I don’t dislike K-pop, but it’s just American popular music in a different language. It’s completely disinteresting to me and frankly, it’s not that popular here in the United States. Ironically, China has had a far, far larger influence on Western popular culture through TikTok.
China is outcompeting South Korea in most of its stronghold industries (home appliances, displays, shipbuilding, smartphones, telecommunications, automobiles, batteries). China’s semiconductor industry may completely eclipse South Korea’s within a decade or two.
If I was a low-IQ South Korean, I would absolutely despise China.
Pop culture is a very fleeting thing, something can be big for a while and then be completely forgotten about in a microsecond. It takes a steady stream of investment and talent to keep a culture machine churning, which is how America has been able to maintain Hollywood, how Japan has been able to maintain its game industry, and how France has been able to maintain its fashion industry.
There's the added aspect as well, where a country makes its culture more than just a trend and transcends to the level of prestige culture. Europe has been and still is a global gold standard for fine dining, fashion, tourism, and architecture. I find Japanese culture overrated, but can't deny they've succeeded as well in making their culture prestigious. Japanese cleanliness, attention to detail, and minimalism are considered things to be adopted to improve one's lives and Japan is a hotly desired tourist destination.
When I look at Korean culture on the other hand, I don't see it advancing anywhere above simply being a cool, at the moment trend followed by Gen-Z girls and Asian diasporas desparate for representation. What more needs to be said than that whenever I see Asian diasporas talk about moving to Taiwan or Japan, their peers are always supportive of the idea without hesitation, while when the idea comes up to move to South Korea the response is always, "eh you might want to do more research." In fact, 2024 has been a horrible year for South Korea soft power wise, from discrimination towards Southeast Asian tourists, to the suicide of high profile celebrities, and the Telegram misogynist chatrooms.
I think there definately is a certain level of angst from Koreans that much like how economies have middle-income traps, Korean culture has entered I would say "trendy trap," if that makes sense. Its where countries succeed in producing a flavor of the month, but fail to follow up to make their culture stick. Umm Kulthum was the Middle East's Taylor Swift, today does anyone know who the hell she was unless they study modern Middle Eastern history? Turkey had a brief moment with its jingoistic Ottoman Empire dramas, but now nobody talks about it.
When it comes to Asia I would say this is the current soft power map. Japanese culture is prestigious, China is a tech and economic powerhouse whose pop culture is starting to mature and can only go up from gacha to Wukong, not to mention ideaologically the leader of the global south. Koreans though basically peaked at getting teeny boppers hooked onto American pop songs with a Korean face and soap operas, failed to educate the world on the deeper aspects of Korean culture, and doesn't have anywhere to go but down from this point.
So yeah, if I was a Korean millenial/Gen-z I'd be pissed too, lol.
