SEOUL, South Korea — Lee Soo Man resisted the title at first. “King of Ok-pop” sounded too brash, too nightclub-esque — like one thing you’d see on a neon sign up Itaewon, a nightlife neighborhood within the South Korean capital Seoul as soon as common with U.S. troopers and overseas guests. “I requested them, ‘Couldn’t or not it’s Father of Ok-pop?’” the 73-year-old recalled throughout a latest interview with The Related Press.

He was discussing the title of Amazon Prime’s documentary about his profession. The producers insisted the bolder moniker would resonate higher with American audiences. After some back-and-forth, Lee relented. “I needed to observe their determination.”

The compromise speaks to Lee’s pragmatic method to breaking South Korean acts into the American mainstream — a three-decade quest that always required him to bend however by no means break his imaginative and prescient. Now, because the founding father of SM Leisure and broadly credited because the architect of Ok-pop’s world growth, Lee can be inducted into the Asian Corridor of Fame on Saturday alongside basketball legend Yao Ming, Olympic determine skater Michelle Kwan, and rock icon Yoshiki, amongst others.

Lee stays a outstanding however controversial determine in Ok-pop historical past. His label pioneered the business’s intensive coaching system, recruiting performers as younger as elementary faculty age and placing them by means of years of rigorous preparation. A few of his artists have challenged their contracts as unfair, sparking broader debates about business practices.

The popularity arrives as Lee reemerges into the highlight after a contentious, high-profile departure from the company he based in 1995 — a administration battle that included a public feud along with his nephew-in-law and a bidding struggle over his shares. He’s been retaining busy since, debuting a brand new band, A20 MAY, in each China and the U.S. He is additionally investing in a boutique Chinese language agency’s high-tech manufacturing applied sciences.

Born in South Korea, Lee studied laptop engineering within the U.S. for his grasp’s diploma. That technical background would later inform his method to every little thing from visualization and cutting-edge manufacturing applied sciences — he mentioned he’s been rewatching “The Matrix” to revisit filming methods — to pioneering elaborate “worldviews” and digital avatars for his Ok-pop bands.

For Lee, the Corridor of Fame honor “confirms that Ok-pop has turn out to be a style that the mainstream is now taking note of” — an acceptance that got here after expensive classes and years of trial and error.

Lee invested about $5 million in BoA’s 2009 American debut with “Eat You Up,” one of many first songs by a South Korean artist to be primarily written and produced by Western producers — a daring early try to deliver Ok-pop into the U.S. mainstream. However with few widely known Asian artists in American popular culture on the time, the market wasn’t prepared. After almost two years, BoA — already a megastar in Korea and Japan — determined to return house. The expertise, Lee has mentioned, left him with lasting regrets.

“Once I requested the songwriter(s) to revise ‘Eat You Up,’ they refused,” Lee recalled. “If we had modified it, I consider it will have achieved a lot better outcomes.”

That setback taught Lee that Ok-pop wanted to supply world expertise whereas sustaining inventive management to adapt songs for the worldwide market. His quest for the proper tracks took him worldwide.

“I as soon as heard a track that was so good I couldn’t let it go,” he mentioned, recalling the observe that might later turn out to be “Goals Come True” for S.E.S., the late-Nineties lady group. “I may’ve purchased the license to the track in South Korea, Hong Kong, or Sweden. However I wished to play it protected, so I discovered the Finnish deal with, went to fulfill the songwriter straight, wrote up a contract, and introduced it again.”

On the time, prime Western songwriters prioritized Japan, the world’s second-largest music market. “European songwriters have been keen to promote to Asia,” Lee defined. “That’s how we ultimately constructed a system the place music from Europe, Asia, and America may come collectively.”

That fusion grew to become Ok-pop’s signature. Lee additionally helped to pioneer one other innovation: elaborate fictional universes, or “worldviews,” for teams like EXO and aespa — a storytelling method that might later be adopted throughout the business, together with by teams like BTS.

The idea emerged throughout his time within the U.S., the place he witnessed MTV remodel music into a visible medium. “However we solely have three or 4 minutes,” he mentioned. “How will we categorical dramatic, cinematic parts in such a short while?”

Lee’s answer was to create ongoing narratives that unfold throughout a number of music movies and releases — assume Marvel’s cinematic universe, however for pop teams.

Unable to draw established screenwriters, Lee developed the storylines himself. The technique proved prescient: These interconnected narratives give world followers purpose to observe teams throughout comebacks, ready for the following chapter in an unfolding saga.

Regardless of Ok-pop’s world success, Lee stays targeted on Asia’s potential. He envisions South Korea as a inventive hub the place worldwide expertise learns manufacturing. “Korea ought to turn out to be the nation of producers,” he mentioned.

With the Asia-Pacific area house to greater than half the world’s inhabitants, he sees it as leisure’s inevitable future heart.

His newest enterprise with A20 MAY, which operates in each China and the U.S., is testing that imaginative and prescient in one in every of Asia’s most difficult markets. China’s leisure panorama has grown more and more restrictive, with Beijing lately cracking down on “ effeminate ” male celebrities and youth tradition. Requested about potential political dangers, Lee dismissed considerations.

“Political threat? I don’t actually know a lot about that,” he mentioned.

He mentioned he goals to raise South Korea’s cultural affect as a middle of manufacturing whereas assembly China’s wants because it seeks to broaden its comfortable energy alongside financial dominance.

“Culturally, does China want what we do? I consider they do.”

The documentary additionally addressed darker elements of Ok-pop near Lee’s coronary heart, together with the suicides of SM Leisure artists.

He traces the issue to nameless and malicious on-line feedback that always evade accountability, particularly when posted on servers outdoors South Korea’s jurisdiction, calling it a worldwide problem requiring worldwide cooperation. Lee advocates for worldwide requirements on consumer verification and mediation techniques the place victims may determine attackers with out costly authorized battles.

However Lee resists the media’s concentrate on Ok-pop’s issues. “Ought to we at all times weigh the darkish aspect equally with the brilliant aspect, the long run?” he requested. “Media ought to think about whether or not Ok-pop represents extra future or extra previous that holds us again. Slightly than simply discussing the darkish aspect and dragging us down by clinging to the previous, shouldn’t we speak extra concerning the future?”

After greater than three many years, Lee’s definition stays easy: “Ok-pop is a brand new language of communication that transcends boundaries. These languages transfer round naturally — what you possibly can’t cease is tradition.”