The Kdrama Phenomenon: Reasons Behind the Rise of Korean Content

S1 E6 / Are you up for a nerdy deep dive into why Kdramas have such a broad appeal? If you are, let your geek flag fly and come along for my one-hundred percent personal theories on the rise of Korean content. 

✅ This is a spoiler free episode. Enjoy! 

Links to podcast episodes mentioned:

• Dramas over Flowers - A Short History of the K-Drama Industry Before Netflix: https://pod.link/1270514773/episode/4aae9726178d6f0efd8b9da3a3fb2c57
• Lola Pops Off About Kdramas: Kdrama and their Genres: https://pod.link/1547547557/episode/bff07b15ecb0feb7f6a970084cfd5461

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

This is the How I Met My K Drama podcast, and it's all about K-drama origin stories and recommendations. I'm Sarah Rosette, and today is another of the Things I Noticed episodes. And this one is going to be more about the origin story of this rise in popularity of K-dramas. So it's a much broader origin story than we're usually talking about. Usually we're talking to an individual person about how they found K-dramas, but today I want to talk about this rise in popularity in K-dramas and Korean content. So it's a pretty nerdy deep dive. If you're interested in that, come along and join me. This is 100% my own theories. I don't have any research to back it up. It's just things that I've seen and observed. So this is another one of the things I've noticed episodes. If anyone has an idea for a better title for this type of episode, let me know because that seems pretty bland. Yeah, this one is going to be just about the rise in popularity of K dramas. So I hope you'll join me for this. If you're not interested in this, just hang out. We'll be back to interviews in the next episode. First, I want to give a shout out to two podcast episodes that you might be interested in if you're into this dissecting trends and analysis around Korean dramas. The podcast Dramas Over Flowers has an episode titled A Short History of the K-Drama Industry Before Netflix. And I will link to this and the other podcast episode in the show notes so you can check that out if you're interested. And this one is very interesting. It just they go into the Korean drama industry before Netflix. And so Netflix came in and changed everything. That's what I'm going to talk about today, is post-Netflix. So if you're interested in finding out what Korean dramas were like and what their industry was like before Netflix, be sure and check out that episode from Dramas Over Flowers. Then there's another episode that would probably interest you as well. It's from the Lola Pops Off About K-dramas podcast. And she has a recent episode called K-dramas and Their Genres. And she goes into different eras. You know how each era will have something that is the predominant type of entertainment that's popular at that point in time. She goes through K-drama history and talks about the rise of certain genres and certain tropes that were very popular and certain trends in blending of tropes that happened at certain times. And so that's just really interesting if you want more of an overview of the storytelling aspect of K-drama and its genres. So before we get started, I have to give you a caveat. This is coming from my point of view, which is a Western point of view, and other places will have different points of view. But a lot of this I will reference like the entertainment choices available to me and my thoughts on that. So if you're coming from a different part of the world, you're going to have a different experience. This is just my point of view. In the interview episodes, as I mentioned, I always ask the guest why they think K-dramas are so popular. And we get into some of the things that are mentioned that we're going to go into today. But mostly we talk about the storytelling when I'm talking with uh somebody about why they like K dramas and how they found K-drama. But this episode is more about the context around Korean dramas and overarching factors that contributed to the rise of K content. So let's get started. I think there are three main factors, and I'll hit them all in the beginning, and then we'll go back and talk about each one in detail. There's the growth of the streaming ecosystem, then there's the differences in Western content versus uh K-drama content, and that is focused on storytelling and tone and um the content itself. And then third, I think there's a community aspect that plays into all of this. All right, so let's go back and talk about the first the growth of the streaming ecosystem. Now, everywhere you look, in all types of entertainment from books to movies to TV shows, the ecosystems that provide the content to viewers, readers, watchers, listeners, it's all fractured. In the past, in the US, there were like three or four main channels, network channels, where you received content. And that's where all the focus was. That's what where everyone watched their shows. But with the rise of the streaming platforms, there's been this huge explosion in choice, which is wonderful. But what it's meant is that everything is very niche now. There's content for everyone and every interest. In my world that I come from, publishing and books, you used to just have a cozy mystery. You'd have a mystery as the broad category, then you'd have like cozy police procedural thriller kind of also would blend into that. So you'd have like these main categories. And now you're getting smaller and smaller categories. Lately, one of the things is not just an amateur sleuth mystery, but uh you can find academic sleuths, you can find bookstore sleuths, you can find uh cooking sleuths. So it's very niche and there are a lot of content available in each one of these niches. And we're seeing the same thing with television. If you only want to watch British shows, you can sign up for Brit Box or Acorn. If you only want to watch Hallmark movies, but you only want mysteries, you can sign up for the Hallmark Mysteries channel. So it's everything is getting narrower and narrower. And that is that's had some interesting side effects. One of them, I see it in publishing, is the rise of Kickstarter, where things that would not normally have a platform or an audience can find an audience on Kickstarter because that's where you go for the unusual, the unique, the special item. So what's happened as the ecosystems have narrowed down further and further and further, they need content and they need people to stay on their channel. So one of the ways that they're doing that is creating new content. And so that's why you have all these special shows that are only available on Apple TV or Disney Plus. That's one way that they're trying to keep viewers. The other thing that they're doing is they're going out and they're looking for more content. So that's one reason that there's more content available now than there ever was before. These streaming channels are like, oh my goodness, we need to have so many options for people so that they will continue to stay on our channel. And then I think another aspect of this is that there's been an acceptance of subtitles and dubbing that wasn't there before. In the past, if you went to see a movie that was subtitled, you were kind of, ooh, fancy because that wasn't the norm. Now it's very common. A lot of people watch all of their shows with subtitles. I know I do. I prefer to watch things with subtitles. Part of it is an issue with the sound, with the TVs and the sound bars, and sometimes it's difficult to get the sound just right. And sometimes the volume for the music versus the dialogue isn't balanced correctly, and it's just not a good viewing experience. You spend a lot of time rewinding and trying to figure out what they were saying. So a lot of people are much more accepting of subtitles than they were in the past. I know that maybe 15 years ago, I wasn't watching anything with subtitles, and I never even had that choice to do that. Now, with this expansion of content, we're able to watch shows from France, Italy, Korea, Japan, um, you know, just all over the world. There's these choices that are available, and part of that is because these dreaming ecosystems they need the content, and they looked around and went, oh, we've already shown all of our um content that we have available here. Let's go to another country and see what they have that we could also show. And our viewers don't mind watching things with subtitles, and so they will watch this. One of the early ones that I saw with this was the MHZ Choice Channel. That's what you can watch in the US on Amazon Prime, or you can subscribe directly to them. And all they do is they go out and they find content from other countries, make sure that the subtitles work, you know, for the different countries and redistribute it to countries that don't have that type of show. That show is not available until they bring it in. So another example of this is I think it's on Acorn. They have a French show, Candace Renoir. So Acorn is more mostly British content, but they have brought in this Candace Renoir show, which is a French subtitled show, and it's done really well. And there was a uh, they only had like the first couple of seasons, and it was a big deal when they got their rest because people wanted to watch that. So that's an example of how things are expanding and streaming companies are looking for more content, and one way they're filling that need is through providing these shows that were not normally available in their market. And part of that is Korean content. The acceptability of watching a subtitled show combined with this need for content is one of the reasons that Netflix has leaned so hard into Korean content. And the other thing I think is that the Korean shows, even though they're not as long as say something like Suits, which is done really well, they're 16 episodes. Usually, you know, they're usually 16 episodes at least. And then once you've watched that and they know you like that, there's so many other things they can recommend to you. So instead of showing you a movie that lasts two hours, they're like, hey, you might you might be interested in this show about these two people from North Korea and South Korea that end up falling in love. And guess what? It's 16 hours of content, and you're coming back to Netflix to watch all 16 hours and then maybe even re-watch it again after it's over. So it's a good plan for them, and I think that's another reason that uh they lean into this um bringing in new content. And it's another reason that Korean content has really exploded over these last couple of years, especially since 2020. Okay, so now let's talk a little bit about Western content versus Korean content. Western content, the storytelling structure is usually it's either a movie, which is very short, or it's an episodic TV show. And there's we had a short time where limited series were very popular back in the probably late 70s, early 80s. I I think of like the uh mini-series Roots and um The Winds of War, those were popular, but the networks didn't really stay with that format. They really like this episodic format, and there's some problems with that. It can be very unsatisfying because you have a story, but the whole point of it is to keep you watching that story for years. That means your characters are not going to complete their character arcs. You're going to have them in like suspended animation, especially at the end of one season next, because they really want you to come back. So they're going to put them in these horrible positions where you're or you have these questions that must be answered. And then the problem with it is sometimes the shows are not renewed. And that's just inherently unsatisfying. But then you also have these trends for shorter seasons, and I think that has to do with the cost and the unpredictability of what's going to succeed or not. They want to do these really short seasons to see how it goes. So instead of, you know, used to you'd get what, 20 plus episodes. Now shows are 10 or 12 or six sometimes, especially in the European market. And so if you have like a six or ten episode season, and then it does get renewed, then you have to wait maybe a year, two years to see season two, and that's just not very satisfying either. So there's some problems with this episodic nature of storytelling. Then I feel like there's a difference in tone in the Western world. The shows that are they're often dark and grim and edgy and pessimistic, those win awards, and they do get a lot of attention on social media and reviews. And so they're often very dark and extremely serious. So there's a gap in the market. Um, you do have like the Hallmark channel and some network shows going to this, the kind of the lighter content, but there's just not a lot of that now. It's mostly dark and grim. And then um, I've already talked about shows that are released with shorter seasons and they're often canceled. Um Firefly is a famous one that people are still so upset about. I got involved in one called Perception and it got canceled with no resolution. And that's just really frustrating. And then the other frustrating thing I think about Western television is that so much of it now is rebooted, old shows, old ideas, old concepts, because those are considered tried and true. Think about how many shows have come out that are just remakes. You've got Hawaii 5.0 and MATLOC or variations. You get CSI, Las Vegas, CSI, Miami, CSI all over the world. So you have storytelling that's not really that fresh. And I think that is a problem. But if you look at all these things, almost all of them have a flip side to them with Korean dramas. The first one, instead of having this long episodic season that goes on forever, you have a complete story, and that's very satisfying. When it's done well and done right, it's very satisfying. And the other thing is, even if it's trails off at the end, if it's not that great, if they'd mess up the ending, at least you've got an ending. At least you're not sitting there going, wow, I don't know if they're ever gonna make season two of my favorite show. And I think K dramas have a wider range of tones. And they do have quite a few choices that are optimistic and have a lighter tone than are available in Western television. I just can't really find shows that like they used to make, like The Mentalist and Castle. I have seen one recently called Wild Cards or Wild Card. It's a Canadian show. There's just not that much content on the lighter end of the spectrum, and you do get that in K-drama. They also have the darker, grittier shows, but you do get that range, which I don't feel like you really get in Western television. Then going to the rebooting issue where they're just recycling the same content. K-dramas are they like tropes. They're very tropey, they're tried and true, but they're also creative because they use this cross-genre blend to give you some really surprising situations and plot lines, like Signal is a time travel cop show. Uh, and that's new and different. You're like, oh wait, how is this going to work? So it's got some tropes that you normally see in a cop show. But you add in that time travel aspect and you're like, whoa, this is completely different. Where are we going with this? And it's interesting because you haven't seen it before. And K-dramas have fresh content. There's just this pipeline of shows that are continually coming out. And this may change, I feel like Netflix has put a lot of money into Korean content, and other streaming platforms have backed quite a bit of the shows that have come out recently, and that may change some of that. They may back off that a little bit. But still, there is a schedule of content that's continually coming out. And we'll talk more about that in this next section about the community aspect, which is the third reason I think that K-drama content has really taken off lately. With this fractured entertainment ecosystem that we have now, we have so many options. Appointment television doesn't happen in the West. Very rarely. Like I do remember watching the finale of Ted Lasso with a group online, but most of the time we watch things individually and we're in our own little niche. And, you know, before I found K-Dramas, I was watching these foreign language crime shows in Italian and German and French, and no one else I knew was watching them, and no one else was anticipating them. So there was really no water cooler discussions about these things. I feel like Ted Lasso, um, Sucession, Slow Horses, some of those have gotten people talking and people discussing things, but it's not at all like it used to be with everyone watching the same thing. When everyone was asked, will Castle and Beckett get married? And uh who shot JR? And what's really going on with Lost? Things like that just don't happen anymore. But in K-drama, there's this continuous banquet of new shows served up weekly. And there are group watches, there's online discussions in social media, on Reddit, there's a schedule where shows drop and people are anticipating them. And that's something that Western shows really just don't have. So it creates this community aspect among the viewers that is pretty much gone in Western television. There's fresh content and there's cohesion in the audience. There's shows that people are all talking about at the same time. Perfect example of this is when the phone rings, that came out, and it was like that was everywhere. And I, you know, I've seen this with several shows that have come out recently, and it just struck me as I watched the discussion around like Queen of Tears and uh Love Next Door, Twinkling Watermelon. People were into these shows and they wanted to talk about it, and there were other people who were into it, and because of social media, they could connect, and because of podcasts and, you know, Patreon groups and Slack channels, you could find somebody who was interested in the same thing you were, and you could really dive into it and discuss it. And I just think that's one reason people love that. They love that connection because our world is more and more fractured, not just in entertainment, but in connections. And so people love that connection. Plus, you have with K-Drama is this huge backlist of titles with quality storytelling to explore. So say you've watched all the shows that are new that are out right now and you're not interested in any of them, you can go back into the backlist and go, oh, I haven't watched My Liberation Notes. I haven't watched My Mister. I haven't watched Marriage Not Dating. You can find tons of content to watch and listen to. And there's people in these K-drama communities who will have watched it too. And when you get done, you can go online and say, hey, I just finished My Mr. and I thought it was amazing. Who wants to talk about it? And someone will want to talk about it with you. So that's another reason that I think there's been this rise in um K-drama content is because it fills this gap that existed in the entertainment industry. People want to talk about the shows they're watching, and it lets you do that with other people. Although, caveat, uh, there is a mix of reboots and season twos and spin-offs. And I think part of that is the Western money and way of doing things is influencing K-dramas. So we are seeing some of that. Some of it is just a series that has been super successful and they want another season, like Extraordinary Attorney Woo. Other times it is a reboot in a different format. So there's a lot of web tune-based content now that like uh Marry My Husband was, yeah, I believe it was a web tune, maybe a web novel, before it became a K-drama. Things are always changing. Nothing is ever static. It's always fluid. So there's um some impacts from the West are changing K-drama. And I think K-drama is probably influencing some of the things that are going on in uh the Western media complex. I guess you'd call it the multimedia complex. So that's what I see. I see that there's the growth of the streaming system. system and their need for content, the acceptance of subtitling, the differences in tone and storytelling structure, and the community aspect. I think those are all major things that have really impacted the rise of K content. So that's what I see and that's what I think. What do you think? Do you agree? Do you disagree? Do you see any other factors that have led to this rise of K content sort of in the context around and throughout the entertainment industry? Let me know. There's a text me link in the show notes so you can send me your thoughts that way or you can comment on Instagram. I'm over there under How I Met My K-Drama. So you can find the link for that in the show notes. And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a few minutes to rate or review it wherever you listen to podcasts. That will help K Drama fans find us. And thanks for being here today. I'll see you next time