Wednesday, February 9, 2011

International talent flowing to and from Korea

Last year, the Korean group 2PM from JYP Entertainment caused quite a bit of noise with its Park Jaebom controversy. Because of a negative comment he made on his personal blog, Jae was subject to netizen's criticisms and disapproval, which in Korea's technologically sophisticated culture, has a lot of power. In this instance, their reaction caused Park Jaebom, who was the leader of 2PM, to leave the group and Korea. Read more about what happened here.


Jae was born and raised in the US, but found his way to Korea after he successfully auditioned for JYP in the states. Many Korean entertainment companies (JYPE, YG Entertainment, SM Entertainment, etc) do a great job in reaching out internationally to find new talents to bring into the Korean music scene. They are looking at a vast pool of talents and of course, it helps that countries are now looking to diversify and bring other cultures into their own.

Korea has very intricate ties with the US, including with the demilitarized zone across the 38th parallel, which just about created a sort of permanent relationship between the US and Korea. Just an example of the lasting impressions of America on Korea: Koreans are looking to study abroad in English speaking countries, learn English, listen to American music, and more. Instead of adding new words to the Korean language, Korea takes English words and spells them out in the Korean language. They are pronounced the same, but with a hint of an accent. Koreans are increasingly looking to the American culture, and knowing this, the Korean Entertainment industry goes abroad to bring back talents that will appeal to the current culture. This does not only apply to America; they go to China, Thailand, Japan, etc., in search of someone to capture the Korean audience.

Cultural differences or just a scandal like Park Jaebom's may cause an international artist to leave the Korean scene. However, there seems to be something about the Korean culture that also draws potential artists to the country. Although he left his group and company, Park Jaebom has been going back and forth from the states and Korea to work on various projects. Just looking at his online schedule shows that he has been very active in Korea and other countries outside the US since he left 2PM and JYPE in February 2010.

What is it that draws people to the Korean culture? What makes them leave?

1 comment:

  1. Always fascinating to see how social media may have unintended consequences. Do you know what it was exactly that he said? The article you linked to only mentioned that it was critical of Korea

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