Money Talks: Could K-pop become a monopoly?
Money Talks from The Economist
The Economist
4.4 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 23 February 2023
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The rise of Korea’s musicians from local celebrities to international superstars is credited to Lee Soo-man, the godfather of K-pop. The industry he developed gave rise to groups like BTS, which has been the biggest-selling band in the world for two years running. Now, Lee has sold most of his stake in SM Entertainment, the company he founded, to one of its biggest rivals.
On this week’s podcast, hosts Mike Bird, Alice Fulwood and Tom Lee-Devlin delve into the world of K-pop and examine how the businesses making one of Korea's newest export industries operate. Author, Mark Russell, tells them how K-pop went global. Analyst, Bokyung Suh, breaks down the secret to its commercial success, and explains whether fans should fear a potential K-pop commercial monopoly.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Money talks from the economist is sponsored by Invest Puerto Rico. |
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| 0:23.0 | Find out why at InvestPR.org. |
| 0:26.0 | Gamechangers, welcome home. |
| 0:30.0 | This is Lee Soo-man, a popular South Korean focusing up from the 1970s, |
| 0:44.0 | playing one of his hits, Happiness. |
| 0:47.0 | Soo-man was successful in his home country, |
| 0:50.0 | but foreign artists seemed to be more popular and Soo-man was jealous. |
| 0:56.0 | And it was after studying in the U.S. that he decided it was time to do things differently. |
| 1:02.0 | This was an era of economy first, culture following next, |
| 1:08.0 | where economic powerhouses also let the world culturally. |
| 1:11.0 | However, I decided to turn this on its head. |
| 1:14.0 | Culture has the power to lead the world. |
| 1:18.0 | In 1989, he packed in the performing and established his own company, |
| 1:23.0 | which would become SM Entertainment. |
| 1:26.0 | The goal was to turn Korean music or K-pop into a cultural and economic powerhouse |
| 1:32.0 | by promoting South Korean songs and singers around the world. |
| 1:37.0 | From the start, the goal of K-pop was globalization. |
| 1:41.0 | If we create good cultural content and receive attention and love from across the world, |
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