How do political, economic, and cultural changes converge together to create K-pop and how does that affect other cultures today?
Symposium Reflection #1
So far, the articles that my group and I have found are relating to change that has affected K-pop. We found that these articles would be useful for us to use because our universal theme is change. Some of the articles that we have found so far can relate to the generalizations that are included under change. When exploring our topic, my group found that gender roles may play a part in how the music industry runs. We also noticed how K-pop groups have written songs about or relating to love. While exploring the topic, I did not feel the need to change anything about it. I felt that if something does come up that has a big impact on our topic, my group will be able to incorporate that effect into our project without changing the topic entirely. New information that I hope to find is information about how the government could have been affected by K-pop. My group is aware that K-pop does play a major role in business in Korea now, but we wanted to know how the government was affected by this new trend. I also hope to find information about how K-pop is negatively affecting the music industry. So far, we have only found positive information and we need to balance it out because our topic is not always smiles and happiness. The collaboration in the group is going well so far. I found it easy to work with the people I was comfortable with, especially because we are researching a topic that we are all passionate about.
Symposium Reflection #2
When my group last wrote about our research, we were researching how different things come into effect to create Kpop but now we are researching how economic, political, and cultural changes affect and create Kpop. We found that researching the economic, political, and cultural changes that create Kpop would be easier for us to research and study. We are also researching how Kpop has its own effects and what the Korean wave is affecting today. My group is trying to interview an expert in music and East-Asian studies but we were having trouble contacting her. We are still looking for someone else to contact just in case she does not respond or we cannot contact her. I have found four other experts in the field that we could potentially contact but we are still trying to get through to the lady we first found because we believe she could help us the most since she has written about Korean culture and is a musician herself. Now, my group is working on gathering the information we need to create our board and we are working on our Info-Synthesis document. We are also creating our board plan which has not been too difficult because we have a lot of ideas in mind. Our collaboration is going well but I believe that we could always work a little bit faster since my group gets distracted every now and then. We are able to work well with each other and we are able to get our ideas through to each other easily. We’re enjoying working with each other and researching this topic.
Symposium Reflection #3
I learned that multiple studies have shown that when Korean entertainment airs on a different country’s TV, there are some people that will get more interested and want to know more about Korean culture. One study showed how people that watched a movie and travel to the film site have a deeper feeling than people who did not watch the movie and just travel to the film site. I also learned that Korean stars are trying to produce music in English but they are sort of being drowned out by all the other well-known singers that produce music in English. Something I learned about myself and my ability to work with others is that I want everything to be precise and perfect. I’m such a perfectionist, especially when it comes to really big projects that are worth a huge chunk of my grade. I’m always a little nit-picky about the little things like citations and where our information should go. I also learned that whenever my group members need help, I should give them clear instructions and be less forceful about what should be done. I learned to not take all the work for myself and try to rely on my group members because they are here to help me, not give me a hard time. I learned that when I bite off more than I can chew, in terms of work, I should ask for help instead of trying to finish it all by myself, resulting in lots of stress. My group wanted to make a music video for our supplemental piece but we are currently thinking of something else. Our topic changed a little bit and that’s what caused us to rethink our video idea. I was thinking we could create something interactive, like a small quiz type of thing. My group was thinking about doing a performance or a cover of a K-pop song that we like but then we realized that we would need to explain how that relates to our topic. Overall, I’m excited that Symposium is ending soon and that my group is working hard to finish all our work!
Symposium Reflection #4
My Symposium driving question was about how political, economic, and cultural changes come together to create K-Pop and how it affects other cultures today. Some revisions that my team and I made were fixing our mural on presentation day, redesigning the Student-Led Research because it wasn’t too neat, and revising our presentation notes. Something that I learned that I have not known before is that there are even some tragedies that contribute to creating K-Pop. For example, the Sewol incident, the sinking of a ship with many students going on educational trips, impacted a female K-Pop group and they created a song hinting and making a tribute to the students that lost their lives and people who lost loved ones. If I could have done something differently about my project, it would be to remake the mural and make it neater because near the bottom of it, it looks somewhat messy, sloppy, and last-minute. I would also try working faster and finding more research that contributes to my topic because I feel like our research only confirms that political, economic, and cultural changes affect K-Pop and does not give any examples of how K-Pop is affected. Overall, I am proud that Symposium is now complete and over. I would like to do this again, on a different topic of course. This certainly was a challenge to complete, but I am proud of the research we conducted and how the project turned out in the very end.
Process Pictures
Citations
- A Case Study on Korean Wave: Focused on K-POP Concert by Korean Idol Group in Paris, June 2011: By Hyunhee Cha and Seongmook Kim
- Transnational Korea: A Critical Assessment of the Korean Wave in Asia and the United States: By Eun-Young Jung
- Korean Pop Culture: Chua Beng Huat
- South Korean Culture Goes Latin America: Social Network Analysis Of Kpop Tweets in Mexico: Seong Cheol Choi, Xanat Vargas Meza, and Han Woo Park
- Hybridity And The Rise Of Korean Pop Culture In Asia: Doobo Shim
- The Effects of Korean Pop Culture on Hong Kong Residents’ Perceptions of Korea as a Potential Tourist Destination: Samuel Seongseop Kim, Jerome Argusa, Kaye Chon, and Youngshin Cho.
- K-pop in Korea: How the Pop Music Industry is Changing a Post-Developmental Society: Ingyu Oh and Hyo-Jung Lee
Student-Led Research Results
ASTRO Philippines Fanclub Interview
Answers 1:
Answers 1:
- not on a large-scale, but it helped proliferate a certain online culture and fandom culture influenced by korean fandoms. I don't think it's widespread enough to say that it has affected our culture per say, but helped Filipinos develop a better understanding and acceptance of other languages and cultures, and somehow encouraged young people to be bold enough to travel abroad (I see so many ppl, kpop fans or othewise, traveling abroad as of recent)
- It's honestly all about the visuals. I mean the whole package of it. It's bold, it's different (and it's always exciting to be different), it's fun, a mixture of dance, music, fashion, beauty. If you enjoy any of those, kpop is something you will enjoy. And this is a more personal opinion, but I believe there's a certain beauty and sense of peace when listening to music you don't understand the lyrics of. For me, it helps me concentrate on tasks - it cancels the noise, you can simply 'feel' it, 'groove' to it or even sing along or dance, without overthinking its meaning? Listening to a western song ruins my concentration during work (i often end up typing the lyrics).
- generally? not really since i was already very accepting and understanding of foreign cultures beforehand.
- local economy not so much. Government, again not so much. It did open our eyes about how advanced the other countries are compared to our own, based on things we see on kpop/kdrama content, so we are more aware of what we don't have here and what we want our govt to deliver
- Well, it affected in a way na may aspects ang K-POP (like music, cinematography, etc) na naiincorporate sa Filipino contemporary culture. (trans: well, it affected in a way that the aspects of K-POP (like music, cinematography, etc) are incorporated in Filipino contemporary culture)
- Simple, it being vivid and colorful makes it attracting and enticing for fans around the world. It's not just language that connects people, it's the story. The story that K-POP has in it.
- Nah. Since everyone must understand that culture is unique.
- Not really though they impose tax on K-POP concerts pero that's so small to affect the economy naman (trans: not really though they impose tax on K-POP concerts but that’s so small to affect the economy, though)
- Kpop has affected in a way that it changed and widened some perspective about culture and music. Like how people have becoming accepting and understanding of another culture, language, and such. The current Filipino pop culture may also have been influenced a little by Kpop.
- Visual aesthetics mostly, I believe. Because Kpop is different. More vivid, brighter visuals that catch your attention quite easily. Also, the sound, beat, or tune is catchy/fun.
- Not really. Because I've been exposed to other cultures even before Kpop.
- I don't think so because Kpop doesn't seem that widespread enough to affect the government and economy.
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Super Junior Fanclub Interview - Kpop have become a trend nowadays. A decade ago, Kpop is considered as an uncharted territory. No one knows and or even cared to know what it stands for. Today, not only kids listen to Kpop everyday, they have also adapted the latest Korean fashion trends. Most Filipinos have become fond of using Korean make up and skin care products. More people try out and enjoy Korean cuisine. Kpop and Korean culture in general have progressively immersed itself to the daily lives of most Filipinos.
- What makes Kpop so appealing that other fans from different countries (who probably do not speak Korean) are attracted to it? Maybe because some people wanted something different from what they used to listen to. Western music concepts have become repetitive and somewhat lost its appeal in some way. While Kpop always seem to offer something fresh. Kpop is a genre but within it, there are more genres to listen to (hiphop, trot, ballads, etc.) It is also a plus that most Korean artists these days can not only sing and dance but most of them have branched out into composing, producing their own music and directing their concert performances. And it also doesn't hurt that they're all very attractive and beautiful.Yes. Before Kpop, I have never been exposed or even shown any interest in getting to know about other cultures. I just accepted whatever is being thrown at me. But after discovering kpop when only a few knew about it, I became interested in the entire Korean culture itself. And after engaging yourself and learning more about the Korean culture and traditions, you'll realize that we're not much different from them and that we have a lot similarities which makes it easier to adapt to their culture.
- - i think Filipinos are generally pretty good in adapting to different cultures anyway. Its effect has just become more prominent nowadays because people have become better at expressing what they want and what they think look good and most of us have become more accepting of each other's differences.
- - I do think it did affect our economy in a positive way. With more korean brands coming in, be it in kpop, cosmetics, food, and other services, this have also opened immensed opportunities for Filipinos in terms of employment, business (physical and online stores) and education.
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Chua Beng Huat Interview - What political, historical, or cultural events in Korea’s history do you believe contributed to the existence and success of Kpop?
- As you might know, South Korea was under military authoritarian regime until late 1980s, when its politics was finally democratised with direct election of its president. With the political democratization, the media was also liberalized. The three major TV stations began to compete for its domestic audience. One of the areas of very keen competition is in TV drama series; one could watch drama all day in Korea, even today. Korean TV dramas were the first Kpop exports regionally to the rest of East Asia. Secondly, after democratization Japan and Korea signed a friendship agreement which allowed the direct and open importation of Japanese pop culture, which had been banned but regularly smuggled into Korea until then. Korean pop culture producers copied and learned a lot from J-pop, including the production system for pop music bands; the Japanese production company, called Johnny’s Boys had developed the system of hot-housing young talents. After the success of K-drama, K-pop began to be exported again mainly in East Asia; various attempts by K-pop individual singers and bands to break into the US market had failed, including Rain and Girl’s Generation. However, with the tied up between K-pop music producers and social media sites, such as Facebook, K-pop has now reached a larger global audiences.
- How has the popularity of Kpop contributed to South Korea’s identity and role in the world?
- Culturally Korea has always suffered from being sandwiched between two larger nations, China and Japan. Historically, Korean culture is highly influenced by Chinese culture; until the 15th century when then Korean emperor invented the Korean alphabet, Koreans used Chinese characters; until today, most upper class Koreans are still proud of their Chinese calligraphy. In terms of modern culture, Korea was colonized by Japan for 50 years, and thus always considered itself lagging behind Japan. The popularity of K-pop has given Koreans great boost of national pride and national identity, that its culture is finally recognized by others!
- How does Kpop influence cultures around the globe and do you believe this influence is positive or negative?
- I think like all pop culture, K-pop influence is not likely to be long lasting, Indeed, K-drama is already losing its audiences in Asia and the ‘heat’ and ‘excitement’ around K-pop music is also cooling down.