Pop in East Asia: Localization, Nationalization, and Globalization of Made-In Korea
WK 9 S1-2018 • Roy Shuker, “Essentially all popular music consists of a hybrid of musical traditions, styles, and influences, and is also an economic product which is invested with ideological significance by many of its consumers.” Homogenization Heterogenization Globalization Localization Technology and Economy
Connect, affect, and foster Linkage and Disjuncture Arjun Appadurai, 1996, Modernity at Large
• Ethnoscapes • Mediascapes • Financescapes • Techoscapes • Ideoscapes Global and Local in K-POP
Global Power Expressing Local Identity Hallyu, Korean Wave: Local production creates new relationship at global level K-POP?
• Labeling Made-in Korean Pop in World Music Category • Transnational Term • Consumption outside of Korea Russell, Mark. 2008. Pop • “The trouble with talking about a ‘Korean goes Korea. Berkeley: Wave’ is that it does not really explain Stone Bridge Press. anything. Korean pop culture acrosses many media, demographics, and regions, and it means very different things to different people. Can we really say there is anything specifically ‘Korean’ that allows teenagers in Hong Kong to enjoy Korean pop music, adult movie critics in France to enjoy Korean cinema, housewives in Japan to enjoy its television melodramas, hip-hop fans in Germany to enjoy its b-boy dancers, and college-aged comic book fans in the United States to enjoy its manhwa? ‘Korean Wave’ is a black box, a magical answer that explains everything and nothing” (213). BTS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= clXOslwjPrc
Transnationalizing K-Pop
• Foreign members
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8knBhtRS aaw&feature=related • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbtHFiAxj 7U&feature=related Wonder Girls
• Local language
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fy4cqW MhyI • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhFz8NTz6 b0 Russell (211)
• “‘The Korean Wave’ –the term originally arose to talk about the success of Korean pop culture abroad, but it has also become emblematic in many people’s minds of all of Korea’s accomplishments, at home and abroad. ‘Korea is a small country,’ people repeat endlessly, ‘We need to be successful abroad’.” Why “Nation” Matters in South Korea?
Colonial History, War, and the Nation’s Partition Local Ideology (Nationalism) ◦ Nationalism: seeks to unify or create a nation, usually based on a common geographic, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, religious, or historical identity (Rohmann, Chris. A World of Ideas. New York: Ballantine Books, 1999). is the feeling of belonging to a group united by common racial, linguistic and historical ties, and usually identified with a particular territory (Bullock, Alan, and Stephen Trombley. 1999. The Norton Dictionary of Modern Thought. New York: W. W. Norton & Company).
Nationality or nation-ness, as well as nationalism, are cultural artefacts of a particular kind. Nation is an imagined political community . . . it is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communication (Anderson, Benedic. 1983) . Imagined Communities . • How has popular music in Korea been shaped locally (nationally) and globally (transnationally) for different groups of consumers/audiences?
– Glocalization: co-presence of both universalizing and particularizing tendencies (Roland Robertson) – global culture is specifically tailored to convey “particular” meaning that works locally. – Evoking “nation” for the imagination of local boundary Early popular music in Korea and localization
• Combining foreign melodies with vernacular text • Indigenous songs sung in new style • Not clearly defined space, shared among indigenously born popular songs, popular folksongs, religious hymn tunes, art songs, mass songs, and children songs • “Vernacular text” evoking contemporary local sentiments • Indigenous singers singing in traditional voice projection – “Melodic modification”: reflecting indigenous musical language How does contemporary K-pop express local identity? What and how does it communicate with the locals? • Traditional culture functions as a system of representation by “emphasi[zing] origins, continuity, tradition, and timelessness” (Stuart Hall 1996:614). Rap/Hip Hop Musicians
1. Seo Taeji (Taiji) wa Aideul [Seo Taeji and Kids] • “Nanalayo” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKK0UEu4Q 5g • “Hayeoga” • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXX_y- ZP-G4 • taepyeongso: double-reed wind instrument
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9ZZ_4Jcr x4&feature=related 2. 1TYM • “Kwaejina Chingching” • folksong: ““Kwaejina Chingching Nane!”
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFoxggj4ngk&fea ture=related 3. Rock Musician Yoon Dohyun Band (YB) “ARIRANG”
Refrain arirang, arirang, arariyo arirang gogaero neomeo- ganda. Verse1 nareul beorigo gasineun nimeun simnido motgaseo balbyeong nanda. Arirang Folksong
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkM_LXU CMeA • Text meaning of “Arirang”: Arirag arirang arariyo one walking over arirang hill my love who is abandoning and leaving me within 4 km, will be hurt (feet injured)
• “Arirang” as an emblem of Korea: In Japan: By NY Phil: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-OUt3IFlzk In Sports: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oubZsdNQq4s&featu re=related • YB http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBWJwtRUZLg&featur e=related • Why Arirang? – Folksongs such as “Arirang” • No copy right involved: anonymous work – Flexibility: oral tradition; newly creatable – Familiarity and already popular – Calling and bring people together – History and musical experience: National identity 4. Ballade Group: SG Wannabe
SGWannabe “Arirang” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMzp7WL i45k Arirang, music video (Korea)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT7_83t3 xfU Hana Kage [Shadow of Flower Blossoms] 2008 Japan
• Hana Kage • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ucwnD-KWyM Global to Local; local to global • From this semester’s readings and lectures, we have discussed a number of examples that show musical convergence and confluence at a global and/or East Asian level. Identify 5 musical examples that illustrate the encounter and convergence of local and global/foreign cultural practices. Discuss these in terms of negotiation of old and new ideas, influence and impact of new technologies, and changes in performance practices and sound production, and how such a hybridized culture finds its place in local/global music scenes. Locals to Global • Jiangnan Sizhu • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbf7DUgdX7k • MCO • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYFNenPbOIE • 12-Girls’ Band • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ITTbC3i9po • Yoshida Brothers • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feGRUkKZBXg THE END