Discovering Hybridity & Hallyu

by Andrew Chen

Full disclosure: the extent of my knowledge of Korean pop includes the fact that it’s from South Korea and the chorus to Psy’s hit “Gangnam Style”. Naturally, I’m going to need guidance and/or direction from Friends on Facebook that either is Korean and doesn’t follow K-pop or does follow K-pop but isn’t Korean.

Non-Korean K-pop devotee: “its awesome hawt cool amazing...it’s going global! [sic]” (Duns)

Useful.

Korean friend who doesn’t follow K-pop: “Rap...mixed in with English...seems to be focused more on looks than music...companies that each respective pop groups belong to...S.M. Entertainment is an example of such a company”. (Mae)

LOL S&M.

What do less authoritative voices have to say to each of those points?

Sue Jin Lee, Strategic Communications Major, Elon University: “The Korean wave—”hallyu” in Korean—refers to a surge in the international visibility of Korean culture, beginning in East Asia in the 1990s and continuing more recently in the United States, Latin America, the Middle East, and parts of Europe” (Sue) So Korean culture has been spreading the past decade or two, and presumably K-pop, a major part of that culture, would be poised to explode in the West, or not. Sitting at the edge of Gladwellian tipping point, it has the tantalizing pockets of success, and a devoted fan base. Yet, as Disney’s ESPN’s Grantland’s (a sports and pop culture website) David Cho asserts, Psy’s “Gangnam Style” could just as easily represent K-pop’s “Macarena”, a “medium-popular” hit instead of the start of a“big movement.” (Lambert)

Presented without further comment

Growing in foreign markets, K-popis the market in its motherland, and it’s really influential. Cho (Korean and follows K-pop) again: “Korea pop groups (known in Korea as "idol groups") are very household” and “[P]op...[i]t’s like, literally the only genre [in Korea]”. And finally this gem: “This is how serious Korean pop music is: SM Entertainment is a publicly traded company that makes a ****load of money.” (Cho)

This matters in that Korean popular music is connected to all other parts of Korean entertainment and in turn, culture, through the monolithic corporate conglomerates. These companies in turn “manufacture” idols by “‘cloning’ talent and grooming pop stars” based on “surveys” and “research” of the fans. (Shim) In fact, a large part of the popularity stems from the dances pageantry as much as the music. (Shim)

Ironically, K-pop came about from a liberalization and hybridization of the set, traditional Korean music scene before the 80’s and before. With heavy use of loan words “rang[ing] from Koreanized English to extremely idiomatic and colloquial American English accompanied by African American Vernacular English”, K-pop was born. (Jamie)

K-pop “employs rap only during the verses, singing choruses in a pop style.” (Shim) It contains “some random ‘hip hop’ or ‘rap’ or interpolations of the above”. (Cho) It represented a break not only musically (Shim), but shifted social views  as it “reject[ed the] older generations’ conservatism.” (Jamie) “In the '90s it was all about whether or not the government would allow people to have dyed hair on TV — and to a lesser extent, tattoos.” (Lambert) “[S]o the fact that the lead member of one of the most popular boy groups in Korea[G-Dragon] is putting out a song and video that has a curse word in the title is news.” (Lambert) He’s also blond, has tattoos, and intersperses English between the Korean. However, it still retains certain “Asian sentiments, such as family values.” (Shim)

G-Dragon, blond, tatted, and cursing

More English, from SM Entertainment's Girls

K-pop then is the synthesis of Western and Eastern influences, yet it developed a distinct identity. Together, though, “the...hybridization of music forms and organization of star-making processes, Korean popular culture has prepared itself for forays into [international] markets.” (Shim) Yet 600 words later, I still feel directionless, kind of like K-pop, because distinct among music movements and genres, K-pop and its direction is unknown.


Works CitedShim, Doobo. "Hybridity and the rise of Korean popular culture in Asia." Media, Culture & Society 28.1 (2006): 25-44.

Lee, Jamie Shinhee. “Linguistic Hybridization in K-Pop: Discourse of Self-assertion and Resistance”. World Englishes 23.3, (2004): 429-450.

Lee, Sue Jin. "The Korean Wave: The Seoul of Asia." Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications 85 (2011): 93.

Duns, John. “Chat”. Messages. Facebook. Web. 18 November 2012.

Mae, Culpa. “Chat”. Messages. Facebook. Web. 18 November 2012.

Cho, David. “Grading This Week's Top Ten K-Pop Songs.” Grantland.com. 1 November 2011. ESPN.com. 19 November 2012. Web. <www.grantland.com/>.

Lambert, Molly, David Cho. “Grading the Charts... IN K-Pop!” Grantland.com. 18 September 2012. ESPN.com. 19 November 2012. Web. <www.grantland.com/>.