East+Asian+Idol+Stars+NH

Korean, Japanese, and Chinese Idol Stars: Influence, Views, and Comparison

I. Introduction

Entertainment and pop culture is a major portion of a country's culture because pop culture is enjoyed by the majority of the country's citizens. In Japan and Korea, idol stars are extremely influential figures in the music and film industry. However, in China, groups that are classified as idols do not have much influence in the society. By comparing the idols stars in Korea, Japan, and China, we could see the moving trend of the Asian music industry and the relationships and interactions between the three countries.

I. Korea

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Some famous idol groups in Korea include Big Bang, T.V.X.Q., Girl's Generation, Kara, Beast, 2ne1, After School, Super Junior, Wonder Girls, 2PM, IU, and Shinee. These idol groups are not only dominating the Korean music industry but also the fashion, film, and other related industries. These idol stars in Korea serve as the fashion trend setters and they also serve as MCs, radio DJs, and actors/actresses. Overall 1. BigBang 2. T.V.X.Q. 3. Girl's Generation 4. Myung-bak Lee 5. Moo Hyun Roh In Korea, idol stars are the most influential and popular celebrities. In August, 2010 //Joong Ang Il Bo// (Korean newspaper) did a research on which celebrities were the most mentioned in the 60,000,000 blog posts during the last two years. As seen in the chart above, the most mentioned celebrity was Big Bang and followed by T.V.X.Q. and Girl's Generation. The surprising thing is that the top three are idol groups and the South Korean President, Myung-bak Lee was after these idol groups. (Kim, Shi Rae.)

Moreover, in a survey done in 2009 by a magazine, Forbes Korea which showed the most influential celebrities in Korea, second, third and fourth place was marked by Korean idol stars Big Bang, Wonder Girls, and Girl's Generation. (Yi Lang Lim.) Finally in February 2011, a economics magazine created the most influential stars ranking and Girl's Generation marked number 1, and Yu-na Kim being second.(Kim, Hang Eun.) In 2009, the most influential celebrity was Yu-na Kim but in 2011, Girl's Generation was recognized as the most influential celebrity. This ranking shows how the influence of idol stars are growing constantly in Korea.

However, there are problems in the Korean music industry. Although idol groups in Korea have high level of vocal and dancing skills, they do not last for a long time. Most idol groups in Korea breakup or loose popularity after 5~6 years. The main problem is the conflict between the stars and the management company. As the stars gain popularity, their schedules get busier and the stars get tired with the loads of schedules. The idol stars also want more income as they become more popular but when the idol stars make their debut, they make a contract that lasts for a long period of time, about 10 years. Therefore, the idol stars build numerous complaints toward the management company, eventually leading to a breakup. However, the management companies justify their long contracts and tight schedules by the amount of money they spend to train and take care of these idol stars. In Korea, idol stars go through a long period of training before they make their debut in their management company. During this period, the companies pay for the idol stars' lesson fees, meals, and plastic surgery fees. Even after the idol stars make their debut, the companies also pay for their transportation, meals, houses, and more. They also use the money earned by their idol stars to pay for the other trainees in their company. Moreover, the music trends in Korea move extremely fast and new stars rise, which creates a natural move in the popularity. ("How Do Idol Group Members Get Paid?") (Jong, Jenny J.)

II. Japan



Unlike Korea where there are numerous idol groups, there are only a few influential idol groups in Japan. Those influential idol groups are 嵐(Arashi), SMAP, and AKB48. In the survey done in June 2010 to choose the top 100 most influential Japanese people, Arashi was ranked as 24th and all the members of Arashi were ranked as 38th, 42nd, 48th, 49th, and 51st place. Moreover, Kimura Takuya (a member of SMAP) was ranked as 17th place. AKB48 was also ranked in the 31st place and Maeda Atsuko and Ohshima Yuko (members of AKB48) was ranked in 47th and 57th place.("ネットで選ぶ「影響力のある日本人１００人」1位は・・・‐ニコニコインフォ.") Other than Arashi and a member of SMAP, no other idol stars were ranked in the top 100. Although the rank seems much lower than the rank of Korean idols in the rankings that I've talked about, Japanese idol stars have as much influence as Korean idol stars in their country. These idol stars are ranked lower in this survey because this survey was including everyone in Japan, including Prime ministers, Presidents, CEOs, and others where as the Korean ranking was only involving celebrities, such as sports stars, singers, and actors/actresses.

An interesting fact about Japanese idols is that unlike Korea, Japanese idols last for a **long** time. An idol group named SMAP, as I mentioned before, has made their debut in 1991 and they are still one of the most influential and popular idol groups in Japan. Arashi has also made their debut in 1999, which is 12 years ago. AKB48 has made their debut in 2006, only 5 years ago but another Japanese idol group named Morning Musume made their debut in 1997 and still is popular in Japan (although not like AKB48). The reason for this difference is that for Arashi and SMAP, there is only one big management company for male idol stars: Johnny's Entertainment. All male idol groups are from the Johnny's Entertainment company and this company's influence and power in the Japanese entertainment industry cannot be compared to that of any other company. Another reason is their scheduling system and their contracts. Japanese stars get their schedule in the beginning of the year but Korean stars get their schedules the day before or on that day. Moreover, their contracts are not long term, which means they could ask for changes in their contract or have the freedom to leave the company. For AKB48 and Morning Musume, the members of the group constantly change which makes the breaking up of the group almost impossible. If the members leave the group, the company picks new members. The reason they are doing this is to keep the name value of the idol group. When the idol groups make their debut, the company puts a lot of time and money to spread the group's name in their country; however, if the group breaks up all their time and money is wasted so the Japanese companies came up with this idea. Recently in Korea, a similar process is happening too. An idol group named After School in Korea has incorporated the same system of "admission and graduation". Admission refers to recruiting a new member into the group and graduation refers to the withdrawal from the group.

__KOREAN&JAPANESE IDOL GROUPS__ media type="custom" key="9754882"media type="custom" key="9754922" From http://blog.naver.com/ioyeo?Redirect=Log&logNo=30075813133.

Popular idol stars in Korea receive great fame and honor. However, to gain this fame and honor, Korean idol stars work extremely hard to improve their performance skills, physical beauty, and other talents. In Korea, idol stars are viewed as professional singers and artists. Therefore, they must acquire a high level of performance skills. If the group is bad at singing/dancing, Korean citizens criticize them and idol groups that have good music and singing/dancing skills attract more fans. Koreans expect the idol stars to be professional when they come on stage since idol stars receive great privileges and power in the society. Moreover, the music industry in Korea is very small and therefore extremely competitive. In order to survive in this competitive industry, management companies train the idol stars from a young age for several years, about 5 years in average. On the other hand, Japanese idols are not very good at singing. In Japan, idols are completely separated from artists and idols are not expected to sing well and be professional. Japanese idols appeal to their citizens with a sense of closeness and friendliness, unlike Korean idols where they are seen as someone who is much more superior than the citizens and like someone from another world. Fans of Japanese idols enjoy observing them improve instead of having them be professional when they make their debut. Therefore, Japanese idols don't have any training period, they make their debut quickly compared to Korean idols. Although Japanese idols lack some artistic talents as musicians, the main goal of both Korean and Japanese idols is to entertain and make the audience happy. (Lim, Alvin.)

III. China



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In China, idol stars are not as influential and popular as Korean and Japanese idol stars in their country. Idol stars in China often copy and plagiarize Korean or Japanese idol stars. For example, in the pictures above, you can see clearly how Chinese idol stars copy Korean idols in terms of their concept, type of music, and even their names. However, Korea also used to follow Japanese idols ten years ago and now, Korean idols are leading the Hallyu boom and having greater impacts than the Japanese idols. Therefore, although China is following Korean idols, they might actually become better idols and dominated East Asia in the future. However, the plagiarism of Chinese idol stars is serious and many Korean idol stars feel uncomfortable about this. (BkLoV.) (웨인.) In China, idol stars don't have much impact on the society. Solo singers such as Jay Chou and groups that are popular are classified as artists rather than idols. Idol groups include groups such as Idols Girls and Ok-bang as seen above but since they copy the concepts and songs of Korean idols, Chinese citizens are embarrassed by their idol groups. However, Korean idol stars have great influence in China. A Korean idol group Super Junior gets millions of CD sales in China. They are more popular than Chinese idols in China. ( King_life, and Snoop0904. ) Since idol stars don't have much power in the society, citizens don't really care about the idol groups. Just like Japan, Chinese idol groups also don't have a long period of training; they often make their debut right after they get cast. Moreover, in China when idol groups gain popularity, it lasts for a long time although it is extremely difficult to gain popularity. In the Chinese entertainment industry, famous stars are popular for a long period of time and those stars are mostly solo singers or actors/actresses. It is extremely difficult for the Chinese idols to become popular and famous. However, an idol group that have become popular are Fahrenheit. Fahrenheit is a Taiwanese idol groups and they are very popular in China. Fahrenheit was chosen as the honorary ambassador of Taiwan in 2010. (King_life, and Snoop0904. )

IV. Globalization of Idol Groups In all three East Asian countries: Korea, Japan and China, globalization is occurring by incorporating members of other nationalities. This is important because East Asian stars often spread to other countries and perform and release albums and by having a member from that country, the group can make a better appeal to the country and they could come on television shows to advertise their album if a member can speak that language fluently. In Korea, there are several examples such as MissA, 2PM, f(x) and Super Junior. In MissA, there are two Chinese members: Jia and Fei; in 2PM there is a member from Thailand, Nichkhun; in f(x) there is a Chinese member Victoria; and in Super Junior there was a Chinese member Han Kyung (but he withdrew from the group). There are many Chinese members because the Chinese market is very big since there are so many people in China. Moreover, Chinese people who want to become idol stars tend to favor the Korean management companies because they get better treatment and the Koreans view idol stars with greater value that Chinese people. In Japan, there are also Chinese members in idol groups. In Morning Musume, there are Chinese members Ling Ling and Jun Jun. The Japanese people are also targeting the Chinese market. However, other than this group no other idol group in Japan have foreign members. In China, numerous idol groups have a Korean member to improve their group's image. Some idol groups include I me (Korean member: Hyun Kyung Shim), Lotte Girls (Korean members: Ye Seul Kim and Soo Jung Choi), and Top Combine (Korean member: Eun Sung Kim) have at least one Korean member. In China, Korean music and Korean stars have a high-level and sophisticated image. Therefore, by including a Korean member in the group, they can improve their group's image. Moreover, many of these Korean members have been a trainee for a long period of time so they are well skilled in singing and dancing which makes it efficient to include Korean members in Chinese groups. (스푼든스폰.)

V. Conclusion From comparing and contrasting idol groups in East Asia, the trends and the interaction of the three countries are clearly seen. From researching about these groups, it is clearly shown how China, Japan, and Korea's contemporary culture is different and similar. Since the three countries are all located so close to each other, the similarities and the influences of an idol group in another country is not unusual. However, I think each country has their own uniqueness and they should work on preserving the unqiue features. Contemporary culture in east Asia can be seen from the research of idol groups very clearly.

Works Cited

웨인. "[짝퉁소녀시대 중국소녀 아이돌걸스]하하하하.. 아이돌걸스라고 중국에 짝퉁 소녀시대가 있다더니.. 이거 좀 재밌다. ^^ [출처] [짝퉁소녀시대 중국소녀 아이돌걸스]하하하하.. 아이돌걸스라고 중국에 짝퉁 소녀시대가 있다더니.. 이거 좀 재밌다. ^^." Weblog post. //Naver//. 13 Dec. 2009. Web. 13 June 2011. .

"김연아-빅뱅-원더걸스, '한국의 파워 셀리브리티' 1-2-3위." //NO.1 뉴미디어 마이데일리//. Ed. Yi Lang Lim. 26 Feb. 2009. Web. 13 June 2011. .

스푼든스폰. "한중일 아이돌 그룹 단체사진." Web log post. //Naver//. 02 Mar. 2011. Web. 13 June 2011. .

"ネットで選ぶ「影響力のある日本人１００人」1位は・・・‐ニコニコインフォ." //ニコニコ動画 開発者ブログ（新着情報）//. 29 July 2010. Web. 13 June 2011. .

BkLoV. ""짝퉁 아이돌까지?!"…대륙의 베끼기, 다음은 누구?" Weblog post. //스포츠 서울 BLOG//. Sports Seoul, 20 Dec. 2009. Web. 13 June 2011. .

Fusionrock. "네이버 :: 지식iN." //네이버 지식iN :: 지식과 내가 함께 커가는 곳//. Naver, 17 Mar. 2011. Web. 13 June 2011. <http://kin.naver.com/qna/detail.nhn?d1id=11>.

"How Do Idol Group Members Get Paid?" //HanCinema :: The Korean Movie and Drama Database, Discover the South Korean Cinema and Drama Diversity//. 19 Apr. 2011. Web. 13 June 2011. <http://www.hancinema.net/how-do-idol-group-members-get-paid--29301.html>.

Jong, Jenny J. "YG Entertainment Explains Why Idol Groups Break up." //Koreaboo - Breaking Celebrity K-pop News Portal//. 02 Jan. 2011. Web. 13 June 2011. <http://www.koreaboo.com/index.html/_/general/yg-entertainment-explains-why-idol-groups-break-up-r2093>.

Kim, Hang Eun. "[연예투데이] 소녀시대, 경제지가 선정한 스타 파워 1위 外." //MBC 뉴스 - News.mbc.co.kr//. MBV, 28 Feb. 2011. Web. 13 June 2011. <http://imnews.imbc.com/replay/nwtoday/article/2803411_5782.html>.

Kim, Shi Rae. "아이돌이 점령한 인터넷 … 왜 김수환 추기경을 찾을까 - 중앙일보 뉴스." //중 앙일보 - 아시아 첫 인터넷 신문 - JoinsMSN//. 중앙일보, 19 Aug. 2010. Web. 13 June 2011. <http://article.joinsmsn.com/news/article/article.asp?total_id=4394137>.

King_life, and Snoop0904. "네이버 :: 지식iN." //네이버 지식iN :: 지식과 내가 함께 커가는 곳//. Naver, 13 June 2011. Web. 13 June 2011. <http://kin.naver.com/qna/detail.nhn?d1id=3>.

Lim, Alvin. "Story behind Individual Group Member Success in Idol Groups." Weblog post. //Wordpress//. 12 Mar. 2008. Web. 13 June 2011. Ms0841a, and Xingfu_100. "네이버 :: 지식iN." //네이버 지식iN :: 지식과 내가 함께 커가는 곳//. Naver, 23 Oct. 2010. Web. 13 June 2011. <http://kin.naver.com/qna/detail.nhn?d1id=3>.

Asian Studies Final Project Self-Evaluation

1. What did you contribute specifically to your project? I spent time working on the research and tried to find various statistics and specific information to compare and contrast idol stars in Korea, Japan and China. Moreover, I searched for videos and photos that clearly represent each country's idols in terms of their music style and physical appearance. However, much of the information is also from my own head since I am very familiar with Japanese idols since I have been a fan of a Japanese idol group (Arashi) for several years and Korean idols since I live in Korea. I was able to write some things that I knew without researching and I also came up with the comparisons on my own. 2. How successful do you think you conveyed your research to your audience? I think my research is successfully delivered because I included a lot of information and the information is accurate. Moreover, I made direct comparisons and showed greater impacts of the idol groups in each country. 3. What would have made your presentation more successful? I think a verbal presentation would have been more successful than writing for this project because there is a lot of information and it took a long time to write all this information. It would have been much easier for me and for the audience if this topic was presented verbally. 4. How successful do you think your technology-based materials were in conveying your research? I found videos online to show compare and contrast the idol groups of Japan and Korea in terms of their performance, level of skills and appearance. Especially the video of the male idols show the debut and the recent videos which shows how Japanese idols improve from their debut tremendously whereas Korean idols are professional from the beginning. The video also shows how Japanese idols last longer than Korean idol groups in general. I also think the video of the Chinese song helps show the issue of plagiarism of Chinese idols. 5. What would have made your technology-based materials more successful? I think it would have been more successful if I made the video myself, only including the parts I wanted to show because the videos are a little bit lengthy. However, I think the videos include numerous idol groups which allows the audience to understand the general concept.