RS 8 Why K Pop is Taking Over the World

This blog post is my take on the podcast “Why K Pop is Taking Over the World” by Planet Money. This podcast was released October 16, 2012.

This article really made me think about the music industry in a totally new perspective. As the hosts of the podcast stated, we have taken the music industry today for granted; although we have come a long way, the hit song “Gang am Style” is a lesson for us to learn from. As the podcast points out, we are and have been the number one for exports of music and it has taken over 150 years to get where it is today. Korea observed and learned from our music industry, three lessons that made their industry a major success in not even half the time it took for America’s to get where it is today.

The lessons were; that music can be industrialized, distributed in many different ways, and by putting it all nicely together, you have a recipe for musical success. Our music has come a long way through many wars, the depression, and has seen nearly failure. Korea learned from our mistakes and although we are still number one, they have presented that they are a major threat.

To industrialize their music, the Korean’s started with training kids from when they were young how to sing and act. This is the manufacturing of the product. Their genius way in distributing is with an image, showing the songs debut on TV and YouTube, so they can learn where people are viewing the videos and how many people, so everyone sees it. I agree with this move because when I listen to a song on the radio is not as great most of the time compared to if I hear a song and watch a great music video that goes along with it. In this case I am more likely to be a fan of the song and play it more often. Also the this way Korean producers can see where most people are viewing the product, and this helps when one decides where the artist should go on tour.

Lastly, the lesson they showed is “wrapping the package” up nicely. By creating this quality product people associate where it came from with a quality country that produces quality goods. I agree here as well when you hear disgraceful rap music, it tends to create a negative image and although teens who like it do not see it, other countries do.

The President of the World Bank, Dr. Jim Kim, was another that pointed that this song is more than just fun music and that it was an “economic strategy” and that it was “a cultural product that showed the countries aspirations.” This article was very fascinating learning about the music industry and how there is so much more than to meet the eye, and that if we want to keep being the top export in the music industry; we must take notes from what others learned from our mistakes in creating quality music products.