COLLEGE OF CREATIVE ARTS

CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC

UNIVERSITI TEKNLOLGI MARA

MUF555

RESEARCH METHEODOLOGY

WHAT MAKES THE K-POP INDUSTRY WORK AND HOW LONG IT WILL LAST

Prepared by

Wardina Binti Mohd Redzuan

2021352495

Prepared for

Dr Nur Izzati Jamalludin

 INTRODUCTION

If you've ever heard of K-pop, you've heard of Korean pop music, which is also known as

(gayo) in South Korea. Pop refers to popular music from the English-speaking world, while

music from countries beyond the Anglosphere is given the moniker "pop" plus the initial of

the country in question. "K-pop" came into being as a result. Korean pop songs have risen in

popularity in various countries as a result of their popularity in Korea.

For a long time, K-international pop's expansion was limited to Asia. K-pop, on the other

hand, now has a global fan base that spans a wide range of nations. It's no surprise that K-

pop, like other global pop genres born in the United States and Europe, has made inroads

beyond Asia.

Popular K-pop singers and performers are now well-known across North America, Europe,

South America and Africa. South Korea's K-pop business, on the other hand, still has many

unanswered questions. Despite the fact that it has gained worldwide acclaim, it is incorrect to

claim that it has risen to the top of the global music market. Despite the high levels of K-pop

consumption in many nations, the industry must work to remove roadblocks in order to

become really self-sufficient.

Word-of-mouth via social network services (SNS) is the key source of K-long-term pop's

strength. As a result of the internet, K-pop fans around the world routinely recommend and

remark on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram, promoting positive word-of-

mouth about their idols (i.e., SNS citizenship behavior). The genre's reputation is continually

bolstered by this kind of fan feedback. The number of admirers has risen dramatically as a

result of these efforts. K-pop fans' volunteer SNS civic activity is seen as a way to maximise
visibility at a low cost by Korean entertainment firms. the wisest thing to do in terms of

marketing right now is make use of social media.

Social media (e.g., YouTube) has grown large enough to be deemed crucial in the content

market for the promotion and distribution of K-pop (e.g., 12-13).

There is growing evidence that the K-pop business has to create agreements with multimedia

platforms and implement promotional methods in global markets in order to capitalise on the

rising popularity of K-pop. K-pop has joined the ranks of official global releases of pop

music from the United States and the United Kingdom. There was a period when K-pop was

a sensation only because of its live performances, not because of its marketing.

The traditional worldwide music market has also been enthralled by the K-pop obsession. As

a result, its most important component is the voluntary SNS citizenship activity of its

admirers on Facebook or Instagram or via YouTube. Social media has had a tremendous

impact on the K-pop industry. For example, entertainment companies spend a lot of time and

money on music videos because they are the first to disseminate on social media. BTS

(Bangtan Sonyeondan), one of South Korea's most successful groups, is capable of racking

up over one million views in a single day for a music video.

As a result of their unique aesthetics and music videos, K-pop performers have attracted

followers [18–21]. The best strategy to draw in new followers from other countries is to

create visually appealing music videos with catchy soundtracks [18,21]. With the help of the

language captioning tool, agencies produce a wide range of material that is tailored to

specific areas or countries. We shouldn't be surprised, then, that these corporations base their

advertising strategies in part on the inflow of local followers on various platforms [22–24].

South Korea's entire national brand value has been boosted by K-popularity, pop's which has

led to its current success and expansion. Scholars now view K-pop as a long-term national
strategic business that merits further development [26]. In particular, under its national brand

image, the expansion of K-pop culture abroad has increased goodwill toward Korean

products, language, food, fashion and other industries such as health care and tourism [25,27–

29]. K-internal Pop’s and external conditions and success factors must be examined to find

ways of improving its competitiveness and promoting its growth [25,27–29] to support its

sustainability.

PROBLEM STATEMENTS

K-pop, like any new culture, has its own set of constraints and difficulties. Some songs have

been plagiarised from western music, making them unoriginal. This generation of young

women, according to Seabrook, has a distinct style of dance and performance that is Asian in

character yet Westernized, with their smiles and hand motions well timed.

Rapping, hip-hop verses, and Euro-pop choruses all appear in the tracks. There are no South

Korean lyrical influences in the songs. This may explain why K-pop places such a high value

on the songs' visual elements, which are thought to represent Korean culture.

By pre-packaging the songs and bands of the stars for fast music consumption markets, robot

training also helps K-pop expand. It is difficult for idols to communicate socially because of

the restrictions placed on their ability to interact with people outside of the organisations that

employ them.

Complaints about overwork by idols have been documented. K-pop management companies

were described as selling "slave contracts" to their idols in a BBC article because of this

factor. On the basis of an unhealthy working environment, TVXQ filed a lawsuit against SM
entertainment. According to Siho, the "Fair Trade Commission has produced contract

templates to govern the circumstances of sale." English terms that don't exist or useless

phrases are sometimes included in K-pop lyrics.

K-pop is characterised by two things, attractive looks and dancing/singing abilities. Only a

small percentage of the thousands of young actors that apply to large agencies will be

accepted, and only about 20–30 out of 1,000 will make it into the professional ranks. For

women in South Korea and Japan, being slender and having long legs are often considered

attractive qualities, however for men it is more important to have an athletic build and good

face features (Epstein & Joo 2012; Oh & Park 2012; Korea Boo 2018b). Short legs and

stature, as well as excessive body fat, are generally regarded as indicators of a lack of

attractiveness in this context, even if beauty is a subjective matter.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1. To identify the success aspects of K-pop.

2. To experimentally asses whether they may boost SNS citizenship activity and

increase tourist behavioural intention.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The research questions for this study are follow:

1. When it comes to social media, how do fans around the world evaluate K-success

pop's factors?

2. What impact does SNS citizenship conduct have on global viewers' perceptions of

sustainable tourism?
 LITERATURE REVIEW

What K-pop is, as well as how the independent variables of training, looks, and personality

might affect stars' degrees of success, must be understood in order to understand this research

and its objective. Scholars have already introduced the topic of K-pop, which is now gaining

traction across the globe. There are a number of academics who have studied K-pop, like Oh

and Lee (2013) of Korea University and a PhD candidate in International Studies at Yonsei

University, who describe the origins of K-pop and its impact on society today. However,

unlike today's favourable view of K-pop, the government previously rejected and restricted

South Korea's music business, which only began to shift in 1992 when "famous boy band" (p.

112) Seo Taiji and Boys rose to fame.

Hallyu is also defined as "the rapid rise of Korea's cultural industries and their exports of

cultural items in Asia especially since 1997" by Jin and Yoon (2017) for the Graduate School

of Communication and Arts in Yonsei University (p.2241). According to these two surveys,

K-attitudes pop's have been shaped by growing government funding and the recent

emergence of new technology. While describing the history of K-pop and explaining external

reasons like as technology and government, these sources virtually ignore any internal

aspects within the K-pop stars themselves as potential success factors within the industry.

Regarding the three specific components proposed as potential indications of K-success,

pop's there are a few descriptive publications on K-pop idols' training hours. They typically

dissect the K-pop industry's organisational structure and the methods used to develop future

stars in South Korea. K-pop stars are discovered and cast through a training system in a

master's thesis authored by Kong (2016) that studies how both external sources and internal

organisational methods in South Korea's K-pop business contribute to its globalisation. The

training process for new recruits begins immediately after they are hired, and it may include,
but is not limited to, courses in singing, dancing, acting, foreign languages, and even plastic

surgery and comedy for variety shows. Kong (2016) claims some K-pop groups had a 13-

year-long pre-production phase, while some of the shortest had a three-year pre-production

time frame. A group of female singers, dubbed GFriend, stated that they practised for 14 to

15 hours per day, based on an interview (Kong, 2016). There are several problems and

disadvantages of being an idol of K-pop, as Padget (2017) points out in her research.

According to these findings, the latest information on K-pop singers' training hours appears

to be nothing more than ethical or deconstructive opinions rather than anything with practical

significance, such as how it would affect their future success.

Nevertheless, according to Malcolm Gladwell's theory in his book "Outliers," success may be

measured in terms of putting in at least 10,000 hours of hard work in one's field of expertise.

Bill Gates, according to several of his case studies, has a history of dedicating 10,000 hours

or more to the pursuits that have made him a billionaire and a household name. It has been

discovered that success and the factors that influence it can be implicated in this rule.

Looking for future K-pop stars also takes their physical appearance into account in addition

to their training schedules. Journal of Korean Society for Reconstructive and Plastic Surgeons

(KSPRS) publisher site examiner Park (2019), focuses on the attitudes and perceptions of

South Korean youth in regards to aesthetic surgery through electronic surveys.

 METHODOLOGY

As a way of quantifying the findings of a study by counting certain features of content, I will

use a qualitative research method.

An investigation of the viewpoints of global viewers who listen to K-pop via television,

radio, internet, and YouTube, as well as search for information on K-pop on social media,

was based on the theoretical principles outlined above, as well as variables from previous

studies.
 REFERENCES

Han, C., & Pothong, A. (2021). K-Pop’s Ingredients of Success. Journal of Student Research,

10(2). https://doi.org/10.47611/jsrhs.v10i2.1431

“(PDF) Achievement in the South Korean Music Industry.” ResearchGate,

www.researchgate.net/publication/337210401_Achievement_in_the_South_Korean_Music_I

ndustry.