufactured stardom.

And stop beating the dead Glee horse, it's in no way as popular as you think.

[Lettow77]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TeeJvcBdLA
i'll just leave this here.

[Razgovory]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TeeJvcBdLA
i'll just leave this here.

Not going to click on that, but I wish you wouldn't leave your stuff laying around here.

[Josquius]

It has a light side?

It does indeed sound very old fashioned.