Chloe Shiau - Week 5

Jeongsuk Joo's "Transnationalization of Korean Popular Culture and the Rise of "Pop Nationalism" in Korea" mentions that the nationalization of Korean pop culture arises from Korea's aim to be concerned about other countries' cultures rather than their own. Most industries in Korea were vanishing, but only the music industry was still standing. Thus, to become better and more known, Korea began to channel in Hollywood-style production values and also hip-hop into their production. Because other countries were already known for their pop culture, universal knowledge that Korean pop culture was uprising made this movement coined as the "Korean Wave."

Korea being able to be successful with this pop industry allowed them to rebrand themselves to be a more powerful country economically (the government announced that the media and entertainment sector was one of the key growth industries in Korea) and their success also discredited the argument that Korea was threatened by other countries.

Back in middle school, I remember America (specifically California) hosted concerts called the "HollywoodBowl" where many pop stars in Korea came to perform. This shows the globalization and nationalization of Korean pop culture as they are spreading their industry to countries worldwide. It has definetly helped them economically because of their popularity, especially in America (as seen by my middle school peers).

Question: Because there is much western influence on Korean pop culture, would the "Korean" part of their pop culture eventually vanish?

Works Cited:

https://anneviolet.wordpress.com/category/kpop/