From time to time, there are celebrities--like the Beetles, New Kids on the Block, Tom Cruise, Michael Jackson and Boys to Men--that are popular in both the U.S. and Korea. In general however, Koreans favor Korean celebrities because they represent the culture. They are the trend setters of Korea and are idolized to the extreme.
Whatever popular celebrities wear becomes "the style" and everyone wants to dress the same. There will be clothing advertisements that say "so and so��-style-clothes (fill in a name) and that's what everyone, mostly teenagers and young adults, will be wearing. Once celebrities gain public affection and popularity, they rule the whole entertainment business. It doesn't matter whether they are singers or actor; fans like to see them do anything and everything possible. Fans love to see their different sides and love them no matter what. There are many celebrities that are multi-entertainers. They sing, dance, act, DJ, host talk shows, and model. Once they become popular, it doesn't even matter what they started out doing or what they��re particularly good at. All that matters is that they do what the fans like to see. Most Korean fans are very loyal to their stars and just love to watch whatever they do, regardless of how good or bad they are in a certain field of entertainment.
Unlike the celebrities in the U.S., Korean celebrities have more opportunities to interact with the fans and they are very active in the media. If you are a singer, you get to be on weekly music shows and talk shows. The fan clubs are very well organized and easily accessible. The celebrities spend a lot of time with the fan club members and hold lots of special events for their fans.
I believe that this is what makes fans fall in love with their stars so easily. The celebrities seem more real, show more affection to their fans and have more intimate relationships.
Unlike Korea, the celebrities in American media are adored and idolized within their separate genres: movies, television or music for example.
And within those broad categories lies many more subcategories, such as pop, hip hop, rap, rock, alternative, etc. Because there are so many genres, there are hundreds of celebrities who are adored by a different segments of the American population. If you ask ten different people who their favorite celebrities are, you will probably get ten different answers. Unlike Korean celebrities, It is very hard for U.S. celebrities to cross over into different genres of media and become multi-entertainers.
I wouldn't say that U.S. fans aren't as loyal as Korean fans; however, U.S. fans aren't very generous at giving their stars a second chance.
The biggest difference I have noticed about celebrities in the two countries is that the American celebrities don't influence the lifestyles or fashion of Americans very much. In Korea, it's very easy to figure out what the trend of the season is going to be just by looking at the popular celebrities on screen. |
