Impact from Korean Entertainment

Some may wonder how much the "Korean Wave" has impact on the world.  And this impact contributes a great deal to South Korea economy.  The following video from Monocole (Bloomberg) will show you "Super Junior - the most powerful brand in Korea".  We can also assume that this video also represents the K-Pop influences to the world.

Korean Entertainment has successfully promoted Korean culture behind the songs, movies, and dramas.  Impacts of Korean entertainment can be classified into many dimensions as the following

1.  Increasing the sales of the certain products such as Samsung Mobile phone, SK II, clothes.  Start watching Korean series on TV, viewers can see the trend inside the drama over and over again.  This makes you familiar with those trends and encourages you to buy those products.

From the above comment of this video, many of the people who comments on this video want to buy Samsung Galaxy Note; they admit that it results from watching "Rooftop Prince" and many Korean drama.

2. Increase in Korean language studies - most of the K-drama which are on air around the world have the subtitle in the translated of the country it is being shown.  However, the translated version will on air only after the all episodes of original Korean is shown in Korea and some non-Korean speakers may feel like he/she does not want to wait too long.  If they want to watch live at the same time with the Korean viewers, they must see the drama in Korean without subtitle in local language.  Even watching Korean series with English subtitle,  it still does not get what the actual feeling of those series.  This will inspire them to learn Korean language.

This link shows you the recent trends in Korean Language studies which become more popular nowadays http://blog.keia.org/2012/05/recent-trends-in-korean-language-study/

In addition, there are many website for those who interested in Korean language can access and learn for free such as http://www.learn-korean.net/  and http://www.learnkorean.com/home/index.asp


3. Emergence of Korean restaurants - Many Korean dramas show a lot about Korean Food and this cause to the mushrooming of Korean restaurant around the world.

Korean Restaurant in Thailand

Korean Restaurant in Malaysia

Korean restaurant in America

4. Tourism - Once you watched a movie and saw the beautiful sceneries from many locations in Korea, you are of course attracted to go there one day.

Foreign tourists in Korea

In conclusion we can see that Korean Pop culture, Gangnam Dance style, Korean Dramas/Series, Samsung Mobile, etc.  All of these things certainly have huge impact on the global society.  People start eating Korean food, learning Korean language, watching Korean drama series, and they probably end up visiting Korea!!   Well, so far so much about Korean Entertainment.  This topic is now closed.  Next blog I'll write about Similarity and Differences between  Malay and Thai culture, inshaAllah.

Hope you guys enjoy my blog

Advertising Behind Korean Entertainment

Have you ever notice that there are some advertising tricks behind those Korean entertainment we are enjoying?  It's like indirect message that the producers want to convey to the consumers in order to sell certain products or promote places.  As a foreigner who frequently watches some of K-dramas, I still can see the advertising behind the drama and this has a high impact on the audience who watch it.  Here are some of advertisement messages behind the drama and music

1. Tourism Promotion - by showing the beautiful scenery of the locations in the dramas, tourism is promoted in Korea.  Most of the K-dramas try to show altogether the scenery and the story.  The obvious example is the"4 seasons love series", it is a big drama project which try to attract the tourists to go to Korea include "Winter Love Song", "Autumn In My Heart", "Spring Waltz" and "Summer Scent"

Beautiful Scenery from "Boys Over Flowers" Drama in "Je Ju Island"

"Spring Waltz" drama location at Cheongsan-do

Beautiful location from "Winter Love Song" drama

Kiang Bog Palace - use as a location for many historical dramas

2. Advertising the products such as Samsung mobile phone, cosmetic-SKII or fashion (dress, hair style).  The manufacturers will give the products to the main actors and actresses to use thorough the drama.  For example, all the main actors and actresses in the "Ghost" drama use Samsung Galaxy Note.  When the drama episode being shown come close to the end of the episode, Samsung Galaxy S III model were also launched at the same time.  And off the screen, all the main actors and actresses in this drama use a newer model Samsung Galaxy S III in stead of Samsung Galaxy Note, the old version.

The leading actress of Rooftop Prince (Park Ha) with Samsung Galaxy Note

Kim Woo Yeon (leading actor in "Ghost" drama) with Samsung Galaxy S III

Lee Yeon Hee always uses SK II in "Ghost" drama. She is also a SK II presenter in real life

Girl Generation and colorful trousers fashion in "Gee" MV

3. Cultural Promotion for Korean Food, languages, beliefs or rituals.  All cultural dimensions come together in every drama

Promote Korean Food in "Feast of the Gods" drama

Traditional Korean Food in "Dae Jang Geum" drama

Traditional clothes of Korea "Hanbok" from "Dong Yi" drama

In order to advertise to make Korean Wave successful,  Korean Government play a vital role in various ways to help its own cultural industry, promote and export cultural goods by providing increased the national budget to this particular sector.  This can be the case for the other countries to follow as a guideline to build their own marketing strategies for the promotion of own country.  Here is the link to read a Master thesis by Thai student on a study in Korean wave in order to be a lesson to Thailand for establishing a Thai Wave.https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:KNr7eEKkK3oJ:laofutze.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/thai-vs-korean-pop-culture.pdf+&hl=en&gl=th&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiAuo7VMeaJ5xA_MbiB1h4dIua63nsj8bMS2o8kKUALkVzXpfoUbuHsM1qabtUzdeIfAaPkC010YGDQ1XVmtNOt2EbUF4LkZ1FD6wNBAR7aBNCgRZ-Q-dYIfmjm8YR6fVfGb38G&sig=AHIEtbSxAmxD6tKmkIUnoQiK2BpYDi06Aw

K-Drama

K-Drama or Korean-Drama refers to the dramas produced in South Korea.  Like the K-Pop, K-Drama also known around the world and famous among the fan especially in Asia.  Some says that K-Drama is addicted.  Once you start to see the drama, you won't be able to stop watching it.  The others say that K-Drama has a good combination with different emotion.  One moment you're crying during the sad scene, after that you'll laughing out loud.

There are types of K-Drama.  As I've seen many dramas, I will categorize into three main categories; modern drama, historical drama, and mix between modern & historical drama.

1. Modern drama - include romantic, action, sci-fi, or comedy drama.  This type of drama set the scene from the present places.  Modern drama normally has 18 - 24 episodes.  Examples the names of these drama are Secret Garden, My Girl, 49 Days, City Hunter, The King 2 Hearts, Brilliant Legacy, Ghosts, and so on.

City Hunter (Action)

My Girl (Comedy)

I'm sorry I love you (Romantic)

Syndrome (Medical)

2. Historical Drama - includes fictionalize of Korean History presented the Korean cultures in the past  via ritual, dress, and food.  Historical drama normally has more than 30 episodes.  Some dramas have over 80 episodes.  Maybe because this kind of drama requires a high expenditure for the theme, scenes, or dresses, so the episodes are extended gain more rating.  Example of Historical drama include; Dong Yii, Deep Rooted Tree, Yii San, Queen Seondeok etc.

Dong Yi

Queen Seondeok

Deep Rooted Tree

3. Mix between Modern & Historical Drama - This is the combination between modern and historical drama.  It is injecting the time travel (from the past moving to the present or from the present moving to the past) to the story line such as Faith, Rooftop Prince, Queen In Hyeon's Man, Time Slip Dr.Jin etc.

Time Slip Dr.Jin

Queen In Hyeon's Man

Rooftop Prince

In addition, many articles show that the Korean Government established a special organization named "Korean Film Council" or KOFIC aimed to support and promote Korean film not only for Korea viewers but audience around the world.  KOFIC has a chairman and 8 committee members appoint by the Ministry of Cultures, Sports, and Tourism to discuss and decide the Korean films' main policies.  To read this, you can go to http://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/jsp/kofic/intro.jsp .  It provides the introduction of KOFIC and tasks and responsibilities.

With the full support from government, K-Drama is well-known internationally.  Korean government still plan to increase the budget to support and promote K-Drama in order to spread the Korean Wave around the world and increase the number of foreign tourists rate to Korea.

Reference 

Introduction to KOFIC. (2012). Retrieved September 27, 2012 from   http://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/jsp/kofic/intro.jsp

Korea to increase budget to support "Hallyu". (2011).  Retrieved September 27, 2012 from http://www.arirang.co.kr/News/News_View.asp?nseq=124194&code=Ne2&category=2

Gangnam Style Phenomenon

Nowadays, most of people who use internet must be quite familiar with the word "Gangnam Style", the Korean music video from PSY known among his fan as "Park Jae Sang".  This song has a phenomenal hit more than 274,341,254 views on Youtube (25 Sept, 2012) and still continue on the rise.

Gangnam style is very famous not only in Korea but around the world.  It's the top ranking in iTune chart in America, Canada, New Zealand, and Denmark; hit the first ranking K-pop in UK, and in many countries in Asia.  It also popular among the celebrities around the world who try to learn this "Horse Dance" style and use this song in various occasions even in the election campaign.

PSY at Ellen shows in the US

Britney Spears learns the "Horse Dance" from PSY

Lipta - Famous singer in Thailand with Gangnam Style parody in Thai version

Dance Gangnam Style in Malaysia - Orang Kampung Style

Even in the US. political arena, supporters of both Obama and Romney make the Gangnam Style to promote their party's election campaign.

Mitt Romney & Gangnam Style

Obama & the Gangnam Style song for the US. president

Many people noticed that we have no need to understand Korean but we can enjoy the song with the "Horse Dance".  Some just might like it as the MV entertainment.  But the inside is ingrained with the social facets of the Korean's nouveau riche.  It should be understood that Gangnam is the area where these people live.  Although this is only a small fraction of the society, Gangnam generates an amazing desire, envy, and detest.  The 'new age' prosperity in Gangnam brings about brand-name stores and surgical clinics into the area.  "Gangnam inspire both envy and distaste", said Kim Zakka, a Seoul-based pop music critic.  "Gangnam residents are South Korea's upper class, but South Koreans consider them self-interest, with no sense of noblesse oblige" added Kim.   

If you go to http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/09/19/the-social-commentary-behind-psys-gangnam-style.html , you'll see the article by Foster Klug about "The social commentary behind PSY's 'Gangnam Style'.  This article will make you more understand the implicit meaning of the song that PSY wants to deliver to the audience.

By the way, you can see that PSY does what other Korean songster do not do.  He satirizes wealth and effluence of the people in Gangnam, while others often obviously express fondness to luxury and riches.  In other words, PSY wants to tell the society that there exists a gap between the rich and the poor, the gap is ever widening.  And this may be the reason why Gangnam Style is watched and heard all over the world.
 

K-Pop - what is it?

When you heard the word K-Pop, somebody might know what it is but the others might not.  Actually, K-Pop is an abbreviation of Korean Pop or Korean Popular music.  It's a musical genre consisting of dance, electronic, electropop, hip hop, and R&B originated in South Korea.  In addition, it also include other popular music within South Korea. (For further detail about K-pop, you can visit at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-pop )

K-pop contains many boy bands and girl groups or the single artists.  Here are the band which I familiar with; 2AM, 2PM, 2NE1, CN Blue, Super Junior, Baby VOX, F.T Island, DBSK, SHINee, Girls Generation,  T-ara, 4Minute, U-Kiss.  Still, there are many bands which I haven't mention here.  Each band has its own fan club.  The fans of each band also create their own names, color as a symbol for them.  They use these name as a special word to communicate among the fan club themselves and use between artists and the fans.  Here are some examples of each fan clubs' names and color.

 Band : Baby VOX,  Fan club name : Baby Angels, Color : Pearl Baby Pink

Band : Super Junior, Fan club name : E.L.F (Ever Lasting Friend), Color : Pearl Sapphire Blue

 Band : 2PM, Fan club name : Hottest, Color : Metallic Grey

Band : SHINee, Fan club name : SHAWOL (SHINee World), Color : Pearl Aqua

Band : Girls' Generation, Fan club name : SONE, Color : Pastel Rose

You can go to http://forums.allkpop.com/threads/fanclub-names-and-colors-%E2%99%A5.1211/  to see the full list of all K-pop bands, artists, and their fan clubs and color.

Nowadays you can see that K-pop begins to catch the attention of many people around the world.  There are many big fan based in Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, and so on.  This shows that K-pop is increasing the successful internationally and still continue its successful in the future. 

Me and Korean Entertainment

Hi everyone, I'm a Thai who is very much interesting in Korean Entertainment.  During my leisure time, I love to watch Korean dramas and listen to K-pop musics.  I'm interested in Korean cultures after I watch those entertainment media.  This made me want to share my interests with others.  By the way, I'm new with blogger but I'll try my best to share about Korean Entertainment as a foreigner from my own view.  Hope everyone enjoy with my blog. :)))