Inspired by MTV, Lee Soo-man, also known as “Chairman Lee,” founded SM in 1989 with a view to replicate American entertainment in Korea. “In Korean they’re not called ‘artists,’” Ashley Choi, a Korean-American music executive told me in Seoul. The substance and style of K-pop is blatant mimicry of the West, safeguarded by good old Asian values. K-pop celebrities spend more time cultivating their “airport style,” outfits carefully curated for waiting paparazzi, than engaging in scandalous behavior. Not even dodgy accounting is enough to slow K-pop from breaking distribution barriers all over the world.

Source: Huffington Post October 07, 2019 09:33 UTC