After K-drama, Malaysians now enjoy a healthy spread of K-pop from the land of kimchi.
K-POP fever is ablaze in Malaysia as South Korean acts graced our shores in rapid succession in the first half of this year. There were Super Junior, U-KISS, BEAST, Brian Joo and Wonder Girls.
Trivia: Coming after so many boybands and male acts, were Wonder Girls – who were part of yesterday’s MTV World Stage Live In Malaysia 2010 shindig in Bandar Sunway, Selangor – the first all-girl Korean group to perform in Malaysia?
Technically, yes!
The first girl band from South Korea to be here was the three-member Baby Vox who appeared as part of the Korean Stars Asean Tour for the Winning Hearts Mini Concert at Wisma MCA in Kuala Lumpur in 2005. The trio did not perform, but plugged their music videos instead.
The first female Korean artiste to actually perform here was Jang Nara. The famed singer-actress featured in 8TV’s 2006 Summer Live Concert annual show at Danga Bay in Johor Baru.
It’s not hard to see where the K-pop appeal lies, never mind that the bands are being churned out at a relentless rate. All those beautiful youths with immaculately coiffed hair and fashionable dressing are all capable of bringing the house down with their nifty dance moves, polished showmanship, catchy music and slick videos.
It’s obvious how much work has gone into each song-and-dance gig, and fans appreciate the level of commitment and effort that K-pop stars put into showcasing their talents.
Technology plays a big part in fuelling the interest and fanaticism in Korean pop culture. With South Korea’s high Internet broadband speed – one of the world’s best – and high number of Net-savvy citizens, it sure is a breeze to keep abreast of the latest developments in the pop world.
Additionally, the advent of social media has provided artistes a new avenue for creative self-expression and a platform for fans to interact directly with their idols, further increasing their popularity with the masses around the globe.
Newer Korean acts like U-KISS (which debuted in February 2008) and BEAST (which first came out in October 2009) have, no doubt, found that it’s a cinch to keep their fans happy by posting simple yet regular updates and uploading pictures of themselves doing everyday things like eating, sleeping, exercising, cooking, shopping and generally goofing around.
Fans are certainly chuffed to be able to follow their antics on their blogs, microblogs (i.e. Twitter, me2day) and social network sites (i.e. Facebook, Cyworld) closely. And watching their cool music videos via YouTube.
Malaysian organisers for recent K-pop showcases (Geneses Dream Entertainment for U-KISS, Universal Music for BEAST and Rhythmland for Brian Joo) all capitalised on their Facebook pages to gain support for their shows, and even to sell tickets/albums.
Teacher Fizzy Hasan, 27, is the epitome of the new-age IT-savvy K-pop fan who makes use of the social media platform to get her daily fix of K-pop news and updates. Such is her passion that she has picked up the Korean language, maintains active accounts on Korean language social networking sites, blogs and tweets in Hangul (Korean alphabet).
Her love for all things Korean has taken her to South Korea’s capital, Seoul, so she thinks nothing of travelling from Kelantan where she is based to Kuala Lumpur or Petaling Jaya to meet the Korean celebrities.
While waiting to get into the venue at Brian Joo’s recent showcase at The Opera, Sunway Pyramid, in Selangor, Fizzy shared that she got hooked on Korean culture from watching the drama Stairway To Heaven.
“I enjoyed watching Kwon Sang Woo in the series. Then, I listened to K-pop and started liking Fly To The Sky,” said Fizzy, who’s now partial to boybands like Super Junior, Big Bang and C.N. Blue.
Some fans travel in groups and prefer to arrive early at fanmeets and showcases to stake out an ideal spot at the event.
At two showcases given by BEAST and U-KISS recently, I met one such group (who preferred to be known only for their first names) – Hidayah, 28, Winniejj, 22, Fatimah, 18, Efa, 21, and the only male among them, Aminlee, 20. They had waited since 6am for both shows.
“Though foreign, Korean acts are essentially Asian and more to our liking, as compared to Western pop culture. It doesn’t really matter to us which Korean artiste comes, we’ll be around to show our support. We also follow them on Twitter,” they offered amidst the excitement.
Another group, 16-year-olds from Subang Jaya, Selangor – Katherine, Alena, Lim Shin Yi and Po Wan Ting – gamely sang for our multimedia reporter Jacqueline Wong while awaiting for the BEAST showcase to begin.
The girls, who had also been to the U-KISS showcase, prepared gifts for the boys. One of them even wrote love letters to her favourite members!
Though grossly outnumbered by their female counterparts, there were also males among the K-pop worshippers. Like students Alex Lim, Jun Loong and Joshua Lu, all 16.
Alex found it interesting that the boys had different personalities while Jun Loong was impressed with how good they looked when they performed.
Korea Tourism Organisation (KTO) managing director (Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines) Kim Keehun is naturally thrilled with the K-pop craze.
“With 2010 being the 50th year of diplomatic relations between Malaysia and South Korea, we are hoping to stage a major concert at year-end featuring multiple Korean acts,” he said, as his mobile phone rang with an upbeat tune of boyband 2AM.
KTO communications and events manager Valene Tan, whose work also led her to deal with local K-pop fan clubs, said the most active currently are the Super Junior and SHINee fan clubs.
A Korea Wave Contest was held with auditions in April and the finals in May, where the top two teams represented Malaysia and performed in South Korea.
“We decided to give them a platform to perform and express their love for their favourite Korean artistes,” said Tan.
The grand prize winners Progression (a group of six boys) and the first runners-up Epsilon (a group of five girls who were also fanclub members of SHINee World Malaysia) won tour packages to South Korea.
Truly, the K-pop wave looks set to ride high in Malaysia for some time to come.
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Success comes at a price for South Korean stars, with some training for up to seven years before making their debut.
SAY K-pop and what comes to mind are sleek sexy stars, complete with strong vocals, fancy grooves and good looks, who offer glitz and glamour in well-packaged sound bites.
The K-pop industry, which churns out countless pretty-faced boybands and girl groups yearly, was almost unheard of in Asia a decade ago.
Now, it is a regional powerhouse. Witness the bedlam when popular groups such as FT Island and Brown Eyed Girls visited Singapore for showcases last year. Fans camped overnight at venue entrances to get up close and personal with their pop idols.
Last year, Financial Supervisory Service (South Korea), the country’s integrated financial regulator, revealed the earnings of the top three talent management companies in the country, namely SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment and JYP Entertainment.
SM Entertainment, which manages some of the biggest pop idol groups in South Korea, including Super Junior, SNSD and SHINee, earned more than 61.8 billion won (RM156.4mil) last year.
Rivals YG Entertainment, which produced popular groups such as Big Bang and 2NE1, pulled in more than RM94.3mil while JYP Entertainment, which pulls the strings for Wonder Girls, earned more than RM25.3mil.
Now, K-pop has its sights set on the international market, with singers such as Rain and Wonder Girls attempting to break into that Holy Grail of all pop markets – the United States.
How did the Hallyu pop wave go from zero to hero in just a few years? The answer is pop cram school.
Korean pop stars are literally the assembly-line products of a lean, mean pop machine operated by talent management agencies.
Before they make their debut, pop-star wannabes have to first get through tough auditions. SM Entertainment, for example, holds weekly walk-in auditions in South Korea and also accepts e-mail auditions from hopeful teenagers who send in video clips. JYP Entertainment holds auditions fortnightly, with as many as 1,000 people turning up for each one.
Although there is no age limit, Mei Han, JYP Entertainment’s publicist, says the hopefuls are getting younger, with some just 10 years old.
She says over the telephone from South Korea: “As there are many good and talented young people who turn up, we usually look at their potential and choose those whom we feel are very passionate and really want to be stars. Sometimes, we can choose up to five people from one audition session, and sometimes, we won’t choose anyone at all.”
Once they are picked, the applicants become trainees in a tough regime aimed at manufacturing pop stars. They have to learn singing, dancing, hosting, acting and foreign languages. They can train for anywhere between one and seven years, or sometimes even longer, in courses organised or sponsored by the talent management agencies which have cherry-picked them for grooming.
Jo Kwon, leader of ballad boyband 2AM, for example, trained for seven years and 10 days before he was selected to debut.
And training is not the only hurdle. Trainees have to pass the equivalent of performance examinations.
Han says JYP Entertainment sets monthly tests for its trainees and holds an in-house showcase twice a year to gauge their standards.
She says: “The showcase is also for trainees to gain stage experience. From these tests, we grade them and place them in different challenge projects, before selecting a few to form a group.”
There are now 40 trainees in the agency and it will be debuting a new five-member girl group before September.
DSP Entertainment, which has popular boyband SS501 and girl group KARA on its roster of artistes, also sets singing and dancing practical tests for its trainees before launching them.
Choi Seong Pil, the agency’s senior chief manager, says: “Trainees usually spend many hours training very hard so that they can get chosen. Now, we have about 15 trainees and we will debut a new boyband of five to six people in November.”
The lengthy training period does not come cheap. Korean talent management companies pay not only for the classes, but also for the trainees’ accommodation, food and allowances. Then, once they debut as performers, the companies pay for their clothes as well as extensive grooming which, given the norm in the Korean entertainment industry, could include plastic surgery.
Industry insiders in Singapore estimate that the total costs can range from S$50,000 to S$300,000 (RM115,000 to RM690,000) or more for each trainee, depending on how long he trains.
Comedienne-actress Irene Ang, founder and chief executive of artiste management agency Fly Entertainment, says: “It is important to train a star first before debuting him because looks can only go so far. He must have talent and substance.”
Eric Ng, co-founder of Funkie Monkies Productions, adds: “After receiving training, the artistes become more aware of the industry and know what to expect from the media, clients and fans. This will help prepare them as the industry can sometimes be cruel.”
The Korean companies’ investments have obviously paid off in the past five years as K-pop groups now command thousands of fans and earn huge sums of money for them.
But the price of stardom is steep and exacted with bottom-line ruthlessness by the firms. For one thing, pop singers are signed on for lengthy contracts. Choi says: “Our stars usually sign a five- to seven-year contract with us after debuting.”
That is reasonable compared to some other contracts such as that of now-inactive Dong Bang Shin Ki, whose five members signed 13-year deals with SM Entertainment.
Small wonder then that some former pop stars, such as Han Geng from boyband Super Junior, have quit or are embroiled in legal tussles with record companies, claiming that the contracts are unfair.
Financial imbroglios aside, the training and constant pressures also take a psychological toll on the stars.
Kevin Woo, 19, a member of boyband U-KISS which was in town recently, says of the tough training period: “We were far away from our families and we missed them so much. We were homesick and depressed, but we told ourselves that since we have already started, we should not give up.”
Min Sun Ye, leader of Wonder Girls who were advised by their company not to date for the next two years, says: “I had wanted to give up but kept telling myself not to because it has always been my dream to perform in front of many people. Thankfully, I focused on my training and I am grateful to be here now.” – The Straits Times, Singapore/Asia News Network
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More K-pop acts coming to Malaysia
IT had been an exhilarating first half of 2010 when a slew of top K-pop acts trooped in to Malaysia.
In March, the 13-member Super Junior held a concert in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur; June saw KL showcases by boybands U-KISS and BEAST; last month, Korean American singer Brian Joo (formerly of Fly To The Sky pop duo) conducted his debut fanmeet in the country in Bandar Sunway, Selangor; and just yesterday, the five-member Wonder Girls played alongside Katy Perry, Tokio Hotel and Bunkface at the high-voltage MTV World Stage Live In Malaysia 2010, also in Bandar Sunway.
If the following is any indication, the pace is not about to let up soon.
■ Geneses Dream Entertainment, which orchestrated the U-KISS event here, is putting out feelers on its Facebook page to gauge response to its upcoming K-pop shows by boybands ZE:A (tentatively on Sept 12) and SHINee.
■ Han Geng (former Super Junior member) might make his way to Malaysia for a fansign event to promote his Mandarin solo album.
■ Following a successful outing by boyband BEAST in June, Universal Music has hinted at a double-bill event combining BEAST and 4minute (five-girl act).
■ Warner Music has plans to bring in FT Island and Jay Park, the US-born former leader of boyband 2PM who has outlined his Asia tour, listing KL as one of the stops (on Sept 24).
■ Sony Music has been scouting for alternative concert venues for a 2PM (six-member boyband) show since Putra Indoor Stadium, Bukit Jalil, is not available till next year.
■ Last but not least, the local Korea Tourism Organisation office is looking towards a mega year-end bash featuring multiple Korean acts to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Republic of Korea-Asean Dialogue Partnership, and boost cultural exchange between South Korea and Malaysia.
Source:The Star online
