DE-NATIONALIZATION AND RE-NATIONALIZATION OF CULTURE: THE GLOBALIZATION OF K-POP by Gyu Tag Lee A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of George Mason University in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Cultural Studies Committee: ___________________________________________ Director ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ Program Director ___________________________________________ Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences Date: _____________________________________ Spring Semester 2013 George Mason University Fairfax, VA De-Nationalization and Re-Nationalization of Culture: The Globalization of K-Pop A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at George Mason University By Gyu Tag Lee Master of Arts Seoul National University, 2007 Director: Paul Smith, Professor Department of Cultural Studies Spring Semester 2013 George Mason University Fairfax, VA Copyright 2013 Gyu Tag Lee All Rights Reserved ii DEDICATION This is dedicated to my wife, Eunjoo Lee, my little daughter, Hemin Lee, and my parents, Sung-Sook Choi and Jong-Yeol Lee, who have always been supported me with all their hearts. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation cannot be written without a number of people who helped me at the right moment when I needed them. Professors, friends, colleagues, and family all supported me and believed me doing this project. Without them, this dissertation is hardly can be done. Above all, I would like to thank my dissertation committee for their help throughout this process. I owe my deepest gratitude to Dr. Paul Smith. Despite all my immaturity, he has been an excellent director since my first year of the Cultural Studies program. I am sincerely grateful for his patience, guidance, nurturance, and support in the process. Dr. Timothy Gibson introduced me to the Political Economy of Media and Cultural Industries, one of my main fields of study. He has been always kind and showed an enthusiastic attitude to advise me, and I thank him for his thoughtful instruction. Dr. Dae Young Kim has enlightened my eyes to cultural transnationalism. He has pointed out empirical errors and mistakes not only in the dissertation but also in other writings without hesitation, which was always really helpful to me. I have learned a great deal from the whole faculty in the Cultural Studies program at George Mason University. Especially, it was fortunate for me to take classes of some superb faculty members. Dr. Roger Lancaster, Dr. Suzanne Smith, Dr. David Haines, Dr. Hugh Gusterson, Dr. Alison Landsberg, Dr. Matthew Karush, and Dr. Tim Kaposy introduced me to knowledge and theories that I could not have found on my own. Also, I want to thank Michelle Carr for helping me all the bureaucratic works of the University. My colleagues in the Cultural Studies have always been motivating force. I cannot thank Sangmin Kim enough for being my ‘mentor’. From the first day when I landed on the US, he has helped me almost everything from searching the apartment to registering classes. Through discussion with him, I could carve my dissertation topic out from ambiguous thoughts. His family has also been supporting me staying in Fairfax, which is also great assistance to me. I thank Young-A Jung, who has always sincerely advised me about my dissertation and my future, and introduced great opportunities to publish articles. Liz Andrews gave great proofreading help during the final process of my dissertation, and without her advising I could not complete the dissertation in such a short period of time. Additionally, conversations in and out of the classroom with Fan Yang, Lia Uy-Tioco, Rebecca Forrest, David Arditi, Gavin Mueller, Richard Otten, Stacey Cumberbatch, Laina Saul, Nayantara Sheoran, Lewis Levenberg, and Michael Lecker were great for their camaraderie. iv Since I came from Korea, I got a great help from many of Korean graduate students at GMU. Especially, I would like to thank three of Korean graduate students. Dr. Yoonkyung Kim assisted me when I was at a loss right after coming to George Mason, and Dr. Yoo-Jin Jung and Jae-Hyuk Kwack were my good friends when it became tough for me to study in the US as a lonely international graduate student. I thank Dr. Minkyung Park in the Office of Global and International Strategies at George Mason University, where I have been working in for almost two years. She has always been kind to me, and offered an opportunity to be rewarded as a Graduate Research Assistant Fellowship in 2012-2013. Also, I thank to other office members, especially Dr. Anne Schiller, Erica Yoo, Richena Purnell-Sayle, and Lisa O’Hara. A number of journalists, music critics, and industry insiders helped my field research in Korea, summer 2012. I would especially like to thank Sung-Hwan Kim who offered me opportunities to work as columnists in various on and offline music magazines, and introduced many informants. It was really helpful for my research. Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank my wife Eunjoo, my one and only little daughter Hemin, and my parents. Without their support, I could not even think pursuing PhD in this faraway country. I dedicate this dissertation to them. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Tables……………………………………………………………………….....ix Abstract................................................................................................................……..x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 1 Media and Globalization ......................................................................................... 5 Homogenization and Hybridization: Two viewpoints............................................. 7 Globalization of Popular Music ............................................................................ 15 The Status of Nation-State in the Era of Globalization ......................................... 19 Chapter Outline ..................................................................................................... 23 CHAPTER 2: TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE KOREAN MUSIC INDUSTRY IN THE 1990S................................................................................................................... 27 Growth of the Korean Music Industry .................................................................. 28 Participating in the Global Copyright System ................................................ 28 Increasing cultural demand with the lack of substitution goods .................... 31 Digitalization in Music Producing .................................................................. 37 Emergence of the youth as the main audience................................................ 43 Shut Up and Dance: New Generation Dance Music Dominates the Industry ...... 46 New Generation Dance Music on the Rise ..................................................... 47 Radio in Decline ............................................................................................. 51 The Question of Originality .................................................................................. 55 A Brief History of Music Imports into Korean Popular Music Scene............ 56 New Access to Music in the 1990s: Pirated CD sand Public Video Screenings ........................................................................................................................ 59 Acquiescence of Illegal: Global as a Sign of Development ........................... 67 Plagiarism in New Generation Dance Music ................................................. 70 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 76 CHAPTER 3: THE ESTABLISHMENT OF K-POP: K-POP’S MAIN vi CHARACTERISTICS ................................................................................................. 78 K-Pop as Musical Genre ....................................................................................... 78 K-Pop Branding..................................................................................................... 80 Music of both Transnationality and Nationality .................................................... 84 K-Pop: the Most Hybridized and Transnational Music in Korean Music Industry ........................................................................................................... 85 Re-Nationalizing of Transnational music ....................................................... 87 K-Pop as Systemized Industry .............................................................................. 90 Idol .................................................................................................................. 91 The Meaning of ‘Idol’ in K-Pop .............................................................. 91 H.O.T. and the First-generation K-Pop Idols ........................................... 92 The Limits of the First-generation K-Pop Idols ....................................... 97 Wonder Girls and the Second-Generation K-Pop Idols ........................... 99 Agency: Total Management Strategy ........................................................... 100 Yunsupseng Academy ............................................................................ 102 Digital Distribution ................................................................................ 108 Hangsah .......................................................................................................