It seemed that in the United States after the Backstreet Boys and ‘NSync from the late ‘90s to the early 2000s the peak of the popular boy band including idols became insignificant. The Billboard column on March 27 covered a story of British boy band One Direction and The Wanted gaining success in the US market.

The late 2000s brought new teen stars such as Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez bringing interest to ‘idol and their song’ and finally it led to the birth of ‘super idol’ of Justin Bieber from Canada.

British music focused on discovering not only vocalists such as Adele who sings with rich emotions but also boy band that is mentioned above like One Direction and The Wanted and is finally receiving the results of their efforts. One Direction is a British idol group that topped the US Billboard 200 for the first time in 15 years since the Spice Girls with their 1997 hit album ‘Spice.’ Also The Wanted placed third with ‘Glad You Came’ on Hot 100 charts of April 7, this is best results after the legendary British boy band Take That ranked 7th in 1995 with ‘Back For Good.’

We come to wonder whether K-Pop idol singers can also take the top spot in the world’s music market. The two British idol group that is driving the US teenage fans wild was formed only within the last 3-4 years and the group first gained popularity in UK last year and officially entered the US this year. Starting with TVXQ in 2004 as the ‘2nd generation idols’ groups are emerging forces of ‘K-Pop’ gaining popularity all around the world it seems that British music representatives that are the leading trend of popular music have built their own idol singers based on the motif of following the success of Korea’s idol teams.

As there are numerous articles covering Korean girl and boy group stars that are performing not only in Asia but US, Europe, North and South America. Now is the time for this phenomenon that can become a ‘temporary syndrome’ to prepare for a more systematic and practical way to prepare for the future. Everyone knows the fact that Girls’ Generation has given a live performance in US and France popular TV show, and TV movie of the Wonder Girls chronicling the girls conquering the US market.

Unfortunately it is that we do not pay attention to what follows afterwards. Of course the success in the US is not that necessarily important. If you look at Irish boy band Westlife they were not able to get huge success in the US market however yet have been popular for a long period. However currently K-Pop artists ultimate goal is to become a star in US and British pop music market. It is that there has been no Asian pop music star and it is that K-Pop artists have a higher possibility to become a super star as long as several priorities can become resolved.

First it is that the artists should release more music in English for more universal music fans to enjoy the music worldwide. Currently the enthusiasts around the world are enjoying ‘K-Pop’ as it is in Korea, however after a certain point to enter the mainstream it will reach a limit. Just as popular singers in Japan are generally producing album in Japanese we are in need of these localization strategies. Just as Wonder Girls have shared about the difficulties of learning English, it is not easy however it is an obstacle that needs to be overcome to move to the next level.

Second is the absolutely necessary need of collaboration with an influential promoting local management company and production team. For One Direction and The Wanted they might not have their current level of popularity without the help of Simon Cowell who has a powerful influence in US and British music industry through audition program. Even for Philippine teenage girl Charice and David Foster also without the support of Ophra Winfrey might not be able to achieve the feat of entering the top 10 album chart for the first time as an Asian.

BoA and Big Bang have also entered the Billboard album chart, and Wonder Girls have entered the single chart. There are some regrets however looking into Big Bang considering the fact the group hasn’t even released US album is showing their possibility in the future. In America the number of songs heard over the radio station is just as important of album sales, just as YG Entertainment recently have announced establishing offices in US and Hong Kong they need tangle results by working closely with a viable local management and staff.

Finally the K-Pop artist’s albums should be officially sold in the local market of major countries which is gaining a lot of popularity. Even in Korea the foreign music started to gain more popularity after they gained licensing for overseas. As idol music album is generally produced in special format which is making it difficult to be manufactured in certain countries. Although the domestic export offline sales is showing significant increase in sales however for local music fans that cannot help but purchase music albums expensively can lead to become a significant burden later on.

Even the music download is only limited to only few number of country’s music site. It is still insufficient level where top musicians songs and album are occasionally placed in the top of US and Japan iTunes. At least America’s largest online shopping site Amazon seems to sell many idol singers exported album however in major countries such as UK, France Germany it’s almost near impossible to find K-Pop music on sale in those countries music site.

There are probably K-Pop music representatives that have gathered to discuss and plan about the artists to stand firm in the midst of the international music market. It seems with a more strategic strategy of planning the idol groups’ future and becine localized for international music fans will surely bring K-Pop’s popularity to soar globally.