From K-pop to Shakira: The South is going global

Oppan Gangnam Style.

‘Southern’ popular culture has gone global. Take for instance South Korea’s popular music, better known as K-pop, galloping into the global music scene through  Psy’s horseback riding dance move in the million dollar hit ‘Gangnam Style’, or South America’s Latin music scene in North American markets. Such examples illustrate that the traditional North-South patterns of trade and cultural exchange, characterised by European colonialism and American cultural imperialism, are no longer viable. Former colonial nations and third world countries are rapidly taking over the global market through popular culture productions and media. 
Due to globalisation, cultural exchange is no longer a vertical movement from the North to the South, but has rather become a complex web of transnational influences and exchanges. In this blogpost, we will examine how the media industries of major Southern countries have entered the modern global media landscape, which is no longer dominated by European and American authority. The global media landscape has become a playground where all nations can come out to play.

In order to analyse this in a comprehensive manner, we will focus in particular on popular culture products from two areas in the global ‘South’ that have had a major impact on global transnational media and cultural production in recent years: South Korea and South America. 

Traditional North-South Divide

Many theorists have argued that the growing cultural influence of Southern countries is a response to the Northern dominance and cultural imperialism. In the article “Cultural Practices and Media Production: The Case of Bollywood”, Daya Kishan Thussu argues that media exports from Southern countries may be cited as examples of ‘contra-flows’, suggesting that there is a sort of two-way or counter traffic between the South and the North (123). Likewise, Elizabeth Ezra and Terry Rowden assert that the “transnational comprises both globalization – in cinematic terms, Hollywood’s domination of world film markets – and the counter-hegemonic responses of filmmakers from former colonial and Third World countries” (1). Both arguments imply a movement back and forth, between first world North and third world South. Yet, we would like to argue that the current global media landscape is rapidly losing this background of traditional North-South distinctions, and is becoming characterised by a transnational exchange open to all nations.
 

Hallyu: The South Korea Case

 

K-pop is part of a larger Korean Wave characterised by an increased global popularity of all things Korean.[1] Also known as Hallyu, which translates to ‘flow of Korea’ in the Korean language, the Korean Wave started out as a regional development mostly spreading to other Asian countries. It started with the popularity of Korean television dramas in neighbouring countries, but soon became of global importance through the spread of K-pop music videos, most notably through YouTube.[2]

As the result of South Korea’s strong governmental influence[3] in cultural production since the late 1990s, South Korea is now a major exporter of popular culture, capable of competing with popular culture production in Western countries like the US and UK[4].

As Thussu argues, transnational Southern-produced media products aim to reach Northern markets first by addressing diasporic communities and audiences. For example, Indian diaspora-oriented films did well in the Northern markets (mostly UK and US), and as a result, several UK and US based directors and actors are now producing and acting in Bollywood films (Thussu 124). This kind of cross-fertilization is also visible in South Korean examples. In addition to Hollywood and Bollywood, Hallyu-wood now enters the stage as the third most famous film-making centre of the world.[5] Many Korean directors have now made the move from Hallyu-wood to Hollywood, and have already released their first English-language films, most notably Kim Jee-woon's The Last Stand starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Stoker, starring Nicole Kidman, by director Park Chan-wook.

Huat observed that within mass-media products, music is perhaps the least able to reach a transnational audience, because it cannot be dubbed or subtitled for an audience unfamiliar with the language (223). Despite this, K-pop has somehow been able to transcend these language barriers and to become popular across nations. Interestingly, K-pop has spread through Asia and Europe and has now reached South America [6].

Latino: The South-America Case

Conversely, in the case of Latin America, the Spanish and Portuguese language can also be considered to limit the potential for Latin music to cross borders to the North. Yet, The US and South America’s geographical proximity has perhaps erased some of these limitations, in contrast to K-pop, which had to travel a larger distance to reach the US. For instance, Shakira first produced her albums in Spanish, but as soon as she achieved popularity in the US, she released her fifth album in English as market interests flourished, now producing some songs in both Spanish and English. From her newly attained transnational position in the US, Shakira has been able to gain popularity in other countries.

In a case similar to the spread of K-pop, the format of the Latin-American telenovela has evolved due to transnational cross-fertilization, as the telenovela format has now been adopted by countries ranging from Indonesia to Croatia to Iran and Malaysia. As a phenomenon originating from Latin American culture, telenovelas often feature characters from a Hispanic background, even in telenovelas outside of South-America. For example, the American TV-show Ugly Betty, whose main character was of Latin-American origin, was based on the Columbian telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea.[7] Another upcoming American example, Telenovela (2015), centres around a telenovela star who does not speak Spanish. In the American cases, the transnational identity of the Hispanic-American characters is often at the centre of the story, as a way of representing “migratory or diasporic experiences” (Berghahn and Sternberg 16). The telenovela can therefore be seen as a prime example of a transnational media product.

Conclusion

The rise of formerly marginalised countries as important players in the global media landscape has opened up markets all over the world. The Korean wave is now largely fuelled by foreign investments, and more importantly, investments by Northern and Western countries. For example, the French company Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH) has invested millions in YG Entertainment, the South-Korean top talent agency that manages K-pop stars, including rapper Psy[8]. 

Thussu lists telenovelas from Brazil and Mexico, television dramas from Egypt, feature films from South Korea and Nigerian home video exports as products that are modifying the global media landscape (122). And it is probably just the beginning. To return to the example of South-Korea, it is curious that such a relatively small country, producing cultural products in a language that not many people speak or understand, is able to export and promote its culture on the global stage. This clearly shows that Southern countries are able to compete with the Northern giants. Southern content has entered the global media sphere, and it has the potential to change the game forever (Thussu 123). 

Thesis: The media product may be Southern, but it is always mediated transnationally through the North.

BB, LB, YB, FM, MM

References

Berghahn, Daniela and Claudia Sternberg. ‘Locating Migrant and Diasporic Cinema in Contemporary Europe’, in: Daniela Berghahn & Claudia Sternberg (eds.), European Cinema in Motion: Migrant and Diasporic Film in Contemporary Europe. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. 12-49.

Ezra, Elizabeth and Terry Rowden “Introduction.” Transnational Cinema. London: Routledge, 2006. 1-12.

Huat, Chua Beng. ‘East Asian Pop Culture’, in: Felicia Chan, Angelina Karpovich & Xin Zhang (eds.),             Genre in Asian Film and Television: New Approaches. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. pp. 222-245.

Thussu, Daya Kishan. ‘Cultural Practices and Media Production: The Case of Bollywood’, in: Isabelle Rigoni & Eugénie Saitta (eds.) Mediating Cultural Diversity in a Globalised Public Space. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. pp 119-134.

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[1]http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/12/31/korea.entertainment/index.html?iref=NS1

[2] http://foreignpolicy.com/2012/09/27/the-gangnam-phenom/

[3] “The Korean government transformed its focus, earmarking 1% of the national budget to spending on subsidies and low-interest loans to cultural industries, launching agencies to promote and expand K-pop exports, and setting up more cultural departments at universities” http://business.financialpost.com/news/retail-marketing/how-korea-became-the-worlds-coolest-brand

[4] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/fast_track/9633298.stm

[5] http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20100816000966

[6] http://foreignpolicy.com/2012/09/27/the-gangnam-phenom/

[7] There are numerous remakes of this TV show across the world: http://www.jerriblank.com/betty/internacional.html

[8] http://www.cnbc.com/2014/08/27/korea-builds-on-next-wave-of-hallyu.html