Jacobin newspaper charged in a new report issued this week that Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman (MBS) is using Korean pop music bands, known as K-pop, to distract from the domestic problems in the Kingdom.
According to the report, K-pop powerhouse Blackpink will become the first all-female music group to perform in Saudi Arabia.
Their show, scheduled for Friday in Riyadh, sold out quickly when tickets were released, and was moved at the last minute to a larger venue to accommodate the thousands who initially missed out.
The paper pointed out that South Korea has tried over the past decades to diversify its energy import sources. However, South Korea still imports over 30 percent of its oil from the kingdom and remains vulnerable to price and supply shocks.
Concerning MBS’ Vision 2030, the report said that the project ostensibly aims to wean the kingdom off its dependence on oil. It involves the building of the futuristic luxury city Neom — infamous now for both the violence involved in the forced relocation of inconveniently placed tribespeople and the sickening extravagance of its planning stage.
Parts of the plan involve privatizing key sectors of the economy — which will both impact the large subsidies traditionally paid to citizens and enable the royal family to more easily shift money out of the country should things fall apart.
South Korea has been involved in Vision 2030 and Neom almost from day one in 2016. But the glossy promotion of the project belies political unease on both sides. Both nations faced internal crises in 2016–17, as rampant corruption gave rise to mass protests across Korea and in Saudi Arabia’s east.
The impeachment of the Korean president and the mass arrest of members of the Saudi royal family did little to change both economies’ fundamental cronyism.
According to Jacobin, young people, facing brutal, lifelong competition in Korea just to survive and shifting opportunities in Saudi Arabia under Vision 2030, represent a huge danger to political stability. The threat of upheaval continues to loom large.
Hot on the heels of Mohammed bin Salman’s trip to Seoul to announce the investment deals was Princess Haifa’s culture procurement junket.
The Princess’s glowing praise of K-pop — by now wildly popular in Saudi Arabia, if notorious in some quarters for the slave-like treatment of its stars — speaks to the Saudi regime’s urgent need to provide diversions to its increasingly agitated youth.
Tensions also remain high in terms of the new superpower rivalry. Elites in both South Korea and Saudi Arabia have at times demonstrated a willingness to hedge by negotiating with or courting the Chinese government without US permission, though they undoubtedly remain closer to their traditional benefactor.
With tensions now squarely focused on the Asia-Pacific, it’s not the bombastic sounds of Blackpink that will decide the future of the relationship but the harsh realities of clashing hegemons.
It is worth to mention that Blackpink became the biggest K-pop girl band in the world, known for their unique clothing pieces violating the dress code in Saudi Arabia.
Hundreds of activists took to social media to condemn Saudi crown prince and head of the Entertainment Authority, Turki Al-Sheikh, for allowing Blackpink concert in Riyadh in violation of the Saudi conservative norms and religious values.
