Masarykova univerzita Filozofická fakulta Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky Bakalářská diplomová práce 2019 Altynai Ibraimova Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Altynai Ibraimova K-pop as a Cultural Mirror of Racial Dynamics in the U.S. Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A. 2019 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature I would like to thank my supervisor, professor Vanderziel for his guidance and support throughout the years. Along with many other teachers at our department, he has given me an ability far more lasting than knowledge, an ability to think critically and learn on my own. I would also like to thank Ms. Petra, pr. Filipová and pr. Mikyšková for being such amazing role models of strong, intelligent and witty women, who have extended my understanding of what I thought I could be. And finally, I’d like to thank our department staff, pr. Elavsky, pr. Beneš, Marie, Kuba, Monika, Štěpán and all the other people I’ve had luck to meet in the last three years. As hard as being abroad and alone may have been, your kindness and acceptance have made worth every single decision that led me here. Table of Contents 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................1 2. K-pop: An Overview…...................................................................................5 3. Asian Americans............................................................................................10 K-pop as a Pan-Ethnic Voice...................................................................10 The Role of the Genre in Reinforcing Negative Asian Stereotypes........13 The Influence of Orientalism on the Perceptions of K-pop.....................15 4. African Americans.........................................................................................19 K-pop as a Neutral Cultural Space, Its Implications...............................19 Racism and Cultural Appropriation…….................................................21 Prospects of Change................................................................................24 5. Conclusion.....................................................................................................27 6. Bibliography..................................................................................................29 7. Abstract / Resumé..........................................................................................37 1. Introduction 2018 became a hallmark for Korean pop music, or K-pop for short, as it saw a South Korean boy-band BTS hit the Billboard chart with their album Love Yourself: Tear, making it “the first predominantly non-English album to top the chart in over a decade” (Herman, “2018 Sees K-pop”). Additionally, the act won the Billboard Award for the Top Social Artist of the year (Cirisano) and “became the first ever K-Pop group to” give a speech at the UN General Assembly (Wilkinson). The unexpected surge of group’s popularity in the U.S. has drawn attention from academia and media alike, who consequently noted one particularly unusual thing about K-pop: the overwhelming diversity of its fandom. The tendency has been illuminated by the outlets like The New York Times1 and scholars Ju and Lee or Longenecker and Lee, who have written on minority groups in the fanbase, such as African and Asian Americans. Accordingly, the 2017 survey by MineMr2, illustrated by the chart on the next page, has shown that the fandom rates are, indeed, the highest among these groups; it has further indicated the similar popularity of the genre with Hispanics (“Millenial K-pop Fans in the US”). In other words, it appears that K-pop tends to have a particular appeal to people of color, which, considering how “taste” often “functions as a sort of social orientation,” makes the genre an interesting, if not telling, sociocultural phenomenon (Bourdieu 466). For this reason, this study aims to analyze the reasons behind as well as implications of K-pop’s popularity among racial minorities in the U.S. 1 see Fineman et al. 2 “It was an online survey conducted among those age 18-35 in the US and the sample size was n=1939.” (MineMr, “Letter to the Author”) 1 Fig. 1. Rates of K-pop fans in the U.S. based on their racial identity from: “Millenial K- pop Fans in the US.” MineMR Millenial Tracker 2017. minemr.com/millennial-k-pop- fans-in-the-us/. The present work consists of three primary parts: a brief overview of K-pop followed by two study cases with each examining one – namely Asian American and African American3 – racial subcommunity of the fandom. Examining these fan groups in the third and fourth chapters respectively, this paper looks at the ways in which the racial and cultural identities of these fan communities intersect with cultural connotations of K-pop, resulting in new, layered meanings, which often defy simple categorisations. For instance, as the third chapter will see, the genre provides a strong cultural identity for many of its Asian American listeners, yet at the same time risks entrenching the already existing racial and gender stereotypes about them. Similarly, for the Black American fans K-pop can serve as a way to express interests outside of the 3 While Hispanics make up as large a subgroup of the fandom as African Americans, the scholarly and media attention to them has been very scarce to date. For this reason, it was thought best to avoid making evaluations about an entire subsection of the fandom given the little data there is. 2 precepts of what is typically associated with, and therefore to some degree imposed on, them, in this manner allowing the fans to subvert the binary “poles of black and white” they are usually defined through (O’Brien 3). And yet, as with Asian Americans the genre also poses an issue in regard to their cultural identity, since it frequently appropriates Black music without acknowledging the influence. In this manner, K-pop can be seen as a multi-vectored phenomenon, the meaning of which becomes actively shaped by its audiences’ cultural localities. In effect, this renders the music style a valuable reflection of the dynamics of race in the U.S. In terms of its theoretical approach, this study draws on a variety of frameworks, particularly those of fan and discourse studies, intersectionality and critical race theory. A number of materials are used for this, such as academic research and news pieces, but also media articles and fan blogs, used so as to support the theoretical parts of this work with practical examples of K-pop fans’ points of view. A study of this type, however, is naturally restricted by a set of constraints, notably its data collection methods. Considering that popular culture as recent and dynamic as K-pop does not yield itself to measuring easily, the majority of the studies used in this work thereby consist of qualitative researches based on small-scale interviews with K-pop fans across the U.S. On the other hand, one could argue that such an approach makes room for insights more in-depth than a quantitative study would. A second limiting aspect of the work is its race-based frame of analysis, which risks generalizing as well as essentializing the vastly heterogenous communities of African and Asian Americans. To mitigate such outcomes, it should be noted that the study approaches Asian and Black Americans as neither biologically nor culturally based groups but rather politically motivated ones. In this view, they are shaped by the need to have more power as a group, which in effect leads to a construction of identity 3 that specifically focuses on the similarities between the group members, even if in reality there may exist many more differences. Notwithstanding the constructed nature, however, racial identity is an impactful social, cultural and political factor, which in this manner should be analyzed and studied. This work’s focus, therefore, is put on race as an aspect of fans’ identities, which exists among a multitude of others. Finally, my own cultural background and experiences as a member of a racial minority group4 may serve as a limitation on my position as a researcher. At the same time, however, one could counterargue that “to understand how popular culture works on our emotions,” as Jenkins puts it, “we have to pull it close, get intimate with it, let it work its magic on us, and then write about our own engagement” (10). For this reason, I hope that instead of hindering the analysis my position as a researcher will rather allow me to offer the reader a new perspective on the subject matter. 4 I come from Central Asia and have lived in the Czech Republic for 4 years. 4 2. K-pop: An Overview As an umbrella term for a variety of music genres, K-pop generally refers to music which is produced and has mainstream success in South Korea5. It dates back to the early 90s, when a hip-hop group called Seo Taiji and Boys rose to prominence as they introduced rap to the Korean music scene (Jin and Ryoo 117-118). At the time of Korea’s rapid liberalization, this new, Western sound became emblematic of the country’s social progress, and soon its success led all major record labels to adopt the new-found formula (Lie, K-pop 58-61). As a way to increase its competitiveness, however, the labels decided to further develop the genre into a cohesive