How can we explain the breakthrough in Morocco of this Asian group, coming from a country so geographically and culturally distant from ours and which also sings in a language as unintelligible to our Moroccan ears as “Hangugeo”? The subtleties of the strange alchemy which shaped the global and not only Moroccan success of South Korean groups like “Ateez” and especially “BTS” and “Blackpink”, who succeeded in the challenge of resurrecting the codes that we thought hackneyed from the boyband and girl-band vogue of the 1990s, find their explanation in a real state strategy initiated by Seoul to strengthen the soft-power of the “Land of the Fresh Morning”. The objective is to massively disseminate South Korean culture by amplifying the global success, not only of K-pop but also of the famous K-Dramas, these South Korean soap opera-style series. And it works !
In the space of a few years, South Korea, which was rather renowned for its industrial performance in the field of automobile manufacturing and consumer electronics, now enjoys a cultural aura with global influence. An aura which not only allows it to attract an increasingly growing number of tourists attracted by K-culture for whom the South Korean Ministry of Economy and Finance has just initiated a special visa called “K-culture training visa”, but which also allows, at the same time, to better export South Korean products and uses such as clothing fashion, cuisine, even language and literature including the current global breakthrough was unimaginable just a few years ago.
This is evidenced by the increasingly growing number of Moroccan and other students who are considering higher education in South Korea, as well as the number of Korean restaurants opening all over the world and even in Morocco. We can’t wait for such a surge and such success for our good old M-pop!
