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I'm in my final year (12) of the HSC (New South Wales', Australian state, high school exams). In my society and culture class we are studying popular culture and our case study is Bollywood. It's been a really fun unit because I can apply it to so many franchises and K-pop. I thought I'd apply some of the stuff we're learning right into K-pop.
Popular culture has 4 distinguishing features that separates it from other cultures (such as folk and high):
- Association with commercial products and paraphernalia
- It's development from a local to a global level
- Widespread consumer access
- And constant change and evolution
Commercial Products and Paraphernalia
One of the main things of popular culture is that it's commodified: Meaning businesses produce the culture on a large-scale using the profit motive. These products and paraphernalia (merch, basically) allow people to identify with the popular culture.
If the K-pop industry is known for one thing, it's the albums. Through the little inclusions of paraphernalia including but not limited to photobooks, photocards, postcards, stickers, photo strips and posters, the industry has turned a once humble CD into something bigger to allow fans identify with the fandom they're in through collecting the albums, decorating the photocards and taking the cards with them, using the stickers and more. The CD itself, though not as relevant as once before, is still pretty symbolic with K-pop's relationship to pop culture. The music inside these CDs and other promotions such as music videos, TV and radio shows are used to promote K-pop and the albums. K-pop firms have also taken the advantage of the internet and social media to market and expand K-pop. Brand endorsements and product placement is also very common in K-pop.
It's important to note that the groups, songs and people themselves are technically not popular culture. Koo Jungmo from Cravity is not pop culture, Adrenaline by Cravity is not popular culture, Cravity themselves are not pop culture, but the Jungmo photocard, Adrenaline CD and the Cravity poster are pop culture.
Develops from a Local to a Global Level
Through the use of communication technologies and the mass media, popular culture usually starts out on a local level to one accepted around the world.
K-pop before the 1990s was always on a small level, however The Hallyu Wave was started as an attempt to build the South Korean economy after the 1998 Olympics. South Korean firms used a mix of American Japanese ideals, for the former their styles of music and technology, and for the latter their marketing styles and use of the idol persona, to export Korean cultural products. By the mid 2000s, K-pop (as in idol music) had already swept through the nation and reached to countries such as Japan and China through the marketing strategies used on social media, The Big 3 of SM, JYP and YG being the main companies to push the global acceptance of K-pop. By the early 2010s, America was exposed to K-pop and it all got bigger from there.
Widespread Consumer Access
Popular culture needs widespread access, it can't just be western countries that determines what is pop culture or not. Consumers also need to be able to, thematically and physically, access pop culture. As western values ad norms are globalised, pop culture is usually adapted to these norms to access global audiences.
K-pop has been westernised since day one as the first songs borrowed from hip-hop and bubblegum pop (HOT's decedents warriors and candy). Most K-pop nowadays are still borrowed from global music genres (Dutch house and Melbourne bounce for example). Music videos that reflect lifestyles also tend to be vague so they can be reflected across multiple cultures (The clothing in Newjean's Ditto's MVs for instance is a mix of British and Korean school uniforms).
This one may be a stretch, and tell me if I'm wrong, but I've noticed that in many Asian cultures 'bad' people aren't usually shown in a good light though media forms such as TV shows (We wouldn't see a K-drama of a drug dealer and have it end with them still being drug dealer. Wild example but I had to get my point across), and I think we see that in idols. Idol means someone we look up to, so this idealisation of dancing, singing humans stays in intact of Asian examples. However, as the idol persona differs a lot, people who are exposed to western values can still connect through individualism.
Constantly Changing and Evolving
As the global society changes and develops, so does pop culture, it's not set in stone.
We can apply this to so many aspects of K-pop:
- Formation of groups - Groups have grown in size; Groups used to be a handful of members until SNSD debuted, and since then there has been a growing amount of large groups in the K-pop scene, with the extreme examples being NCT and Triples. Survival shows have also been a adopted way to expose new groups (even before they formed) to the consumer, and pre debut content in general has become a growing way of exposing up and coming idols.
- Social Media use - Social Media and internet have always been a big part in K-pop. However the development of technology such as video calls streaming have led to new ways of marketing idols (online fan signs and vlives respectively)
- AI development is leading to a wave of idols and groups too as it's becoming popular in the global world. Examples include the MAVE, PLAVE and the AI members of Aespa to a lesser extent)
- Values in music/MVs - It's hard to pinpoint the changing of values and beliefs in idol groups through the ages as they all differ from each other in little ways. Through the ages K-pop has always stayed somewhat vivid and bubbly, however through the introduction of generations and groups there have been music videos full of drama-esque story lines (T-ara's day by day and sexy love, Bigbang's haru haru, Beast's fiction), the male gaze (think Aoa, Secret, Girl's Day), stories about growing up (Red Velvet's red flavour, Bts's run (not bts run)) and (female) empowerment (itzy's dalla dalla, Hwasa's twit, clc's no). Since 2019 there has been a surge of 'lore' in K-pop's paraphernalia, connecting music video to music video, album to album. These stories can differ between a lot, but there is a chance the lore in K-pop releases will evolve too.
Okay! That's it! It took me like an hour to write this wow. Apologies if I got anything wrong, especially the last section I felt like I was walking on eggshells lol. Thanks for reading!
Forcing people to read my essay:
@sunflower
@SugarPoppinBSI
@ManduBun
@ichigohon
@Jungwonie
@Selfmate
@YouChanTheSheep
@nymphology
Popular culture has 4 distinguishing features that separates it from other cultures (such as folk and high):
- Association with commercial products and paraphernalia
- It's development from a local to a global level
- Widespread consumer access
- And constant change and evolution
Commercial Products and Paraphernalia
One of the main things of popular culture is that it's commodified: Meaning businesses produce the culture on a large-scale using the profit motive. These products and paraphernalia (merch, basically) allow people to identify with the popular culture.
If the K-pop industry is known for one thing, it's the albums. Through the little inclusions of paraphernalia including but not limited to photobooks, photocards, postcards, stickers, photo strips and posters, the industry has turned a once humble CD into something bigger to allow fans identify with the fandom they're in through collecting the albums, decorating the photocards and taking the cards with them, using the stickers and more. The CD itself, though not as relevant as once before, is still pretty symbolic with K-pop's relationship to pop culture. The music inside these CDs and other promotions such as music videos, TV and radio shows are used to promote K-pop and the albums. K-pop firms have also taken the advantage of the internet and social media to market and expand K-pop. Brand endorsements and product placement is also very common in K-pop.
It's important to note that the groups, songs and people themselves are technically not popular culture. Koo Jungmo from Cravity is not pop culture, Adrenaline by Cravity is not popular culture, Cravity themselves are not pop culture, but the Jungmo photocard, Adrenaline CD and the Cravity poster are pop culture.
Develops from a Local to a Global Level
Through the use of communication technologies and the mass media, popular culture usually starts out on a local level to one accepted around the world.
K-pop before the 1990s was always on a small level, however The Hallyu Wave was started as an attempt to build the South Korean economy after the 1998 Olympics. South Korean firms used a mix of American Japanese ideals, for the former their styles of music and technology, and for the latter their marketing styles and use of the idol persona, to export Korean cultural products. By the mid 2000s, K-pop (as in idol music) had already swept through the nation and reached to countries such as Japan and China through the marketing strategies used on social media, The Big 3 of SM, JYP and YG being the main companies to push the global acceptance of K-pop. By the early 2010s, America was exposed to K-pop and it all got bigger from there.
Widespread Consumer Access
Popular culture needs widespread access, it can't just be western countries that determines what is pop culture or not. Consumers also need to be able to, thematically and physically, access pop culture. As western values ad norms are globalised, pop culture is usually adapted to these norms to access global audiences.
K-pop has been westernised since day one as the first songs borrowed from hip-hop and bubblegum pop (HOT's decedents warriors and candy). Most K-pop nowadays are still borrowed from global music genres (Dutch house and Melbourne bounce for example). Music videos that reflect lifestyles also tend to be vague so they can be reflected across multiple cultures (The clothing in Newjean's Ditto's MVs for instance is a mix of British and Korean school uniforms).
This one may be a stretch, and tell me if I'm wrong, but I've noticed that in many Asian cultures 'bad' people aren't usually shown in a good light though media forms such as TV shows (We wouldn't see a K-drama of a drug dealer and have it end with them still being drug dealer. Wild example but I had to get my point across), and I think we see that in idols. Idol means someone we look up to, so this idealisation of dancing, singing humans stays in intact of Asian examples. However, as the idol persona differs a lot, people who are exposed to western values can still connect through individualism.
Constantly Changing and Evolving
As the global society changes and develops, so does pop culture, it's not set in stone.
We can apply this to so many aspects of K-pop:
- Formation of groups - Groups have grown in size; Groups used to be a handful of members until SNSD debuted, and since then there has been a growing amount of large groups in the K-pop scene, with the extreme examples being NCT and Triples. Survival shows have also been a adopted way to expose new groups (even before they formed) to the consumer, and pre debut content in general has become a growing way of exposing up and coming idols.
- Social Media use - Social Media and internet have always been a big part in K-pop. However the development of technology such as video calls streaming have led to new ways of marketing idols (online fan signs and vlives respectively)
- AI development is leading to a wave of idols and groups too as it's becoming popular in the global world. Examples include the MAVE, PLAVE and the AI members of Aespa to a lesser extent)
- Values in music/MVs - It's hard to pinpoint the changing of values and beliefs in idol groups through the ages as they all differ from each other in little ways. Through the ages K-pop has always stayed somewhat vivid and bubbly, however through the introduction of generations and groups there have been music videos full of drama-esque story lines (T-ara's day by day and sexy love, Bigbang's haru haru, Beast's fiction), the male gaze (think Aoa, Secret, Girl's Day), stories about growing up (Red Velvet's red flavour, Bts's run (not bts run)) and (female) empowerment (itzy's dalla dalla, Hwasa's twit, clc's no). Since 2019 there has been a surge of 'lore' in K-pop's paraphernalia, connecting music video to music video, album to album. These stories can differ between a lot, but there is a chance the lore in K-pop releases will evolve too.
Okay! That's it! It took me like an hour to write this wow. Apologies if I got anything wrong, especially the last section I felt like I was walking on eggshells lol. Thanks for reading!
Forcing people to read my essay:
@sunflower
@SugarPoppinBSI
@ManduBun
@ichigohon
@Jungwonie
@Selfmate
@YouChanTheSheep
@nymphology
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![STAR WARS EVENT [VIKKI]](https://kpopsource.com/data/medal/1166_1610996719m.jpg)
