Jay Park’s Release From 2PM: Korean-American Culture Shock

One of the most controversial incidents to come out of the K-pop world from the past few years concerned the termination of Park Jaebeom from the popular boy band 2PM. The group was enjoying their rise to the top of the Korean music industry with the success of their second single, “2:00PM Time For Change”, released on April 16, 2009. But in September of that year, attention shifted from their music to past comments made by their leader, Jaebeom.
Korean fans found comments written by Jaebeom on Myspace in 2005 in which he insulted Korea and Korean people. At the time, he had recently moved to South Korea from his hometown of Seattle, Washington to train as an artist under the record label JYP Entertainment. From his comments it seems he was experiencing difficulty adjusting to life in a different country. The most damaging comment he made that was cited by many fans stated, “Korea is gay… I hate Koreans”.

The backlash Jaebeom and 2PM experienced was intense. After the translations of his comments were spread all over Korean media, fans called for Jaebeom’s removal from the group. He issued an official apology explaining the context of his comments, but it did not quell the fans’ anger. There was even a petition signed by thousands of people demanding that he commit suicide. As a result, Jaebeom announced he would leave 2PM temporarily and return to Seattle. By February of 2010 JYP announced that Jaebeom’s contract with their company had been terminated, crushing any hope of a reunited 2PM.

Today 2PM continues as a six-person group and Jaebeom is now a solo artist going by his English name Jay Park. Both parties remain successful in and out of Korea but as entirely separate entities. What can be learned from Jay’s experiences as a Korean American in the Korean music industry? Evidently, even if someone is ethnically Korean he/she can still struggle with cultural differences when relocating to South Korea. Korean fans are vigilant in both their admiration and hatred for idol figures in the music industry. The misinterpretation of language and culture between Korea and the United States almost ruined Jay’s career, but he has managed to start over as an artist on his own terms thanks to support from his fans all around the world. While the Korean Wave is now known worldwide, it is not free from its own controversies that stem from the side effects of globalization.

Link
http://youtu.be/cUgReo37ECw
Music video for “Again & Again” by 2PM

Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Park
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2:00PM_Time_For_Change
http://www.dmwmedia.com/blog/%5Buser%5D/myspace-facebook-youtube-twitter-and-story-jay-park-aka-jaebeom-park
http://ourmoderngush.blogspot.com/2011/01/top-5-k-pop-controversies-mistakes-made.html
http://www.allkpop.com/2009/09/does_jaebeom_think_korea_is_gay
http://news.donga.com/3//20090905/8805847/1
http://www.soompi.com/2009/09/10/everything-about-jaebums-departure
http://www.soompi.com/2009/09/05/2pm-jaebum-offends-koreans-with-myspace-posts/
http://www.allkpop.com/2009/09/antis_create_a_suicide_petition_for_2pms_jaebeom

The Korean Music Festival: Bringing K-Pop Fans Closer to Their Favorite Artists

April 28, 2012 marked the 10th Korean Music Festival celebrated at the world-famous venue of the Hollywood Bowl. Since 2003, the Korea Times newspaper has brought artists directly from South Korea to Southern California for their annual concert. The festival was first held as a commemoration for the centennial anniversary of Korean immigrant to the United States. Tickets for the inaugural concert sold out 18,000 seats within two weeks. Now the festival receives support from corporate sponsors (both American and Korean) and members of the community alike that allows for the event’s success every year with continuously record-breaking ticket sales.
 

The festival organizers make an effort to include Korean artists in their line-up that appeal to multiple generations. Over the years the concert has hosted current pop performers like BoA, Rain, TVXQ, and Girls’ Generation along with stars of the past like Arirang, Love & Peace, Nam Jin, and Kim Kyung-ho. The organizers also employ bilingual artists as MCs for the show to help bridge the language gap for non-Korean concertgoers. To show ties to the local community, the Crenshaw Choir and UCLA’s classical Korean music group are invited to perform traditional Korean songs at the beginning of every concert.

The Korean Music Festival’s website boasts that their concert “puts its patrons at the center of the Korean Wave”. For K-pop fans that are unable to travel to Korea to watch their favorite artists perform, this event gives them an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see their musical idols in person. People of both Korean and non-Korean heritage come from all over the United States and even across the globe to be a part of the Korea Times’ annual festival.

Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUiyHRAXBzY
susie1431’s fancam of Brown Eyed Girls performing “Abracadbra” at the 2012 KMF

Sources:
http://www.koreanmusicfestival.com/index.php
http://www.facebook.com/koreatimesmusicfestival
http://seoulbeats.com/2012/05/the-los-angeles-korean-music-festival-old-versus-new/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ6lysHU0d8

Riding the Korean Wave – Taeyang Breaks In to the US Music Charts

Taeyang is best known as a member of one of Korea’s biggest boy bands, Big Bang. Since their debut in 2006 the group has achieved massive success all over the world, thanks in part to the Korean Wave (한류). Each member of Big Bang has released solo albums, but Taeyang set himself apart by trying to make his way into the American music industry. Born Dong Young-bae on May 18, 1988 in South Korea, Taeyang chose to use the Korean word for sun as his stage name before Big Bang made their debut. When he was young he secretly danced to the music of Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder without sharing his aspirations of becoming a performer with anyone.

Taeyang released his first solo work in 2008, the mini-album “Hot”. “Hot” earned two awards from the 7th Korean Music Awards: Best R&B/Soul Song for the single "Only Look At Me" and Best R&B/Soul Album. By the time he released his second solo work in 2010, the full-length album “Solar”, Taeyang was a full-blown idol in the Korean music industry both as a member of Big Bang and as an individual. The limited deluxe edition of “Solar” sold out on its first day of sales. After being released on iTunes, the album ranked #2 on the Top R&B-Soul albums on the US chart and #1 on the Canadian chart. He was the first Asian artist to accomplish this feat. The international version of the album featured English versions of some tracks. Taeyang also chose to work with Asian American choreographers for his music videos and live performances from the album.

Currently Taeyang is set to go on the Alive Tour 2012 with the rest of Big Bang. Their first world tour will visit countries in Asia, North America, South America, and Europe in the second half of this year. As a solo artist Taeyang may release another work this year as well. With all the success he has achieved so far in his career, fans from all other the world look forward to what Taeyang will bring in the future.

Link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIt6KCwlFPw
Music video for “Wedding Dress” by Taeyang

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taeyang
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang_(Korean_band)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_(album)
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2013227,00.html
http://www.dcnews.in/etc_list.php?code=succeed&id=11632
http://news.nate.com/view/20100826n04439
http://www.allkpop.com/2012/05/big-bang-releases-initial-tour-dates-and-cities-for-alive-tour

K-Pop Mogul 3: Lee Soo Man- The Titan

In the spirit of Korean culture and their adherence to seniority we saved the best for last with Lee Soo Man, the founder and former chairman of the board for SM Entertainment, born in 1952. Hands down, Lee is the biggest figure in K-Pop. A graduate from Seoul University, Lee started to have a career as a singer releasing hits during the seventies. Lee’s artistic ambition led to him forming the first heavy metal band in South Korea. As the music industry became more strict Lee left South Korea to study at California State University, Northridge. Influenced by the popularity of the Mtv culture in America, Lee went back to South Korea with a vision of changing the music scene in the country. In 1995, Lee founded SM Entertainment and since then has pushed this company to becoming the biggest music agency in all of South Korea. Since last year Lee managed to increase SM’s sales revenue by 198.71%. Which is not that hard considering some of the talent they have including BoA, Super Junior, and Girls Generation.

Much of the credit to these artist’s success is Lee’s rigorous and controversial methods of success involved having potentials sign 13 year contracts to the company. The potentials are then given non stop training and singing and dancing to ensure stardom and success. Due to complaints, the contract was shortened to 7 years but Lee has still conquered the pop music market in South Korea. Because of his success he has gained an infamous reputation of overworking his stars and focusing only on commercial gains. He has been known to spend frivolous amounts of money to create some songs such as hiring the best composers and musicians in Korea just to produce one song. Despite the crazy tactics he employs for his artists, his recipes are recipes for success. And that is why he is the biggest man in the game of K-pop.

K-Pop Mogul 2: Yang Hyun Suk- The Veteran

The next on our list of K-Pop Moguls is Yang Hyun Suk of YG Entertainment. Born on December 2, 1970 Yang first got his start in the K-Pop industry as a member of the band Seo Taiji & The Boys in the early 90s. in 1996 the band broke up and this led Yang to found YG Entertainment where he is still the current owner and CEO. Bringing up acts such as Big Bang, 2NE1, and Se7en he puts his old experience and knowledge into the work as he not only acts as producer, but mentor for all of YG’s artists and entertainers.

Helping spread the rise of the Korean Wave, Yang is one of the bright thinkers that joined and expanded his K-Pop arsenal with companies in Japan, such as Nippon Columbia, to spread K-Pop throughout Asia and dominate the music market. As Yang acquired more acts and solidified the financial value of YG Entertainment, he was recently allowed to let his company go public in 2010.


From creating magazines and opening night clubs throughout South Korea, Yang has been the leading figure in spreading the hip hop culture throughout South Korea. His other contributions have been philanthropic with a notable donation for Japanese Earthquake relief. Yang’s contributions to YG Entertainment are not just business. He is well known for writing the songs, producing the songs, choreographing the dances, and photographing the art. This is why out of the “Big Three” Yang sticks out as the most versatile figure in the South Korean music industry.

K-Pop Mogul 1: Park Jin Young- The Prince

K-Pop Mogul 1: Park Jin Young- The Prince

The next three posts are part of a thread focusing on the lives of Park Jin Young, Yang Hyun Suk, and Lee Soo Man. Each of them is the head of the so called “Big Three” K-Pop Agencies in South Korea (SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, and YG Entertainment). The importance of these threads is recognizing the impact these figures have on the pop culture and general culture of Korea and for Korean Americans.

The first to be featured in the new thread about the heads of the “Big Three” K-Pop Agencies (SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, and YG Entertainment) is Park Jin Young, the founder and former CEO of JYP Entertainment. Born in Seoul on January 1, 1972, Park Jin Young is the youngest head of the “Big Three”

As the biggest producer for his record label, JYP Entertainment, Park Jin Young has displayed success in the K-Pop industry not just by his own talent as a singer but also his eye for talent as his company proudly boasts the popularity of their artists including: Rain, Wonder Girls, 2AM, and 2PM.

Park founded the Tae- Hong Planning Corporation in 1997 and soon changed the name to JYP Entertainment in 2001. As the company’s first artist, the stylish and trendy Park exploded onto the Korean music scene and has been pushing the expansion of K-Pop globally ever since. From being able to produce for American artists such as Will Smith, Mase and Cassie from becoming the first Korean songwriter to be in the Billboard Hot 100 with song “Nobody” by the Wonder Girls, Park has the best ear for pop music out of the “Big Three”. Despite his knowledge insight with music and trends, Park lacks in business skills and it has led to JYP Entertainment suffering many financial losses. It was recently reported in the 2012 Revenue First Quarter Report, JYP Entertainment is making the least money with $934,000. Despite their economic shortcomings, JYP Entertainment has proved themselves to be one of the leading visionaries on which direction to take K-Pop and Park Jin Young has been there leading them.

Hair Styles: Blonde Ambition

As a final post, I will be speaking about hair bleaching. It is very common for girls to dye and bleach their hair, changing the colors frequently—so much that finding a girl with her natural hair color is like finding a unicorn! Extremely rare and hard to spot. Asian girls especially dye their hair different colors and some say it’s in effort to become more “Caucasian” and “American”.

Girl group Rania in an ad for Maxim Korea
with altered and bleach hair.

Korean pop stars prefer to keep their hair natural shades of blonde, though some go platinum (ringing a bell with television reality star Heidi Montag, from The Hills) or a “white-blond”. Some do this to soften their looks and make them appear more feminine (boys become pretty boys and girls become more girly).

At least 12 out of the “22 Great Haircuts for Asian Men” feature male k-pop singers with altered hair colors, many of those 12 have definitely bleached or lightened their hair color.

Not all Korean pop stars bleach their hair, however, such as Kim Ki Bum of the Korean boy band Shinee. He streaks his hair different colors. Korean pop stars have a great influence on the hair styles of the youth in Korea as well as those who join in on the Kpop wave in America. Natural hair color is not what you’re aiming for and the more bold you are with hair colors, the better.

Nickhun of Korean group 2PM

Kim Ki Bum of Shinee

Sources:

http://coolmenshair.com/2012/02/kim-ki-bum-shinee-key-hairstyles.html

http://seoulbeats.com/2012/05/all-about-the-hair/

http://coolmenshair.com/2011/11/korean-pop-hairstyles.html