Wednesday, 4 November 2015

Notes & Quotes

AOA - Like a Cat (Primary Text)


 The music video begins with a parody of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios' lion that appears in hollywood films an television programs, making the audience anticipate a film like music video. The intro before the song starts establishes the setting of a bank where a diamond is kept safely in a locked cabinet, placed in a locked safe. As well as the settings, some of the characters are revealed, however their is no distinction as to what role (Propp) they play. The close up on the girl who at first seemed irrelevant due to her being considered as an unimportant secretary,  creates an enigma code as the audience question what significance she will have to the story. When the music starts, all the members of the group are shown wearing a red leather jacket/raincoat with knee high boots. This costume hints at the audience that the girls are spies on a mission. There black costumes have connotations of them being the villains in the story and this is further this is confirmed when all the girls are performing several tasks such as stealing the banker's phone, creeping into the security room and sneaking into the bankers house. The slow motion shots enhances their seductive behaviour which is very attractive to fans. The fact that it is girls who are performing such villainous actions subverts the norm perception of men always being the villains. However their tight, body hugging clothes dismisses their unexpected roles as the audience would be focusing more on their appearances rather than their impressive skills as robbers. Also, as the girls are constantly shown playing a game (which may be included for product placement), there are possibilities that it gives a negative outlook on their mission as it shows them being distracted. It can be interpreted that they find the mission so easy that they have time to play their game.When the song comes to its closure, the girl are shown to beat up the bankers and the guards by hitting them and punching them with guns. This may hint at women being more powerful by men and having the ability to overcome them. The song ends with the group getting the diamond showing the narrative structure (Todorov) of a new equilibrium with the diamond.
    
     Evolution of Sexy

http://www.kpopstarz.com/articles/101519/20140810/the-evolution-of-sexy-how-western-culture-has-influenced-k-pops-girl-groups.htm (17/10/2015)

  • "There’s no such thing as bad press,"
  • "Everything western is "cool,"
  • "Their previous band concept gained few fans in comparison to the popularity they have received since the sexy concept."
As there are several girl groups in the Korean Music industry, many groups, if they did not debut from one of the major companies in Korea, find it difficult to find original aspects to attract fans. Therefore many groups have taken on the sexy concept, which despite being a very common concept recently, causes surprise and shock for the fans. This can be considered as some form of success due to the music videos constantly being watched.
AOA Have your 'TRL' - Era Video Fix with Like a Cat 

http://www.mtv.com/news/1996634/aoa-like-a-cat-video/ (17/10/2015)

  • “It feels like they’re helping K-pop embrace its sexuality.”
  • "AOA buck the trend of “cuteness and innocence” that is apparently common in a lot of K-pop, without pushing the envelope too far for more conservative tastes."

Like a Cat Analysis - Owning Female Sexuality and Battling White Supremacy
  • "These white men represent the privilege and status Caucasians have in society over minority groups, specifically in the realm of wealth and power"
  • "Using their stereotypical and submissive roles, end up pulling the perfect ploy to betray the white man and triumph over him"
  • "This is a statement that empowers minority females over the institutionalized system that usually pushes them down."

LIKE MONEY – K-POP MUSIC VIDEO PRODUCTION COSTS EXPLAINED

  • AOA’s “Like A Cat” ...ballpark it as within the $300k-$500k range

Nicki Minaj - Starships (Secondary text)


The music video begins with a space ship hovering over an island that seems to be cut of from society as the inhabitants' clothing seems to be very limited as well as there being extensive natural imagery of waterfalls, mountains and forests. With this, a binary opposition is introduced as the space ship connotes new and advanced technologies however the people on the island connote old and traditional lifestyles. When Nicki Minaj gets of the ship her clothing is limited similarly to the island people as she is only wearing a bikini but in comparison to the island people, her clothing is a lot more striking which may connote that her advancements as a being from space or it may also imply that she has become their leader, especially when she is carried around by the men like royalty. The constant close up shots of Minaj's body that is edited to be slow motion often, may introduce a strong male gaze due to Nicki Minaj's sensual and erotic movements. As the music video progresses, there is much more editing and effects used which connotes technological advancements which, once again, is a strong contrast to the initial setting and atmosphere.


Nicki Minaj’s “Starships” Video: Review Revue


  • "MTV Buzzworthy knows the video is cray, and so is Nicki’s envy-inspiring bod"
  • "The important thing here is that we’ll all be on egg white and protein shake diets for the next three months trying to replicate Nicki’s absolutely bananas figure.”
  • “For everything wrong with this video and this type of video, just fast forward to the final scenes, where the party jumps around and Minaj has to literally hold onto her bouncing bountiful breasts"
  • "Many similarities between Nicki’s new video, and the debut video of The Hills actress and wannabe pop star Heidi Montag, “Higher”, which also featured its leading lady rolling around a beach in a skimpy pink bikini. “Isn’t it funny that Heidi’s cheap videos were just filmed on a camcorder by Spencer Pratt, while Nicki’s clip was done by a famous director with major label funding, yet the videos are essentially the same?”
If you've got it, flaunt it! Nicki wears a swimsuit the Minaj way as she shows off her hourglass figure in Starships video 

  • "The ensemble flaunted her shapely derriere even more as she turned up on a beach in the tiny get-up."
  • And she was obviously happy to show off her curves as she wriggled around on the beach floor leaving little to the imagination.
Other texts

 WASSUP - Wa$$up



The setting of the music video is in a basketball court throughout the video except for the short change in scene to a dark alley with a car for the rap part of the song. The setting of the song may have been chosen as basketball is a sport that is stereotypically associated with back people similarly to the twerking concept. The clothing that both the male actors are wearing the typical clothes worn when playing basketball and the female singers are wearing very revealing clothes that accentuate their body shapes in particular their posterior so their dance moves can be viewed provocatively. In addition to their costume, some of the members are shown to have quite dark skin due to having a tan which is quite contrasting from Korean beauty standards. In south Korea, people commonly believe that having white porcelain skin defines beauty whereas in western countries, having brown tanned skin is better than being paler, proving the western influences in the music video. There are several shots edited together which create a fast pace that matches the upbeat tempo of the song. As well as the conventional close ups of the singer's faces, there are also many close-up shots used of the group members' rears to convey their twerking concept to the audiences. There are also animations of mens' eyes oggoling at the members dancing, showing their sexualised choreography as well as lightening the atmosphere through comedy.

Wassup Brings Twerking To K-Pop

  • "Although the origins of twerking were non-sexual, the dance has become sexualized. Much of this is due to the hyper-sexualization of black women in the US and the male gaze through which society tends to judge things."
  • "Wassup was created by Mafia Records and Sony Music Korea with the “aim to spread hip-hop music.”  It seems as if Wassup believes that twerking helps authenticate themselves as hip-hop group. "
  • "a K-pop group is conveying what they think hip-hop culture is without fully understanding it."

KKK-Pop stays appropriating Black Culture Korean Girl Group "Wassup" Twerks 

  • "the twerking isn't even the worst part. They are seen in a basketball court with groupies who are attempting to dress and act "black"."
  • "When groups like BIG BANG and BAP poorly attempt to act like black rappers and act hood, it's so cool and sexy. When it's girls, it's just straight up gross and bad. They see it as a joke!"
Academic Texts/Books

The Globalization of K-Pop: Is K-Pop Losing its Korean-ness?


  • "Employing foreign talents in so many aspects of music production imitates the process of importing pop from abroad, repackaging it in Korea and exporting it as K-Pop. If that is the case, what is the Korean-ness in contemporary K-Pop?" 
  • "Instead of bringing pop to Korea, he chose to take K-Pop to the US. He wanted to find out if any of his songs 73 could draw interest from the US pop market. What started out as one man’s personal challenge holds a bigger hope and promise for an entire music industry"
  • "Familiarity and nostalgia are significant factors that American audiences found approachable, if not appealing." 
  • "Perhaps fusing American and European sounds will make K-Pop more familiar and appealing to a global audience already accustomed to Western beats. "
  • "The global pop music scene is dominated by the US market, yet no one calls it US-Pop or A-Pop." 


De-nationalization and Re-nationalization of Culture: The Globalisation of Kpop


  • "K-Pop is definitely Korean pop music, but it is also a kind of transnational hybrid music that refers to other global popular music in various ways."
  • "That is to say, the 3 recent K-Pop phenomenon is ‘globalization of non-hegemonic local culture’, which does not usually happen in overall globalization"
  • "the branding of K-Pop emphasizes its internationality/globality, which no Korean popular music had ever achieved before it – it is a genre ‘Made in Korea’ but named and recognized by outside its domestic market. "
  • " “Asianized 155 Western.” This term describes the fact that although K-Pop is not traditional Korean music, it is distinct from typical Western (global) pop music."
  • "K-Pop’s transnationality is one of the important elements that appeal to international audiences."
  • "This is a paradox of K-Pop: in order to succeed in the global market, it needs to be de-nationalized; however, de-nationalization often makes domestic audiences feel uneasy about potentially losing the national identity"
The Korean Wave: Who are behind the success of Korean popular culture?

  • "The sound of k-pop is adjusted to make it more appealing to foreign audiences."
  • "Several websites reported that 2NE1 has made a deal with producer Will.i.am. He will produce their English album and he said about k-pop. Ooh. K-pop. You want to talk about technology? The Koreans, in South Korea… that is the future. South Korea, boom. On the next level. Go check it out. K-Pop, that industry is exciting. 2NE1, that is why I signed those girls and am producing them, to blow them up outside of Korea."
  • "By mixing Eastern and Western influences in k-pop, the music can keep its Korean identity in a global setting." 
Catching the K-Pop Wave: Globality in the Production, Distribution, and Consumption of South Korean Popular Music

  •  "Korean rappers “effectively use their voices as a musical instrument, delivering not only background sound effects, but also fusion forms of American rhythms. In this way, their performance appears visually global, while their Korean lyrics and vocal effects are acoustically local…this hybridized Korean hip-hop/dance music has managed to make the once-strange into the familiar, and the once-familiar has been made strange.”"
  • "Teddy Riley, an influential American R&B songwriter and producer, who has worked with notable acts like Michael Jackson, Mary J. Blige, and Stevie Wonder, has recently worked with Girls’ Generation (SM Entertainment) on their new internationally-targeted album––especially an urban hip hop track called “The Boys.”"
  • "But despite the acceptance of outsiders into the fold, South Korea remains a very nationalistic society, and idols are expected to behave accordingly."
  • "“hybridized Korean hip-hop/dance music has managed to make the once-strange into the familiar, and the once-familiar has been made strange.”"
  • "Lee talks about the use of English in K-Pop lyrics to challenge dominant representations of authority, assert a sense of self-identity, resist mainstream norms, or reject conservatism."
  • "small insertions of English into Korean songs can make them more accessible for foreign audiences."
  • "the global presence of media portraying the Western ideal of beauty has created a widespread sense of image insecurity among South Korean women"
  • "We should no longer look at globalization as a flow from the United States and Europe to a passive global audience." 
Journal of Fandom Studies - Vol 3. No.1 
  • "Kpop and Kdrama represent hybridized modes of cultural production aimed at global audiences" pg 4
  • "Initially, kpop fandoms were centres in Korea [...] As a result of technological advances in digital music and social media such as Twitter and You Tube, the fandom has grown to more international locations" pg 4
  • "The phenomena of Hallyu tend to revolve around notions of hybridity and glocalization that de-emphasize the multiple sub cultures in play around fandoms" pg4
  • "the phenomena around Hallyu have challenged the long standing perception of international communication characterized by one - way glow from the west to the rest" pg 6
  • "culturally hybrid in that they successfully appropriate, modify and merge cultural elements of the 'east' and 'west' to create new products that have an appeal for audiences in different cultural settings" pg 28
  • "lack culture specifically because of their hybrid nature, and to be abundant in foreigness because of the locality of the plots and stories" pg28
  • "some might be attracted by their hybrid nature, whilst others might be alienated by the effects of 'cultural discount' " pg 28
  •  " Asian identify across borders in the twenty first century, exhibiting an imagery of 'multicultural mutant koreaness' on the global stage" pg 62 


Internet Links

Globalization and Hybridization


  • "K-pop artists draws from Western pop in two main ways: 1) using sexual lyrics and music videos, and 2) incorporating English into their song lyrics and group names"
  • "In 1990, none of the singers of the top fifty songs had an English name. Now jump to 2010, where forty-one musicians have an English name; that’s 82%! " 
  • "There could be various explanations for why K-pop artists choose to incorporate English into their lyrics. It could simply be an attention-getter strategy, it might be to convey more sexual emotions which could be inappropriate in Korea(n), or perhaps it is simply so that the music is accessible to a wider audience. "

Why is Japanese anime and Korean pop culture becoming more prevalent globally?


  • "The spread of K-pop in Asia however, is also explained by some scholars as a shift away from American cultural imperialism- or rather, an Asian filter for Western culture."
  • "The addition of 'Asian elements' like Confucianism and non-Western faces to a form of entertainment that has its roots in Hollywood and other Western influences, apparently makes K-pop a more easily digestible medium."
  • "Some fans can readily rise to this challenge. “American music is so over-sexualised,”they may cry, or “K-pop is actually meaningful, it’s not just about drugs and getting wasted at parties!” “Western pop songs all sound the same!” “Korean artists are more talented than American artists – they can sing, dance, rap, act, model, everything!”"
  • "Conversely, K-pop can be equally sexualised, both in tasteful and maybe not-so-tasteful ways"
  • "I’m drawn to the energy of the performances in K-pop, the larger-than-life personalities that aren’t as much of a prerequisite in mainstream American music"

What is ‘Western’ Music?: Foreign Influences on K-pop


  • "While some attribute some of the foreign elements to “Western” music, other scholars recognize the tremendous impact of distinct black American musical traditions."
  • “pioneering a new musical soundscape that became almost invariably ‘Western’ pop music” 
  • "the tremendous impact of African American music on K-pop. In K-pop: Roots and Blossoming of Korean Popular Music, Kim Chang Nam describes the impact of African American music rather than generic “Western” music"

Factory Girls: Cultural technology and the making of K-pop.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/10/08/factory-girls-2

  • "K-pop is an East-West mash-up. The performers are mostly Korean, and their mesmerizing synchronized dance moves, accompanied by a complex telegraphy of winks and hand gestures, have an Asian flavor, but the music sounds Western:"
  • "K-pop is a blend not just of Western and traditional but of new and old. "
  • "Double-fold-eyelid surgery, which makes eyes look more Western, is a popular reward for children who get good marks on school exams."
  • “Bridging the gaps with collaborations can be the start of a global phenomenon,”

BH Discuss: Do K-pop and K-Drama fans abuse the Korean language?

  • "Using fragments of Korean scattered throughout sentences has become a normal part of fandom for many K-pop fans"
  • "On one hand, the use of Korean words in this manner could be seen as a positive sign that Korea is starting to gain greater cultural influence across the world but on the other, the misuse and appropriation of the culture and language has the potential to be offensive or damaging to those who belong to it."
  • "Does the Korean language at that point just become an accessory or a piece of merchandise ripped from its original context?"

K-pop : the story of the well-oiled industry of standardized catchy tunes

  • "The Japanese business journal Nikkei has even referred as this cultural export as “The Next Samsung.” "
  • "Korean singers are cute and innocent - but project stronger personalities than their Japanese counterparts - and sexually teasing, - though not as provocative as the American pop stars in order to appeal to conservative Asian markets. "
  • "They are trained to be «  multi-purpose stars », able to sing, dance, act in dramas, and be models."
  • " But while struggling to appeal to the US market and adapting to its codes, K-pop bands seem to be losing their Korean identity and their cultural uniqueness in the process. "
  • "n order to facilitate the entry of Kpop groups in foreign markets, the bands often include non-Korean members who are accustomed to the local language and culture. This marketing technique was already used in the 1990s, as some groups already included overseas Koreans, such as Korean-Americans or ethnic Koreans from Japan."
Media Magazine Articles

MM45 - Reading a Music Video Phenomenon, 'Gangnam Style' 

  • " A silly dance, a catchy song and a great sense of humour are perhaps all it takes to become a global sensation" pg.50
  • " The United Nations Secretary General even went as far as to suggest that 'Gangnam Style' could influence world peace" pg.50
The article explores how the Gangnam Style music video is very contrasting to typical Western music videos, which is what created such popularity. 

MM45 -  Reading Rap: How do people interpret Music?

  • "It has the power to bring people together whilst simultaneously segregating us." pg. 54
  • "Music is one of those things in life that we all interpret differently." pg. 54
  • "Popular songs of today have more power than ever before. They dictate social circles, fashion trends, the clubs you go to (preference of DJ playlists), new memes, slang... the list goes on" pg. 54
While focusing on the rap genre, the article shows that the music establishes characters and have possibilities to unite people. The westernisation of Kpop may be a way to bring together two vastly different audiences.


Wider Context ~ SHEP


K-Pop Star Is Top Dream Career for Kids in South Korea

  • "the life of a K-pop star is more appealing than ever to South Korea's youth."
  • "Reuters reports a recent survey that shows 21 percent of South Korean pre-teens hope to become a K-pop star when they grow up"

‘K-pop star’ most popular job choice for South Korean kids

  • "While British parents freak out at the idea of their children attempting a music career and pray they scrape some GCSEs, Korean parents are happy to make huge financial sacrifices and devote lots of time in a quest to make their kids stars."
  • "These hit factories are responsible for auditioning talent and crafting pop hopefuls into megastars."
  • "But there is no guarantee that trainees makes the cut even if they do sign to an agency – not that that's putting any of South Korea's young wannabes off. "

K-Pop group Oh My Girl detained at LA airport on suspicion of being sex workers

  • "They seem to have mistaken them as sex workers,"
  • "In 2012, the South Korean government clamped down on over-sexualised performances by threatening to give higher age ratings to films, music videos and TV shows which exaggerated the sexuality of younger singers and bands."

K-pop : the story of the well-oiled industry of standardized catchy tunes

  • "The Korean Tourism Organization regularly use K-pop groups to promote the country as an attractive tourist destination, and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism plans to spend 33.5 billion in 2012 to promote Korean culture."

The History of K-pop, Chapter 3: Seo Taiji and the Boys

  • "Before Seo Taiji and the Boys, Koreans had seen American music, and they had seen Korean music, but never before had they seen a combination of the two "
  • "the single went #1 for a record-breaking 17 weeks straight. "
  • "Koreans (and the rest of the world) were gaining quicker and easier access to American popular culture and artists, and they liked what they saw. Desire was growing among the Korean population for a fresher, more exciting form of entertainment"

 Globalization
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization  

  • "Globalization (or globalisation) is the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas and mutual sharing, and other aspects of culture."   

27 BEST ALBUMS WE'VE HEARD IN 2015...SO FAR

http://www.fuse.tv/2015/06/best-albums-2015-so-far

  • bts number 24

                                                       
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