Korean Pop

Everyone has seen a music video at least once in their life, whether young or old, or on MTV or YouTube. Music videos require a combination of a beautiful song and visually pleasing graphics that uses pathos and ethos in order to capture the attention of the audience. The Korean K-pop group BTS utilizes pathos and ethos in their music video for their song “I Need U”. Bangtan Sonyeondan, Bulletproof Boys, or simply BTS, is a seven-member K-pop group formed under Big Hit Entertainment in 2013. “I Need U” is the title track of the first album in the three-part album series titled The Most Beautiful Moment in Life. The song was created by BTS members in order to convey the message that youth is the most stressful period of one’s life, although by overcoming difficult obstacles it is also the best time of life. BTS’ music video for the song “I Need U” makes use of ethos and pathos in such a way that provides viewers with a new perspective on youth.

South Korea in the 1960s was a time of political turmoil as the nation has just experienced perhaps its most significant historical event: The Korean War. The two Koreas, South and North Korea, were already separated before the conflict but the war created new social and ideological hostilities in the minds of the nations and its people. The Korean War was an important transition point in terms of defining the national identity of individuals experiencing the event. According to Kelly Jeong, given Korea’s strong history of patriarchal social order, the state, both South and North, believes “nation as a collective, universally male subject” (129). When defining Korea’s national identity as a largely masculine one, then it could be said that

Jid Lee’s To Kill a Tiger: A Memoir of Korea follows Jid Lee and her family through the struggles and tension produced by the historical events that occurred. Historical events impacted gender roles, education, and family dynamics in South Korea, producing a tension between traditional Korean values and contemporary ideas. The importance of Jid Lee’s book is it has an insight of what it was like to live in Korea during the time were contemporary ideas were becoming a bigger influence in the society, which were brought in by the American influences in the government. Also, it is an unfamiliar point of view that presents information that some readers did not know.

The story beginnings in the midst of the 1960’s, post Korean War. During this era South Korean was going through many, dramatic changes: socially, economically, and politically. Society was becoming for advantaged and

In Euny Hong’s book, The Birth of Korean Cool, she tells the story of the rise of “hallyu” or the “Korean wave” that is sweeping the globe. Having been born in the U.S. then immigrating to Korea, Hong gives a unique dual perspective on the changes Korea has undergone in the past decades. Korea today has a reputation of being modern technology hub, but this was not always the case. In fact, as Hong describes, the majority of the social, technological, and economical advancements came about within the past thirty years. Euny Hong details her experiences and observations as Korea traveled at a breakneck speed from a third world country to one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world.

This fan post shows a poem created by someone who identified herself as a Kpopper. The poem states that Fan Girling is the author’s hobby, but studying is her priority. Many people do not understand her because of her hobby. K-pop is her inspiration to achieve her vision to be successful. The poem also says that as a fan girl, she wants to go to Seoul Korea to marry her bias. The poem states that as a K-pop fan, she emphasized that music has no language barrier because communication through the heart is better,

From the beginnings of its first mentioning, back in the late 20th century, the popular culture gained the status of a global mainstream, allowing it to have a greater impact on most of the Western countries. Although it is often used as a term in general, almost every country in the Western culture has its own pop culture that usually dominates only in their country. However, one type of popular culture found ways to dominate, not only in their own territory, but also around the whole globe: American pop culture. (McGaha, 2015) Being one of the first countries to develop pop culture, the US popular culture grew enormously in the last couple of years, and most of all movies. Throughout this brief elaboration, we shall explore some of the characteristics

In the 20th century, Korea had to go through many troubles, or challenges, due to various factors such as lose of independence by Japanese colonialism and Korean War. These factors have caused even more subordinate issue, which some of them are still on a debate, such as “comfort women”. It is common for conventional South Korean narratives to tend to blame Japanese colonialism and North Korea for most of these troubles; however, while it is hard to deny that Japan and North Korea were the main elements that caused many serious problems, there are something being missed by the narrative. Although Japanese were using Korean people as resources to expand their colonialism, there were many Korean who decided to side with Japanese government in

“I recall asking my parents, ‘What can I do in life?’ They would always say, ‘Anything you put your mind to.’ From my Korean community, I’ve learned the value of education and ambition. Korea is part of my roots, my family, and my inheritance of a vibrant culture.” (Song 1) In this section, I added a memory to spark a connection between my values and its impact on my life. The flashbacks included in this paper serve to make my topic more personal and significant to the readers. On the other hand, there’s a lack of variety in my paragraph structures and

South Korea will often be described as a high-tech and peaceful nation. Especially when compared to the neighboring dictatorship of the North. Beyond the colorful lights of Seoul the country is filled with civil unrest. Young adults and teens are faced with an oppressive modern society watching and waiting for them to make a mistake. IU’s album Chat-Shire depicts the social issues of being a woman in South Korea.

Moreover, we can also see the modernized Korea through the characters of Jung-rim, Dae-hyun, and Kwang-tae. Jung-rim can be seen as a modernized woman by looking at her appearance (wearing Western-style clothes) and high education level (studied abroad). Dae-hyun is a strong nationalist who persistently fights for Korea’s independence from Japanese rule. Kwang-tae, who also wears a Western style clothes, is from a “Pro-Japanese” (chinilpa) family that supported Japan to colonize Korea by signing the Treaty of Ulsa. All the characters and their interactions are reasonable regarding to the early twentieth century

While watching the film it was troubling to identify specific characteristics of cultural expression that specifically identify with the regions of Korea. The only characteristic I discovered was the use of the Korean language. Throughout the film, I specifically remember thinking how the filmmakers used cultural traits and social behaviors of America. This means acculturation was occurring possibly to appeal to a broader. The intended audience of this film was geared toward young adults with Korean relations. This was supported by the audience makeup up because three-quarters of the audience were around the age of 20. Also, one-quarter of the

Thirty years ago South Korea was still recovering from an intense war and could barely stand by itself economically, fast forward to today they are one of the top exporters of pop culture to the U.S. So how exactly did they advance in such a short period of time and how did they take over an industry the U.S. has dominated for decades? The answer lies in the country's harsh history. After being ripped apart by a brutal war they tried to rebuild themselves only to be torn down again by the Asian financial crisis. Reinventing their whole country was out of pure necessity. Still, why pop culture? What caused Korea to focus and put most of its government funding on something as intangible as culture? Euny Hong, writer of "The Birth of Korean Cool"

Length: 1-2 pages (double-spaced with proper header, a descriptive title, and a Works Cited entry)

My return to Korea in the summer of 2001 was nothing short of a culture shock. I was in a country I thought I had learned by heart. It was the country I always rooted my identity and pride from. I wasn’t ready for the shock. I