The success and future of K-pop.
The Korean Wave is becoming the driving force behind Korea's emergence
as a cultural superpower from a "quiet morning country."
It looks at the cultural and industrial values of the Korean Wave
and examines the success of K-pop from the perspective of three innovations
(development of new products, introduction of new production methods, and pioneering new markets).
The Korean Wave is not just content to enjoy and consume, but its true value will be revealed
when mankind contributes to revealing the beauty and greatness of their lives.
Innovation capability is the core driving force of the Korean Wave.
Korea, the "country of quiet mornings," is rapidly emerging as a "cultural superpower."
The Korean Wave plays a central role here. The Korean Wave has been led by K-pop since the mid-2000s,
starting with dramas that spread mainly in Asia such as Taiwan and China in the mid-1990s.
Last year, BTS of the Big Hit Entertainment Group became the first K-pop group to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart with its hit song "Dynamite."
On top of that, SM Entertainment's Avengers group SuperM topped the hot 200 chart with its album debut,
and BLACKPINK became the first Korean girl group to rank second on the Billboard Album 200 chart
and succeeded in conquering iTunes album charts in 57 regions around the world.
In particular, the movie Parasite and Yoon Yeo-jung's Oscar Supporting Actress Award have recently become a hot topic,
and our drama is spreading around the world again through global online streaming media.
It is also prominent in unexpected fields such as "Billboard Classic Album No. 1" and "Fusion Korean Traditional Music."
On top of that, the lifestyle Korean Wave, such as Korean food and beauty, is joining, showing the potential of our culture in all directions.
As such, foreign scholars say that the simultaneous advancement of Hallyu culture stimulated creativity
due to the constant sense of crisis caused by the history of hardship that continued throughout the great powers.
However, a more convincing reason should be found in the innovation capacity of our cultural industry to create creative cultural products.
For example, as the K-pop boom intensified, exports of Korean music albums and videos reached an all-time high in 2020,
and exports rose 94.9% from last year to 230 billion won between January and November.
Korean popular music has succeeded in terms of national brands and industrial innovations beyond the level of art.
Thanks to this, the cultural content industry surpassed the home appliance industry in 2018 and became the 13th-largest export item to the country.
As a result, in 2020, for the first time in history, the trade balance for cultural and artistic copyrights turned into a surplus.
This industrial success of the Korean Wave provides important implications
for what innovation strategies the Korean economy should implement in response to the future of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
In the case of Kpop,
three innovations have been made: new product development (innovation from listening music to music),
introduction of new production methods (development of culture technology such as idol production systems),
and pioneering new markets (creating niche markets for enthusiasts around the world).
These innovation achievements were led by a small number of innovators, including producers Lee Soo-man and Bang Si-hyuk.
In response to crises and opportunities derived from domestic and foreign music markets,
they continued to innovate by creatively implementing three strategies: idolization, diversification of revenue sources,
and globalization (pioneering overseas markets).
These producer innovators are maintaining and expanding innovative momentum by presenting creative strategies
such as attempting paid online performances for the first time in the world and debuting a new concept of idol groups
in response to the recent crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Korean Wave content industry, along with semiconductors, leads the innovation of the Korean economy.
As such, the K-pop industry from the perspective of industrial innovation has a lot in common
with memory semiconductors that are leading the Korean economy.
For example, first, just as memory semiconductors have innovated around the production system,
K-pop also has an idol production system at the center of innovation. Second,
just as semiconductors have secured competitiveness through vertical integration of all processes within the company,
K-pop also performs all idol-related processes internally through the Total Management System.
Third, just as memory semiconductors presented other business models that quickly supply high-quality products
while maintaining the world's best quality and performance, K-pop also presented a new business model that uses idols themselves as products.
Although the Korean Wave content industry, including K-pop, is small in quantity,
it is expected to lead the second-generation innovation of the Korean economy along with semiconductors in terms of quality.
The Korean economy developed from the 60s to the mid 80s based on government-led development and simple imitation of overseas technology.
Since then, the era of innovation was created in 1983 with the Tokyo Declaration of the late Chairman Lee Byung-chul, that is,
the private declaration of independent development of semiconductors. This first-generation innovation continued until the mid-1990s,
but it still remained in the stage of "creative imitation" of learning and pursuing foreign technologies.
However, the second generation, which began in the mid-1990s, practiced "First Move" innovation,
which is symbolized by the world's first memory semiconductor development achievements.
On top of that, small and medium-sized venture companies joined to continue innovation centering on the IT industry.
It can be said that K-pop has also joined the ranks of second-generation innovation since its H.O.T. debut in 1996.
Second-generation innovation means entering the "first mover" stage characterized by "creation of new knowledge."
The manufacturing competitiveness of large companies and IT venture companies that support the Korean economy is based on second-generation innovation.
Along with this, what must be recognized is the fact that K-pop and other cultural content companies are joining forces to lead soft innovation.
Such soft innovation is greatly promoting the national brand to the extent that Korea is regarded as a "cultural powerhouse" abroad,
and is becoming a new innovation breakthrough to complement the manufacturing-oriented economic structure.
Looking at the history of innovation in the Korean economy,
it can be seen that from the second-generation innovation that began after the mid-1990s, the private sector is leading most of the innovation achievements.
Therefore, the government's innovative growth policy should focus on promoting private innovation.
In particular, policies that indirectly promote companies' free innovation activities through institutions and cultures are of paramount importance.
In the case of the U.S. music industry,
the disappearance of the idol group after the disbandment of the "New Kids on the Block" group was due to the government's institutional regulations.
It is also worth recalling that Japan's once prosperous J-pop declined due to a culture that avoids competition.
Then, what is the future of Hallyu, especially K-pop?
Many people are worried about the future, citing Hong Kong's movies and Japanese J-pop cases. However,
according to my analysis, K-pop is expected to continue and expand for the time being,
and its heyday can be evaluated as starting now.
The reason is that producer innovators, the core of innovative momentum, are actively working in fierce competition,
producing new concepts of idols, and continuing to pioneer and expand gaps in the global pop market.
If the development of a new business model is successful by converging new technologies of the 4th Industrial Revolution,
it may take the opportunity to lead the global cultural industry.
As the saying goes, "The most personal thing is the most creative," I would argue that "the most corporate thing is the most innovative."
This is because creativity and innovation ultimately come from individuals and companies.
The Korean Wave must have universality that transcends nation and race.
There are many tasks to be solved for the future of the Korean Wave.
Since the competitiveness of the Korean Wave also comes from innovative content,
it is most important to ensure that the innovation momentum of cultural companies does not cool down.
On top of that, as the Korean Wave becomes more global,
it is necessary to respond to situations in which it cannot help but be affected by social and cultural factors from other countries.
In fact, not a few K-pop stars have sparked controversy among fans due to their lack of cultural awareness.
Therefore, it is becoming increasingly important to be more careful about these issues and have a more global mindset.
Now, the Korean Wave is becoming more and more influential worldwide to be tied only to the artistic pride or industrial achievements of the Korean people.
This is because Korean Wave contents have universality that transcends the state and race and have an influence that reveals the beauty and greatness of life.
I think this contains the spirit of art spirit, "to feel true joy in the process of doing anything creatively, inquiringly, and expressively,
not limited to a specific field of culture and arts." Therefore, the Korean Wave will not just be a content to enjoy and consume,
but its true value will be revealed when it contributes to the realization of Dead Sea compatriotism that mankind sympathizes with as a global citizen.
