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Chocolate, Mustard and a Fox a and Mustard Chocolate, Rånes Nebb Christer Brian NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology Master’s thesis Faculty of Humanities Department of Music Performance and ItsProduction K-Pop, Norwegian andaFox Mustard Chocolate, NebbRånes Brian Christer Trondheim, autumn2014 Trondheim, thesis Master’s in Musicology Brian Christer Nebb Rånes Chocolate, Mustard and a Fox Norwegian K-Pop, Its Production and Performance Master’s Thesis in Musicology Trondheim, November 2014 Norwegian University of Science and Technology Faculty of Humanities Department of Music CONTENTS Contents .......................................................................................................... iii Abstract ............................................................................................................ v Acknowledgements ..................................................................................... vii Introduction ................................................................................................... xi Chapter One: A Deliberate Globalization Strategy ................................ 1 Cultural Technology, Hybridization and the Creation of a “World Culture” ........................... 1 Chapter Two: Catering to the Global Market ........................................ 23 Globalization of Content in Crayon Pop’s “Bar Bar Bar” ........................................................ 23 “The Fox Say ‘Bar Bar Bar’” ...................................................................................................... 28 Chapter Three: Aspects of Outsourced K-Pop Production ................ 35 The Push and Pull on Norwegian Producers ........................................................................... 35 Outsourced Production and a Thirdspatial Negotiation of Otherness ................................... 39 Balancing the “Korean Flavor” in the Productions of Boys Republic’s “Twilight” and F(x)’s “Rock Your Body” ........................................................................................... 47 Developing “Déjà Vu” for Girls’ Generation ............................................................................. 53 The Process of Top-lining “Déjà Vu” ......................................................................................... 58 Top-Line Spectrograms of “The Boys” and “Break Down” ...................................................... 67 The Import and Revival of “Perfect Tragedy” as “Hi Ya Ya Summer Day,” and the Use of Language in Its Top-Line .............................................................................. 74 Music, Visual Images and the Sexualization of Girls’ Generation and Miss A ...................... 80 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 91 Bibliography .................................................................................................. 97 Appendices ................................................................................................... 117 Appendix A: Interview with Leiv Aspén ................................................................................. 119 Appendix B: Interview with Leiv Aspén and Tomas Smågesjø ............................................. 129 Appendix C: Interview with Jin Seok Choi ............................................................................ 149 Appendix D: Girls’ Generation, “The Boys” ......................................... 157 Appendix D1: First Half of the Intro ...................................................................................... 157 Appendix D2: Second Half of the Intro. .................................................................................. 158 Appendix D3: “T.R.X.” and “Bring the Boys Out” .................................................................. 159 Appendix D4: “Girls’ Generation Make You Feel the Heat” .................................................. 160 Appendix D5: Melodic and Rhythmic Discrepancies I ........................................................... 161 Appendix D6: Melodic and Rhythmic Discrepancies II ......................................................... 162 Appendix E: Super Junior-M, “Break Down” ...................................... 163 Appendix E1: “So Baby Let’s Go” ............................................................................................ 163 Appendix E2: Dark Chasms Formed by Cutouts vs. Chasms Formed by Copy- and-Paste ....................................................................................................................... 164 Appendix E3: Transition From Modest Towards Hard Use of Auto-Tune ........................... 165 iv ABSTRACT The presence of K-pop production in Norway is not coincidental. Norwegian producers have identified economic and artistic market opportunities in Korea, while the Korean music industry has encouraged non-domestic producers to export pop songs to the Korean market and to collaborate with Korean producers. This model of production is a part of corporate globalization strategies such as S.M. Entertainment’s “cultural technology.” Yet, literature is scarce on the music in K-pop and its production. This thesis explores the musical content and production practices in transnationally produced K-pop tracks, and further investigates how international and transnational collaborations work in the production of K-pop. It attempts to bridge the gap between the most occurring themes of Hallyu research – culture, fandom, cultural geography, economics, ethnography or an interdisciplinary amalgam of these – and K-pop’s musical content. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For a number of years, I have had an interest in popular music but it was not until I was able to travel to South Korea in January 2013 that K- pop caught my attention. The NTNU Office for International Relations and Pukyoung University in Busan funded the trip, and I owe these institutions my humble gratitude. At one point during the stay, my friends Young Min Cho and Hyeon-Soo Jeon performed – with the greatest ease and self-irony – a nooraebang-version (Korean-style karaoke) of Girls’ Generation’s “Gee.” Through their performance, I discovered the theme for my thesis: Kamsahamnida. Later – and quite coincidentally – I discovered that K-pop was being produced on a large scale in my hometown Trondheim. From this family of producers, I need to thank Leiv Aspén, Tomas Smågesjø, and Jin Seok Choi for generously offering their time for the interviews that have made this thesis possible. I also need to thank Renate Skogtrø Eggan and Bård Ivar Basmo for conducting interviews on my behalf while I was travelling and for allowing me to reproduce that material here. And, of course, I also extend my deep thanks to Nermin Harambašić, Lloyd Lorenz Lawrence, and Camilla Norderud for allowing my attendance during the production of the top-line of “Déjà Vu.” In May 2014, the World Association of Hallyu Studies held a conference on Hallyu in Jerusalem. WAHS must be thanked for allowing me to attend their conference, and I am very thankful for NTNU Department of Music’s funding that allowed me to travel to Israel so I could join the conference and see the country before the devastative escalation of the Gaza-conflict that followed a few months later. In Jerusalem, I met with the renowned Hallyu-scholar, Keith Howard, whom I hereby thank for inspirational words and advice on K-pop research. vii Above all, I must thank my supervisor, John Howland, for advice, close-reads, and inspiration, and my sister, Ina Victoria Nebb Rånes, for additional close-reads. viii American pop is more drone-based, more repetitive, adheres to a recipe, and has a formula, while in Korea it’s … mustard and chocolate and everything in one song. –Leiv Aspén They were yellow. I mean, their clothes. Their clothes were yellow. –Vegard Ylvisåker ix INTRODUCTION Norway has for the past few years been more than adequately represented in the world of K-pop. By and large, production companies such as Dsign Music have carried out an extensive production of K-pop songs. In particular, Dsign Music – whose representatives have occasionally linked the characteristics of K-pop songs’ form to certain edibles – is most prominently discussed in this thesis in terms of their approach to production, while other producers will sporadically be referenced when appropriate. This project attempts to highlight the cultural negotiation between Norway and Korea. Such negotiations can be seen, for example through my discussion of the transnational medley, “The Fox Say ‘Bar Bar Bar.’” More significantly, however, such cultural negotiations are addressed through the extensive body of music that Norwegian producers have participated in the creation of, and by way of the theoretical and political issues of globalization, cultural hybridization, soft power and Otherness. Hallyu studies have mostly been concerned with culture, fandom, cultural geography, economics, ethnography or an interdisciplinary fusion of these. Musical content has been underrepresented in Hallyu studies and is ripe for discussion. I The term “K-pop” has been used in the East and South East Asian region for decades to describe South Korean popular music.1 Yet this term and music has not attained an especially public position in Norway, despite a very well-established local K-pop production environment. The term did not appear in any Norwegian media until 9 May 2011 (Castello 2011), where 1 Hereafter, “Korea”

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