Korean pop music out to conquer the world

global frontiers for Asian culture – pop music.
“K-pop,’ as Korean pop is called, has made major inroads into Japan, the world’s second largest music market. But breaking into key countries further afield like Britain, Germany, France and, most crucially, the United States, has so far eluded acts who may be household names at home but remain virtual unknowns outside Asia.
Korean bands are not the only ones trying to be the next Britney Spears, Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber.
Japanese artistes, some of them “J-pop” superstars, have also looked overseas for new audiences, although the size of their own market, only just behind the United States in the world rankings, means they have less incentive.
“It is a pain for a lot of these Japanese bands to make the effort to try and penetrate overseas markets,” said Steve McClure, executive editor of McClure’s Asia Music News and an authority on the region’s music scene.
“Time spent doing that is time not spent here and it’s a really fast-paced market and you have to work at it,” he told Reuters, speaking from Japan.
Foreign music accounts for around a quarter of Japanese record sales, and the top 10 albums on record are all by local artistes. Hikaru Utada holds the record with “First Love” from 1999, while Mariah Carey is the biggest international artiste.
McClure, like many others, believes that K-pop stands a better chance at success globally than J-pop, although even that is far from certain.
The structure of Korea’s relatively small music market is such that telecom companies control a large proportion of revenues, he said, meaning bands have an economic incentive to look abroad.
And K-pop acts, often created and nurtured by savvy record companies like S.M. Entertainment, are being groomed for specific markets – learning Japanese, for example, and fitting in with Japan’s musical mores.
One recent success story has been the nine-member South Korean girl band Girls’ Generation, whose first full-length Japanese album sold over 500 000 copies in Japan.
McClure also argued that Korean pop acts, though often manufactured, were generally more professional than their Japanese rivals and produced a better sound.
The most obvious, and biggest barrier to Asian acts breaking regions like Europe and North America is language. – Reuters Life!