Image source @ Visual China
Text | Mr. Music, author | Gu Zihao, Editor | Fan Zhihui
Recently, there have been many K-pop hot searches that have a feeling of going back in time.
On April 17, the second-generation Korean group 2NE1 took the stage in a surprise combination at the Coachella Music Festival for more than 6 years, allowing many netizens to call "lifetime", "Grandpa Qinghui", "Wake up and return to the second generation". In the first two weeks, BIGBANG returned four years later with the new song "Still Life", and as of the evening of April 18, the single had sold nearly 1.8 million copies on the domestic music platform, with sales of nearly 7.2 million yuan, ranking first among the best-selling albums in China in 2020.
Although affected by the "Korean restriction order", K-pop has long lost its unique advantages of the year, but once it re-enters the public vision, it can still cause heated discussions on domestic streaming media platforms and platforms such as Weibo. This is enough to prove that the influence of K-pop culture is still objectively strong.
In the six years since the mainstream vision disappeared, K-pop has also quietly accumulated strength and successfully completed a global turn and attack.
01 Strategic Shift in Korean Entertainment Industry
Looking back at the strategic shift of the Korean entertainment industry, it is necessary to mention the "Korean restriction order" in 2016. Due to the changes in the policy environment, this has given the Korean Wave a heavy stick to the "right food" in China, and provided a good opportunity for the development of mainland entertainment.
Before the implementation of the "Korean Restriction Order", the mainland market was the main direction of Korean wave culture. At that time, Han Jae-jin, a researcher at the Institute of Modern Economic Research, told the South Korean media that exports to China accounted for about 27% of the total exports of South Korea's cultural industries. After the "Korean restriction order", it directly impacted the Korean cultural industry.
According to the Korea Cultural Industry Exchange Foundation, in the third quarter of 2016, when the "Korean Restriction Order" came into effect, the stock prices of K-pop cultural companies fell by an average of 14%, and continued to decline in the fourth quarter. The valuations of major entertainment companies such as YG and SM fell across the board to a one-year low, and JYP and FNC Entertainment also came with a decline of about 5%.
According to the Herald Economy, a person in the music industry said: "I am afraid that this THAAD incident will reenact the impact of Japan's 'Dokdo Incident' on the Korean Wave." The Korean Wave, which had accumulated for 10 years at that time, was hit hard and collapsed in an instant, and after 5 years of hard work, it succeeded in the Chinese market and rekindled the vitality of the performance market. If you lose the Chinese market, the blow will be 3 or 4 times that of the Japanese market. And the point is that there is no alternative market and no new breakthrough can be found. ”
SM Entertainment 2014 to 2020 Net Profit Chart
Faced with the helplessness of losing the biggest market, the South Korean entertainment industry is worried.
The "Korean Wave", which was originally known for its idol culture and film and television culture, quickly cooled down, and the market gap left was occupied by the mushrooming domestic entertainment that took advantage of the rapid development of the Internet. It can be seen that talent shows such as "Idol Trainee" and "Creation 101" produced by imported templates have become popular in a short period of time, quickly filling the gap in the idol market.
In this context, Korean entertainment giants such as SM, YG, JYP, and HYBE have turned their attention to the broader European and American markets.
From the perspective of artist cooperation, through the cooperation with the feed of European and American head artists, it accelerates the breaking of the mainstream level. For example, in July 2019, BTS member RM and hit singer Lil Nas X collaborated on the Remix version of "Seoul Town Road" on the basis of the original song "Old Town Road", and the song immediately appeared on Twitter as soon as it was released, becoming the single with the longest number of winning weeks on Billboard HOT 100. The collaborative song also put BTS on the stage of the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, performing with Lil Nas X, Billy Ray Cyrus and others, and BTS also created a history of K-pop idols performing in the Grammys.
In the "Social 50" list published by billboard, a well-known music magazine in the United States, which measures the popularity of artists in global social networks, the Bulletproof Youth League has occupied the first place for many consecutive years. According to the Global Music Report released by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), BTS won the "IFPI Global Artists Chart" for two consecutive years and was nominated for the Grammy Best Pop Group Award for the first time with the hit single "Dynamite" in 2020, becoming the first group to truly break into the European and American domestic markets.
BTS received a Grammy nomination
At the same time, BLACKPINK has also been very successful in the European and American markets. BLACKPINK's YouTube channel has more than 70 million subscribers, making it the world's most subscribed music account on YouTube and the most followed group of women on Spotify. The data also shows that Lisa, a member of BLACKPINK, brought $1.37 million in media impact value to Celine.
At the strategic level of the company, various Korean entertainment companies have also reached strategic cooperative relations with overseas giants in the form of capital marriage. For example, in April last year, HYBE acquired all of its shares in Ithaca Holdings (including SB Projects and Big Machine Label Group) held by Scotter Braun, the agent of well-known artists such as Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, who also joined the board of directors of HYBE.
In November last year, HYBE and Universal Music announced the selection of a new girl group, which will be based in Los Angeles and draw on the "K-pop training and training system". Upon completion of the training, the new girl group will sign and release songs under the joint venture between the two parties, while Geffen Records, a subsidiary of Universal Music, will be responsible for music production, marketing and global distribution.
On the one hand, through the continuous introduction of new groups to stabilize the basic disk of the Asian market, on the other hand, with the strong combination of European and American leading artists and the capital cooperation of giant companies, step by step to conquer the global market.
02 K-pop globalized successful password
Despite the verbal barriers, people can always hum the melody of these Korean songs.
The high-quality music content production system is the lifeblood of K-pop, the first productive force, and the fundamental reason why the Korean Wave, which is facing a short-term dilemma, is still "anti-manufacturing". While maintaining its unique K-pop attributes, K-pop achieves a variety of music by constantly absorbing new elements.
In the early days of K-pop formation, represented by H.O.T., the songs mostly carried exaggerated emotional releases and a strong sense of rhythm, combined with the dance elements of Urban dance, which also represented the fanaticism and rebellion of young people. In addition to fast-paced dance music, the lyrical songs that Korean singers are good at have gradually diversified K-pop's styles.
In K-pop dance music, the magic brainwashing melody complements the rich flow in the rap, and the electronic music elements added to the chorus with the most memory points have even become an indispensable weapon for "exploding" songs; and in lyrical songs, thanks to the unique air sound pronunciation in Korean, the sensual and enduring Korean love songs can better capture the ears of listeners.
Today, K-pop productions have incorporated musicians from all over the world, blending a variety of styles to reach younger audiences around the world. In the variety show "Snowball Project", Henry Liu Xianhua demonstrated the song production mode of Songcamp in the process of producing songs on behalf of SM, that is, a group of outstanding songwriters, arrangers and producers at home and abroad were jointly gathered to the recording studio to complete the song production efficiently and collaboratively. This music production model originating from Europe and the United States and the unique cultural environment of K-pop have been integrated, and better empowered the K-pop record industry.
Henry shows Songcamp in a variety show
Behind the launch of blockbuster combinations such as BIGBANG, BLACKPINK, EXO, etc., it is due to the industrialization of the Korean entertainment industry. From the trainee selection mechanism, the minimalist visual creation to the integrated marketing planning model, all show its high level of industrial level.
Through intensive auditions, Korean entertainment companies have incorporated potential children aged 10-12 from all over the world into the K-pop music training system, with continuous and rigorous training, and finally a small number of children can get the opportunity to perform, and are arranged in groups or as individual artists. For example, in the BLACKPINK group created by YG, the member LISA is from the Thai dance team We Zaa Cool, and was signed by YG as a trainee after winning the first place in the YG Entertainment Thailand Trials in 2010.
Each step is refined into the style and positioning of the group, supplemented by the dynamic and static shooting of beautification means, and the K-pop aesthetic with gorgeous pictures and visual impact as the façade can be popularized worldwide. From the production point of view, the shooting themes and post-production of different combinations not only serve the positioning of the group and the song, but also enjoy the use of new technologies and means, such as the futuristic cosmic scene in the "Still life" MV with the help of special effects such as green screen, which makes people shine.
The screen is presented in the "Still Life" MV
Companies with a certain strength launch new groups, the main track will be determined early before the debut of the plan of multiple albums, through the group image and multi-faceted color distribution shaping, in order to form the album's title song in the theme of the extension of the progression, but also convenient for debut at the selected time point quickly "return" to maintain exposure. This step-by-step marketing strategy is a necessary strategy for the growth of K-pop combinations to attract fans, and it fascinates people by constantly presenting progressive colors and attractiveness to fans.
In 2016, after a brief setback in the Chinese market, Hallyu actively explored overseas markets, targeting Japan, Southeast Asian countries and even Europe and the United States, and still playing an important role in the leading of international cultural trends with its mature industrial operation mode. Even in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic is raging around the world, K-pop culture continues to expand globally through overseas new media such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
According to the "2020 Korea Content Industry Survey" released by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea in January this year, south Korea's cultural industry exports exceeded 14 trillion won (11.92428 billion US dollars) in 2020, an increase of 16.3% year-on-year. The game industry ranked first among all sectors with $8,193,560,000 in exports, followed by cartoon images ($715.81 million), television programming ($692.79 million), intellectual property ($691.99 million), and music ($679.63 million).
Benefiting from global digitalization, K-pop fans are thriving on new media platforms overseas. The data shows that #KpopTwitter在2021年产生了78亿条全球推文, breaking the record of 6.7 billion tweets in 2020, the number of tweets worldwide has increased significantly by 16%, and there is a growing interest in Korean entertainment beyond music.
Yeon Jeong Kim, Twitter's global K-pop and K-content partner lead, said, "There is a huge community around the world centered on K-pop and K-content. With the help of social media platforms, fans began to evolve into open, global communities. These fan bases exude a powerful influence and play a synergistic role across major digital platforms. ”
In 2021, a Statista survey in 18 countries showed that about 39 percent of respondents said K-pop was "very popular" in their country, showing that the popularity of the Hallyu wave has far exceeded the borders of South Korea.
Korean drama episodes in Netflix
In terms of film and television, the popularity of musical light variety shows such as "Begin Again" during the epidemic, and the Korean dramas "Squid Game" and "Zombie Campus" cooperated with Netflix have made the K-pop culture gain a larger market in the development of globalization, which complements K-pop's overseas entry.
03 What's so wrong with C-pop going to sea?
Three or four years of internal entertainment, trying to complete thirty years of Korean entertainment.
Emerging combinations such as THE9, R1SE, and Hard Candy Girl 303 produced by the major talent shows have achieved great commercial success, and the internal entertainment idol industry has grown rapidly and barbarically. This has also spawned a lot of new entrants who want a piece of the pie – a large number of new companies have been established and cross-border companies have emerged.
In this process, the industry is also undergoing a rapid reshuffle, and gradually differentiating into levels: the head has professional idol brokerage companies such as Lehua Entertainment, Wow, and Times Fengjun, then the old film and television companies and Internet celebrity MCN, and finally a large string of new entry companies.
At the same time, due to the lack of perfect industrial chain, no continuous content output, and no professional system training, the Chinese idol market has always had hidden dangers. In the absence of the support of the entertainment industry system, when the enthusiasm of the audience is exhausted and the capital is unprofitable and quickly retreats, only the youth of the players on the stage is buried. Even without follow-up policy supervision, the idol industry with frequent occurrences in the rice circle is actually only lively on the surface, and it is already difficult to sustain the inside.
"Youth has you" produced by the group THE9
In the industrialization of K-pop idols, the training and training of business capabilities is extremely important, which is also the value of Korean entertainment fans for idols. What we call "business ability" is not one of the icing on the cake in the evaluation of idols, but a necessary condition for becoming an idol, and excellent ability in terms of works, singing, creation, stage, etc. should have the highest priority in the evaluation criteria of idols.
In Chinese idol groups, although the creation of attributes such as "cultivation system" can create considerable revenue, under this seemingly "sustainable" marketing model, it is the abandonment of the essence of the concept of idols, and the impoverishment of content output can only be attributed to the lack of business capabilities in the end.
"Cultivation system" boy band era youth league
In other words, borrowing and imitating is an imported model after all, and the talent cultivation and content production system under the localization transformation should be the direction that the internal entertainment idol industry and even C-pop need to explore.
In the era of social media, the use of social marketing communications for cultural export is also one of the secrets of K-pop's success. Rich topic settings on media platforms such as YouTube and Twitter, high-frequency interaction in a large fan community, and linkage marketing of digital brands have made K-pop successfully lead the global digital entertainment market.
Within the BTS team, these social platforms are personally run by members and interact with fans. Even in the absence of a return event, BTS will produce syndicates and tidbits of content that is freely available on social media, from Twitter, Facebook to YouTube, from text, images to videos, live broadcasts, documentaries, and bulletproof youth leagues are always in touch with fans.
C-pop, on the other hand, has few bright performances on foreign media platforms, and its exposure on overseas social media is also seriously insufficient. According to Wikipedia statistics, the entire Chinese music scene has only 38 MVs on the YouTube platform that have exceeded 100 million views, far less than the more than 200 MVs of K-pop that have exceeded 100 million.
According to a previous survey of overseas audiences, in stark contrast to K-pop, "C-pop's production packaging is not so attractive." In addition to the song itself, in fact, the theme concept, MV, visual design, choreography, and connection with fans are all very important parts. ”
In addition, the social interaction of C-pop topics is also limited to the Chinese community. The survey also said that more than 70% of respondents said that Chinese music rarely appears in the media they use every day, and believes that Chinese musicians should put more content on similar platforms such as Instagram and YouTube, and can also cooperate with overseas media organizations & musicians, and it will be helpful to translate songs or MVs into other languages. ”
Just yesterday, Wang Jiaer made his personal debut at the exclusive time slot of the 88rising label of the 2022 Coachella Music Festival, and became the first Solo chinese artist to appear on the main stage of the Coachella Music Festival.
In this 80-minute group performance, in addition to Wang Jiaer, there are many performers such as Utada Hikaru, CL, Rich Brian, NIKI, BIBI, etc., which may also be a way for C-pop to go to sea. Under the operation of a label like 88 Rising that connects the cultural markets of the East and the West, it has played a special role in the European and American markets, formed a heat, and then attracted the attention of overseas music fans.
Of course, to improve the competitiveness of cultural content in internal entertainment, it is essentially necessary to have a sufficiently mature and professional content production system. Benchmarking K-pop, which still has a strong influence today, C-pop still has a long way to go.