Here's my final reading reflection for my social movements class. In case you missed the others, check them out below:
1. Reading reflection 1 on the Trayvon Martin movement
2. Paper proposal on apathy in the Niger Delta
3. Reading reflection 2 on the Divest fossil fuels campaign
4. Apathy and social movements final paper
My reading reflection focuses on Korean popular culture, known as Kpop. For the purposes of this entry, I use the term Kpop in reference to Kpop music not Korean popular culture as a whole. My entry centers on brand equity and transcendence in the kpop industry. Korean entertainment agencies are known for their over-the-top promotion and marketing techniques. I focus how Korean entertainment agencies manufacture idols in order to create brand equity.
1. Reading reflection 1 on the Trayvon Martin movement
2. Paper proposal on apathy in the Niger Delta
3. Reading reflection 2 on the Divest fossil fuels campaign
4. Apathy and social movements final paper
My reading reflection focuses on Korean popular culture, known as Kpop. For the purposes of this entry, I use the term Kpop in reference to Kpop music not Korean popular culture as a whole. My entry centers on brand equity and transcendence in the kpop industry. Korean entertainment agencies are known for their over-the-top promotion and marketing techniques. I focus how Korean entertainment agencies manufacture idols in order to create brand equity.
When many people think of Kpop, “Gangnam Style” the song by Psy,
that is now the most viewed Youtube video, comes to mind. However, most Kpop
videos are very different from Psy’s and the Kpop industry is not as bright and
flashy as the videos suggest. The top 3 entertainment companies in South Korea
are SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment, and JYP Entertainment. To get signed
with one of these companies (or others in Korea), one has to go through a
multi-stage audition process. Auditions take place in many countries worldwide,
an if a person successfully auditions and is recruited, they become trainees. A
trainee undergoes the training process for an average of five years before
launching as part of a group. Although the training process differs slightly between
companies, trainees usually live in dorms and go through tedious singing,
dancing, and language classes, while earning minimal income, and facing the
fear of being dropped at any minute if their skill is not progressing. The
rigorous schedule continues even when a trainee become music star, usually
referred to as an idol. In a given week, an idol may be recording an album,
filming a drama, shooting an ad, doing interviews and making variety show
appearances. Former Kpop stars like Han Geng has talked about being subjected
to physical abuse and being forced to perform on stage just after having
surgery.
Without a doubt, brand equity is important in Kpop. Entertainment
agencies do not want the audience to be aware of the ugly side of the industry.
Idols are “manufactured” to look perfect when they debut in the music industry.
It is quite common to see leaked pre-debut and post-debut pictures of idols.
Bantjes writes about the marketing and promotion that builds brand equity
(244). Before a Kpop video or album is made available, teaser pictures and
videos are released daily of individual group members. Super Junior, one of the
most popular guy groups has thirteen members, and a teaser picture, and
sometimes video of each member is released daily usually spanning thirteen days.
Each member gets a different photo-shoot theme (clothes, hair, and makeup) to
build excitement for the upcoming music release. Bantjes explains that brand
equity “persuades consumer to buy into the unique magic of brand identity”.
This is largely the case in the world of Kpop. TVXQ, the most popular Asian
male group was in the Guinness Book of World Records for being a music group
with the most numbers of fans. A whopping 800, 000 registered fan club members
Kpop is a worldwide phenomenon. From my friends in Canada watching
Korean variety show to a Korean dance competition organized for high school
students by the Korean embassy in Nigeria. Several Kpop idols are of Korean
descent, but born and/or raised in the United States or Canada, and chose to
audition for various entertainment agencies and move to Korea. There are
several idols who are not of Korean heritage as but now live and work in Korea.
Bantjes brings up the idea of brand transcendence when “brand meanings become
instantiated in everyday p ractices that determine intimate qualities of human
interaction, aspiration, and identity” (245). He uses examples such as the
hipness of Starbucks and the idea of creating dreams used by Nike (“just do it”).
In Kpop, the attraction is millions of screaming fans around the world who care
about an idol’s life, not just their music. To a potential trainee, it usually
does not matter what hardships trainees go through, it is all worth it to
become a huge Kpop icon. Bantjes writes that “the sneaker merely becomes a
medium for the sale of the brand idea”. SM Entertainment, for example, is the
medium through which fame and stardom can be achieved. Kpop is one of the few
genres in the world where fans do not just listen to the music, but actively
follow the lives of idols. A majority of Kpop groups have at least five members,
and most fans know the names of all 5 members. It is quite absurd.
Bantjes also writes about the commodification of human qualities such
as when human capacities that ordinary people can realize on their own are now
commodified (246). The top 3 entertainment agencies are listed on the Korean
Stock Exchange, and there is a direct link between increased entertainment
activities and stock market prices.
Fans
also see themselves as “partners with corporate sponsors” (246), as exemplified
by fanwars in Kpop. Fan wars are very rampant in Kpop, and so are sasaeng fans.
Online fan wars are usually started by fans of various groups, who feel like
it’s is necessary to defend the group as well as the company behind the group
at all costs, despite allegations of unfair treatment of idols. Sasaeng fans
are obsessive fans who stalk their idols and invade their privacy. The
commodification of Girls Generation, for example, builds brand equity for SM
Entertainment.
