Why the music business should be watching the NBA & 'South Park' dramas with China
from appearing on television. While my students and I were in China, several executives said that this was prompted by the television show Rap of China becoming too popular too quickly and pushing too many cultural boundaries.
And as long as the U.S. president's "great and unmatched wisdom" has us poised to go to trade war with China, the music business should keep what happened with K-pop in 2016 top of mind. China imposed sanctions against South Korea for the latter nation's support of a U.S. missile defense system . And streaming services got the "We think it might be a good idea" call.
Since THAAD, no Korean K-pop star has performed in China. The big K-pop conglomerates increasingly back K-pop acts with Chinese performers in order to participate in that market. Want to know why some of these Chinese K-pop stars were recently in the news? For publiclyThis is not unusual in the context of China, where the tour guide warned our students before visiting Tiananmen Square: "Do not talk about at Tiananmen Square.
Keep in mind, part of the reason that China is such a giant, tempting market is that China's authoritarianism cuts both ways. Just two years ago, when China decided music services needed to support copyright, my friend in Asia had the exact same experience with pirated services she was using to stream K-pop as she did when her favorite TV shows disappeared amidst Korean sanctions.
China giveth. But China also taketh away, and they do it with a rapid-fire, below-the-belt precision that will create new and certainly queasy realities for Western partners -- especially those representing artists with a social conscience or political bent. Universal Music Group may be getting the price they want per share from Tencent. But are they thinking through the true costs of the partnership? Time almost certainly will tell.
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