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Today’s Close-up (Nov 16)

Behind the Storm Attack of Korean Idols

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This article summarizes the whole contents of the 30 minutes' program.




TODAY'S CLOSE-UP

Behind the Storm Attack of Korean Idols
Great Deal of Investment on a worldwide basis in order to discover artists
November 17, 2010 18:34

Everyday, you can hear the group names of the Korean K-POP artists such as KARA and SNSD in the media. This year (2010), it is said that 25 K-POP groups came to Japan.

According to the program “Today’s Close-Up”, this is not a peculiar phenomena in Japan. K-POP has evoked enthusiasm in Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, and other Asian countries. It has been said for the umpteenth time, but even in this field, Japan has been replaced by another country.

“I do not know Japanese singers. I know SNSD.” (Male, Thailand) is an example.
“The days that J-POP dominated to the chart has ended, and these few years, K-POP has replaced them.” says Masayuki Furuya, a music journalist.

Kim Young Min, the CEO for SM Entertainment (which brought to market Tohoshinki, BoA, SNSD) says, “There is an ideal style in order to achieve popularity in Asia”.
They are focusing on dance music which has performance power, even though the language may be different.

Gather 100 thousand for auditions, and only a few pass

CEO Kim boasts “We are investing large sum of money for discovering/training artists, as the same as the research and development costs in general companies. Yearly amount of 200 million yen (approx US$2394400) are spent on discovering new faces. 100 thousand gather for the auditions, and only a few people pass them.

Even when you get to be the trainee, there will be out and out lessons and training for 5 hours every day, for a maximum period of 7 years.

“(During the trainee period) We were only able to sleep about 4 hours each day.
We cleaned up the training room early in the morning, and practiced for more than ten hours.” (Tohoshinki, Yunho)

When the debut approaches, they will study the language of the country they will make the debut. The contents seems to be difficult, not easy contents like half-listening.”
Spending money for discovering new faces and giving Spartan education--- these are stories which can be heard of Japan’s idols’ educating system. However, we rarely hear about attracting talented people on a worldwide basis, and think about their overseas activities even before their debut.
According to Furuya, the original Korea music market is small, and CD sales are extremely unfavorable, so it is necessary to target overseas. Those “one’s back against the wall” situation may be the road to success.
Additionally, their vision is to make profit not only by CD sales but through total performances such as concerts, events, and TV appearances. It is in contrast with Japanese entertainment, which is cautious in breaking through the Asian market regarding copyright issues.
When the program focus on Japan oriented contents, Japanese animation (cartoon film) is popular overseas. The anime songs have a high standing. In the end, music also finds a way out in two dimension (animation).

(Written by Bond Yagyuu)

NHK Today's Close-up (broadcasted on November 16, 2010, "Behind the Storm Attack of Korean Idols")

Source: j-cast.com
Translation: smiley @ OneTVXQ.com
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