ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the evolution of K-pop, contextualising it in the neoliberal reformation of South Korea's cultural industry since the Asian financial crisis and subsequent neoliberal reforms. De-individualisation is an essential element of an idol group and K-pop in general, which works to the advantage of employers. Korea tends to see K-pop idols as one of the many export products, like Samsung smart phones and Hyundai mini-vans. K-pop, in that sense, are the McDonaldisation of the music business and the globalisation of radical neoliberalism. The country's pop music landscape is largely dominated by highly formulaic musicianship evinced by the fact that out of the top-selling 100 albums of 2011, 74 were those of young idols. Until 1997, virtually all of the roughly two dozen major pop groups that appeared between 1992 and 1996 were all-male or mixed-gender. De-individualisation is an essential element of an idol group and K-pop in general, which works to the advantage of employers.
