MORE THAN SINGING AND DANCING: THE POLITICS OF KOREAN POP MUSIC

Sofia Guerra

What is Korean Popular music, or K-pop? In recent years, the industry has grown exponentially, affecting every aspect of Asian and Western pop culture. From the feature of “K-pop trolls” in the Justin-Timberlake starring animated film “Trolls 2” to rookie group Aespa’s appearance before the United Nations, K-pop has come to infect all aspects of modern society. Everywhere you look, it seems that K-pop is there in its vibrant, sparkly glory. In this article, Inkwell sat down with Dr. Inkyu Kang, Associate Professor of Digital Journalism at Penn State. Professor Kang is lauded for his 2015 book predicting the rise of K-pop into mainstream Western media. Inkwell interviewed Kang about his opinion on the history, current events, and future of the juggernaut music industry.

Inkwell: Can you describe how K-Pop has evolved and changed over time, especially in recent years?

Kang: The popularity of Korean pop culture didn’t come out of nowhere; it has evolved gradually as a global phenomenon for the last few decades. It was the late 1990s when I started to feel the growing popularity of South Korean popular culture outside Korea. I came to the United States as a student in 1999, and on campus I met several Chinese students talking passionately about a Korean television drama. The TV series — “What Is Love?”— was aired on China Central Television in 1997 and watched by over 150 million Chinese viewers. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Korean TV, film, music, fashion and food, as well as Samsung and LG consumer electronics were gaining so much popularity that the Chinese started to call it “Hallyu,” or the Korean Wave.

In 2004, another TV series titled “Winter Sonata” was broadcast on NHK, triggering a massive Korean drama boom in Japan. Lots of the drama fans, notably middle-aged women, started visiting Korea en masse, which was quite unexpected. According to an NHK survey, 90% of the Japanese respondents knew the show and 38% of them watched it. It was around this time when top Korean musicians, such as BoA and TVXQ!, started performing and releasing albums routinely in China and Japan. BoA, dubbed the “Queen of K-pop,” sold over one million copies of each of her first two albums in Japan alone in 2002 and 2003.

The popularity of Korean popular culture spread out outside China and Japan, but the wave was limited to Asian countries until the 2010s. The wave, triggered initially by satellite TV, spread to Japan in the early 2000s, and then to the rest of the world through digital platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Netflix. Since the pandemic began, many North American and European audiences have turned to Korean TV series on Netflix as welcome distractions—and have become hooked.

Korea’s entertainment has a unique blend of high production value, distinctive style and blistering social commentary, which one can find from Blackpink’s electropop or BTS’ hip hop to Netflix’s sleeper hit “Squid Game,” as well as Bong Joon Ho’s Oscar-winning “Parasite.” Until recently, Korean film, TV, and music escaped the attention of the majority of Western media and audiences, leading them to believe that Korean pop culture emerged out of thin air.

Inkwell: How have the foundations of

K-Pop informed the direction it has taken today? Tangentially, what other cultural and social aspects have influenced its development?

Kang: I think that what makes K-pop popular globally, including Europe, is good food for thought. On the surface level, K-pop is a spectacular body of cultural products characterized by catchy rhythms and jaw-dropping dance delivered by attractive pop artists. At the same time, they also get comfort from the social messages in K-pop and enjoy interacting with the performers with unique identities, which they didn’t experience before. For example, male K-pop idols’ images are strikingly different from the conventional rugged, tough-guy masculinity that has dominated Western culture. Many of them are comfortable defining themselves as “kkotminam (flower boy),” wearing makeup, dying their hair, and wearing clothes and making gestures across gender boundaries. Such a practice might make older audiences (and the mainstream media) uncomfortable, but K-pop’s gender fluidity is a selling point for the young counterparts.

The global rise of Korean culture also involves a lot of other things, including global cultural flows, the digital economy, the emergence of the new generations as the dominant cultural consumers and participants. What’s notable is the socioeconomic conditions into which the young generations—millennials and Gen Zers—are born, turning them into “the most progressive generation in history.” Since birth, they have lived under the direct influence of the financial crisis of 2007-2008, the election of the first Black president, Occupy Wall Street, climate change, and #MeToo, Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate movements.

Plus, the young audiences are less racially biased and more open to non-Western culture. They are relatively less biased racially and ethnically, because they have witnessed the economic and cultural influence of Asia. The Millennials and Gen Z are the generations that grew up with a Samsung smartphone and an iPad assembled in China, and they spend most of their waking time on them.

Unfortunately, the future of the youth around the world is clouded with deepening inequalities and job insecurity caused by growth without employment, labor market flexibility and unregulated, widespread precarious work. They are often referred to as the first generation to earn less than their parents. The growing concern and discontent over inequalities have contributed to the popularity of South Korean films and dramas like “Snowpiercer,” “Parasite” and “Squid Game.” Their critique of class issues has resonated deeply with audiences around the world.

Many K-pop bands, including BTS and Blackpink, talk about issues that matter to their fans, such as their uncer- tain future, broken heart, bullying and self-hate. Many Korean filmmakers and music producers had developed social awareness under the influence of activism during the 1980s. They happened to be the beneficiaries of the newfound wealth brought by the industrialization dubbed “The Miracle of the Han River,” which gave them opportunities for a good education, travelling overseas and diverse cultural experiences. Since its democratization, South Korea has achieved one of the strongest civil societies in the world, instilling creativity and imagination in the young generations and making the culture sector a desirable career path.

Korean corporations invested heavily in the culture industry after recognizing its economic potential in the late 1990s. However, Korea has always been a cultural mediator between China and Japan in the past, and now it is a cultural mediator between the East and West. Many Koreans experienced Western popular music for the first time during the 1960s and 70s through AFKN (Armed Forces Korea Network), the radio and television network for the military personnel stationed in South Korea. A lot of budding artists experimented with the rock ‘n’ roll, hard rock, pop, jazz and R&B, incorporating the Western genres into their own music. Some of them gained national popularity while performing regularly at U.S. military bases. Of course, Korean genres, such as trot and pansori, have always been loved by Koreans.

Koreans have gone through tremendous tragedies and hardships, especially since the early 20th century, including the oppressive Japanese rule, separation of families by the division of the country, deaths and destruction caused by the Korean War, severe famine and destitution that followed, and ruthless iron-fisted rule by military juntas that lasted until the late 1980s. These traumatic experiences have left deep dents in Koreans’ psyche, which they call “han.” This is a collective emotional scar, but it has worked as muse for Koreans as well. Koreans have expressed their han by singing, dancing, writing poetry and novels, and making films. Korean culture has developed its identity through the sufferings.

Inkwell: Can you speak to different types of political power that exist beyond hard, military power? How does K-Pop fit into these structures?

Kang: It seems that some people believe that the South Korean government has grown its culture industry strategically to achieve soft power greatness. Unlike washing machines or military aircrafts, hit shows and platinum-certified albums cannot be churned out through, say, “Five-Year Development Plans.” This misconception seems to have been caused by the seemingly sudden rise of Korean popular culture. However, the Korean Wave had developed for decades and was discovered by European and North American audiences only recently.

As a matter of fact, South Korea has a strong manufacturing and defense base. The Korean government has acted as a guiding hand by laying out the infrastructure, providing funding for research and development and offering tax incentives. The entertainment industry cannot be built this way because people’s cultural tastes and trends are notoriously unpredictable, fickle, and ever-changing. The Korean government seems to enjoy the country’s newfound status in soft power, but Korea’s culture industry has been led predominantly by the private sector. As a matter of fact, Korea’s culture sector started to grow rapidly after it got out of government control with the country’s democratization in the 1980s and the lifting of the decades-old ban on Japanese cultural products in the 1990s —the government had long worried that Japanese pop culture would threaten Korea’s cultural sovereignty.

Now the major players are big and small film studios and music agencies competing fiercely in both domestic and international markets.

Inkwell: Why do you think K-Pop, over other music industries, has become such an omnipresent force? Specifically, what distinguishes K-Pop from other East Asian popular music industries such as C-Pop and J-Pop? Why has it had such great success?

Kang: I find J-pop and C-pop equally fascinating, but I think that K-pop is more systematized, taking its production value to another level. We can also talk about K-pop as a system or mode of production, such as Motown. For example, Jennie Kim of Blackpink, one of the most popular K-pop bands, said that “what makes K-pop K-pop is the time that we spend as a trainee.” Shi-hyuk Bang, the founder of Big Hit Entertainment (now HYBE) that manages BTS, also said, “K-pop artists, by average artists’ standards, have to show acrobatic-level skills in their performances.” K-pop performers are expected to flawlessly sing and dance at the same time, which requires years of training from a young age—like dancers at ballet schools. Of course, it causes a lot of stress and frustration, because only a very small percentage can successfully debut.

Inkwell: What is your personal opinion on the utilization of K-Pop in international diplomatic relations?

Kang: I don’t support any attempt to use K-pop as a marketing tool to boost the image of a specific country. However, I fully support the collaboration between BTS and UNICEF to end violence and bullying and promote self-esteem. I was also thrilled when Blackpink joined the global fight against climate change a few years ago. K-pop is a global phenomenon; K-pop stars should care about issues that matter to their global audiences.

Inkwell: Where do you see K-Pop five, ten years down the line? What predictions do you have about its growth (or decline)?

Kang: I that K-pop will maintain its success for a while due to its competitive edge. What makes K-pop K-pop is its training system that requires performers to be equipped with skills that wow the audiences. However, audiences are very fickle and there is no guaranteed way to keep them satisfied.

K-pop has constantly evolved as it globalizes. In the past, entertainment companies tightly controlled their entertainers to maintain the images they had carefully crafted, and some agencies did not allow their stars to communicate directly with their fans. As you see today, however, the success of BTS and Blackpink would not have been possible without a strong bond with their fans. K-pop will keep evolving.

As Kang detailed, K-pop is a rapidly growing industry: an industry of music, culture, politics, and more. The flashy performances with sparkly outfits and impeccably coordinated choreographies are truly only the tip of the iceberg. K-pop tells a intricate story of the struggles and triumphs of both the country of Korea and East Asia as a whole on their journey to global interconnectedness with the West. K-pop is an industry unbounded: what started as music has become a political, cultural, and social upheaval. It will be fascinating to observe how this music industry will continue to grow and develop and just how far its influence will extend.