Beyond
K-pop : Creative economy
Franki
Raden ; A
professor of ethnomusicology and has been traveling to South Korea to learn
about the country’s creative industry
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JAKARTA
POST, 18 Juni 2014
In the
classical world, Korean musicians secured their reputation a long time ago.
Names such as Kyung Wha-chung (violinist) and Isang Yun (composer) are among
the best in the international classical music scene. But of course more
recently, people across the globe have caught on to the K-Pop phenomenon.
Who
would have imagined that the Korean kids could completely immerse themselves
in African-American pop music genre and reproduce it in such away to become
adominant product in the international music scene.
The
subaltern speaks! This is the academic jargon that can be used to explain how
the K-Pop musical phenomenon could occur within a Western cultural
hegemonized world.
Many
outdated academic theories argue that the colonized group of society (the subaltern)
can only consume cultural products coming from the West without any
resistance and unproductively copy them for local usage. The K-Pop phenomenon
indeed has countered this argument.
For this
reason, I think it is important for us, especially from the perspective of
the creative economy, to understand the internal dynamic of the Korean music
scene within its sociocultural and politico-economic contexts.
After my
second visit to Korea a couple of days ago, I can see clearly that Korea has
managed to create the necessary infrastructure and mechanism to make its
musical scene work nationwide. Behind this is Korea’s accomplishment in
building people’s mind-sets and awareness about the role of music in their
daily lives As a result, music consumption in society is very high, be it
Korean traditional, pop, rock, jazz or classical music.
This
consumption happens through various sociocultural means including music
schools, live performances and media such as radio and television.
Through
these means we can learn, listen and watch all the aforementioned musical
genres. This means that there is a market for any kind of music in Korea.
So, if
you live in Korea you will have the opportunity to learn, listen and watch
the best products of all kinds of music genres including traditional, pop,
rock, jazz and classical music made locally.
With
such a high level of musical consumption, it is only logical that Korea was
able to develop the manufacture of musical instruments and export them across
the globe with brands such as Kawaii.
Yet the
local demand for a high quality of music and musicians made Korean musical
products able to compete with the more advanced industrial countries such as
Japan, Germany and USA.
K-Pop is
only a tip of the iceberg. Yes it’s phenomenal, but it only tells a partial
story about how the Korean music scene and its sociocultural and
politico-economic institutions work to position Korean as one of the leading
musical industries today. K-Pop is only the beginning of the Korean expansion
in the international music scene in the near future. There is more to come,
soon. I believe that the Korean government as well as its people is quite
aware about this possibility and they work hand in hand to reach this target.
Through
this high consumption, and of course appreciation, of various musical genres
emerged world-class music festivals such as Jarasum International Jazz
Festival (Gapyeong), Gwangju World Music Festival (Gwangju) and Jeonju
International Sori Festival (Jeonju). All these festivals take place in small
towns, but can attract in excess of 250,000. The impact of these festivals is
also phenomenal for the local tourism industry.
Jarasum
International Jazz Festival in Gapyeong city, for instance, is one of the
best examples of the Korean festival’s success story. Jarasum is a small
“island” inside the city of Gapyeong. When Jae-jin In initiated this festival
10 years ago people thought he was insane because this island flooded when it
rained.
But the
festival became successful and the government developed the entire city into
a tourist destination area.
Today,
the Jarasum International Jazz Festival is able to bring 250,000 local and
foreign tourists to Gapyeong city every year.
This
festival has put Korea in the strong position within the international jazz
scene that has a significant impact on its creative industry.
Gwangju
city has also been assigned by the government to have a substantial role in
the international, especially Asian, world music scene. In addition to the
Gwangju World Music Festival, the city is also finishing a huge compound
called Asian Culture Complex. The goal of this project is obvious — to
position Korea as the center of Asia.
So everything
has to start with a solid foundation. This is what we, as a Third World
country, need to understand. If we want to develop our creative industry and
be able to produce export-quality creative industry products we have to start
from the basics: set up the mind-set for the importance of local creative
industry products in our daily lives; increase consumption of creative
products in society; set up a solid creative industry education and encourage
demand for high quality products, be they music, performing arts, digital
arts, film, crafts or fashion.
We can
certainly copy the West like Korea has done but only with the goal to set up
all the infrastructure and institutions to make the creative economy machine
work nationwide. This is what K-Pop is all about.
The
Korean music industry is not only copying African-American musical products
but also selling them back to the Western and international market to reap
upward of US$80 billion.
Again,
the subaltern speaks! ●
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