www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

Make me your Homepage
left corner left corner
China Daily Website

Korean pop music out to conquer the world

Updated: 2011-11-30 08:58
(Agencies)

Korean pop music out to conquer the world

Members of K-Pop idol group Girls' Generation perform during the Korean Pop Culture and Art Awards at the Olympic Hall in Seoul November 21, 2011.[Photo/Agencies]

A host of young Korean stars are taking to the stage in London, New York and beyond in a bid to crack one of the final 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 artists, 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 artists. Hikaru Utada holds the record with "First Love" from 1999, while Mariah Carey is the biggest international artist.

K-POP VS. J-POP

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.

Since music is about communicating ideas and feelings, common language helps. And the prevalence of English makes it easier for a singer from Toronto, for example, than one from Tokyo.

"The language barrier is probably the biggest thing that sets us apart from the global (arena)," said G.NA, a 24-year-old Canadian-Korean singer whose first language is English but who has found success in Korea.

She, along with two other K-pop acts, will be appearing at London's 02 Academy Brixton on December 5 as part of what the PR company handling the gig called "The Invasion of K-Pop."

It follows a K-pop concert at New York's Madison Square Garden in October. Those and other similar gigs outside Asia underline the ambition of K-pop acts and management companies to conquer the West and beyond.

It may be less invasion and more a small-scale foray, but promoters say there are encouraging signs for K-pop.

"We can't spend too much money if there is no market for us," said Ronnie Yang, head of CABA Entertainment who is organizing the London gig featuring artists from Cube Entertainment.

"But we feel this is the right stage for developing a new market -- there is demand and it is higher than before."

G.NA, for one, is not getting lost in the hype. Chance, she says, is as important as anything else.

"This industry is kind of like gambling," she told Reuters by telephone from Seoul. "You lose something, and you may lose everything. You may win and win more than expected. I think there's a lot of luck.

"It does depend on how much we try, but no matter how hard we try, if the circumstances don't work out, then things may not work out the way we planned. This concert is huge -- if people don't like it that could be the end of that."

"GENRE-SPECIFIC"

The wide pop genre may be the hardest market to crack abroad, but there has been success in the United States and elsewhere within narrower categories of music like classical, dance, rock and heavy metal.

Japanese heavy metal band X Japan staged a North American tour in 2010 catching the attention of major news outlets, and have visited Europe, Latin America and Asia this year.

L'Arc-en-Ciel, a Japanese rock group, has flirted with the United States and Europe, and plans a 2012 world tour.

The event is limited in scale so far, however, with seven dates showing on the website including indigO2 in London with a capacity of around 2,500.

The band's guitarist Ken alluded to a cultural barrier which has proven tough to break down.

"In Japan I am always listening to music from the U.S. and the UK," he told Reuters by telephone, speaking through a translator.

"But I never really got the impression people in the UK were listening to music from other parts of the world. So I'm really looking forward to getting a sense of how those people in Britain will perceive our music."

McClure added: "Music is meant to be the universal language...well, yes and no.

"There does seem to be this inability to accept an Asian face in the world pop music market place. I don't know why that is, as there are Asians who have done well in other spheres."

 
 
...
...
主站蜘蛛池模板: 欧美精选在线 | 日本美女视频韩国视频网站免费 | 亚洲国产欧美在线人成aaa | 日韩经典一区 | 亚洲一区亚洲二区 | 久久久久久全国免费观看 | 国产精品久久久久久久y | 全部aⅴ极品视觉盛宴精品 全部免费a级毛片 | 国产精品久久久久久久福利院 | 成人18免费网站在线观看 | 男人的天堂久久爱 | 俄罗斯小屁孩cao大人免费 | 一级做a爱片久久毛片 | 中文字幕无线码中文字幕网站 | 一级大黄美女免费播放 | 日韩欧美~中文字幕 | 国产精品美女久久福利网站 | 亚洲第五色综合网啪啪 | 国产91丝袜在线播放九色 | 欧美高清免费精品国产自 | 中文字幕在线观看一区 | 在线欧美精品二区三区 | 玖玖玖视频在线观看视频6 玖玖影院在线观看 | 国产成人教育视频在线观看 | 精品日韩一区二区三区视频 | 99视频精品在线 | 国产成人综合久久精品亚洲 | 91最新91精品91蝌蚪 | 丝袜一级片 | 成年女人毛片免费播放人 | 日韩精品在线一区二区 | 亚洲精品久久玖玖玖玖 | 国产在线观看一区 | 国产成人精品日本亚洲专一区 | 一级女性全黄久久生活片 | 国产精品久久久久免费 | 亚洲在线第一页 | 欧美日韩在线播放一区二区三区 | 国产三级精品三级国产 | 日本aaaaa毛片动漫 | 九九夜色 |