How the Hell Did K-Pop Get So Big?
South Korea is an interesting place. Surrounded on three sides by water and on the fourth by a crazy and hostile kingdom. Given their history and geographic location, South Korea’s rise to a world powerhouse in tech, manufacturing and music is nothing short of amazing.
But let’s focus on music. How did K-Pop end up being such a global phenomenon? That’s the question asked by The Paris Review.
Korean pop’s star-making process has suffered slings and arrows from the Western press—some allege that it amounts to modern-day slavery. It’s true that K-pop labels recruit budding stars and bind them to contracts that can last as long as thirteen years. But Korea had no other way of building a pop industry. It had to create it from the ground up.Most famous rock bands formed independently, without the help of a producer or record label. This was never going to happen in Korea. Kids didn’t have the time to jam with friends. They were studying—all the time—or helping with the family business. Organically formed bands could experiment with new sounds or improvise or goof off, but Koreans had no such luxury. In the unforgiving Confucian culture, a young person who screws up has a hard time getting back on track. Until recently, when K-pop proved profitable, no Korean would have staked his future on music.
