The dark side of K-pop

[mongers]

I thought this thread was going to be about some breakfast cereal. 



edit:
On reading the OP, turns out it is.

[jimmy olsen]

K-Pop is a massive industry: global sales were worth over $30m (£18m) in 2009,

Wow. $30 million. Globally. That sure is massive.

I have to believe that's a typo/mistake.

If so, they made it twice (once in dollars and once in pounds).  I bet the foot fetish industry makes more money then that.

Do Global sales include Korean? Because it's a billion dollar business here. It's completely dominate, there is no serious competition, no native rock scene of any significance. You'll see 50 year old businessmen rocking out to the latest teen sensation with no shame at all. 

[The Larch]

K-Pop is a massive industry: global sales were worth over $30m (£18m) in 2009,

Wow. $30 million. Globally. That sure is massive.

No kidding.  That's barely more than a million CDs.  Then again, the article said that they had cut the price of digital music down to pennies for a song, so that could actually be a fair amount of music.

Their problem seems to be to poor of a return on investments. Maybe cut some expenses, like start with people who can already dance or sing.

But then they won't be as pretty, which damages your spin-offs into movies and advertising.  That might not be important with your average flash-in-the-pan group, but when you get a huge success like this Rain guy, he pays for everything.

And besides, this stuff happens here, too.  How much do you think they had to put into that Kesha girl before she got to the level of shittiness that she's at today?

Surprisingly, it seems that Kesha had a legitimate music background before being famous, as she had been a studio and background singer for a few years before getting a record deal of her own. She's still auto-tuned crap, but at least it's legitimate crap.

I think that the Disney teenybopper celebrity churn machine is the closer thing in the west to the Korean model. American Idol would be somehow in the same wavelength.

[Grey Fox]

K-Pop is a massive industry: global sales were worth over $30m (£18m) in 2009,

Wow. $30 million. Globally. That sure is massive.

No kidding.  That's barely more than a million CDs.  Then again, the article said that they had cut the price of digital music down to pennies for a song, so that could actually be a fair amount of music.

Their problem seems to be to poor of a return on investments. Maybe cut some expenses, like start with people who can already dance or sing.

But then they won't be as pretty, which damages your spin-offs into movies and advertising.  That might not be important with your average flash-in-the-pan group, but when you get a huge success like this Rain guy, he pays for everything.

And besides, this stuff happens here, too.  How much do you think they had to put into that Kesha girl before she got to the level of shittiness that she's at today?

A lot of money for sure but Kesha is probably raking 30 millions by herself. Not an entire industry.

[Neil]

K-Pop is a massive industry: global sales were worth over $30m (£18m) in 2009,

Wow. $30 million. Globally. That sure is massive.

I have to believe that's a typo/mistake.

If so, they made it twice (once in dollars and once in pounds).  I bet the foot fetish industry makes more money then that.

Do Global sales include Korean? Because it's a billion dollar business here. It's completely dominate, there is no serious competition, no native rock scene of any significance. You'll see 50 year old businessmen rocking out to the latest teen sensation with no shame at all.

And that's why it will never succeed here.  Western culture is all about being 'cool' at all costs.

[The Larch]

I found a new number in a Time article about the size of the K-pop market. They did a special on K-pop earlier this year after a corruption investigation was launched regarding some kind of payola scandal.

Here's the link to the special: http://205.188.238.181/time/asia/covers/1101020729/index.html

And here's the money quote:

It's hard to imagine a worse p.r. nightmare for Korea's idolmakers, whose stock-in-trade is bubblegum groups crooning heavily synthesized love ballads to a largely underage audience. The investigation comes at a time when K-pop is on an impressive roll. The $300 million domestic market is the second largest in Asia, topped only by Japan's massive $2.9 billion in album sales last year. K-pop has broken across borders: teenagers from Tokyo to Taipei swoon over performers such as singer Park Ji Yoon and boy band Shinhwa, buying their CDs and posters and even learning Korean so they can sing along at karaoke. BoA this year became the first solo artist in more than two decades to have a debut single and a debut album reach No. 1 in Japan, according to Oricon magazine, Japan's leading music guide. "Korea is like the next epicenter of pop culture in Asia," says Jessica Kam, a vice president for MTV Networks Asia. "It's the next Japan."

Is 300 million dollars just for South Korea more reasonable?

[Razgovory]

I was looking around and found that article, but it's nearly 10 years old.

[The Larch]

I was looking around and found that article, but it's nearly 10 years old.

10 year old? In wiki it's dated as being from February 2011.

Edit: Ok, now I see that the band they talk about, H.O.T., disbanded in 2001, and in Wiki they say that the article was retrieved on that date, not that it was written in that date.

[Josquius]

K-Pop is a massive industry: global sales were worth over $30m (£18m) in 2009,

Wow. $30 million. Globally. That sure is massive.

I have to believe that's a typo/mistake.

If so, they made it twice (once in dollars and once in pounds).  I bet the foot fetish industry makes more money then that.

Do Global sales include Korean? Because it's a billion dollar business here. It's completely dominate, there is no serious competition, no native rock scene of any significance. You'll see 50 year old businessmen rocking out to the latest teen sensation with no shame at all.

And that's why it will never succeed here.  Western culture is all about being 'cool' at all costs.

Lady Gaga?

[Eddie Teach]

Remember that most of the people that are in these contracts are untalented.  If they didn't have the company, they'd have a nametag and hairnet job.

A fair number are trophy wife material.

[MadImmortalMan]

Manufactured bands and singers exist in the west as well, it's by no means an exclusive of East Asia.

True. In fact, it's largely a Swedish conspiracy.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Martin

[Neil]

K-Pop is a massive industry: global sales were worth over $30m (£18m) in 2009,

Wow. $30 million. Globally. That sure is massive.

I have to believe that's a typo/mistake.

If so, they made it twice (once in dollars and once in pounds).  I bet the foot fetish industry makes more money then that.

Do Global sales include Korean? Because it's a billion dollar business here. It's completely dominate, there is no serious competition, no native rock scene of any significance. You'll see 50 year old businessmen rocking out to the latest teen sensation with no shame at all.

And that's why it will never succeed here.  Western culture is all about being 'cool' at all costs.

Lady Gaga?

bmolsson?

[Jacob]

That's not the dark side of K-pop as far as I know.

When I was in Hong Kong I was talking to a guy I know in the entertainment industry there and who does a variety of business with Koreans. He related a story of one of his first visits there. His associate picked him up at the airport and the conversation went something like this:

"Who do you want to do?
"What do you mean who do I want to do?"
"Who do you want to fuck? [Name of a famous singer]?[Name of a famous actress]? Someone else?"
"Uh...."
"Let me know when you decide. I'll make the calls and hook you up."

Hong Kong/ Taiwan/ PRC are a bit better. Fewer suicides and it seems the sex for money/ favours thing while still fairly common (e.g. the Zhang Zhiyi scandal last year) is mostly voluntary rather than forced on the talent by managers and label executives as it seems to be the case in Korea these days.

The dark side of K-pop is the serious involvement of organized crime and the unsavory business practices of the industry leading to the inordinate amount of suicides.

[Grey Fox]

I'd do that pink haired girl from Miss A, no doubt.

[alfred russel]

That's not the dark side of K-pop as far as I know.

When I was in Hong Kong I was talking to a guy I know in the entertainment industry there and who does a variety of business with Koreans. He related a story of one of his first visits there. His associate picked him up at the airport and the conversation went something like this:

"Who do you want to do?
"What do you mean who do I want to do?"
"Who do you want to fuck? [Name of a famous singer]?[Name of a famous actress]? Someone else?"
"Uh...."
"Let me know when you decide. I'll make the calls and hook you up."

Hong Kong/ Taiwan/ PRC are a bit better. Fewer suicides and it seems the sex for money/ favours thing while still fairly common (e.g. the Zhang Zhiyi scandal last year) is mostly voluntary rather than forced on the talent by managers and label executives as it seems to be the case in Korea these days.

The dark side of K-pop is the serious involvement of organized crime and the unsavory business practices of the industry leading to the inordinate amount of suicides.

That is probably a scam. They entice you with some star, and when the time comes to meet she will unfortunately be out of the country on some trip that came up at the last moment. But there will be another "star" available, only one you have never heard of.