The K Pop Mumbai regional rounds on the 5^th July produced new stars, a few of who will compete in the finals at Delhi on 30^th August 2014. This would not have been possible without the support of the Consul General of Korea who has been the driving force behind promoting K-pop. Seok-gu Jang, Consul General, Republic of Koreatook a personal interest in promoting modern Korean culture among Indian youth in Mumbai. 

As can be seen, after PSY's ‘Gangnam Style’ hit, the Consulate arranged a special showcase of the dance on its National Day in 2012. He even invited the youth to watch the live performance of Gugak (Korean) traditional orchestra and later also opened a Korea Section in the Department of Civics and Politics, University of Mumbai, where the Korean Consulate donated a number of useful educational books on Korea to the library and made a Korea section.

Seok-gu Jang, Consul General, Republic of Korea is doing all he can to bringK-POP known to the masses. This popular music genre from South Korea, consisting dance-pop, pop ballad, electronic, rock, hip-hop, R&B, is a musical movement started in Korea in 1990s and has boomed the world through ‘Korean Wave’. Today, K-POP has entrenched itself as a bonafide phenomenon in Asia and is rapidly extending its reach to new markets.

K-POP is a musical genre originally from South Korea,  characterized by a wide variety of audiovisual elements, the term is more often used in a narrower sense to describe a modern form of South Korean pop music covering mostly dance-pop, pop ballad, electronic, rock, hip-hop, R&B, etc. K-POP Contest provides a unique platform for all to prove their mettle in Korean singing and dancing.

Verus Ferreira met Seok-gu Jang, Consul General, Republic of Korea at the Mumbai edition of the event to get a hands on what K – Pop really is.

How did the concept of K pop originate?

Well, this event is organized by the Korean Cultural Centre. It is the 3^rd time it is being organized in India and the first time in Mumbai. This time it is happening on a much larger scale across many cities in India so we have regional rounds in Chennai, Dimapur and New Delhi with the finals in Delhi next month. The winner gets an all expenses paid trip to Korea and participates in the World K – Pop festival in Changwon. This is sponsored by Korean Cultural Centre (KCC) and Korea Tourist Organization (KTO). The Korean Consulate is supporting this event financially along with the Korean Cultural Centre in India.

How many participants have entered this year?

At present all India has 43 entries (Singing and Dancing), almost 70 participants, from there Mumbai has sent 18 entries. At first we expected less than 10 but (8 dancing and 10 singing) All India entries are expected to cross 50 entries by the 13^th July deadline.The jury for the preliminary rounds in Mumbai involved up to 3 Korean persons from consulate and the Korean Community. An Indian music expert was also invited to join the panel.For the Final round in Delhi, the organizers have announced N-sonic, an upcoming young K-pop group from Korea, will judge the auditions.

How was the response for last edition?

This is the Third edition of the K-pop concert and is unique in being a live round. However, last year when the preliminaries were only online, we had 65 entries. So far the contest has got bigger and more popular over the last 2 editions.

What is the potential for K-pop in the Indian market?

The aim of K-pop is to spread Korean music to the world, we do not look at India as a market, and we hope Indian people enjoy the music. Singing and dancing are universally enjoyable and should not be in terms of growth and markets.From ancient times, ancient Korean cave art shows prehistoric Koreans dancing. Hence, we believe dancing and singing as an art form are part of the common heritage of mankind. We hope through this philosophy, that K-pop too becomes a universal phenomenon.We have no intention of forcibly or artificially spreading K-pop. We know that it should be something natural and it will take time to grow in popularity in India. We believe that Indian people will enjoy the vibrant and energetic dancing and singing which accompanies K-pop songs. We are sure it presents an alternative to other western music in the country. We hope Indians see the commonness between Bollywood and K-pop, as K-pop embodies universal values.

How are the K-pop artist in India picking up the diction? What measures are taken on that front?

There are Korean language classes for Delhi and Chennai. However, there are absolutely no Korean classes for Mumbai. Our Korean fans have learnt the language online, through self help books. The Mumbai online singing participants have made a tremendous effort to pronounce Korean properly, and some have really stood out in this respect. The Consulate in talks to begin Korean Language classes in Mumbai. We have approached Mumbai University for this purpose. In the meanwhile, The Korean Consulate will provide all possible language assistance to train those selected to represent Mumbai in the singing category for the Delhi finals. As you can see, the songs performed today were in Korean language which shows that there are many who want to learn the language. So through music and K Pop, we have tried to bring in Indian youngsters to learn a little of the Korean language.

According to you, who are the Korean artists like Psy have enjoyed fame in India? 

Besides Psy, a number of K-pop fans enjoyed SHINee, Super Junior, Big Bang, Girl’s Generation etc. Fans also enjoy EXO, TVXQ, Teen Top. T-ara.

What about increasing the fan base?

We feel language is a barrier for new entrants, however many K-Pop songs are exclusively in English, notable example Girls Generation the Boys English version, Wonder Girls – Nobody English Version.We believe that these young ambassadors will slowly create awareness about K-pop and it will take hold. For example, we hope some of our school college age performers will begin to use Korean songs for their competitions and concerts and introduce this genre of music to their school friends and their communities. We had a school dance team (Durello Convent High School) performing this time in the Mumbai regional auditions. While they have mostly danced to Bollywood, they picked up and also developed a liking to Crayon Pop’s Bar, Bar, Bar.We also have a young performer, aged 8, [Eliana] from Mumbai region, who danced to Wonder Girls –Nobody. When her mother took her to learn the dance from a professional, he was impressed by the song. This was the first time the trainer had heard a k-pop song. Now, he is thinking about teaching the dance to students in schools where he teaches dance. This is the K-pop story, and this is how we hope though our events, slowly people will gain awareness about it.

What happens once the winner is announced, are they given a record deal for an album?

I cannot comment on this much, but there are many entertainment companies in Korea and if they like some music or singers, maybe they can offer the person a music deal or make some offer to the winner.

What is the response to K Pop in India?

K Pop is very popular in the Eastern part of India, in Eastern countries, parts of Japan, China and also in a few European countries, but in India it is not very popular, because India too has its own cultural heritage and music, so it might take some time to really get known, but there are many who like it. The penetration is a little less, but if the people like it then we are always there to support them.

Do you think there is a chance to fusing Indian music and Korean music together?

Yes, very much. K – Pop is very popular in the world because all the people love the music of K Pop and the Koreans love to sing and dance together. You will find many pop band and also many Korean bands that have girl groups. They all want to sing and dance together and I think the same happens here in India.

Do you plan on bringing any Korean pop band to India to promote K Pop and also Korean music?

At the moment the Consulate has no plans as it all decided at the Embassy level, but after the rains, in September this year we plan to have a street performance outside Phoenix Mall, where we have some artist’s performances. We have Olinda Fernandes who is chairperson of the Korean Fan Club in Mumbai whois doing a very good job of promoting Korean music in Mumbai region.

Through K Pop are you also trying to also promote Korean tourism?

There are a lot of similarities between India and Korea. Like India, Korea too has a vast cultural heritage and beautiful places to visit. If you heard when our Chief Guest Ms Manjistha Mukherjee Bhatt (Regional Director - Indian Council for Cultural Relations) was speaking to us, she had said that about 2000 years ago an Indian princess met two Korean Kings, so you see there are a lot of connections. We also share Buddhism with India and also have a lot of similarities to the Indian language, the cultural terminology. Tamil Nadu has similar words that are also present in the Korean language. Like Amma, Appa, amma is mother in Tamil Nadu and the same is used in the Korean language. Again you have Appa which means father; it is the same in Tamil Nadu and in Korean which means father. I heard that more than 2000 Korean words have the same sounding as Tamil and are also similar to the Korean language from the language spoken in Tamil Nadu.

n  Interviewed by Verus Ferreira