K-popping bubbles

Pop, that's the sound of a bubble when it bursts. Not your usual, big fat speculative bubble, no : rather the cute, ephemeral, soap edifice of a kid.

But K-pop is not much of a child's play : here, no room for innocence, chance, or unexpected wind twists. In this overformatted industry, creativity only exists in the way products are marketed, with a focus on viral and addictive gimmicks.

In a certain way, K-pop mirrors Korean society in this early IIIrd millenium, but not in its most sustainable aspects : visual and auditive over-stimulations including immediate reward systems, a dystopia founded on extreme competition and superhuman training leading to the negation of nature and systematic plastic surgery, mushrooming virtual communities offering the security of belonging without any ideology-related stress...

Yet, nothing new under the sun. As far as music is concerned, of course, but also regarding the business model : you simply have to adapt classic boy / girl bands recipes, and to progressively inject some of Hollywood majors' tricks to lead a young and docile audience along the slowest and most controled maturation process. SM Entertainment & co plan to alter their product mixes step by step, so that consumers don't churn as they grow older. Longer lasting K-pop groups have already developped embryos of proto-intellectual alibis, illusions of brainwaves because you don't want to believe your favorite singer is "a mental midget with the IQ of a fencepost"*.

Does it sell ? You betcha : as soon as the first contagion signs showed in Europe, K-pop marketers rushed to Paris with their whole Barnum.

Not exactly the kind of cultural bridge I dreamt between Asia's and Europe's heralds of cultural diversity... But I'm getting used to it : a couple of years ago, I was crucified by Uzbek or Japanese Bae Yong-joon fans because I deplored the way 'dramas' were promoted overseas, or the vacuity of Yonsamania (sorry but Korea shouldn't be summed up in that Hallyuwoodian caricature of Michael Jackson).

Hopefully, theses fads won't last. And at least, something positive can even grow from them : the most daring fans will reach deeper into Korean culture, its language, and its fantastic cuisine**.

Seoul Village 2011 - see also "La bulle K-pop" on blogules in French
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* in the musical universe, Tom Waits is probably the ultimate anti-K-pop element : an ugly fella with a rough voice and crafting incredible songs by himself (this line belongs to "The piano has been drinking (not me)", best served in the album "Bounced Checks").
** another cultural domain where the Korean government has been promoting exports a not always subtle way...

A National Museum of Korean Contemporary History ???

You probably already know that the US Embassy is supposed to move down to Yongsan around 2013, when the Yongsan Army Base mutates into a central park. But at the same date, its neighbor on Sejongno*, the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, will also have changed its purpose and become the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History.

Whatever that means.

We're quite familiar with musea of "Contemporary Art", but a museum for "Contemporary History"...?

Theoretically, it should cover, if not History as it happens or as it is being written, a period that a significant portion of the population has experienced : in Asia, the term generally covers everything that followed WWII.

But if this Museum will focus on Independance, the boom years, or the fight for democracy, it is also supposed to reach into the late Joseon period and the Japanese Occupation, and into the future. The last few early XXst century survivors won't be around much longer, so curators will soon have to either drop the "Contemporary" part in the title, or whole chunks of their collections. I'm afraid I'd have to wait way too long after my death to see them discard the Hallyu wave section they're planning...

There's also the issue of "cannibalization" with the National Museum...

So I'd rather suggest "National Museum of Modern History", which really echoes the shift from old to new Korea, and encompasses both the past and future. It also puts some distance between the immediate present and its analysis - an analysis always subject to heated controversies, most particularly nowadays**.

As Zhou Enlai answered, when asked about the 1789 French Revolution : "it's too early to tell".

And it's too early to tell if Bae Yong-joon deserves a statue on Sejongno*.

Seoul Village 2010

* sorry, "Sejongdaero"
** mimicking his counterpart at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Korea , the new president of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, Hyun Byung-chul, has recently been accused of torpedoing his own institution (one third of all commissioners resigned).

Visit Korea 2010-2012

A new series of TV ads promoting tourism in Korea ("Korea Inspiring") are being aired internationally. I will spare you the Bae Yong-joon stunt aimed at the Japanese market (a very nice movie spoiled by Yonsama's artificial smile) to focus on this one, featuring a Seung-mu dancer wearing the Jangsam gown, characterized by its long sleeves :



Quite classic, I know, but it beats Bae (what wouldn't ?).

Seoul Village 2010

Visit Korea Year website : visitkoreayear.com