Financial News : Bloomberg TV "Korea's Real Brand Power Is K-Pop"

블룸버그TV “한국의 실질적 브랜드는 K-POP”

“삼성, 현대, LG는 강력한 한국의 최대 수출브랜드이지만 지금 수많은 사람들은 실질적인 파워브랜드는 보아, 소녀시대, 에픽하이, 슈퍼주니어 등이라고 지적하고 있다.

경제전문 블룸버그 TV는 주말판 시사 종합 해설 프로그램인 ‘모노클’에서 한국 K-POP 열풍을 소개하면서 이같이 전했다.

블룸버그는 디지털 시대로 접어들면서 서구 음악산업이 어려움을 겪고 있는 것과 달리 한국 K-POP은 해외시장 진출의 계기가 됐고 “디지털 혁명의 최선두에 서게 됐다”고 평가했다.

아날로그 시대에 해외에 진출하려면 음반을 들고 해외 대형 배급사를 찾아다녀야 했지만 디지털 시대에서는 유튜브 등을 통해 외국 청중과 관객에게 직접 다가갈 수 있는 길이 열렸기 때문이다.

지 뉴션 출신의 김진우 YG엔터테인먼트 대표는 “유튜브는 이제 한국만이 아닌 전세계 청중들, 특히 젊은층에게 다가가는 최선의 수단이 됐다”면서 “더 이상 대형 TV방송국이나 라이오 방송국에 의존하지 않고 소셜 네트워크를 통해 다가갈 수 있게 됐다”고 말했다.

한국 음악산업이 디지털 시대에 빠르게 적응한 것도 K-POP을 효자 수출품으로 만들었다.



음악관련 마케팅업체인 DFSB 콜렉티브의 조수광 대표는 “음악은 더 이상 상품이 되지 못한다”며서 디지털 시대에서는 ‘대중성’이 상품이며 K-POP은 바로 이 대중성을 기반으로 하고 있다고 말했다.

조 대표는 KPOP 관련 사이트 상위 3개는 늘 영문으로 된 사이트로 한글 사이트보다 더 많은 방문자수를 기록하고 있고, 블로그, 트위터, 페이스북 등 각종 소셜 네트워크의 관심항목 순위 20위 가운데 3개는 늘 한국 가수들이 차지하고 있다면서 이들 사이트 접속 대부분은 한국이 아닌 외국에서 이뤄지는 것들이라고 말했다.

음악전문 방송 MTV 아시아의 벤 리처드슨 부사장도 “한국은 엔터테인먼트 수출국가”라고 지적한 뒤 “한국 (K-POP) 콘텐츠들이 상당수 MTV 프로그램의 매출을 끌어올리고 있다”고 말했다.

그는 한국 음악이 “청중들과의 연계성이 매우 높다”며 “미국 프로듀서들이 만든 음악과 한국에서 오는 음악들은 동등한 수준에서 평가받고 있다”고 덧붙였다.

블룸버그는 K-POP의 성공요인으로 한국식 엔터테인먼트 모델 정착, 저변확대, 문화적 개방성 등을 들었다.

블룸버그는 한국식 모델로 유튜브 등을 통한 팬들과의 호흡을 강조하고, 원더걸스의 ‘노바디’ 율동을 흉내내는 각국 팬들의 동영상과 원더걸스의 뮤직비디오를 교차시켜 소개했다.

또 일본의 독특한 문화적 폐쇄주의가 J-POP을 일본 국내에만 머물게 한 반면 K-POP은 개방성을 통해 주요 수출품으로 자리매김 할 수 있었다고 지적하기도 했다.

이와함께 음악산업 관련 전문가들이 넘쳐나고, 국내의 관심이 뜨거운 것이 결국 수출로 이어지게 됐다는 분석을 내놨다.

한편 모노클 진행자 타일러 브륄레이는 대담에 참여한 문화담당 편집장에게 ‘소녀시대’ 뮤직비디오를 구해달라는 말로 프로그램을 끝냈다.

https://www.fnnews.com/news
dympna@fnnews.com송경재기자

EE [Total Art] Tapped As Korea's First Ever Act to Appear at Coachella

The Creators Project at Coachella

Coachella 2011. Music. Art. Culture. Community.

With the Coachella line-up announcement serving as the official kick-off to the annual U.S. festival season, festival organizers Goldenvoice can now reveal details for the 2011 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. The 12th Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival is set for Friday, April 15, Saturday, April 16 and Sunday, April 17 at the beautiful Empire Polo Club in Indio, CA and the 2011 line-up includes headlining performances from Arcade Fire, Kanye West and Kings of Leon. While music serves as the centerpiece for Coachella, this year’s festival will feature an expanded commitment to art, culture and community via a unique partnership with The Creators Project—a global initiative that supports leading and emerging artists.

Art & Culture: In a major new addition for 2011, Coachella will partner with The Creators Project to enhance the cultural experience for fans. The Creators Project supports leading and emerging artists across the globe who use technology to turn their artistic visions into reality. Kicking-off 2011 at Coachella, The Creators Project will be the creative partner for the festival, collaborating with select headlining acts and curating a series of art installations on the grounds. By incorporating technology and visual art, the partnership will add another layer of creative expression to the festival. The Creators Project is a global initiative, launched in 2010, by Intel Corporation and Vice to identify leading artists who are pushing creative boundaries through technology, and enable them to showcase their works and artistic visions for millions of fans. Additional information about The Creators Project is available at www.thecreatorsproject.com.

This year, The Creators Project has selected 3 artists from Brazil, Korea, and China to appear on the Coachella lineup. Representing Korea for the first time ever at Coachella is the electronica duo, EE [Total Art].


EE [Total Art]

EE is a "total art performance group" that has a special and very effective knack for juxtaposing mainstream culture with the obscure. The brainchild of husband-and-wife team E. Hyun Joon and E. Yunjung, EE is considered by some to be the best technology-driven creative force to emerge from South Korea. EE's work takes their own culture, mashes it together with a sampling of timeless artistic reference points from around the globe, digests them, and results are spit out to create something far greater than the sum of its parts.

SOURCES :
http://coachella.com/tcp
http://www.thecreatorsproject.com/blog/the-creators-project-announces-a-creative-partnership-with-coachella

Featured Artist : EE [Total Art]
Artist Management : Foundation Records
International Digital Distribution : DFSB Kollective

Mashable : 10 Terrific iPhone and iPad Musical Performances

Anyone who has been watching the growing musical scene surrounding iOS devices probably wasn’t surprised to hear that Damon Albarn is going to release an album recorded entirely on the iPad.

Thanks to some rather spectacular apps, Apple’s mobile devices have shown an amazing potential for music creation. We’ve collected 10 top videos that show artists performing with iPhones, iPods and iPads.

Take a musical stroll through the gallery below to see some varied and innovative uses of many different iDevices, across all kinds of musical genres, and let us know your favorites in the comments.

#7 Applegirl002

Another YouTube star, Applegirl002, a.k.a Kim Yeo-hee, covers pop songs on her iPhone setup. Her amateur videos proved such a hit she landed a record contract and has since released an official music video.

https://mashable.com

Featured Artist : Kim Yeohee
International Digital Distribution : DFSB Kollective

Time Magazine : Asia's Latest Miracle - South Korea Roars Again

Seoul-ful The capital's glittering cityscape reflects a very happening place (photograph by Jean Chung for TIME(WORLD SECTION/EXCERPTS) When I relocated from New York City to Seoul, South Korea's capital, in 1996, I found the city vibrant and fascinating, but also surprisingly provincial. Koreans preferred their fermented kimchi over any other food, and though I grew to enjoy the spicy staple, a longing for familiarity and the feebleness of my digestive system occasionally demanded a respite from the chili-laden cabbage. That proved challenging. Aside from some fast-food joints and wallet-straining restaurants at five-star hotels, foreign cuisine was hard to come by. It's why I have such fond memories of Lee Je Chun. While studying and working in Germany, Lee acquired a taste for things European, so in 1992, he opened the Jell, a shop that sold wine, cheese, pasta, sausages and other imported delicacies. The occasional chunk of cheddar I'd buy was a cherished reminder of a home far away.

A few weeks ago, I returned to my old neighborhood in Seoul for the first time in 10 years, and much to my surprise, Lee and the Jell are still there. But it wasn't the same place where I shopped in the 1990s. Lee no longer sells food: foreign goodies can now readily be found at supermarkets and Costco outlets. Instead, Lee has built a private club for wine lovers, where he hosts tastings for members who pay a $900 annual fee. In its earlier form, the Jell catered largely to expatriates; today the wine club's members are nearly all locals. Koreans have caught on to the pleasures of a good wine. "Korea has changed a lot," Lee says. "Koreans are opening their minds."

The results are striking. Thirty years ago, Korea was poorer than Malaysia and Mexico. Since then, its GDP per capita has surged by a factor of 10 to $17,000, more than double the levels in those countries. GDP growth was 0.2% in 2009, when much of the rest of the world was contracting, and is estimated to be 6% this year. Yet when I left Korea in 2000, it was an open question whether its success could continue. The embarrassing memories of the 1997 Asian financial crisis were still fresh, and Koreans were worrying that they would lose out to a rising China.

Over the past decade, however, Korea has reinvented itself — it's an Asian miracle again. Korea has become an innovator, an economy that doesn't just make stuff, but designs and develops products, infuses them with the latest technology, and then brands and markets them worldwide, with style and smarts. Samsung and LG, not the Japanese electronics giants, are dominating the hot new LCD-TV business. In 4G phone technology, Samsung is poised to become a leading force, while Hyundai Motor, an industry joke a decade ago, is a top-five automaker, its rising market share fueled by quality cars and nifty marketing. "'Made in Korea' used to be synonymous with cheap and imitative," says Bernie Cho, president of DFSB Kollective, a start-up that markets Korean pop music internationally. "Now it's become premium and innovative." New industries, from online games to pop music, have emerged as powerhouses. Politically as well, Korea is stepping out of Washington's shadow and becoming an influential voice in its own right. Symbolic of that new role, Seoul is hosting the G-20 summit on Nov. 11 and 12, the first Asian country to do so. This nation is a global leader-in-waiting.

Part of Korea's success is simple commitment. Koreans spend some 3.5% of their GDP on R&D, compared with 1.5% in China and less than 1% in Malaysia and India. Innovation, however, isn't something that can be conjured up in government offices or corporate boardrooms. You can tell people to work harder or build a more modern factory, but you can't order them to think better or be more creative. That change has to take place inside people's heads. In Korea, it has. Koreans have become more accepting of diversity and outside influences and quicker to shed old prejudices. Such an outlook was brought about by a fundamental (and continuing) reformation of Korean society. Koreans are breaking down the barriers that held the nation back, a process fostered by political freedom and a passionate embrace of the forces of globalization." Says Cho: "Korea has gone from being a hermit kingdom, from a closed door, to open arms."

Cry Freedom

The reason why Kim chose to follow his dream is intimately linked to Korea's political changes. The country was largely ruled by dictators for 26 years, until massive street protests forced free elections in 1987, and even after that, the government still intervened heavily in the economy. But Korea has become a much more democratic society over the past decade, driven by Presidents Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun, the first leaders to come from an opposition party, and the market-oriented economic reform made necessary by the 1997 financial crisis. That, says Kim Se Joong, founder of software start-up JellyBus, has emboldened Koreans to take more risks — a crucial ingredient to creating an innovative economy. "When the government was big and had a strict system of control, it was difficult to succeed without the support of the state, so parents pushed their children to reach for stability, by working in Samsung," says Kim. "Now the government is smaller and intervenes less. People feel they can become successful, whatever company they work for. The economy of a country is very reflective of the politics of the country."

Kim Sang Hun takes this thinking one step further. The CEO of NHN, owner of Korea's most popular Internet search engine, Naver.com, says the emergence of new innovative industries like his would have been impossible without Korea's democratization. He remembers the harsh times under the dictators, when police were frequent visitors to college campuses and Koreans were restricted from traveling abroad. "Now the younger generations have become more individualistic and free; they go to Europe on backpacking trips," Kim says. "I think openness is necessary [to have creative industries]. People are not scared to say their thoughts."

Freedom has been an important factor in the career of hip-hop star Tiger JK, who performs as the one-man act Drunken Tiger. The story he told me shows the link between Korea's new openness and its ability to innovate. Back in the 1990s, Korean popular music, or K-pop, was popular only in Korea. Its highly stylized, color-by-numbers dance acts were tightly controlled by the industry, and created all the excitement of a sing-along with Barney. Tiger JK had no interest in playing along. After spending his teenage years in Los Angeles, he returned to Seoul in 1995, hoping to break into the hip-hop scene. But his chatty raps and freewheeling shows were too unusual for Korean music executives. Producers of TV shows promoting new music scolded him for diving into the audience during performances. He even got booed.

Tiger JK peddled recordings of his raps at alternative clubs and built up a following at college campuses with his rebellious shows. About five years ago, other, more famous K-pop stars started seeking him out to praise his music — then adopted some of its elements, like shout-outs to the crowd. TV producers began asking him to dive into the audience. "They were waiting for me to do something wild," he says. Last year, Drunken Tiger won some of the country's most prestigious music awards. Tiger JK says it's because he's become "safe." Actually, it's because Korean society has become as audacious as him. K-pop today is considered the cutting-edge force in Asian popular music. Exports of K-pop nearly doubled in 2009 to over $31 million. "Korean artists became the freedom warriors" for young Asians everywhere, says Tiger JK.

Above all, Korea offers a counterpoint to those political leaders — like China's — who believe "state capitalism" is superior to free enterprise, or that they can create an innovative economy without civil liberties. Of course, that doesn't mean the Korean system is perfect. Despite its progress, Korean society still remains too wary of foreign influence and too biased against women in the workforce. Businessmen complain that too much red tape clogs their way. The outdated education system is so rigid that parents flee the country in droves to put their kids into high schools in the U.S. and elsewhere. The Korean economy is still not a fair place where everyone is governed by the same rules. And North Korea hovers as a relentless threat.

However, the Korea I know is a country that confronts its challenges. I asked my old friend at LG, Sue Kim, what Korea will be like in another 10 years. With more and more Koreans gaining international experience, she believes the great globalization of Korea will continue. South Korea has 75,000 students enrolled at U.S. universities — third highest, behind giants India and China, according to the Institute of International Education. "I think you'll find a much more cosmopolitan Korea," she says. "I think Koreans will bring in more diverse ideas and backgrounds. We're going to extend our presence more globally. We're going to continually grow, and you're going to see a much better country in 10 years." I don't doubt it.

http://www.time.com
By Michael Schuman (with reporting by Lina Yoon)

Featured Artist : Drunken Tiger
Featured Commentator : Bernie Cho [DFSB Kollective]

GlobalGathering Korea 2010

Following the huge success of 2009's inaugural visit to Seoul the expectations were high in 2010 as GlobalGathering set about raising the bar again with another star studded lineup.

World's number 1 DJ Armin Van Buuren was joined by fellow superstars Fatboy Slim and Justice (live) on the top of the bill and all did not disappoint their fans as they turned in typically electric performances to leave the crowds wowed.

Other highlights included local heroes Idiotape bringing the masses to their knees with one of the shows of the day.

The gallery is now live to view on this site by clicking here

Users can also upload their own galleries so keep your eye out, who knows you might spot yourself in the thick of the action.

SOURCE : GlobalGathering.com

Featured Artists : Idiotape / Planet Shiver / UJN+Nova / Risque Rhythm Machine / DJ Soulscape / Telepathy
International Digital Distribution : DFSB Kollective