K-Pop Eyes Its 'Michael Jackson Moment'

South Korea’s brand of pop music has found fans in the U.S. and China.

- Sohee Kim, with Lulu Yilun Chen

At a mountain retreat south of Seoul, some three dozen aspiring pop stars practice synchronized dance moves while singing into bottles of tea they grip instead of microphones. Then they do it again. And again.

Endless repetition, tear-inducing critiques from coaches, and smile practice are plot points in an 11-week reality-TV show documenting the creation of a teeny-bopper singing group. Idol School, which began airing in July, is part of a corporate push to turn Korean pop music into a global phenomenon.

An amalgam of photogenic performers, infectious synthesizer beats, and elaborate choreography, K-pop may be South Korea’s best-known export after smartphones and cars. Overseas revenue from CDs, concert tickets, streaming music, and related merchandise has doubled since 2013, according to a group that tracks Korea’s cultural production. Global sales reached a record 5.3 trillion won ($4.7 billion) in 2016, the Korea Creative Content Agency reports.

On YouTube, views of videos by the top 200 K-pop artists have tripled since 2012. Last year they were watched about 24 billion times, with 80 percent of traffic coming from outside South Korea, YouTube says. Boy band BTS has more page views than Lady Gaga, Selena Gomez, or Drake. “It might have been impossible for K-pop to have worldwide popularity without YouTube’s global platform,” says Sun Lee, head of music partnerships for Korea and Greater China at YouTube and Google Play. “K-pop is creating a great sensation in the U.S.”

Streaming services Spotify, Apple Music, and AccuRadio have dedicated K-pop channels, as does the biggest service in China, QQ Music, which is owned by Tencent Holdings Inc. and has 100 million daily active users. QQ’s most popular artist overall is Big Bang, a five-member Korean boy band with more than 11 million followers.