[Hallyu Power] Making it in the home of pop

The next big breakthrough for K-pop -- and global pop music in general -- will be born from a collaboration between the newfangled genre and traditional British pop, believes Shin Jae-hong, a composer-turned-enterpreneur.

While most major K-pop agencies, such as S.M., YG and most recently FNC Entertainment, are looking toward China for expansion, Shin decided to turn his attention to the U.K., the “homeland of global pop music” that yielded icons like the Beatles, Oasis and the Spice Girls, he told The Korea Herald in an interview on July 13.

And while most Korean music companies sell the K-pop “idol group” model, centering on boy and girl bands that amass hordes of adolescent fans, Shin hopes to breed musical talent that “transcends nationality.” His goal is not to create the next K-pop star, but to discover the next global star, “the next Adele,” he said.  

With such goals Shin joined forces with like-minded partners and last month formed the first Korea-U.K. collaborative entertainment agency M Tree Music. Registered for business in the U.K., M Tree Music set up offices in Hanover Square, in the heart of London. While Shin serves as the chairman, the founding partners include Ian Penman and Rick Riccobono, two London-based lawyers with expertise in entertainment law, and Ben Steadman, a former drummer and currently a radio producer in Canada.

Shin is a classically-trained songwriter who has written a number of local hits such as ballad duo As One’s 2013 song “Desire and Hope.” According to Shin, the two British lawyers, who had been considering teaming up with K-pop experts for some time, first approached him last year. Shin had been consulting New Media Law, Penman and Riccobono’s firm, regarding the British copyright of some of his songs. The three also had a common acquaintance, executive producer Mark Lee.

“They’ve been closely involved in the music business for decades, so they were keeping track of the trends,” Shin said about his partners. “They saw the impact K-pop was making not only in Asia but also in Europe,” he said, referring to the popularity of bands like f(x) and BTS there.

“K-pop is more evolved now,” said Shin, adding it now has the potential to become more than just a “niche genre.”

When K-pop first hit the global scene, its defining characteristic -- that it is basically a medley of every type of music -- struck producers as little more than parody. Now, this hybrid quality is what will appeal to pop consumers increasingly seeking something new and different from the dominant American pop music, Shin said.

“K-pop is like a gift set with everything,” he remarked. “Its uniqueness is that all different (genres) are mixed together. Dance, garage, rock ... each genre has a reason, a rule. But what we do in K-pop, if we think something’s catchy, we put it all in one song,” explained Shin.

“In most foreign pop songs, if a song is a deep house track, it follows the rules of deep house. But we suddenly put rap in there, where it’s least expected.

“To put it negatively, it means (K-pop) has no legitimate roots. But it also means it’s incredibly new. It can be weird, but it can also be really good.”

Having chipped away at genre patterns since the 1990s, K-pop has now formulated a pattern of its own, Shin noted. His company will be bringing together this new pattern and British talent to create a new trend in global pop. “We’ll have Korean and British producers write songs together and give them to artists in both countries. We’re in the process of signing artists -- singers and producers -- from both countries. We’ll eventually help them step out onto the global stage, regardless of nationality.”

Co-founder Steadman, in an email interview, said he has been working for several years to merge western talent with K-pop experts.

For its first project, M Tree Music will be hosting creative songwriting workshops, led by Shin and Steadman, in collaboration with University of Westminster, London.

The next workshop, slated for October, will involve both Korean and U.K. writers “working in track genres such as EDM, future base, hiphop, electronic ... to produce hits for the Asian and international markets.”

“M Tree has also writing arrangements relationships with experienced writers who have had success with artists such as Beyonce and in films such as ‘Cruel Intentions,’ ‘Strange Days,’ and ‘Mission Impossible,’” Steadman added.

Major K-pop producers still look to China

Unlike M Tree, Korea’s biggest K-pop companies have for the most part been looking to China -- which in 2014 consumed one-third of international K-pop content, according to government statistics -- for expansion, and they seem likely to continue to focus on the neighboring country for now.

FNC Entertainment, the agency of boy bands FT Island and CNBLUE, announced on July 15 the launch of its joint venture with Suning Universal Media, the entertainment arm of giant Chinese retailer Suning Group.

According to an official at FNC, China is the most promising market for K-pop. And because its government “still imposes tricky regulatory obstacles for foreign businesses, especially in the cultural content industry, it is in the interest of Korean companies to team up with local enterprises,” the official said. Other perks include the ability to share already-established infrastructure, and a chance to discover new talent from a wider pool.

Industry reports say S.M. Entertainment plans to rev up its China business, which currently accounts for some 35 percent of its profit, by establishing a subsidiary there within the year. It has already teamed up with China’s online retailing giant Alibaba, which bought a 4 percent in the entertainment agency in February.

YG Entertainment in May announced it will be setting up a joint venture company in China with local social media giant Tencent and ticket seller Weiying.

By Rumy Doo (doo@heraldcorp.com)

This is the 18th article in a series that explores the driving forces behind hallyu and the global rise of Korean pop culture. -- Ed.