Below is an interesting and visual report on the global rise of Korean pop culture by the Korean Culture and Information Service. It covers the rise of KPOP (Korean pop music) and super idol groups such as Girls’ Generation, Super Junior, SHINee, SpaceBigStar, Kara, TVXQ, 2PM, Wonder Girls, f(x), Big Bang and 2NE1; the Korean B-Boy dance movement; K-Dramas such as My Lovely Kim Sam-soon, Boys over Flowers, Jumong and Emperor of the Sea; and Movies such as the recent film Priest, the famous Korean movie Brother and the horror The Host. Though it doesn’t seem to cover the topic of sex scandals that I wrote about in a previous post.

The report also gives a good history lesson and provides some interesting infographics showing KPOP YouTube downloads by country, which illustrates how the popularity is spreading, especially with the rise of social media such as Twitter.

One interesting section also explains how Korean dramas have become popular in Arab society because of the conservative nature of the dramas since they focus on a period in Korean culture that was heavily influenced by Confucius teachings. 

The Korean Wave – A New Pop Culture Phenomenon

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According to The Korea Herald, a Japanese manga comic has depicted Girls’ Generation and other KPop stars as being part of an industry that forces the young girls to also partake in sexual behavior.

The article states that many Korean fans believe that the manga titled, “An Analysis on the K-Pop Boom Lies” is meant to slander the industry which is seeing much success in Japan.

The cartoonist of the comic reportedly insists that the story is based on information he acquired… and he might not be far off. There may be a lot of truth to how the Kpop industry is being depicted in the comics. The comic talks about  Korean actress, Jang Ja-yeon, who committed suicide last year due to depression and stress relating to, what her suicide note claimed was forced sex with VIPs in the industry.

Of course the agencies representing KARA and Girls’ Generation are considering legal action.

But this sort of scandalous behavior isn’t particularly new to entertainment industries the world over and can be imagined quite easily in a Korean context where older male generations ‘manage’ the careers and lives of young, attractive girls (and boys). I don’t see how Japan can be pointing fingers though, when there is already a long history of sensational sex scandal going down in JPop.

For instance, let’s not forget the many ‘ALLEGED’ accounts of the Japanese boy band godfather, Kitagawa, whom many former band members claim hosted a few “Michael Jackson-style sleepovers, which often culminated in an activity which is most succinctly described as rape” according to this VICE article.

Other takes on the story

www.indososhi.com

www.koreaboo.com

Such is the way of the entertainment industry I guess. What do you all think? Is this stuff going on a lot or only in isolated incidences?

Tags: an analysis on the k-pop boom lies, analysis, boy band, comic, entertainment, exploitation, girls, Girls' Generation, Hanaya Matoya, industry, J-Pop, Jang Ja-yeon, japan, Jpop, K-Pop, KARA, Kitagawa, korea, korean, kpop, kpop boom lies, manga, music, pop stars, rape, sex, sexual, Shamoji, SNSD, stars, suicide, 섹스 스캔들
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