my love for them

article courtesy of: bangkokpost.com

Thai teens were screaming, some even crying, as their Korean heartthrobs finally appeared on stage at Siam Paragon for the Super Junior Super Show press conference. The frenzied fans were in tears either because of a fit of hysteria, or perhaps because of the chaos caused by the crazy crowd pushing themselves to get closer to the stage.

Watching from one of the overlooking platforms at Siam Square BTS station, Rung, 15, and Ray, 12, only saw their idols from a distance. But they didn’t mind because for the concert at Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani on July 12, the two sisters have secured 4,500 baht standing tickets that will give them a close-up view of Super Junior’s performance.

“We spent our savings to buy the tickets over the Internet,” Rung, the bigger sister says. “It will be worth it. Last year, the TVXQ (Dong Bang Shin Gi) concert was absolutely fabulous and I expect the Super Junior Super Show to be just as spectacular.”

While she often listens to Thai pop music, she has no particular favourite acts and thinks that Korean artists are more impressive with their singing, dancing and even sense of humour. The Mathayom 4 student is also teaching herself the Korean language and can fluently sing along to Super Junior hits like Miracle, Full of Happiness, and U.

A group of 13 young talents, Super Junior is just one of the hot South Korean acts that Thai teenagers idolise. Others that have made recent visits to the Kingdom include Ajoo, FT Island, Wonder Girls, Big Bang, SS501 and Paran. Kitikorn Penrote of True Music, promoter of the upcoming Super Junior concert, was naturally very happy with the phenomenal press conference, but deep inside he would love to see Thai teenagers as crazy about Thai artists as Korean idols.

“It’s not that Thai artists don’t have quality but as we can see from the Korean music industry, continuous development is crucial. K-pop mania in Thailand is a by-product, after a decade of product development supported by the South Korean government, whose strategy is to strengthen every industry in terms of export potential,” says Kitikorn.

“Counting entertainment as an important medium with which to promote the country, South Korea fully supports it music, film and TV industries. And just like Hollywood influences the world by promoting American lifestyles and American brands, Korean entertainment is a powerful medium to promote tourism and culture as well as other products. The objective is to develop entertainment products, not only for the domestic market, but first for Asia, then the world.”

To serve the international market, South Korea invests in product development, resulting in the quality of today’s Korean music and artists. The product development process, according to Kitikorn, starts after Korean talents sign a 10-year contract that will put them into training for stardom for the first three years before releasing an album. The first five years is about investment and the last five years, harvesting.

“Koreans appreciate music and don’t buy pirate copies, which encourages music producers and artists to maintain quality work,” observes the True Music director. “It’s a different situation in Thailand with the daunting level of piracy. Moreover, with the aim to serve small market segments within the country, the relatively low levels of investment don’t allow quality. Therefore, we’re at the point where Korean music triumphs over Thai music.”

Kitikorn adds that with the tremendous demand, it won’t only be True Music that brings K-pop acts to Thailand. He maintains that this will be a good thing for the local music industry, as it can learn from the Korean productions, like this month’s Super Junior Super Show, which will involve a team of 100 people putting together an impressive world-class concert.

Sudhipong Vatanajang, RS executive vice president of music content production, totally agrees that Thais should use these shows to evaluate how advanced the Koreans are, how far we have to go and what we have to do to catch up with them.

“The invasion of K-pop artists doesn’t mean that Thai artists are finished,” Sudhipong says. “However, a concern is that it may make Thai teens look up to only Korean idols instead of supporting Thai artists. I firmly believe that Thai singers and bands, whether from Lat Phrao (RS) or Asoke (GMM Grammy) are as good as Koreans, but more support is needed to realise their full potential. What’s important now is not to compete with each other but to defend our music industry against Korean music.”

Two years ago, with Korean fever intensifying, Sudhipong thought of establishing a new label to battle K-pop. Kamikaze was launched last year to target teen music lovers.

Young stars on the new label include cute duos Four-Mod and Neko-Jump and the unique boy band K-OTIC comprising of two Thais, two Thai-Japanese boys and one Korean.

Sudhipong describes K-OTIC, with its multi-national members, as an innovative take on Asian pop. Moreover, the band sings their latest release, Freestyle, in four languages, Thai, English, Japanese and Korean. He completely understands why so many people think K-OTIC is just a copy of K-pop bands, but affirms that it’s an application rather than an emulation.

“K-pop itself is an application of Western music and the Koreans are good at adapting songs to suit Asians. We can learn the art of application from them,” Sudhipong says.

“When you listen to hip-hop songs, the structure of the melody is pretty much the same, but what’s different in a Korean or Thai hip-hop number is the idea, the content, the vocal style, which is all about application and modification to make it more appealing to Asian listeners.”

Because of South Korea’s vision and commitment to develop its products, he points out that it is 10 years ahead of Thailand in every sector – from music and automobiles to electronics and football.

“A friend of mine worked with Korean music producers and quite some time ago I asked him when we would equal or beat Korea in music-making,” says Sudhipong. “He replied, ‘When Thailand’s football team makes it to the World Cup final.’ At first I thought that he was joking. But thinking about what he said, this may be true unless more and continued support is given to the Thai music industry.”

thank you thailand fans for supporting suju..!! congratz to super junior..thai fans are really lucky..hope super junior will visit philippines soon!!