Manufacturing Creativity: Production, Performance, and Dissemination of K-pop Gil-Sung Park Emilie Nedergaard-Larsen , Peter Lee, Oscar Rodriguez, Sandy Huang K-pop takes the world: How does did this happen? ● Argues that the global ascendance of K-pop can primarily be attributed to the passionate support of inter-Asian audiences. Korean talent pools and management to generate music and performers ● Actual production, performance, and dissemination of K-pop contents have little to do with the Asian pop-culture system. K-pop producers tend to rely heavily on the global music industries of North America and Europe for their creative content. ● Would not have been possible without the global social network service (SNS), without YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. 1. localization of musical contents and performers 2. globalization of creativity 3. global dissemination of the musical contents through social media. Let’s Begin K-Pop’s unprecedented simultaneous success in China, India, Japan, Europe, and the United States, something never achieved by Indian, Chinese, or Japanese pop music. Little to do with the so-called Asian pop-culture system, as it would rely on imitating them. � “Pop Asianism” → imply that Asian popular culture is a purely mimetic system with no creativity [copy of the west] � “Manufacturing Creativity,” → encourages and mass produces innovative music and musical performances. ✓ Opening the entire global music industry to musical talents and audiences from all corners of the world ✓ More genres, more choices, taking the west and spinning it What IS K-Pop????!? K-pop is defined as a new Korean popular music genre for export. Starting point can be traced to 1992, with the debut of Seo Taiji and Boys and their new genre of hip-hop dance music. Since 1998, K-pop has been massively exported to China, Japan, Southeast Asia, the United States, and Europe. 2010’s boom. Combines Japan and American strategies. Including : - Production Marketing Style History of Spread→Korean 80’s/90’s (Getting Lucky) →Democratization of Korean - Chun Do Won ousted - Censorship laws relaxed, Freedoms for Civilians → 1988 Olympics - Korea on Global Scale. - Strong Economy, Imports on rise. → 1990’s Rise of Globalization - Fall of Soviets lead to emphasis of capitalism → 1997 Economic Crisis - Companies look elsewhere for music Localization of musical contents and performers: SM’s success strategy Why SM so successful? Fierce pursuit of globalization since early days ○ SM use global outsourcing more frequently and diversely than other companies ● Focuses on performers talented in both singing and dancing ○ Michael Jackson, who displayed revolutionary combinations of singing and dancing, as role model ● Outsource songwriting and composition rather than mimicking Western songs to preserve originality and creativity ○ Outsourcing strategy evolved through trial and error ○ Partnership with Swedish music producer Pelle Lidell helped complete their outsourcing network ● However: Outsourcing is not enough on its own - - - Finishing, mastering and assembling songs is just as important Meticulous step-by-step process of refining, changing and finishing each song Internal process of modifying the work rather than simply copying successful music trends Lee Soo-man overviews entire process: detail-oriented and perfectionist - In order to systematize: a manual of Lee’s know-how created and followed by all departments K-pop trainees Requires steady flow of talented performers → rigorous trainee system Training the trainees: Attributes of trainees: - Regular school during the day - Speak/correctly pronounce: Korean, - After-school training in dancing, singing, acting and foreign English, Japanese and Chinese languages - Dance and sing exceptionally well - Signing a contract with SM, 5-10 - Attractive years - Often act in commercials and TV - Trainees are an investment: SM dramas pays for all expenses of their - SM extremely selective of trainees (1 training in 10,000 or more make it to - Rules: no dating and no phones during practise program) Global Dissemination and Distribution of Kpop ● Involves global and local distributors ● Avex in Japan & iTunes and YouTube in the United States and rest of the world ● Most important source of profit for SM is the SMTown channel on YouTube ● Transition: traditional strategy marketing business-to-customer (through concerts and appearances) to business-to-business distribution (producers using iTunes and YouTube) ● “Unbundling” process ● Other entertainment firms YG and JYP trying to emulate SM ● Mimetic isomorphism (DiMaggio and Powell 1983) ○ Use talents, resources, social capital etc ● YG- Psy’s “Gangnam Style” and “Gentleman” ○ Realized importance of YouTube ● JYP- Wonder Girls tour with Jonas Brothers in US ○ Poor results ● Hong Kong and Taiwan unable to infiltrate Japanese pop music market ○ K-pop singers promoted by Korean-Japanese entertainers and producers China’s Inability to Penetrate Japanese PopMusic Market ● 1. Producers copy without adding Chinese color or flavor ● 2. Physique ● 3. Choreography lackluster ● 4. Western composers unwilling to sell music to China ○ Copyright issues ● 5. Chinese singers reluctant to sell talents to Chinese producers, who lack access to international cultural network ○ Different standards and values from China Global ● Globalization→ localization→ globalization ● Process of manufacturing creativity ● 1. C&D ○ Composer outsourcing ● 2. R&D ○ Internal training and refinement ● creates strong international partnerships when training local talent ● 3. SNS distribution ○ Japanese, European, American distributors ○ Avery, YouTube, and iTunes ● Only Spanish and Korean singers have reached success in generating success because ability to localize music ○ unique Comparison between U.S. pop and Jpop -K-pop is much more innovative and creative than U.S. pop music in terms of musical diversity, -K-pop has more longevity on average than J-pop. By situating itself between Japan and the United States, K-pop provides its fans with the best of both worlds: creativity and longevity. -Given the relatively small population and the low number of popular music artists, as compared to the United States or Japan. Manufacturing Creativity -Might not consider K-pop to be as creative as American popular music or J-pop -Koreans in this field consider the current K-pop phenomenon to be absolutely revolutionary. -Revolutionary Korean Artists: PSY, Rain, Girl’s Generation, TVSQ, BTS -Creativity approved and analyzed by sales charts, fan blogs, fan activities, and concert participation. How can the K-pop industry successfully sustain itself while manufacturing creativity? -“Connect and Development” (C&D) -the internal process of creativity is often comes with a process of borrowing, buying, or outsourcing creativity and innovation to external communities -All three major entertainment companies in the K-pop industry have actively outsourced creativity. -JYP, SM, YG K-pop’s Globalization Drive SM: Producer: Teddy Riley (Girls’ Generation), Polow da Don (Girls’ Generation) YG: Producer: Will.i.am (2NE1) Rodney Jerkins (Se7eN) JYP: Producer: Nick Cannon,Composer: Claude Kelly, Choreographer: Jonte (Wonder Girls) Videos: Let us Compare Video Production & Influence Western Music NOTICE: use of dancing and visuals Korean Music In Conclusion Localization of musical contents and performers Globalization of creativity Global dissemination of the musical contents through social media Considering that we know the reasons behind China performer Korean pop music is a product of both Korea and the West Questions for Class ● Do you think think that K-Pop and the rise of Korean music can be repeated in other countries? What did K-Pop offer that other non-western countries lack? What did it do better? ● Can K-pop still be called ‘Korean’ music if the songwriting and composition has been made by non-Koreans? Is the subsequent tweaking of the songs enough to consider it uniquely Korean? ● cont. ● How does outsourcing of Western or foreign producers or artists influence the popularity and creativity of K-POP? ● Considering that we know the reasons behind K-pop’s global success as a form of media, do you think China and Hong Kong will ever be able to eventually reach the level that K-pop has experienced?
