I am a reality show lover, especially competition show. Show Me The Money (SMTM) is in one of my favorites, I nearly watch every season. SMTM is one of the most successful reality competition show in Korea. It raises South Korean public’s interest in Hip Hop since season 1 in 2012. It is a popular programme until now, every season has tons of rapper wanna be in the audition. Everybody in the show wants to get famous or show their talent to the world.
In last year, The Rap Of China(TRC) is the hottest programme in China which is a competition show produced by iQiyi. The programme has the same idea of SMTM that has invited the famous rapper to become the tutor and choose the outstanding contestant to be the winner. Although the concept is the same, there are some adust when iQiyi do the programme. Here is an example of how iQiyi adapt the local culture to the show.
Show Me The Money
The Rap Of China
Editing/ target audiences:
Hip-hop culture is popular in Korean since the music industry and some idols are having that style so it is acceptable to the general public. Most of the audiences of SMTM are teenagers who interested in hip-hop before they watch the show. The audiences are more tend to enjoy the rap in their own way, there is no right or wrong for supporting which contestant.
But TRC is more focus on the technique. When contestants are full of skills and having good rhythm, it will have the logo that shown the contestants are using some skill to let people think it is very good. Since hip-hop is not a mass culture in China, not many people know the skill or how to appreciate rap. And the general public in China always thinks more skillful equal to better. So the programme sometime will have this :
(It is one of the signs of using a skill.)
Rap culture on TV:
Hip-hop and rap music always use cruse words to catch people attention, it has pros and cons. However, it is also kind of the rap culture. In Korea, the contestants have the freedom to sing whatever they want, even with cruse words Or diss others. One of the judge (Swings) in SMTM said: “the focus is on how well the competitors articulate their personality, life, and fashion as rap becomes part of the culture“(1). People in Korea respect the culture and the contestant, but they also want to protect the teenagers who watch the show at that time, so they will mute the cruse words and hide their tattoo when recoding the programme. But in China, there are some stringent rules on the reality show which need to ensure a “positive” image on the youth (2) so they do not allow contestants to use cruse words or any words similar to bad things on the TV.
Although two programme has the same idea:
Korea is more focus on supporting the rap culture to be their mass culture, want more people to get to know about it and appreciate it.
China is more focus on making a popular programme than promote the culture. It is all about skill, the popularity of the tutor or contestants.
It is not a direct copy from one programme to another. They need to think about adapt to local culture. I do agree it is one of the successful programmes for both Korea and China, but I think China can also have some original programme not just always copy other’s ideas to make a Chinese version. I am looking forward to it.
References:
- Boram, P. (2018, September 7). 7th season of ‘Show Me the Money’ brings together hottest hip-hop musicians. Yonhap News Agency. Retrieved from http://m.yna.co.kr/mob2/en/contents_en.jsp?cid=AEN20180907009200315&site=0200000000&mobile
- Xinyan, Y. (2018, July 20). Chinese hip hop makes a calculated comeback. Inkstone News. Retrieved from https://www.inkstonenews.com/society/hip-hop-reality-show-rap-china-makes-comeback-chinese-stage/article/2156141
- Kim, Y. (2011). K-pop: A new force in pop music. Korea: Korean Culture and Information Service, 82-94
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