K-Pop Expands, Alternative Target Vietnam?

2NE1 New Evolution Tour in Los Angeles, CA.

K-Pop is taking over the world. From Asia to America, from Europe to Oceania, K-Pop is growing at an incredible rate, especially after the Gangnam Style craze created by Psy last year, having more than one billion views, peaking at number one in 34 countries around the world. But K-Pop has always had a large influence on Asian music scene. Way before the Gangnam craze, the Korean wave hit Southeast Asian nations hard and Vietnam was not an exception.


Korean dramas started appearing on Vietnamese national television in late 90s, early 00s. These movies, featuring picturesque natural scenes in South Korea, the modern and vibrant city of Seoul, a sobbing Nicholas Sparks-like storyline and of course a cast of beautiful looking young men and women, captivated a lot of Vietnamese viewers at the time and formed a base for the Korean wave to start spreading in the nation.

It was mid 00s that K-Pop became a trend in Vietnam as the country emerged strongly with the rest of the world. V-Pop was filled with slow ballads about breaking up and sad love stories, quickly, it couldn't catch up, by any meaning, with the up-tempo songs from South Korea. In 2007, (Bi) Rain became the first K-Pop artist to hold a concert in Vietnam.

Bi Rain in Vietnam

Although the ticket price was only a third of other countries, the concert was not sold out. This quickly changed when K-Pop dominated Vietnamese TV screens and Internet access become vastly available to more people.  Almost 50,000 people came to see Big Bang performing for 30 minutes in SoundFest 2012. Tickets to 2NE1 mini concert became the most-wanted items among teenagers. A friend I know flew all the way from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi just to see them live in person.

SoundFest Vietnam 2012 attracted almost 50,000 people. Big Bang was among the line-up artists.

K-Pop is so big in Vietnam it's negatively received by many people. However, Vietnam is not a big market for music. DBSK rep once said they wouldn't come back in many years because they wouldn't make any profits in Vietnam. Super Junior's Super Show 3 in Vietnam, although almost sold out a stadium, only made less than half a million USD, while Taiwan racked US$2.8 million.

For so long, Vietnamese has been illegally downloading music from the Internet without paying only until very recently with the introduction of a paying portal for domestically registered music, iTunes Vietnam and music websites' deals with UMG and Sony Music. Maybe it's time for K-Pop to start discovering this infant market craving for foreign music fueled by teenagers and young adults. Korean idol groups actually do care about Vietnam market but finance is always the hardest issue to resolve. M-Tiful (엠티플) is the pioneer of Korean boy groups taking advantage of Vietnamese people's favor. They have released two singles in Vietnamese, in the midst of surprise and doubt from the locals.

All Right (Vietnamese Version)

Sick Enough to Die (Vietnamese Version)

Vietnam is the new Japan? I highly doubt it. You can't earn anything from Vietnam except for concerts and live performances, unlike Japan in which artists can sell big bucks from physical copies, digital downloads and live concerts. But a little dreaming won't hurt. Who knows this might trigger a chain reaction in South Korea since Vietnamese was recognized as a minority ethnic there. But this isn't the first time a Korean group aim something specifically for Vietnamese audience. Teen Top, Davichi has all done it before.

Beo Dat May Troi - Teen Top

Hoang mang - Davichi & Ho Quynh Huong

Vietnam has a long way to go before becoming a noteworthy music market, but some contributions from abroad could help it a little bit and only one can hope that Vietnam can turn into an alternative target with less competition than there is in Japan, heaven for B-class Korean groups right?