SAN FRANCISCO—It's either a fever—attractive stars singing infectious beats or acting in riveting television dramas—or a cancer—painfully plastic drivel, uninspired, fake and artless, soulless pop. It's the Korean Wave, or Hallyu, and it's splashing onto America’s shores.
"I love Western TV shows, but sometimes it just feels like there's something missing or separate from me,” says Kim Do, a 19-year-old Chinese-American. “I got used to it, I guess, but I always get excited when I see an Asian on TV, because I think, ‘Hey, it's someone like me!'"
No wonder, then, that Do turns to bands like Super Junior or SHINee for her entertainment fix.
The cover of Billboard Magazine’s August 1 edition featured the Wonder Girls, arguably one of the most successful acts to come out of Korea. But while the five-member group has enjoyed enormous popularity across Asia, its success among American audiences has been less stellar, reflecting the challenges Asians face in reaching mainstream audiences here.
Take MTV, which last week marked 30 years as the defining pop-culture outlet for its namesake generation. But the network so famous for "breaking the color barrier" with Michael Jackson in the '80s still is slow to incorporate Asians into its primary programming, despite the number of spin-off MTV channels across Asia.
One friend offers an explanation for the subdued presence of Korea’s pop celebrities in the United States. “The people interested [in K-Pop] are still a very small vocal minority,” says 17-year-old Quincy Dare. The fact that the lyrics are in a foreign language also means “K-Pop and Korean artists will never become popular in the North American and European markets,” she notes.
But while the lyrical goop of a foreign language might not be understandable to the non-Korean ear, the music is pure pop, right at home next to anything found on the Billboard 200. Comparisons are inevitable: "Katy Perry and Lady Gaga songs are very catchy, and suitable for clubs and dancing. That’s basically what K-Pop is—catchy music, with just so-so lyrics,” Dare says.
Girls’ Generation, which rivals Wonder Girls in popularity at home and across much of Asia, uses meaningless English as the basis for most of its songs; the band’s biggest hits, "Gee" and "Oh!" are built on a single titular monosyllable. Whether you can listen to K-Pop or not depends largely on your tolerance for lyrical silliness. The music videos, featuring Michael Jacksonesque twirls, overdramatic close-ups and strange clothing, have the kitsch of early MTV.
Such images hark back to a more innocent, even optimistic, time.
As the American economy spirals downwards, Korea is trending upwards, and the outlook for its media is following suit. The 2004 hit show “Full House” centered on a maid who, through a combination of perseverance and charm, manages to marry into a wealthy family. Bordering on the cliche, K-Drama absolutely adores these rags-to-riches stories, reminiscent of a perhaps bygone American ideal.
Korean dramas, in fact, marked the first wave in Korea’s rise to pop-stardom. Shows like “Winter Sonata” and the 2003 hit “Jewel in the Palace” swept audiences from Hanoi and Hong Kong to Tokyo, where ultra-conservative protesters recently gathered to denounce the ubiquity of Korean programming on Japanese television.
The popularity of Korean entertainment across Asia owes much to shared Confucian values. For American audiences, the relative conservatism of Korean pop culture evokes elements of the 1950s. Hardcore family values and deeply rooted Christian influences mean a single drug-related scandal or indecent relationship can end a career. Korean stars are more Marilyn, less Brittany. They're all smiles. Each star's personality, whether convincingly fake or simply earnest, shows no cracks.
And they’d better be perfect. Not only is the talent search highly selective, but stars-in-the-making go through years of comprehensive training, learning the ins and outs of performing on and offstage. Each band is meticulously crafted to encompass a broad appeal; often, members are given popular archetypes—the cute one, the mature one, the quiet one—or even sometimes hilariously niche personalities—like the chubby nerdy one. And they are expected to maintain their facades at all times.
Fed by a government eager to reap the benefits of Korea’s newfound celebrity status, the K-Pop goliath continues to grow, captivating young and old alike in countries around the world. It’s the American Dream, in all its Korean splendor.
via source
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Entertainment Asia
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Korean Actress
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Music
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