Kara with new Hallyu milestone, "We won't lose our identity as Korean singers"
Girl group Kara reached a new milestone in Hallyu history. Their album 'KARA BEST 2007~2010', released on 29th of the last month, has placed in the second place in the Japanese Oricon chart. Now it isn't such a feat to enter the Oricon chart as numerous other Korean singers had already done that, but this time it's special. What's special is that all the 12 songs in the album are in Korean, not translated to Japanese. What's more encouraging is that it's only two months since their actual promotion in Japan has started.
It's what even Boa and DBSK couldn't have achieved.
There are a lot of singers that have been successful in Japan, such as Boa, DBSK, and SS501. But one thing missing from them all is that they all did it with the songs translated and adapted to Japan, under complete localization strategies. There were some rare cases in which they released albums in Korean language but they all were for limited promotinal purposes and their sales were low. Most of them had gone through rookie stages there, so it was also difficult to tell if they were Japanese or Hallyu singers even if they accomplished top star statuses.
But Kara is different. This Korean album contains their hit songs since their debut in Korea such as 'Honey', 'Mr', and 'Lupin', in their original forms. Just like here in Korea, albums in foreign languages by foreign singers have been not so successful in Japanese market. But Kara has sold more than 51,000 albums, all in Korean language, in just a week and is ranked at no. 2 position. This is a first for an Asian girl band.
Records after records, 'attracted 150 thousands in just two months'
What's more surprising is that they have done this in just two months' time. Kara began its first steps in Japan in October with Oricon 5th ranking. They made a splendid debut with more than 29 thousands of sales in its debut week with the single 'Mr'. Their Bluray disk 'KARA VACATION' won the first position in Idol Image section. All their contents are making records on release.
Kara themselves are surprised too. Director Yoon Hong-Gwan at their management firm DSP media said that it's such an "unexpected success" but analyzed the cause of this success such that: "their singing and dancing skills, not seen from their Japanese counterparts, were essential." The firm said that Kara's paid Japanese fan club members are reaching 3000, and estimated the potential fans up to 150 thousands. It's not just the scale: what's encouraging is that the ratio of young females in the fandom are high.
"We won't lose our identity as Korean singers"
Kara's future albums won't be biased towards the translated and adapted songs only either. Director Yoon said that "It's still too early to make it with 100% Korean songs, but we'll surely make the ratio higher when we have made ourselves more known there," and added "we'd like to keep our identity as Korean singers no matter how popular we get there."
Kara is preparing a new album to be released in the beginning of November in Japan. They're scheduled to release a new song not yet released in Korea, but they plan to do it with all Korean composers and staffs. Their year-ends this year will probably be their busiest yet, as they're preparing to release a new album in Korea also and will be promoting these albums in both Korea and Japan afterward.
Translated by lvalue@Karaholic
Source : Economy Today
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