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The Korean InvasIon
Will it K-pop in
the US or not?
By Rob Schwartz
Supporters of Korean pop
music have been trumpeting
the arrival of hallyu,
or the “Korean wave” of
music, as a major world
force for a number of years. There
is no doubt that, with number-one
singles and hot albums from superstars
like Girls’ Generation, Kara
and 2NE1, the global K-pop phenomenon
is very present in Japan. But will
K-pop break in the mainstream US, as
writer Charles Ayres suggested in this
column a few months ago [“The Last
Word,” Feb 17, http://meturl.com/
lw934]—the biggest and most influential
music market in the world?
It's not for lack of trying. Korean
music management giant SM Entertainment
produced “SM Town” at
Madison Square Garden in October
2011 with an array of acts from its roster,
including Girls’ Generation. This
was a very rare showcase for K-pop at
such a famous venue, and the company
claimed the show was sold out.
But despite it being a one-night-only
special event, music insiders were
aware of ticket giveaways. US-based
Nicole Lent, who writes about Asian
music, attended and said she saw, “a
fair amount of empty seats.” Simply
put, the show didn’t sell out despite
the all-star line-up of the most powerful
music company in Korea.
LA-based K-pop expert Alice Han,
previously a consultant for SM in the
US, notes that major US media and
sponsors don’t have confidence in
the genre. “The majority of press outlets
focus on what’s trending here in
the US, so it’s a bit of a challenge for
Korean acts unless they are directly
tied in with a popular US act. And,
the majority of mainstream sponsors
still believe K-pop falls under a niche
market, therefore, they're hesitant to
bring a multi-million dollar budget.”
Nevertheless, there is no doubt
that K-pop is making some progress
in the States. For example, Jay Park
(born Park Jae Beom) has found success
with his 2012 New Breed album,
which peaked at #4 on the Billboard
World Albums chart. In addition,
Girls’ Generation maxi-single “Boys”
held an impressive #5 spot on the
Heatseekers chart.
But in reality, sales for these two
releases are meager. It’s possible
to estimate New Breed’s total sales
(digital and physical) at less than
4,000 units, and that of “Boys” as less
than 9,000. Absurdly low considering
these are the cream of the K-crop
in the US so far this year. The figure
for Girls’ Generation is even more
shock ing when you realize they
accompanied the song’s release with
a performance on The Late Show
with David Letterman.
W hen you look at cold, hard
sales figures, the claim of success
for K-pop in the US does not stand
up in the least. And remember, in
the music industry, more than in
other businesses, “money talks and
bullshit walks.”
Another overhyped point is that
Korean artists are outclassing Japanese
artists in the US. While it is
clearly true that K-pop has received
more at tent ion in t he US t ha n
J-pop recently, the situation of the
two industries is so wildly different
it makes the comparison moot.
According to the International Federation
of the Phonographic Industry
(IFPI), Japan is the second biggest
music industry in the world, narrowly
behind the US. In 2011 it did about $3
billion in physical (mainly CD) sales.
That’s basically on par with the US.
The intensely lucrative nature of the
Japanese market—and the fact 84 percent
of it is domestic (according the
latest figures from the Record Industry
Association of Japan)—make it
almost ridiculous for a popular Japanese
star to drop everything to try
and break through in the US.
The situation is the opposite in
Korea. Bernie Cho, president of DFSB
The views expressed in The Last Word are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the position or opinions of Metropolis K.K. or its partners and sponsors
46 • download our podcast at • podcast.metropolis.co.jp
Kohji ShiiKi
Kollective, a Seoul-based musicmarketing
agency that was one of the
first to make K-pop available internationally,
notes, “Korean artists
have no choice but to break out overseas,
it’s not just a creative necessity,
it’s a financial necessity because the
Korean market is so small.”
Clearly, it’s absurd to compare the
exports of Japanese and Korean music
when one has a tremendous incentive
to stay at home while the other has a
tremendous incentive to go abroad.
In addition to this, the numbers
are not actually in Korean artists’
favor when compared to (basically)
the only Japanese artist who has seriously
tried to break in the US inthe
last few years. Hikaru Utada made her
second attempt at US success with her
album This Is The One in 2009. Though
many considered it a failure, it did
grab the top position on the Heatseekers
chart in May and rose to #71
on the overall Billboard albums chart
(the Heatseekers chart is just for new
artists). Billboard reported the album
sold about 56,000 copies. Not very
good, but better than any K-pop artist
has done this year.
The upshot is, despite the hype
for K-pop (and a lot of YouTube hits),
the idea that it’s any kind of market
force at all in the US is fallacious. If
and when K-pop does break through
to challenge the likes of Lady Gaga,
R ihanna, Nick y Minaj or Bruce
Springsteen, there will indeed be a
seismic cultural shift—but it hasn’t
happened yet.
whEn yoU look AT
colD, hARD sAlEs
FigUREs, ThE clAim
oF sUccEss FoR
k-pop in ThE Us
DoEs noT sTAnD Up
in ThE lEAsT”
■ Rob Schwartz is Tokyo Bureau Chief of
Billboard magazine
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