I have often been asked to elaborate in English about Korea’'s consumption trends by foreign entrepreneurs practicing their business in Korea and business people doing business in other Asian regions ? including China, Thailand and Vietnam ? which a few years later show a similar market pattern to the Korean trends. So I have long had in mind the need to publish an English edition of this Korea Trends series. Yet, swamped with lectures, writing and consulting, I didn't dare to publish the same book in English, but rather kept it on my wish list. So this year, I am very glad to get an English edition published through the help of a professional translator. I hope this translation reasonably conveys the cultural aspects of varied Korean consumption trends.
This book is designed for all readers wanting to know more about Korean consumers and the Korean market. The global community is becoming increasingly interconnected via the Internet and mobile devices, while at the same time we live in very complicated times in which the consumer market is influenced by the national characteristics of each country. Although global trends appear simultaneously in many different countries, in some countries these trends may not hold much clout. Despite Korea being globalized, the Korean consumer market should not be understood simply as an extension of global trends. Moreover, from the point of view that Korean trends ? such as K-pop ? are pervading the globe, it can give one a good understanding of how Korean consumer trends may offer an indirect route on any quest to understand other countries’' consumers. I hope readers will find this book helpful for navigating Korean trends, and indeed grasping the trends of other nations’' consumers and markets. ---pp.8~9
The center of the typhoon, the 1990s’' craze, is tvN drama Reply, 1997. With a backdrop of Busan in the 1990s when it was dichotomized by the music groups H.O.T. and Sechs Kies, this sentimental retro drama portrays six characterful high school girls and boys. Breaking 5% viewership, considered a "super success viewership rate” among cable channels, it created a newly popular word, "Reply-sick” which means the provocation of strong sentimental attachment to the drama. It used three key themes ? reminiscence, nostalgia and retro ? as subject matter and unfolded stories from diverse angles. As a result, the drama Reply, 1997 attained popularity and compathy from a broad range of age groups.
Reply, 1997 exactly reproduced 1990s’ fashion, props, episodes, background music, etc. which were deceptively great and perfect. Thanks to the drama’'s popularity, on-line sales for 1990s-recalling retro items increased drastically. On the Auction (www.auction.co.kr), the sales of the drama props ? game machines, cartoon books and fashion items ? surged up to 45%, to date. Much attention was paid to "Eastpak” and "JanSport” backpacks that were used by the drama characters. ---pp.50~51
The 2012 pop culture industry was evidently swamped with those prevalent minors fortified with such B-class cultural sentiment. One of the most extreme cases is Gangnam Style by Psy, who has suddenly emerged as an international star. Despite his definitely minor features in light of appearance, choreography, costume and songs, upon going public via YouTube with a diverse parody of productions, his music videos easily broke 100 million Internet hits, unprecedented for Korean content, and he continues to break records. Psy was invited by the globally esteemed MTV video music awards, and was asked to make an appearance for one of the top American TV programs covering the households of Americans and provoking "Psy fever” around the globe.
His incredible success has still been dissected in diverse analyses, but one clear thing is that the global music market, too, is going through a “minorism” trend.
---pp.57~58
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