Cultural Report - Korean Wave & K-POP

Video Example: Girl's Generation' performance in Paris

Compared with American Pop music, K-POP(Korean Pop Music)

 has its own characteristics. For example, there are many teams that focus on dancing and sensational style. Even though some singers in the teams do not sing well, they also perform perfectly on stages as a team, because they start to get trained from very  young age (elementary school or middle school). In addition, K-POP has a passionate fandom culture which consists of young girls and boys.

K-POP has broadened its territory from Korean to Asia countries and some European countries. Many people in other countries have started to recognize K-POP and consumed K-POP. 

Korean Wave refers this cultural movement. As video streaming services and social network services develop, more people in the world can access K-POP's content. 

Korean Wave has changed consumer behaviors in cultural areas. 

Interesting Korean Consumers Behaviors - HERMES BIRKIN BAG

These bags are Hermes Birkin Bags, which are one of the most expensive bags in Korea.

The prices of the bags are usually more than $10.000. 

According to the article of E-Today, Korean economy News paper, there are more than 1,000 people who are on the waiting list for these bags. The people have to pay for these bags, which cost $10.000, in advance and wait for 1 year at least because the supply of these bags is not sufficient. 

From my perspective, this kind of consuming behavior is unreasonable. Although the bags are made by very skillful master craftsmen, I do not think the bags' real value is more than $10.000. I believe there are many people who just follow the images of Hermes, which are very luxurious and rare without thinking of rational consuming decision. 

I'd like to listen to other people's points of views about this case in Korea.

http://www.etoday.co.kr/news/section/newsview.php?TM=news&SM=0701&idxno=475199

The First Posting