Monday, January 28, 2013

Tsunami of South Korea in Cambodia : Secret Behind the Success of K-pop





How do you feel when you see Korean movies or songs on TVs, or when you see a 16 years old girl dressing up as a member of Girls’ Generation and would like her friends to say, “You look really like a Korean star”? Have you ever wondered why are they becoming more and more popular, not only in East Asia, but currently in an emerging country like Cambodia? If you are older than 20 years old, you will surely have these questions in mind. Why high school teenagers are so mad in this kind of stuff? Because as an upper 20 years old generation, we once used to enjoy so much in Hong Kong and Thai-made music and movies, and at least I hope you have heard about F4 and Andy Lau or a Thai mega actress, Suvanant Kongying, widely known in Cambodia as “Morning Star”. Well, let get it straights. These are major reasons making the Korean Wave (the increasing popularity of Korean culture) reach its high time nowadays. 

Eye-catching stars

Generally speaking, Korean stars have got a kind of beauty and handsomeness which is regarded as a perfect standard to many Cambodians. They are eye-catching. Let’s not talk about their secret of plastic surgery! The Korean stars are tall, sexy, and in an ideal sharp. They have got pearly white skin, shining hair, and long nose, sexy and lovely red lips. And oh yeah! Many Cambodians translate these into rich, classy, and high so’ qualities. If you tell a young Cambodian that she looks just a Korean star, she would feel delighted.

Expensive scenes

Materialistic scenes make the dramas and music videos look very attractive. Korean producers invest a great deal in producing highest quality pieces of music videos and films that no other Asian countries could make with the same budget.

A few months ago while I was watching the Rihanna’s music video, “Diamond”, one of my friends said, “Korean music videos are crystal clear and eye-poping much more than the U.S music videos that you are watching, guy,”. Then, I raised my eye brows and said nothing. I agreed with him in some extend as I was also a K-pop fan in the past. Korean producers have always been trying to produce new flavors in their music. And I actually really love some of them: “Blue”, “Fantastic Baby”, and “Monster” by Big Bang, “Fiction” by B2ST, and “The Boy” by SNSD. You should check out. They are enticing and extravagant!


Well focus

They focus well on specific target audience. For instance, they produce dramas with excellent plots with romantic and depressing love themes to gather attention from young teenagers and female adult audience. And as a result, they have successfully achieved this and made Korea become the top 10 cultural exporting country. Besides, K-pop (Korean pop music) has excessively emphasized on teenagers all over East and South East Asia. Have you ever asked yourself why most of Korean songs you heard were titled in English? Because they have targeted broader audience who are not Korean and it gives chances to the non-Korean speaking fans understand the main message of the songs easily.  Aiming to be label their names in their fans’ hearts, the Korean singers always show off their excellent dance moves, colorful clothes, and ear-luring lyrics.

The successful campaign of pushing Korean music to the global recognition has made it becomes the second biggest music market after US. Korean pop have hit on a billion and a half Asians, contributing 2 billion dollars per year to Korean economy, according to the BBC. Understanding the trend and its audience are major key factors of their success

The Fall of Thai and Chinese Culture

Before 2003, Thai popular culture had a really strong impact in Cambodian society. Every TV channel was full of Thai movies and music. Cambodians really adored Thai movies because both countries have similar belief and value systems, making Cambodians felt very connected with Thai popular culture. But sadly, the 2003 outraging forced Thai movies out of the TV screens since that year. It has lost its mighty popularity in Cambodia though Thai movies have always being watching by older female Cambodians through rental VCDs, Thai popular culture has no longer played an important role in this country.

Chinese popular culture also had a strong influence before the emerging of Korean Wave. Hong Kong films were extremely admired and liked. People watched Hong Kong films starred by Jackie Chan, Jet Lee, or Andy Lau instead of Hollywood movies. However, over years there has been criticism that Hong Kong and Taiwan-made films, dramas, and music are slow to make a new flavor and less attractive compared to the Korean made films and music. People still watch Chinese films and listen to their music, but it is pretty hard for them to gain their spot back.

“Taiwanese music still keeps doing the same things over last ten years. It is kind of boring when you listen to ballad music all the time,” said one of my Facebook friends.


The Introduction of My TV

Despite the fact that Korean dramas have appeared and got positive attention since early 2000, Korean pop had never been stood out before the introduction of My TV in early 2009. As a music TV channel, My TV was a phenomenal tool to bring Korean pop into Cambodian scene. They play all types of popular music: Khmer, Korean, Chinese, and American music. Yet they found that Korean music really has more impact on teenagers/ high schoolers. K-pop has started to explode. Since then producers at My TV have started to invite several Korean bands and singers, and at least once a year for their annual biggest TV concert.  

All in all, you could see that Korean popular culture really has a solid impact in Cambodia and the whole East Asia. But the thing is that how long they will be able to maintain their energy to keep people in questions? I personally think it still be able to keep it position at least till the next decade according to the current trend.  The only real threat of Korean popular culture is the mainstream U.S culture as I have observed that some young Cambodians are starting to heartedly pick the western culture and view Korean popular culture as trivial. So let see together!






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