the kpop edition

[acchikocchi]

1. So give me the lowdown on SM Entertainment as a corporation. How do they recruit/train/market/etc., especially in comparison to JE? Info on shady business practices and lawsuits and things of that sort also welcome. XD ...How does the Korean music industry and market compare to the Japanese in general, actually? There is no such thing as tldr in comments here.

2. Favorite Korean artists/songs/albums/music videos? I am woefully ignorant. Pop, not pop, what have you - hit me. (Assume I know basically no one except Park Ji-yoon, since that's... true. Oh, and BoA.)

Comments

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

Thank you for that - I knew there was a lawsuit, of course, and who it involved, but that's... basically this.

For example, I'm really interested by the amount of traveling the hot kpop acts seem to do compared to their Japanese counterparts - Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, China, etc. I'm pretty sure it's not because they just love their foreign fans more than Japanese artists. XD Let's pick on JE specifically - I can't really tell if their lack of international touring is because the Kitagawas are complacent re: the Jmusic industry's longstanding position at the top of the Asian music totem pole - they don't exactly need to travel to cultivate foreign markets, in other words - or if the money just isn't worth it to them. *g* (Another reason I'm curious about the relative size of the markets.) Yet any time a JE group has an international concert it's made much of in the Japanese news...

Basically I have no business background to parse this with, and on top of that am trying to apply things like "logic" to the Kitagawas.

Argh, I have these vague feelings but no numbers to back them up with. What constitutes huge sales on the Korean charts, for example...? *googles*

Mirotic: will watch right away! Sorry Sorry: what kickstarted this whole thing. XD (see "current music", argh, earwormmmmm.)

[musikologie.livejournal.com]

In terms of sales... to have a record certified "gold" in Korea, there needs to be 5,000 records sold. Platinum is 10,000. In contrast, Japan's "gold" record certification is 100,000, with 250,000 for platinum. That suggests to me that on average, Korea's sales are much smaller than a market such as Japan. Now, if you take a group like DBSK, those numbers look like they'd absolutely dominate the market. That fourth album is 50xPlatinum. With numbers like that, it feels to me that they go out to other markets because they've outgrown the one they've got in Korea. Whereas with JE, while they certainly maintain their spot at the top of the charts, they don't completely kill like that.

(This is the chart I used for music certifications, btw.)

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

omg, thank you, that's exactly what I was getting at - 5,000?? That's all? Goodness, yes, no wonder DBSK was striking out.

Frequently in jpop attempts to break into the one higher market (the US) seem to be mostly for show? As a matter of, hm, prestige - "Matsuda Seiko even released a single in the US!" - rather than as a venture with any real expectation of succeeding. But I see this is an entirely different case! Can't off the top of my head think of any j-group that's had that level of steady dominance, though I don't really know numbers for, say, the golden age of Komuro Tetsuya and Avex in the mid-90s or anything. *g* It's interesting to compare, say, BoA and DBSK or Rain - BoA's an unqualified crossover success, but Rain seems to have had less success in Japan despite his massive popularity in, oh, the rest of the world. Whereas DBSK obviously faces - a unique set of challenges their female and/or solo artist compatriots don't, cough cough, yet they still seem to be doing relatively well despite being Public Enemy No. 1 to certain unnamed media powerhouse? XD

[musikologie.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, all yes. It seems Rain's big worldwide breakthrough is going to be in acting, not singing -- wonder how he feels about that. XD

And then there's a group like Wonder Girls -- a Korean girl group that spent the summer touring with the Jonas Brothers...? How did that even happen?

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

a Korean girl group that spent the summer touring with the Jonas Brothers

I - what, really? In the US?? o_o Wow am I out of the loop.

[musikologie.livejournal.com]

Yup, in the US! Link one | Link 2

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

O_____O That's... really interesting. I assume Jonas Brothers fan demographics differ significantly from Wonder Girls... XD I wonder how it was received. I'd like to snag yr average 12-year-old Illinois JoBros fan, say, off the street and find out what she thought.