The reverse conclusion is of course interesting: South Korea’s Minister for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Hwang Hee, declared at a press conference on Wednesday that it was time to add pop figures to the cultural staff (“incorporating popular culture-art figures as art personnel”). Which probably means: the “real” cultural staff. That’s exciting because K-Pop, the very special and very, very successful pop music from South Korea, has been a lot for the country – indoctrination channel, soft power image tool, economic factor – but apparently not art.
Hwang now wants to change that. Of the Minister plans a law, which allows pop artists to be exempted from military service. In his words: “to serve their country outside of the military”. The current legal situation actually requires healthy men to start military service before they turn 30. Exceptions: Artists (e.g. in the fields of classical and folk). And athletes who’ve won medals at the Olympics. Pop singers don’t.
The push is now apparently due to the age structure of bts – one of the world’s most successful pop bands, regularly breaking streaming records and making billions. Their oldest member, Jin, turns 30 on December 4th, so he should be starting his duties very soon. Just as he would have had to two years ago. Originally, the age limit was 28 years. She was raised a few days before Jin’s birthday.
BTS sales account for 0.3 percent of South Korea’s gross domestic product
Sort of like Lex K-Pop continued. Minister’s reasoning: The system of exceptions was created to protect those who “have increased the status of the country with their exceptional skills”. There’s no reason why that shouldn’t apply to pop artists.
That goes well with the decades-old relationship between nation and art. South Korean governments have long been involved in their country’s popular culture. Carefully worded. As an offshoot of the Park Chung Hee dictatorship, music was a means of indoctrination almost until the 1990s. It should teach the population patriotism and good living. K-Pop changed that in the short term. artists like Seo Taiji & Boys addressed, at least for a while, the anger and inner conflict of young runaways in a society determined by morality and family values.
It was manager Lee Soo Man who was one of the first to recognize the potential of the new genre – as well as the potential of the trademark “Made in Korea”. With his company SM Entertainment he made, among other things, the artist Hyun Jin-young and the band HOT big. When a financial crisis hit Asia in 1997, the government also discovered culture as an economic and, more importantly, export driver. At least one percent of the state budget should henceforth be spent on culture.
The results of these editions are amazing. Films like “Parasite” or series like “Squid Game” have recently been enormous export successes. In pop, however, the effect is even more powerful. BTS sales alone accounted for 0.3 percent of South Korea’s total gross domestic product a few years ago. As Big Hit Entertainment, the band’s management, went public two years ago, it was valued at the equivalent of around 6.5 billion euros. The military service of one of the members would probably lead to significant slumps. Probably artistic too.