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Diversity of K-Pop: A Focus on Race, Language, and Musical Genre

Lee, Wonseok
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1526067307402648

Abstract Details

2018, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, Popular Culture.
Since the end of the 1990s, Korean popular culture, known as Hallyu, has spread to the world. As the most significant part of Hallyu, Korean popular music, K-pop, captivates global audiences. From a typical K-pop artist, Psy, to a recent sensation of global popular music, BTS, K-pop enthusiasts all around the world prove that K-pop is an ongoing global cultural flow. Despite the fact that the term K-pop explicitly indicates a certain ethnicity and language, as Kpop expanded and became influential to the world, it developed distinct features that did not exist in it before. This thesis examines these distinct features of K-pop focusing on race, language, and musical genre: it reveals how K-pop groups today consist of non-Korean musicians, what makes K-pop groups consisting of all Korean musicians sing in non-Korean languages, what kind of diverse musical genres exists in the K-pop field with two case studies, and what these features mean in terms of the discourse of K-pop today. By looking at the diversity of K-pop, I emphasize that K-pop is not merely a dance-oriented musical genre sung by Koreans in the Korean language. I argue that K-pop is not confined to a certain region, ethnicity, or language. In the globalization era, it exists as a global cultural flow amalgamating diverse races, languages, and musical genres. My thesis thus demonstrates how diverse races, languages, and musical genres are interwoven in the K-pop field.
Jeremy Wallach (Advisor)
Esther Clinton (Committee Member)
Kristen Rudisill (Committee Member)
100 p.
Asian Studies; Cultural Anthropology; Music
Korean Popular Music; K-pop; Popular Music; Globalization; Diversity

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Lee, W. (2018). Diversity of K-Pop: A Focus on Race, Language, and Musical Genre [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1526067307402648

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Lee, Wonseok. Diversity of K-Pop: A Focus on Race, Language, and Musical Genre. 2018. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1526067307402648.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Lee, Wonseok. "Diversity of K-Pop: A Focus on Race, Language, and Musical Genre." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1526067307402648

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1526067307402648
19,673
© 2018, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.