Why K-Pop Took Off When C-Pop Didn’t

The interest went beyond public musing: Beijing resolved to learn from Seoul’s example. China’s culture ministry signed an agreement with its South Korean counterpart, providing for annual cultural-industry forums and cooperation in marketing cultural products abroad. 

But it is one thing for Beijing to study Seoul’s cultural outreach, and quite another to match it. China, despite possessing a vastly larger population, an extensive diaspora, and the world’s fourth-largest recorded-music market, has failed to produce a music machine comparable to the international following of the marquee K-Pop acts. And while Taiwan’s Mandarin-language stars and Hong Kong’s Cantopop veterans have their own histories, they haven’t as yet spawned an act as ubiquitous as Blackpink or Stray Kids.

The audience Wang wondered about now extends well beyond America and Europe. Blackpink’s leading Spotify markets in 2024 included Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, and Brazil, spanning across the Global South, where Beijing has invested billions in the pursuit of soft power. These audiences’ affection for K-pop reaches across linguistic and political boundaries, giving Seoul a welcome that its diplomats would struggle to arrange.