Koreans Make Waves in Music Scene
Korean Pop Music
Similarly, Japanese bands have also been trying to penetrate markets outside Asia, though compared to K-Pop, they have a bigger market locally, giving them less incentive to venture into the international music scene.
Japan has a solid domestic market and their top 10 albums of all times are by Japanese musicians. Hikaru Utada remains at the top with her 1999 hit record, “First Love”. The biggest international star in Japan is Mariah Carey.
Some industry analysts believe that K-pop has a better shot at topping the charts globally compared to J-pop. This is because Korea has a small music market so there is an incentive to succeed abroad.
Of course, the biggest challenge for K-pop bands to penetrate the foreign market is language. To have a common language means to communicate the music’s ideas and feelings easier.
Some K-pop bands have succeeded in the Japan market; for example, Girls’ Generation. They sold over 500,000 albums recently.
K-pop bands will look to the success of Japanese bands that have successfully penetrated the U.S. market, but it has been genre-specific. For example, Japanese heavy metal legend X Japan had a North American Tour in 2010 and has also visited Europe, Latin America, and Asia recently.
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