Conflicting Desires: K-pop Idol Girl Groups Flows in Japan in the Era of Web 2.0
<p>This article uses the experience of the female K-pop group Girls’ Generation (SNSD) in Japan as a case study to examine how K-pop represents a different kind of transcultural flows and consumption. It focuses on how the promotion and production strategies of SNSD differ from previous K-pop groups. It explores the “idol” and marketing strategies of Korean agencies in Japan. It reveals the conflicting responses to such strategies by the female fandom and critics of the Korean cultural movement, <em>Hallyu</em>. Within the context of a definition of K-pop limited to “idol” music, K-pop groups such as BoA and TVXQ that achieved a measure of success in Japan prior to SNSD did so by engaging in localization, speaking and singing in Japanese and collaborating with Japanese producers. Conversely, SNSD did not engage in such localization processes: they cannot speak Japanese and spend considerably less time promoting in Japan. K-pop marketing strategies mirror Japanese <em>aidoru</em> (idol) system, with the training of individuals who sing and dance. Korean agencies modeled early Korean idols on Japanese idols, and go further by “adopting globally popular cultural elements form Japan and the US, then repackaging and manufacturing culturally hybridized products. Finally, they resell these repackaged products overseas, sometimes even back to its point of origin” (5). Using the idol management technique of “K-pop traineeship,” SM Entertainment, SNSD’s Korean agency, creates a wide range of images associated with the group and uses online strategies, especially social media such as YouTube, to promote the group. In part, they foster fan participating by encouraging filming at concerts and uploading of fan content. Such promotion is made even more effective by branding by the Big Three Korean agencies.</p>
<p>While such promotion strategies encourage the female fandom, it has also generated an anti-<em>Hallyu</em> backlash led by Japanese men. Such critiques “see all practices relevant to consumption and distribution of Korean popular culture as anti-Japanese” and “signifies Korea’s potential threat to Japan’s entertainment industry” (7). Like the promotion of K-pop, such critique uses the Internet to spread its views. Female fans also use the Internet to show their perceptions of K-pop groups. SNSD allows young girls to “represent their sexualized desires” through cosplay, cover dancing and the emulation of fashion and hairstyles. At the same time, the Japanese media exhibits a male gaze by objectifying SNSD through its coverage. </p>
Sun Jung and Yukie Hirata
ejcjs 12.2 (2012): 1-14
Have You Ever Seen The Rain? And Who’ll Stop the Rain?: The Globalizing Project of Korean Pop (K-pop)
<p>Using the Korean artist Rain as a case study, the article examines the Korean music industry and its development into “multi-purpose star management” that creates transnational stars by de-emphasizing their national identity. It also examines the reaction by media and fans.</p>
<p>“Border-crossing Korean pop culture” is part of a larger phenomenon describe as “trans-Asia cultural traffic” (Iwabuchi) or “East Asian pop culture” (Chua). Yet previous studies confine Korean pop culture to the Asia region while K-pop is engaged in a globalizing mission.</p>
<p>Rain functions as a case study because he seeks to transform from a star in Asia into a global star. The means by which this could be achieved is the “star manufacturing system,” where Korean entertainment agencies incorporate production and management within the agency, and includes a training system. This system developed in the wake of the 1997 economic crises and shifts in the production in idol groups in the wake of the decline of music show programs. In order to achieve global star status, the article argues that Rain de-emphasized his Asian identity to embrace a global one in terms of marketing.</p>
Shin Hyunjoon
<i>Inter-Asia Cultural Studies</i>, vol. 10, no. 4, 2009, pp. 507-523.
<p>Howard, Keith. “Exploding Ballads: the Transformation of Korean Pop Music.” <i>Global Goes Local</i>, edited by J. Craig and Richard King, UBC Press, 2002, pp. 80-95.</p>
<p>Lee, Jamie Shin Lee. “Linguistic Hybridization in K-pop: Discourse of Self-Assertion and Resistance.” <i>World Englishes</i>, 2004, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 429-450.</p>
<p>Lee, Jung-yup. “Contesting Digital Economy and Culture: Digital Technologies and the Transformation of Popular Music in Korea.” <i>Inter-Asia Cultural Studies</i>, 2009, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 489-506.</p>
<p>Shin, Hyunjoon. “K-pop (music) in the Emerging Cultural Economy of Asian pop.” <i>Journal of Communication Arts</i>, vol. 25, no. 4, 2007, pp. 1-11.</p>
<p>Siriyuvasak, Ubonrat and Shin, Hyunjoon.” “’Asianizing K-pop: Production, Consumption and Identification Patterns among Thai Youth.” <i>Inter-Asia Cultural Studies</i>, vol. 8, no. 1, 2007, pp. 109-136.</p>
K-pop in Latin America: Transcultural Fandom and Digital Mediation
<p>K-pop is a subculture and through digital means, develops into a transcultural fandom that results in its incorporation into Latin American mass culture. By providing a critical examination of “K-pop fan activism,” the article examines the transcultural nature of K-pop fandom, providing a “more holistic approach to the study of the Korean Wave.” It also goes beyond the reception of K-pop in East Asia to focus on Latin America. The article uses interviews, surveys and fan blogs to analyze K-pop fandom in Latin America.</p>
<p>Previous studies focus on transnational appeal and visual and aural qualities. This article focuses on “digital fandom practices.” The articles holistic approach draws on Appadurai’s 91996) “disjunctive ‘ethnoscape, technoscape,’ and mediascape’ of globalization” (2251). </p>
<p>Transcultural fandom is the means by which Latin American fans of K-pop develop their fan identity and fans become “cultural emissaries” and enact a fan activism. The ties between Latin America and South Korea comes from historical ties dating back to the 1900s, the increase in Korean migration, and the development of Korean business opportunities and part of cultural diplomacy that also includes the use of various distribution platforms. The digital plays a significant role in K-pop fan activities in Latin America, made unique by the investment in the Korean cultural context of K-pop, adapting “to new cultural practices to recognize and validate themselves as transcultural fans” (2259). Moreover, K-pop occasionally emerges in the mainstream culture and makes use of officially recognized distribution channels and media. </p>
Benjamin Han
<i>International Journal of Communication</i>, vol. 11, 2017, pp. 2250-2269.
<p>J. Choi. “Loyalty Transmission and Cultural Enlisting of K-pop in Latin America.” <i>K-pop—The International Rise of the Korean Music Industry</i>, edited by J. Choi and R. Maliangkay, Routledge, 2014, pp. 98-115.</p>
<p class="p1">Madrid-Morales, D. and B. Lovric. “Transatlantic Connection: K-pop and K-drama Fandom in Spain and Latin America.” <i>Journal of Fandom Studies</i>, vol. 3, no. 1, 2015, pp. 23-41, doi: 10.1386/jfs.3.1.23_1 </p>
<p class="p1">Otmazgin, N. “Hallyu Across the Desert: K-pop Fandom in Israel and Palestine.” <i>Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review</i>, vol. 9, 2013, pp. 68-89, https://cross-currents.berkeley.edu/e-journal/issue-9/otmazgin-lyan. </p>
Manufactured Creativity: Production, Performance and Dissemination of K-pop
K-pop represents a unique and distinct Korean system of “manufacturing creativity,” which involves utilizing global music talents. <br /><br />This article documents K-pop a mode of manufactured creativity, explains the term, and examines how K-pop engages in manufacturing creativity. K-pop’s business model is based on talent and represents a blend of U.S. music strategies, which favor consistency and long-term popularity, and Japanese strategies, which favor quick-selling hits. K-pop embodies creativity and longevity. It outsources creativity but also reprocesses those creative ideas internally. Such manufactured creativity is exemplified by SM Entertainment, which has been global since its start. It expanded its business network globally but also emphasized the internal process of finishing songs, which also involves creative skills and talented performers. As a result, global for K-pop is a combination of global and local.
Gil-Sung Park
Korea Journal, 53.4 (2013): 14-33.
<p>Chua, Beng Huat. 2004. “Conceptualizing an East Asian Popular Culture.” <em>Inter- Asia Cultural Studies </em>5.2: 200-221.</p>
<p>Lie, John. 2012. “What Is the K in K-pop? South Korean Popular Music, the Culture Industry, and National Identity.” <em>Korea Observer </em>43.3: 339-363.</p>
<p>Oh, Ingyu. 2009. “Hallyu: The Rise of Transnational Cultural Consumers in China and Japan.” <em>Korea Observer </em>40.3: 425-459.</p>
<p>Oh, Ingyu, and Gil-Sung Park. 2012. “From B2C to B2B: Selling Korean Pop Music in the Age of New Social Media.” <em>Korea Observer </em>43.3: 365-397.</p>
<p>Ryoo, Woongjae. 2009. “Globalization, or the Logic of Cultural Hybridization: The Case of the Korean Wave.” <em>Asian Journal of Communication </em>19.2: 137-151.</p>
Motown Crossover Hits 1963-1966 and the Creative Process
<p>This article argues for a more significant place of the Motown sound within popular music history by focusing on its innovative creative process. It challenges the tendency to focus on the productive input of the songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland by pointing to the contributions of session players who were not always subject to the team’s direction. The creative process was more interactive between musicians and producers. The gospel tradition was also central to Motown’s style, and elements such as rhythm and syncopation from gospel found its way into the Motown sound, including “a swelling communal style ‘sing-a-long’ chorus, call-response vocals, 120 beat dance tempo with fingerclicks, a subtly shifting repetitive chordal backing featuring piano, expressive quasi-improvisatory lead vocals with blues inflections” (4). While these are hallmarks of the Motown sound, Fitzgerald questions the notion of uniformity in that sound. Moreover, the emphasis on rhythm by H-D-H became the foundation for songs rather than an accent in a section of a song. This shift resulted in a new style in pop songs, that is, making the melody and lyric primarily rhythmic. This distinguished Motown songs form other pop songs of the time, and the crossover effect translated into more exposure to and acceptance by white audiences, who could support the original rather than just a cover. While often critiqued as “selling out,” musicians did not characterize the music’s appeal that way.</p>
Jon Fitzgerald
<em>Popular Music</em> 14.1 (1995): 1-11.
Nonsense in Public Places: Songs of Black Vocal Rhythm and Blues or Doo-Wop
<p>This article argues that vocal rhythm and blues, or doo-wop, is impacted by race, class and location. Characterized by its nonsense syllables in a cappella songs, doo-wop is defined by its origins as public singing in urban neighborhoods. Goldblatt defines doo-wop as “a vocal-centric song genre” that featured nonsense phrases, often performed in black and Hispanic neighborhoods in urban areas (102). Doo-wop was a group activity incorporating various voices, not a solo genre. The nonsense phrases made the genre accessible. Doo-wop is often associated with “the corner,” which stands for “a public outdoor urban space” and “a metaphor extended to. . . spaces. . . democratically open to all” (103). As a result, singing in such public places was also linked to identity, especially for the people of color who engaged in singing doo-wop. The nonsense singing that characterizes doo-wop could be slow or fast, but it always revolved around the vocal foundation of the song. At the same time, the vocal style of individual groups varied, even when singing the same song. While the style seems to involve repetition, “the lyrics of doo-wop came as close as possible to being repetitious without repetition” (106). While Theodor Adorno argues that repetition creates similarly automatic responses from the audience, doo-wop precedes its recorded counterpart, thereby excluding it from the realm of mass art that Adorno critiques. Goldblatt argues that such repetition actually motivates audiences to participate through its repetitive nature. Doo-wop’s influence on rock and roll, and its evolution by the people of color who sang it, shows its significance as a musical form.</p>
David Goldblatt
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 71.1 (2013): 101-110.
Crystal S. Anderson
Playing the Race and Sexuality Cards in the Transnational Pop Game: Korean Music Videos for the US Market
<p>This article examines how the visuals of Korean music videos by BoA, Wonder Girls and Rain play on “racialized notions of sexuality” and “sexualized notions of racial identity.” Visuals that accompany various versions of BoA's music video for “Eat You Up” play into the Dragon Lady stereotype, which gained currency in the 1930s in Hollywood. BoA released three videos for the song: a Korean version that featured two white male dancers, an American version that featured black male dancers, and a third “official” version. Online reactions to the videos reflect racialized perceptions by viewers. Some noted similarities with other hip-hop music videos. Asian American fans were critical of the American version. The visuals in The Wonder Girs’ “Nobody” video allude to the China Doll stereotype. Unlike BoA and The Wonder Girls, Rain’s video for “Rainism” uses provocative images to dispel the stereotype of weak Asian men. American and Asian artists and producers exploit race and sexuality, yet the gender of the artists governs the type of images used in music video.</p>
Eun-Young Jung
Journal of Popular Music Studies 22.2 (2010): 219-236.
Questions of Genre in Black Popular Music
<p>This article examines the porous nature of genres in music. Instead of being fixed, the boundaries between music genres are not defined and are subject to transition over time. While genres of music can be arbitrary, we speak about them as fixed entities, which can also shift given the social and historical context. Music can belong to multiple genres at the same time because of changing perceptions or the difficulty in defining music by one single genre. At the same time, just because generic boundaries are flexible, it does not mean that one set of perceptions is more real than another. Specifically, in relation to black popular music, people can talk about black popular music, but not agree on what that means or reflect inconsistencies in defining the variety of genres that it includes. To grapple with such fluidity, Brackett suggests that scholars should contextualize stylistic elements of music within defined social and historical contexts. The notion of “crossover” shows how fluid musical categories can be, even as they reinforce musical categories. For black popular music, there is a link between identity and musical production can result in a “positive marker” rather than a negative stereotype. Moreover, black music is hybrid from its inception, which contributes to the difficulty in talking about it as if it is a pure form.</p>
David Brackett
<em>Black Music Research Journal</em> 25. 1/2 (2005): 73-92.
Reading the ‘Korean Wave’ as a Sign of Global Shift
This article uses discourse analysis of newspaper and magazine articles during 2001 as well as fieldwork to reveal how the Korean Wave allowed Koreans to develop a different perspective on globalization. It identifies three perspectives that emerged from analysis: a cultural nationalist perspective, which emphasized pride in Korean culture, an industrialist and neoliberal position, which emphasized culture as an industry and focused on the sale of Korean products, and a postcolonial perspective, which emphasized the Korean wave as only the product of capitalism. The Korean wave has continued to grow, sparking a second Korean wave that generated less ideological and more information-based discourse.
Cho Hae-Joang
Korea Journal. 45.5 (2005): 147-182
South Korean Culture Goes Latin America: Social Network Analysis of Kpop Tweets in Mexico
<p>This study analyzes the tweets of K-pop fans in Mexico focusing on topics in mentions in retweets. As a social networking service, Twitter is a significant force for information sharing. In doing so, the study fills a void in the scholarship, which focuses on Southeast Asia and Europe. The study uses the keyword “kpop” in the keyword search feature on Twitter to collect messages through Twitter API from users located in Mexico. Location was determined through profile information. NodeXL and UCINet were used for analysis</p>
<p>The article points to significant events in the introduction of K-pop to Mexico, including its links to the introduction of Japanese culture in 1992 and K-dramas in 1998 and 2002.</p>
<p>Most K-pop information is spread from entertainment conglomerates. Twitter messages tend to be positive and include information about K-pop and K-drama.</p>
Seong Cheol Choi, Xanat Vargas Meza and Han Woo Park
<p class="p1"> <i>International Journal of Contents</i>, vol. 10, no. 1, 2014, pp. 36-42, <i>KoreaScience</i>, http://dx.doi.org/10.5392/IJoC.2014.10.1.036.</p>
<p class="p1">S. Jung. “K-pop, Indonesian Fandom, and Social Media.” <i>Race and Ethnicity in Fandom</i>, edited by R. Reid and S. Gaston, no. 8, 2011, <i>Transformative Works and Cultures</i>, doi:10.3983/twc.2011.0289.</p>
<p class="p1">E.M. Kim and J. Ryoo. “South Korean Culture Goes Global: K-pop and the Korean Wave.” <i>Korean Social Science Journal</i>, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 117-152, 2007, <i>KOSSREC</i>, http://kossrec.org/board/imgfile/KSSJ%20Vol.34.no.1%28Eun%20Mee%20Kim&Jiwon%20Ryoo%29%29.pdf.</p>
<p class="p1">D.B. Sim and K. W. Roh, “YouTube and Girls Generation Fandom.” <i>Journal of Korea Contents Association</i>, vol. 12, vol. 1, 2012, pp. 125-137.</p>