Leiden University Student Repository

Tuk, William (2012)

The Korean wave: who are behind the success of Korean popular culture?

Master thesis | History (MA)

Never before in the history of popular culture has a nation been able to draw so much attention worldwide to its music, drama and movies in such a short period. From the moment that South Korea was forced to open its markets by the IMF and America as a result of the Asian financial crisis, their popular culture has been gaining worldwide recognition. On every continent we can find k-pop fans and Korean dramas on television. This phenomenon got the interest of the media, politicians and scholars. In this paper I’ve been trying to answer the questions who are behind the success of the Korean wave and how do they think about the Korean wave? It turns out that the Korean wave deliberately was created by the Korean government. In 1998 the government decided that the movie industry would be their key industry of growth. The idea was that the exports of movies would bring in a lot of money. The policies of the 1980s had an indirect effect on the drama and music industries. Korean...Show moreNever before in the history of popular culture has a nation been able to draw so much attention worldwide to its music, drama and movies in such a short period. From the moment that South Korea was forced to open its markets by the IMF and America as a result of the Asian financial crisis, their popular culture has been gaining worldwide recognition. On every continent we can find k-pop fans and Korean dramas on television. This phenomenon got the interest of the media, politicians and scholars. In this paper I’ve been trying to answer the questions who are behind the success of the Korean wave and how do they think about the Korean wave? It turns out that the Korean wave deliberately was created by the Korean government. In 1998 the government decided that the movie industry would be their key industry of growth. The idea was that the exports of movies would bring in a lot of money. The policies of the 1980s had an indirect effect on the drama and music industries. Korean entertainment companies used the popularity of Korean movies and dramas in other countries to successfully export k-pop. For entertainment companies it is essential to export their music to other countries, because the Korean music market is too small to sustain itself.Show less

South Korea

popular culture

k-pop

drama

movies

Author

Tuk, William

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Supervisors

Gommans, J.J.L.
Erkelens, M.

ECTS Credits

30

Language

en