Creative Sector Resilience in the COVID-19 Era : Comparative Analysis of the K-pop Industry and the Performing Arts Sector

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused much damage to the Korean cultural industries, yet, embedded in the crisis are hopes and discourses of opportunity for the post-COVID era. In the commercial field, K-pop entertainment companies have used the crisis as an opportunity to expand their online performance offerings and promote platform development. In contrast, the field of performing arts is still seeking to adopt effective, non-contact digitalization strategies capable of attracting audiences with lower technical skills, such as streaming existing performances online. In this paper, we compare the responses to the pandemic of the popular music industry and the performing arts sector through the lenses of sector resilience and government support. We found that, due to the economic structure of the idol-centric entertainment industry, K-pop entertainment companies with digital platforms have proven to be significantly more resilient in response to the COVID-19 crisis than the performing arts sector. Along with the digitalization and commercialization of their performance and idols, the K-pop entertainment companies have shown increased resilience and accommodated a larger audience with stronger relationships. We also analyze the effects of the government’s COVID-19 support policy on the music industry, the performing arts sector, and individual cultural workers in three main areas: mitigation policy, innovation policy, and recovery policy. We recommend that the performing arts sector build a more strategic understanding of audience relations and that the government promote innovation policies for the performing arts sector while taking into account differences between the resilience levels of various sectors.