The globalization of postcolonial pop music: putting the success of the K-pop industries into theoretical perspectives

ABSTRACTIt is uncontested that the unexpected rise of K-pop in the last decades has been no less than impressive. Korea has become the 7th largest music market in the world, and K-pop idol groups routinely are ranked on Billboard charts despite originating from a postcolonial country. However, there is dearth of scholarship theoretically and empirically to explain this phenomenon. This collection aimed to address this gap through investigating how and why the K-pop industry has achieved its present status. The eight articles included in the special issue deal with this question from various perspectives: the nature of the music itself, (gender) diversity in its fandom, and innovative strategies employed by the leading firms. Together, we believe that our collection paints a comprehensive picture of K-pop and its success, advancing our collective understanding of innovation management, cultural industries and the global pop music in general.KEYWORDS: K-poppostcolonial pop musicinnovationfandomglobalizationbusiness modelsymbolic capitalSouth Korea Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationNotes on contributorsPaul LopesPaul Lopes is Associate Professor of Sociology at Colgate University. He specializes in the fields of cultural sociology, media studies, and sociology of art. He has written extensively on rebellion and transition in “art worlds”, including Art Rebels: Class, Race and Gender in the Art of Miles Davis and Martin Scorsese (2019) from Princeton University Press.Ingyu OhIngyu Oh is Professor of Business Management and Cultural Studies at Kansai Gaidai University, Japan, and Research Fellow at the International Centre for Organization & Innovation Studies, Singapore. Many of his books and journal articles deal with East Asian corporate governance, knowledge management and business culture. He is the Deputy Editor of Asia Pacific Business Review.Lynn PyunLynn Pyun is Associate Professor of International Business at Ewha Womans University’s Graduate School of International Studies in Seoul, Korea. She is interested in the institutional forces as they shape firm behaviour and has been researching how this plays out in the realms of human resource management, innovation and gender issues.