In the world there are quite a lot of different cultures, subcultures, trends and so on. Each country has its own culture, which is both the custom and tradition of the nation. This article will focus on the culture of South Korea, loved by many, even outside the country.
South Korean subculture
Korean music subculture fell in love with many at the moment when the clip of the Asian singer PSY - Gangnam Style became insanely popular. In fact, it existed for a long time, and the world learned about it thanks to a successful clip.
The k-pop subculture has many features, however, like any other. However, many fans are not only in Korea, but also abroad. This is due to several factors in this area:
- based on young talents (even from the age of 14) who are actively sought throughout Korea and who are doomed to become stars in the future
- each member of the group is good both in singing and in dancing, because they consider not only singing, but also a good visual a great asset of the group;
- you are unlikely to see fans of American singers as active as in Korea - they literally wait for artists at the agency’s dormitory buildings, guard the entrances and exits, take a lot of photos.
The performer of South Korean music can be a solo artist, or maybe a group that consists of 2-9, and, in rare cases, a larger number of participants. Each of these artists has a name - this is bias. An interesting fact is that up to 60 such groups appear in South Korea a year!
What role do biases play?
Often, unaware of anything about the Korean subculture, they ask themselves - what is bias in Korea? Why is the artist so called and what does he usually do?
Bias is a person who has already completed an internship at the agency and is now a full-fledged star. He gained some experience and authority among fans. Biases are all group members and solo artists.
Considering that the stars are also involved in visuals, they spend much more time in choreographic halls than in vocal ones. Koreans have a very developed sense of rhythm - they can rightfully be called a musical nation. An interesting fact is that immediately after the release of a clip of a certain group, after it the agency releases a dance practice - as the performers train, their staging from the clip. This contributes to the fact that fans more and more often “dance” the choreography of their favorite stars.
Industry Trend
Bias is a person who sets an example for his fans, like any star of today's show business. However, not only the people of Korea want to become popular and enter the music industry, but even foreigners.
Many agencies now complain about the endless stream of comers, while noting that it is not at all against including foreign people in their groups. They argue this is particularly advantageous, because if there is a foreign performer in the line-up, not only Koreans, but also compatriots of the foreigner will buy much more tickets for the concert of this group.
Most often, South Korean artists have either pseudonyms or Korean names, that is, a surname and a toponym.
This subculture began to gain really big momentum, they are popular on TouTube video hosting, absolutely all tickets are bought up for their concerts, and fans go crazy for their biasses. Some call it the "k-pop phenomenon."
How expensive is it to prepare soloists?
According to 2012 data, revenues from the South Korean music industry amounted to about three and a half billion dollars. The figure is really impressive, but let's figure out how much the agency costs to prepare a soloist or group.
Different agencies have different indicators, however, on average, it takes about half a million dollars to train one person in a group or soloist. Presented? No, it's not free, of course. During the internship, the future star is not obliged to pay anything, but after the debut, for some time, the performer will recoup the costs of his agency and even bring a lot more profit.
