[Lee Byung-jong] Michael Jackson, MTV and K-pop

While watching the newly released movie about Michael Jackson last week, I began to wonder whether the pop superstar of the 80s is in any way connected to the global success of K-pop today.

Perhaps not directly.

But indirectly, I could clearly see connections linking the two sensational phenomena of yesterday and today — MTV and the music video format that the medium introduced to the world.

MTV, founded in 1981 on the back of the rise of cable TV, fundamentally changed the way people enjoy musi