SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Lee Soo Man resisted the title at first. “King of K-pop” sounded too brash, too nightclub-esque — like one thing you’d see on a neon register Itaewon, a nightlife neighborhood within the South Korean capital Seoul as soon as in style with U.S. troopers and international guests. “I asked them, ‘Couldn’t it be Father of K-pop?’” the 73-year-old recalled throughout a latest interview with The Related Press.
He was discussing the title of Amazon Prime’s documentary about his profession. The producers insisted the bolder moniker would resonate higher with American audiences. After some back-and-forth, Lee relented. “I had to follow their decision.”
The compromise speaks to Lee’s pragmatic method to breaking South Korean acts into the American mainstream — a three-decade quest that always required him to bend however by no means break his imaginative and prescient. Now, because the founding father of SM Leisure and broadly credited because the architect of Ok-pop’s international enlargement, Lee will likely be inducted into the Asian Corridor of Fame on Saturday alongside basketball legend Yao Ming, Olympic determine skater Michelle Kwan, and rock icon Yoshiki, amongst others.
Lee stays a distinguished however controversial determine in Ok-pop historical past. His label pioneered the business’s intensive coaching system, recruiting performers as younger as elementary college age and placing them by means of years of rigorous preparation. A few of his artists have challenged their contracts as unfair, sparking broader debates about business practices.
The popularity arrives as Lee reemerges into the highlight after a contentious, high-profile departure from the company he based in 1995 — a administration battle that included a public feud along with his nephew-in-law and a bidding conflict over his shares. He’s been preserving busy since, debuting a brand new band, A2O MAY, in each China and the U.S. He is additionally investing in a boutique Chinese language agency’s high-tech manufacturing applied sciences.
Born in South Korea, Lee studied pc engineering within the U.S. for his grasp’s diploma. That technical background would later inform his method to every thing from visualization and cutting-edge manufacturing applied sciences — he stated he’s been rewatching “The Matrix” to revisit filming methods — to pioneering elaborate “worldviews” and digital avatars for his Ok-pop bands.
For Lee, the Corridor of Fame honor “confirms that K-pop has become a genre that the mainstream is now paying attention to” — an acceptance that got here after expensive classes and years of trial and error.
When America wasn’t prepared for Ok-pop
Lee invested about $5 million in BoA’s 2009 American debut with “Eat You Up,” one of many first songs by a South Korean artist to be primarily written and produced by Western producers — a daring early try to convey Ok-pop into the U.S. mainstream. However with few well known Asian artists in American popular culture on the time, the market wasn’t prepared. After practically two years, BoA — already a megastar in Korea and Japan — determined to return dwelling. The expertise, Lee has stated, left him with lasting regrets.
“When I asked the songwriter(s) to revise ‘Eat You Up,’ they refused,” Lee recalled. “If we had changed it, I believe it would have achieved much better results.”
Sourcing the world’s finest songs for Ok-pop
That setback taught Lee that Ok-pop wanted to supply international expertise whereas sustaining inventive management to adapt songs for the worldwide market. His quest for the proper tracks took him worldwide.
“I once heard a song that was so good I couldn’t let it go,” he stated, recalling the monitor that may later change into “Dreams Come True” for S.E.S., the late-Nineties lady group. “I could’ve bought the license to the song in South Korea, Hong Kong, or Sweden. But I wanted to play it safe, so I found the Finnish address, went to meet the songwriter directly, wrote up a contract, and brought it back.”
On the time, high Western songwriters prioritized Japan, the world’s second-largest music market. “European songwriters were willing to sell to Asia,” Lee defined. “That’s how we eventually built a system where music from Europe, Asia, and America could come together.”
Fictional universes that maintain followers hooked
That fusion turned Ok-pop’s signature. Lee additionally helped to pioneer one other innovation: elaborate fictional universes, or “worldviews,” for teams like EXO and aespa — a storytelling method that may later be adopted throughout the business, together with by teams like BTS.
The idea emerged throughout his time within the U.S., the place he witnessed MTV rework music into a visible medium. “But we only have three or four minutes,” he stated. “How do we express dramatic, cinematic elements in such a short time?”
Lee’s resolution was to create ongoing narratives that unfold throughout a number of music movies and releases — suppose Marvel’s cinematic universe, however for pop teams.
Unable to draw established screenwriters, Lee developed the storylines himself. The technique proved prescient: These interconnected narratives give international followers cause to observe teams throughout comebacks, ready for the following chapter in an unfolding saga.
Regardless of Ok-pop’s international success, Lee stays targeted on Asia’s potential. He envisions South Korea as a inventive hub the place worldwide expertise learns manufacturing. “Korea should become the country of producers,” he stated.
With the Asia-Pacific area dwelling to greater than half the world’s inhabitants, he sees it as leisure’s inevitable future heart.
His newest enterprise with A2O MAY, which operates in each China and the U.S., is testing that imaginative and prescient in one among Asia’s most difficult markets. China’s leisure panorama has grown more and more restrictive, with Beijing just lately cracking down on “ effeminate ” male celebrities and youth tradition. Requested about potential political dangers, Lee dismissed considerations.
“Political risk? I don’t really know much about that,” he stated.
He stated he goals to raise South Korea’s cultural affect as a middle of manufacturing whereas assembly China’s wants because it seeks to develop its delicate energy alongside financial dominance.
“Culturally, does China need what we do? I believe they do.”
The documentary additionally addressed darker facets of Ok-pop near Lee’s coronary heart, together with the suicides of SM Leisure artists.
He traces the issue to nameless and malicious on-line feedback that always evade accountability, particularly when posted on servers exterior South Korea’s jurisdiction, calling it a world situation requiring worldwide cooperation. Lee advocates for worldwide requirements on person verification and mediation techniques the place victims may determine attackers with out costly authorized battles.
However Lee resists the media’s concentrate on Ok-pop’s issues. “Should we always weigh the dark side equally with the bright side, the future?” he requested. “Media should consider whether K-pop represents more future or more past that holds us back. Rather than just discussing the dark side and dragging us down by clinging to the past, shouldn’t we talk more about the future?”
After greater than three many years, Lee’s definition stays simple: “K-pop is a new language of communication that transcends barriers. These languages move around naturally — what you can’t stop is culture.”
