Description
Song:
Topic: Globalization, place, media, & the internet
Description: Since the 1990s, Korean popular music has been on the rise in the global music market. Although Psy’s “Gangnam Style” helped bring K-pop to a wider audience worldwide, groups like BTS have quickly achieved prominence in the wider music world. Discuss BTS’s song “Fake Love” in the context of the global music market, especially situated between South Korea and the west, and consider the importance of place, fandom, changes in media consumption, and the internet.
Additionally, you may want to consider the following questions and ideas to help frame your paper:
- How did K-pop become popular in foreign markets and in what ways?
- How and in what way is K-pop, more broadly, popular among listeners who are not from a Korean heritage?
How is fandom integral to K-pop artists’ success?
How might this genre be considered “world music?”
How is “selling place” important in the global spread and consumption of Korean popular music? Could tourism be part of this?
Although “Gangnam Style” is now a bit dated (and had pushback for political reasons), how might it be significant in the broader story of K-pop, especially in a global context?
What are the musical elements of “Fake Love?” Why might they be important in the broader music industry/market?
Why might the lyrics be in more than one language?
- Required Sources:
Jin, Dal Yong and Hark Joon Lee. 2019. “Preface,” “Emergence of K-pop as Transnational Popular Culture,” and “K-Pop in the Twenty-First Century.” In K-Pop Idols. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Oh, Youjeong. 2018. “Introduction” and “K-Star Road.” In Pop City: Korean Popular Culture and the Selling of Place. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Kim, Gooyong. 2019. From Factory Girls to K-Pop Idol Girls. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Nam, Kim Chang. 2012. K-Pop: Roots and Blossoming of Korean Popular Music. Carlsbad, CA: Hollym.