Industry Insights: The Dangerous Myth of “Engineered K-Pop”

The conspiracy theory that K-Pop is carefully-orchestrated national propaganda from the Korean government is growing in popularity. Not only is this idea untrue, it is also potentially dangerous.

Industry Insights explores the inner workings of the greater music industry, and what they mean for artists and fans alike.

Written by Wonjune Lee

Photo Courtesy of Steve Rogers, SXSW

There’s no denying it: K-Pop is a global phenomenon. According to the Washington Post, nine out of ten music videos on YouTube with the most views in 24 hours are from K-Pop groups. Moreover, according to the same article, #KPopTwitter is the largest shared-interest group on Twitter, with nearly 6.7 billion K-Pop-related tweets globally in 2020. That same year, the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange reported that the Korean music industry alone accounted for over 50 billion dollars worth of Korean exports.

As K-Pop’s popularity grew, a number of theories arose attempting to explain the phenomenon. One in particular — the idea that K-Pop was part of a national strategy devised to improve the perception of Korea and Koreans overseas — has become very prevalent. This so-called “secret behind K-Pop’s origins” has become mainstream, presented in articles on respected publications like NPR and Vox.

To some degree, this explanation for K-Pop’s popularity is rooted in reality. Korean cultural products, including music, are indeed subsidized by the South Korean government, which takes an active role in the overseas promotion of Korean culture. The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism (MCST), which presents a vision of building Korea into a “Cultural Power,” serves to “oversee the government’s promotion of culture.” The ministry is responsible for almost every aspect of culture, sponsoring programs ranging from the “King Sejong Institute,” which operates over 234 Korean language schools across the world, to overseas performances for Korean artists, including the annual “Korea Spotlight” event at Austin’s very own SXSW. So, yes, the South Korean government does actively promote the country’s culture, with the goal of establishing the nation as a cultural power. That much is true. But to move beyond these facts and suggest that K-Pop began as a deliberate strategy orchestrated by the Korean government is a huge leap, one that is as insidious as it is untrue.

There are two factors that weaken this claim, the first being that government promotion of music is not exclusive to Korea. In fact, the Korean government spends much less on such efforts than other wealthy nations, including the United States. In the U.S., the National Endowment for the Arts spends over 20 million dollars a year for many of the same reasons as does the MCST, while the U.S. Department of State sponsors programs such as “American Music Abroad,” again with the goal of familiarizing underserved audiences around the world with American popular culture. According to a Pitchfork report, countries like Spain and France spend hundreds of millions more than Korea on promoting their music overseas, and yet the music of these countries has not garnered a following like that of K-Pop.

Photo courtesy of Seoul Museum Historical Archives

Secondly, while the MCST does indeed sponsor artists that it regards as a positive reflection of South Korea, it does not dictate or coordinate a media strategy that musicians and production labels must follow. But it wasn’t always this way. Before democratization in the late '80s, Korean media was heavily censored to meet the demands of the military dictatorship. K-Pop’s staples — flashy performances and catchy melodies — were not encouraged. Seo Taiji and Boys, one of the first dance groups that established the genre as it is today, faced media controversy for its then-new hip hop influences and rebellious lyrics. Many of the group’s songs were deemed “unbroadcastable” and “harmful to teenage sentiment,” with some religious groups even describing them as demonic. The group that birthed modern K-Pop not only received little government support, but also had to overcome efforts to censor its music.

On top of being a wholesale generalization of the origins of an entire genre of music, the theory that K-Pop was orchestrated by the government is often used as a talking point in anti-Korean conspiracy theories. This is most prominently seen in Japan, where the so-called “Korean Wave,” including music and television dramas, began to grow in popularity beginning in the early 2000s. Books such as “嫌韓流” (Hating the Korean Wave) gained popularity almost immediately, using the so-called lie of the K-Pop boom to support the argument that Koreans are by nature a deceitful people, and that they also fabricated Japanese atrocities during its occupation of Korea. 

Photo courtesy of Seotaiji-archive.com

So why has theory become so popular? One possibility is that at some level, it is difficult for international audiences to believe that the music of a lesser known nation like South Korea could gain such a large fanbase. It is a sentiment that is shared even by many Koreans, many of whom still view the success of groups like BTS with incredulousness and disbelief. This view might be able to explain the animosity toward K-Pop in Japan, a society where discrimination against Koreans is still prevalent, with Zainichi Koreans being viewed in the context of negative stereotypes. Another factor could be that the type of K-Pop popular outside of Korea has been the most manufactured of all: teen idol groups. When comparing Spotify’s K-Pop playlists tailored to U.S. audiences and those made for Korean audiences, we can see that American audiences are virtually only exposed to one genre, whereas Koreans are consuming Korean music ranging from indie rock to trap and ‘90s nostalgia bait. 

There are meaningful conversations to be had about K-Pop and its political context. The Korean music industry has been marred by sexism and abuse, not to mention the questions raised about the treatment of young stars in a high stress environment with intense competition. As the genre has become internationally mainstream, it has also had to deal with difficult questions about race and cultural appropriation, as well as its determinedly “apolitical” stance. These are all conversations that need to happen, so let’s actually make it a conversation. Let’s stop with the sweeping, clickbait-y generalizations, and start examining K-Pop and its faults from a variety of angles.

This article was added to Industry Insights after its publication, upon the creation of the Industry Insights series.