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Geopolitics and Pop culture
Acting and performing as a public celebrity is really hard. Don’t even mention those who were international celebrities. Behaving well, deliver proper speeches and they even need to care about what they wear all the time. Once one becomes a public celebrity, he or she needs to be responsible for their words and their actions or there will be big trouble. These troubles will be more likely to happen to those transnational celebrities because the controversial topics are too much. If one said any controversial word in the front of publicity, he or she will be pointed out and become the most popular topic due to his or her mistakes. The “Tzuyu” scandal, as one of the recent popular topics, explained how the popular transnational culture such as K-pop create intensified regional dynamics and conflicts. Personally, this is a complicated problem. The first thing is sixteen years old is not old enough to be responsible for a politics attitude and no one can be sure that she intentionally supports the independence of Taiwan. Secondly, JYP asked her to shoot such an apologize video is mainly to maintain the relationship between JYP and China because China is a big market in a profitable aspect. Because of the Tzuyu scandal, any platform of advertisement about Twice was eliminated in Mainland China. This is one of the biggest reasons why JYP’s reaction to such scandal is so strong like this. Even the apologies for video may bring a bad impression to Tzuyu, JYP entertainment still need to find a way to calm down the Chinese people. From the video, a Korean company’s style of education is really obvious. No matter her behavior or her speech, the whole video is full of that sense of “humble”.
On contrast, Because Tzuyu didn’t give any reaction to the other’s comments online. We just can’t judge whether it’s her mistakes or her personal idea. Tzuyu is not the first one who was “used” as a blasting fuse to lead to such conflict. For this kind of conflict, not only Korean K-pop groups cause such problems. Even recently, Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association, delivered improper statement which did harm to China. Then the rebroadcast of the NBA game in China was all canceled, and many players stand out and apologize for that statement. This kind of things is all looks the same. Considering the cooperation with China, such conflict should be eliminated.
For these idols, It is just because the more attention one gain, there will be more people come out to lead the bad guidance of public opinion just because of one’s subtle action. For Koreans, they need to calm down the Chinese people and pull back the naïve picture of Tzuyu to reinforce the image of female idols as a visual object. For Chinese people, the nation is always more important than an idol. If one idol made an improper statement that is bad to China, he or she might be banned from performing in China. As a popular culture, it has to really care about geopolitics otherwise, that culture would lose the audiences. No matter the idols or the public celebrities, they are really hard and behave well is the only way they can keep going on their career.
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How social media change the K-pop
The Korean Wave has conquered Asia, but before the proliferation of global social networks, attempts by K-pop stars to break into Western markets had largely failed. For those artists who made progress, there is no doubt that social media did a really good job when expanding the influence of K-pop during the K-pop wave. The international promotion of K-pop, no matter nowadays or at the very beginning of the Korean wave, all counted on the power of social media. People sometimes underestimate the power of social media. But the truth is in such a big data society, the influence of social media is much stronger than we thought. There are so many group bands in Korea that have their own social media account to release their first news to Western audiences. Now it looks normal for Korean entertainment companies but at the very beginning, the majority of Korean artists didn’t really notice how powerful it will be.
At the moment that Twitter and Youtube in Asia are not as popular as it was in America, BTS realized how important such social media are in spreading their popularity into the America market. BTS first debuted in 2013 which is a period of fall of “Gangnam Style” however, it is a period that social media began to be highly used. It is BTS that seized the chance and the moment so that their popularity in western countries was spread fast. Actually, before they debuted, their company has already prepared a lot. Their Twitter was being made in 2011 and YouTube channel in 2012. All of the social media activities began before they even debuted. During the past five years, much of the attention they received came from increasing social media consumption. Unlike other Korean artists, BTS relied on Youtube and Twitter to promote themselves. Contradicting the way that other Korean artists promote themselves by using Korean channels and TV shows, BTS really saw the future and sensed the globalization strategy.
Nowadays, for many other artists, social media is not only a platform for them to promote themselves. They even use it to do their own business besides the production as an artist. For example, according to Bernie Cho, president of DFSB Kollective, a digital music distributor and branding company based in Seoul that also distributes Mr. Park’s music. “Thanks to Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, Jay Park is not just an artist but also his own P.R. agent, fan club president and TV network,” (here is Jay park’s ins homepage). Because music is a factor of fashion, so it can be spread by using social media efficiently. Big data period is rising up and will still rise in the future, seize the audiences on social media equals the first step to break into the western market.
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K-pop’s globalization
K-pop, as a soft power of Korea, has concentrated on global success since a long time ago but the examples who really “conquered” the west are so little. It is mainly because when the company is trying to make their groups globally, they can’t break through the western market easily. Because of the different cultural backgrounds and different beauty appreciation, it is hard to attract the American audience’s attention. Few groups like girl’s generation and wonder girls all failed in breaking through the American market. When the company first try to send them into the American market, one thing they did is to make an English version of their popular song. However, having the English version is not a direct way to make progress in breaking the western market. Besides, after made an English version, the thesis and the style were totally different than the original one. However, there are two K-pop groups, I think, successfully break through the American market and start the K-pop new era. Instead of producing English version songs, BTS has continued singing in Korean while embracing Western pop in other ways. For example, BTS’ first Top 10 album in 2017, Love Yourself: Her, featured songs written with the Chainsmokers. They have already cooperated with many famous American artists. By mixing together different genres and cultures, K-pop songs touch familiar rhythms of American pop music. There is a tonight show with jimmy of BTS in 2018. At that time, Yoon gi said they want to go to Grammy and RM said that’s their dream. However, as BTS keep devoting their effort, they went to Grammy this year Feb. That’s not only because they tried hard but also they know what is important factors to attract their American fans. If their music wasn’t accepted by American people, how can they accomplish their dream. But still, one point is the group members better have someone who enjoyed a multi-culture life in order to be more globally inside the group.
Another girls group is BlackPink who is also a successful group that earned a lot of fans in western counties. Like BTS, their music is also a mix of many different genres. “The average American song is four melodies, maybe five. “The average K-pop song is eight to 10. They are also very heavy in the harmonies.” says songwriter Rodnae “Chikk” Bell. Within this article, the author also illustrates how the convergence of American R＆B and K-pop succeeds. For BlackPink, they truly seize the audience’s interest. Their mixing music with EDM did really a good job of dominating the American market. The rhythm is not unfamiliar for American audiences but even they really get used to their music somehow. As a result, the failure of groups like Girl’s generation or wonder girl is mainly because they didn’t figure out what the western audiences want. Not because one changes the song into the English version, the audiences will accept more. No matter the group’s members or the songs should always renovation with keeping their original thought in mind. K-pop should always keep the K-pop style when making renovations in order to become either globally or hybridity.
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K-pop boy groups are owning plenty of female fans right now. It is usual to see crazy females’ fans vote everything they have to fans activities and to support their idols. However, to cater to the fans’interest, Boys idol groups need to try so hard to maintain their image in fans’ minds. It includes singing and dancing skills and the feeling they give to the audiences. Mentioning about dancing, K-pop Boy idols’ dances sometimes were designed sexy in order to attract female fans or sometimes on the live performance, they will dance and show their sexy body to light up the passion of female audiences. There is one really typical example that K-pop boy groups super junior (one of my favorite K-pop idol groups) performed so-called sexy dancing on live in Japan. Siwon showed his sexy dance without any close on the top. Beside him, Suju and Hyuk Jae also were naked on top. They interacted with the audiences with these sexy movements and it is clear that those female fans were screaming during the live show. It is true that K-pop male singers challenge the notion that real men do not dance. They even combined the dance with man’s masculinity to show the sexy dancing body. The comment below this video proved that western fans also like such performance. There is one comment said, “This is not a concert anymore, this is A STRIP CLUB you have all my money Suju”. Apparently, this is a fan of suju, but he described the live show as a strip club. This means she doubt the live show but still she was crazy with the sexy performance they did. There is another dance of EXO is so sexy that many people use it to do the fun editing. (It is a part of the dance of Monster). In the video, the author uses different girls' group songs to be the background music for that part of dancing and there is no much feeling of strangeness. The K-pop boy groups redefined the notion that man can’t do sexy dance and besides the dance, they even need to be either “beasts” or “sweet” due to different demands of fans. Masculinity with a pretty face which seems a strange combination, but fans are more likely to buy it because K-pop performers embody male femininity through their hybridized nuanced gender expressions. At the same time, it pleases female fans by embodying feminine, girlish, and child-like attitudes and movements. Such a combination seems dominant the K-pop idol market and it is rising up because such attraction works really well. It will dominate the market as long as the female fans will be still attracted by such “sexy dancing male body.”
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The great success of the Korean Wave
I still remember when I heard that my favorite K-pop group Super junior was invited to perform at the Chinese New Year concert through DongFang TV, I was waiting all night to watch their performance. That happened in 2015 but as I researched, they and many other K-pop groups had come several times since early 2000. People would be surprised why K-pop was merged with Chinese culture so well that Chinese entertainment culture is now stepping into a more K-style form. There are so many TV shows in China now that were adapted from Korean TV shows. Some of the shows’ copyright were bought by Chinese TV and some of the idea and shows’ form were also borrowed and transfer them into a Chinese style instead. It is no doubt that plenty of ideas of Chinese TV show right now were adapted from Korean. For example, the running man which I believe is one of the earliest TV shows that China bought from Korean and make it more Chinese style. If comparing the two Running man from different countries, there is so much common between them except the theme and the storytelling mode. Besides the form of TV shows, more and more TV are more likely to invite Korean celebrities to come to the show in order to attract more audiences. There is one TV show that adapted from the Korean TV show called Chef & My Fridge, but it is a China version. (One of the MC is Jackson of GOT7 who is the only Chinese member in that group.) HuNan TV invited Taeyeon and Jung Yong Hwa (the leader of CNblue) as the guest for the last two episodes of the first season. I remember that I didn’t follow up with that show but at the moment I know Taeyeon and Yong Hwa came as the guest, I directly went and watched those two episodes. Because it is always exciting to have a guest from a different country especially when you know them very well. As I described so far, it is obvious that the Korean wave has made great success in invading the Asian market. K-pop or K-style media productions have been powerful enough as the soft power of Korean. The K culture is also involving as time past. The cultural diversity of K culture is not only restricted to Asian culture but also embraces more and more foreign culture right now. Like BTS performed at Grammy which represents the success of the hybridity of K-pop. Even they didn’t win any reward, it is a chance to tell the world K-pop is rising up. I have to say that Korean has done the cultural diversity very well, it attracted Asian audiences first and then start to make the K more international. As one of the soft power to support Korean, K productions no matter the TV shows or the K-pop groups, it really shows the strong power. But still, the countries policy may become a problem if two didn’t negotiate well. Hope there is no need to see the conflict between Korean soft power and Chinese hard power in the future.
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