K-POP
K-POP is a popular transnational music genre that has impacted the consumption of both Asian and transnational cultures. It has influenced the U.S youth specifically through dance, style, and music. K-pop plays an important role in asserting Korean youth as “normal” or belonging to the diaspora. As we learned from week one, Hollywood likes to represent marginalized communities in stereotypical ways. K-pop contrasts this narrative of alienation by allowing Koreans be the main character. “While trying to make sense of the hybrid cultural form, overseas K-pop fans in the study engaged with K-pop as a way of imagining the process of globalization. The fans experienced the K-pop mediated world as a participatory arena.” (Yoon 378) The experience of Korean culture is more than just an escape but a social practice of cultural domination and resistance.
One thing I am interested in learning more is the image K-pop industries focus on versus the reality of who the artist wants to be. I often see K-pop idols are limited in control over their bodies and are forced on strict diets and no social life. “[What I do not like is] how hard the label companies push their idols. I hear how SM [a major K-pop entertainment agency] starves their idols [to get their bodies slim] and pushes them way above the max. I find that absolutely ridiculous. They’re people too. I mean, even though they’re here to entertain us and all that, they’re people too. They deserve to have a little freedom. (Interviewee 29, female, age 20, Vietnamese, Toronto)” I am curious about how this affects the national image of the body. K-pop both asserts itself in ethnic belonging but also sadly carries that inauthenticity of representation.
I'm also very curious about whether there is any tension between how the artists wish to portrayed and how their label companies wish to portray them. The first reading mentions something about how "K-pop girl groups’ 'mandatory cuteness' tends to be maintained through highly disciplined training and plastic surgeries" (383). I'm interested to know how artists actually feel about being seen as cute and innocent.
ReplyDeleteI agree that K-pop becomes an active social practice, especially in the face of discrimination and marginalization. As much as I can admire all the entertainment that K-pop provides through its visuals, music, and styles, I think its the modes of fan reception that transforms it to an authentic object of resistance.
ReplyDeleteBody image is a difficult topic in Korea. Their standards are way too high and can make people feel terrible about themselves while trying to achieve the "perfect" body. I know that this is the case for many female idols as well as some male idols like BTS's Jimin who suffered after going through an extreme diet. But I do know that many K-pop idols are starting to address this concern and have come to realize that they should love themselves as they are. They try to stay as healthy as they can for their fans and they let us know so that we won't go through a similar struggle later on.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate this commentary because while there is a lot of fan reception for K-pop, I think this is a important point that many fans would otherwise not know or understand about the culture.
DeleteEven though body image is highly controlled in South Korea and idols are forced to follow specific criteria, there are still some idols who comfortably be themselves and do not follow the body criteria of the Kpop industry such as Hwasa (Mamamoo), Jessi.
ReplyDeleteI am also interested in how unrealistic body image standards are perpetuated in K-pop. It's hard to say who exactly is responsible for this, but it has been happening in entertainment industries for many decades; for example, Judy Garland was forced to take amphetamines in order to slim down and maintain energy to perform while shooting The Wizard of Oz.
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