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Politics of an Apology

In late 2015, MBC broadcasted an episode of My Little Television where JYP's girl group called TWICE, who were rookies at the time, were told to hold up a flag of their country that represents their nationality because twice is known to be a lot more global in the Asian realm compared to other countries. With this task, Tzuyu who was born in Taiwan, held up the Republic of China flag and introduced herself as Taiwanese. After the broadcast, many people accused her of being a Taiwanese independence activist. Becasue Mainland China considers Taiwan to be under their government; however there are many Taiwanese citizens who consider themselves independent from China, forming the Republic of China. With this incident, Tzuyu was considered a traitor to Mainland China and many Chinese netizens and fans starting boycotting not only TWICE but also JYP Entertainment entirely. This is significant because it not only affected TWICE activities while they were a rookie group but also affected the activities of their sunbae ("senior") groups that took place in China. As a result, JYP Entertainment released a public YouTube video featuring Tzuyu, were she apologized for her ignorance to the politcal climate of China at the current time, and also emphasized and highlighted that China and Taiwan are one. During the video, she was reading off of a pre-written letter that she performed to the camera. In "The politics of apology: The ‘Tzuyu Scandal’ and transnational dynamics of K-pop," authors Ji Hyun Ahn and Tien Wen Lin talk about how this "Tzuyu scandal" definitely depicts how transnational cultural flows like K-pop clearly define and reveals the power struggles in the region. The cultural politics of the act of apology show the struggle of being transnational and apolotical that the K-pop stars need to go through. Tzuyu, after this incident, then became a  symbol of national contestation in relation to cultural transnationalism in East Asia. Tzuyu in the videa is dressed in a black turtleneckm without make-up and her hair not fixed. She seems to be talking in a calm manner and without much emotion and she concludes the apology by bowing deeply. This apology video that went viral over East Asia should be noted in its resemblance to hostage videos and views Tzuyu as a victim. There are many cultural but also sexualized sensitivities attached to Tzuyu's body in the video and it is important to take note of them. Similarly, there were two scandal's by AOA's Seolhyun and AOA's Jimin, where both had to apologize for their lack of knowledge of Korean history on a specific TV show. Even with the possibility that the idols may be undereducated in some aspects because of their childhood being dedicated to training, the politics surrounding an apology presented my K-pop idols come to so that no matter reason, and apology is needed to make their actions acceptable when seen in the future because they already victimized themselves. https://www.allkpop.com/article/2016/05/aoas-jimin-apologizes-for-channel-aoa-history-quiz-controversy https://www.allkpop.com/article/2016/05/aoas-seolhyun-also-apologizes-for-the-history-quiz-controversy

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YouTube in Hallyu Wave 2.0.

Youtube also opened pathways for live communities and has become an "essential medium for transnational distribution of certain media products, influencing western culture. Below is a flashmob performed in New York of NCT 127's music. After one watches this video, they can experience the transnational distribution explained in the reading. When watching the video, take not of not only the mix in genders but also race, how the distribution of race in the flashmob is quite vast, versatile, and extensive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mtaoDYcisYIn Kent A. Ono and Jung Min Kwon's piece "Re-worlding culture? Youtube as a K-pop Interlocutor," Ono and Kwon talk about Korean Pop's contemporary role as a "worlding and un-worlding phenomenon." Youtube in itself is a social platform that most recently became a way for people to showcase content, in terms of music, art, and entertainment, as well as provide a source for the idea of virality. YouTube has allowed for a global audience and especially with the globalization that the K-pop industry is seeking after, has allowed for K-pop as a new genre of music in the American market to branch into a more global context. The idea of extending its exposure past the Asian market, with China and Japan being major neighboring countries, to countries that already have an extensive influence in the entertainment and broadcasting industry is what K-pop as a culture and a music genre aspire for. In the reading, Ono and Kwon talk about how K-pop is a "pre-planned and well organized cultural product demonstrating synergies among marketing strategies of the music industry, a dispersed global fandom, and the power of YouTube. To eleborate more on the Korean Wave 1.0, also known as the Hallyu Wave, its dates back to the 1990s with K-pop groups such as H.O.T., Baby V.O.X. and NRG. However the burst in popularity died down and never extended past the Asian and the Korean market. That is why the term "Korean Wave" or "Hallyu Wave" is not necessarily include the word Korean and Hallyu in it. Some believe that Hallyu refers to the global popularity of South Korea's cultural economy exporting pop culture and music; however, the Hallyu Wave 1.0 was known to only extend to up to an Asian market rather then expelling Korean culture to even western countries. Although this Korean Wave was expected to die down, a new era of K-pop and Korean culture has risen to compose and create what is know as the second Korean Wave, Hallyu Wave 2.0. This second upbringing I believe is due to YouTube being a revolutionary asset to Korean culture and awareness. Youtube not only gives access to Korean music videos but also to other unique Korean cultures, such as Korean food, Korean dramas, and K-beauty, as seen below.

Youtube also opened pathways for live communities and has become an "essential medium for transnational distribution of certain media products, influencing western culture. Below is a flashmob performed in New York of NCT 127's music. After one watches this video, they can experience the transnational distribution explained in the reading. When watching the video, take not of not only the mix in genders but also race, how the distribution of race in the flashmob is quite vast, versatile, and extensive.

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Globalization of K-pop

In Ju Oak Kim's piece, "Establishing and Imagined SM Town: How Korea's Leading Music Company Has Produced a Global Cultural Phenomenon" in "The Journal of Popular Culture," Kim talks about how globally connected systems bring questions and awareness to the table about power dynamics between global and local cultures. Even in an art as diverse as Korean Pop music, there are so many aspects such as political and economic impact that concern not only the country of Korea, but also surrounding countries, such as Japan and China, and also an a more global scale. This process of local societies reconstructing and modifying their cultures and their specific traditions and thereby spreading their own to an "other" especially on a global scale is called globalization. Before media, globalization of art or an art form (s) occurred in the form of a diaspora, which one can assume is a movement of culture along with a migration. However, in the current and modern day, globalization happens in the form of media and socialization over the web. This idea of globalization also assumes Western denomination. Especially under the form of K-pop and Korean culture, the market assumes that if a certain k-pop group or a certain Korean song is successful in the American market, it also implies that K-pop has acquired globalization. However, if success in the American market has a direct correlation to globalization of K-pop, there are many more groups that should be acknowledged as an ambassador of K-pop. One of these groups I would consider to fall under the category of being established in the American market, however, not in the Korean market, would be a co ed K-pop group called KARD.

https://www.soompi.com/article/1346074wpp/kard-announces-dates-venues-for-2019-u-s-tour

KARD is a k-pop group that is consisted of 2 female and 2 male k-pop artists and typically create their own music and concepts. KARD, however, holds the majority of their concerts in North America and have not held a single concert in South Korea. This clearly depicts where their target market is and where their fame is held. I do not necessarily think that American denomination and recognition is an accurate depication of globalization because for globalization to happen, the subtle and very sensitive cultural traits must exist within the group and the way the group promotes themselves should still in under the structure of Korean marketing in the way that is described of SM Entertainment in the paper.

A group, however, that did not succeed in globalization would be Wonder Girls of JYP Entertainment. Park Jin Young acknowledged that not only talent is important in the attempt to venture into the American market, but also time is a crucial factor to the success of a K-pop group in America. Also in the reading, Ju Oak Kim talks about the western sound, especially those sounding of American and European producers, are crucial in the globalization of music. However, Wonder Girls did not necessarily carry these sounds. Especially in the song, Tell Me, by Wonder Girls, it holds a very Korean sound with a very Korean aesthetic.

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Shifts in K-pop: masculinity and feminity.

The Chuyun Oh reading “Queering Spectatorship in K-pop: The Androgynous Male Dancing Body and Western Female Fandom” starts off with the visualization, “with romantic background music, a male dancer rips his shirt open. Inside of the shirt, he wears a white cropped, strappy vest that barely covers his nipples. This feminine, decorative vest is in stark contrast to his tanned muscular body.” This juxtaposition that is so specifically and vividly described is actually very present in many boy idol groups today. To be able pull off an aesthetic that exudes tension between both masculinity and youthfulness, often mistaken for femininity, is what sets many groups apart from those in western cultures. In just the past 10 years of the formation of boy idol groups, there has already been over 14 music videos that reveal the boys in lifting their shirts, exposing their body, while still having expressions on their faces that reveal a "baby face." These groups range from boy groups that are known for their masculinity, such as Big Bang, MBLAQ, and Monsta X, to even boy groups that are not necessarily marked for being in touch with their "masculine side."

For example, in BTS's "No More Dream," there is a part in the bridge that is present in the choreography about two times, where Jimin pulls up his shirt. BTS at this time still being in the early stages of their debut, did not exactly create an image of grown men, rather were aiming for an image of boys in their transition to manhood. So rather than shifting their image to be more masculine from head to toe, the company decided to still accentuate their youthfulness and baby-like image in their face, while still giving a sex appeal to the female fans.

Moving onto the topic of k-pop female fandom, it is really important to analyze this very specific fandom to know the market that k-pop artists and their companies are catering to. Male k-pop groups tend to be more popular and gain more attention than female groups because their audience being primarily female is at a much larger size. Another reason why male groups tend to be more popular is because they present a winder range of gender images, within a larger spectrum of masculinity. Some of the terms that are emphasized are "flower boy" and "beast idols." Within the large spectrum of pretty and attractive boys to beastly men, lie the thousand of k-pop boy groups that there are. In contrast, female groups all similarly give off two images being cute and sexy. In the current generation of female groups, however, many groups are trying to empower females by giving very powerful performances while still exuding their talent. 

In a current Korean show called "Queendom," girl group AOA gave a very powerful performance, ridding of their usual sexual image, and it left a deep impression to the audience for giving power to women as strong as a boy group would. Especially, in their costuming and choreography, the group shows masculinity, just as a “male group” would. It is important to give credit to and note the shifts in the current generation of k-pop.

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Korean-ness in K-pop

Today I want to discuss how fragrant K-pop is and how its cultural odor thereby reveals that K-pop is not merely a brand where the Korean aspect of K-pop doesn’t exist. "based on popularity and growing visibility of kpop'. K-pop is oozing in its Korean-ness not only, in sound and aesthetics on the stage but also its etiquette and mannerisms in their public lives. With that said, I wanted to discuss the differences in the idol trainee system between companies and how that affects not only the idols’ music but their lives off the stage as well. The Korean entertainment world is known to have three large entertainment companies and agencies that represent the idol world, and those three companies are called SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, and YG Entertainment. I think that it is important to note these companies because although they all seem to be similarly large companies in size, in terms of logistics and artistic output, they have very different educational methods. SM Entertainment is founded by Lee Soo Man and Kim Young Min. In “Handbook of East Asian Entrepreneurship” by John Lie and Ingyu Oh, they talk about  Lee Soo Man being a producer who promotes music as a visual art and also incorporated the aspect of the US recording industry such as specialization and systematization. These aspects are extremely significant because this is what further builds SM Entertainment's image and aesthetics. Modern day SM Entertainment is known globally for their visually appealing artists and aesthetic heavy music videos. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFgv8bKfxEs

In this debut music video of Red Velvet “Happiness”, the video starts off oozing with visual aesthetics and further highlights the beauty of the Red Velvet  members. Although music is also of very strong importance, it is very evident with the debut of Red Velvet, that the vocals of the idols are not necessarily what they are emphasizing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mclhfLBZA-g

However, compared to SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment founded by Park Jin Young exudes a completely different image and emphasizes artist etiquette over anything else. In JYP entertainment, Producer Park Jin Young points out three very important qualities, which are honesty, sincerity, and humility. He educates his artists, that before they are singers, they are human and people with the opportunity to impact society and initiate happiness in society. He truly lives by his values and even once said,”When I get offers to produce music for some artists, I cannot accept the offer if the artist lacks integrity.”

In this video where Producer Park Jin Young talks to his upcoming group (at the time) called Stray Kids, he does not mention their musical talent once but rather emphasizes the human qualities that produce longevity in their music career. This further shows that the Korean-ness is so present in K-pop and how K-pop seemingly can not exist without Korean culture and Korean values. The American music industry usually does not “educate” artists rather supports them with a platform to promote their music. However, a country like Korea that teaches mannerisms and etiquette to children from a young age, carries over to the K-pop scene and to idols as well.