Korea Wants To Be No. 1 In Pop Culture
“Korea is throwing all of its weight and billions of dollars into making itself the number one exporter of pop culture in the world,†says Euny Hong, author of the new book “The Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation is Conquering the World Through Pop Culture.” “The idea is that if you create the supply, the demand will follow. That’s not an intuitive sales model.†But a few mega hits like “Gangnam Style” or girl bands like 2NE1 (pictured) aren’t quite enough to challenge America’s pop-culture hegemony, much as hype-ridden newspaper articles may assert that South Korea’s challenge is working.
