The man behind the Korean Wave talks about the future of K-Pop and what aspiring artists can do

It’s been more than 3 decades since Soo-man Lee founded SM Entertainment, a South Korean music agency known for bringing K-pop to the world.

The entertainment company, which was originally founded as SM Studio in 1989, She became one of the first to launch the global Hallyu Wave – better known as the Korean Wave.

But Lee’s music wasn’t always based on K-pop.

“I became a singer when I was 19. Although I was famous, I realized that the audience was really quiet when I sang because I sang popular songs,” he told CNBC’s Cherry Kang in an interview with CNBC Conversation.

“But when foreign teams come [South Korea to] performance, they completely took over the stage and the fans went wild. Li, the founding president of the company, said that when I went to check out the concert, the fans seemed to be more excited than me.

Lee said that when he started thinking of taking K-pop music to the world.

“While studying in the United States, I learned a lot and thought it would be a good idea to promote Korean songs and singers abroad. This is the beginning. [of SM Entertainment]. “

Over the years, the 70-year-old has developed a system he calls the Culture Technique – by which he systematically recruits and nurtures talent in selection, training, production and management.

The system behind producing songs for SM Entertainment’s top K-Pop groups – like Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, and Red Velvet.

“There’s a written manual of ‘culture technology’ somewhere in my desk,” he said, explaining that it combines culture and technology in a way that is “logically formulated”.

“The manual will allow employees to learn and transfer ‘knowledge’ from it. And because I am an engineer, it has to be understood through logic. It defines formulas,” he told me, noting that he has a master’s degree. in Computer Engineering.

“So I can say that I am an engineer, not an artist.”

Even as SM Entertainment’s music continues to go global, Lee says it’s important that they continue to innovate and stay ahead of the competition in the music industry.

“We need to be so global, focused on what’s missing and what kind of distinction we can make” from other musical genres, he told CNBC.

Lee works with producers and songwriters from the UK and the US on accompaniments, track songs, and drum and bass drums, which he adapts to South Korean and Asian culture.

Regarding the importance of China’s influence in the K-pop industry, Lee admits that money will have a “strong influence”, but said he remains confident that the creativity that comes from the production will have “unlimited value”.

Lee says the issue of mental health remains a focus of his company.

“Be humble, be kind, and be likable” is what we teach our talents and people at SM… Things are a lot better now and global management companies are trying to figure it out. “

Lee also said his company “connects them with counselors and doctors so they can get help anytime. We may not have the same economies of scale as CNBC, but we’ve learned that these things are very important.”

As for the future of K-pop, “I think the meaning everyone is talking about these days is the future,” Lee says.

SM Entertainment founded a metaverse universe called SM Culture Universe, and launched its first metaverse girl group, Aespa in 2020. The group consists of four real members—Karina, Winter, Ningning, and Giselle—and their virtual counterparts.

“SM Entertainment is building ‘Play-2-Create’… People can discover their creative and creative side in the metaverse. They’ll realize, ‘Oh, I can create.'” I can make music. I can create dance moves. I can do that clothes. I can design artists.”

To realize the “Play-2-Create” concept, the company partnered with metaverse companies like The Sandbox earlier this year.

Players can create NFTs and games surrounding “K-content” in SMTOWN LAND, a virtual land in The Sandbox under SM Entertainment. NFTs are non-fungible tokens that are unique digital assets, such as works of art and sports trading cards, that are stored using blockchain technology.

Lee believes any country can create something as successful as K-pop, but the metaverse would be key.

“You can’t create a genre by copying K-pop. Everyone will see that it’s K-pop. Now, you need to show it in the metaverse.”

“I think we just need to allow fans to become producers and consumers at the same time. Let them create… Young people will have great satisfaction from being creative and will end up creating massive amounts of intellectual property and content.”

For those aspiring to become K-pop artists one day, Lee has this piece of advice: “Self-evaluation is very important.”

“Without looking at yourself in the mirror, you have no idea what you’re going to look like when you’re dancing, even if you’re dancing hard… When you can see and feel what you’re not doing well you learn.”

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