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[Music] Korean Music Goes Beyond Asia to North America and Europe

Epik High and f(x) to Perform in the MIDEM Showcase

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism(Minister Yu In-chon) and Korea Creative Content Agency(President & CEO Lee Jae-woong) will attend MIDEM 2010, the world's largest music festival that will be held on January 24 through 27 at Cannes, France. During the event, the Korean Music exhibition booth will be set up and operated jointly by the two organizations. In addition, Korean music groups Epik High and f(x) will perform in the Showcase.

The male hip-hop group Epik High and the girl dance group f(x) will present a charismatic and energetic stage to record and music industry participants from over 40 countries including Europe and the U.S.

f(x) is a rookie group consisting of 5 girls who made a debut in September last year. The group was praised by Asian media as well as the local media as a "rising star who will shape the future for Asian girl groups".


SM Entertainment official said, "MIDEM will be a critical opportunity for f(x) who is planning to debut in China this year. With such great songs as LA chA TA, Chocolate Love and Chu, f(x) should be able to exhibit their lively and sexy charm".

Epik High has recently ventured into global markets. Having finished a tour in the U.S. in 2009, they are now moving on to Europe in 2010.

A spokesperson of Map the Soul said, "MIDEM Showcase is such a great opportunity for Epik High as festival organizers and licensing officials will come and join the event from all over the world". Tablo, a member of Epik High commented, "Though it's not a stage only for us, we will present as many of our hit songs as possible, including Wannabe and Fan and promote excellence of Korean pop music. That's our main goal here".

As can be seen in the strong determination expressed by Korean artists toward global expansion, the Showcase is already drawing a keen interest from music professionals and business people even before the show starts. France's Trace TV, a government-run radio station RFI and daily newspaper NICE MATIN have requested interviews, and Rowley Music of Australia and Platinum Marketing and Distribution Co. Ltd. of Taiwan have already reserved a seat for the Showcase.

In addition to participating in the MIDEM Showcase, the Korea Promotion Booth will be set up. The booth is designed to promote Korean music by introducing music videos of Korean pop artists and other promotional videos of classical music, Guggak or traditional Korean music and jazz.

17 companies including SM Entertainment, Map the Soul, C&L Music and KangNMusic will participate in the exhibition booth and engage in business meetings with music industry representatives from around the world.

The exhibition booth and K-Pop showcase will be the two main pillars of the upcoming MIDEM 2010 for Korean participants and the primary goal is to expand the market boundaries for K-Pop and to develop new markets for Korean pop artists.

Na Mun-seong, general director of the Production Support Division of the Korea Creative Content Agency said, "We hope to lay a stepping stone for K-Pop to go beyond Asia and move further on to Europe and the U.S. and eventually make Hallyu a global trend in 2010".

For more information, call Kim Yu-jin of Pop Culture Team at 02-3153-1250.

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