The And Cultural Commodities : South Korea 's Growth Of Pop Cultural Exports

Dave Hazzan's article offers how the Korean media think about Black people. Media critics did not know for the first time the appearance of black people in Korea.It was true that the images of black culture that were familiar to Koreans before 1980 were slaves and poor people. Since the 1980s, media images have become more sinister, focusing on black crime, violence or drug use.

If an average Westerner were to be asked of a successful music artist, they might think of a band like Coldplay. Having global concert tours across Europe, North America, Asia, Australia, etc. Another may be Adele––who had sold over 8 million copies of her newest album ‘25.’ In short, one might expect the names of American or other Western artists to dominate the iTunes libraries and download charts in the United States. But while the American industry is certainly doing well, the Republic of Korea, a country whose population is only about 50.5 million, has managed to cultivate a vibrant and

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"

Thesis Statement: Though South Korea may be a small country, the style of cuisine, community culture, and generosity are just a few uniquenesses that outshine its stature.

For example, fans from other countries traveled to Japan to see and experience the music, food, urban lifestyle, fashion and other key attractions by themselves.[ Iwabuchi, K(2004), Feeling Asian Modernities, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. pp 12.] However, not all of Japanese values were accepted by the other countries’ audience, and then Iwabuchi explains it with the concept of cultural distance in media practice. Singaporean women thought depiction of sexuality in the Japanese TV drama was unrealistic; Korean and Taiwanese people criticized the Japanese cultural flow into their countries as a cultural invasion.[ “Iwabuchi”,pp17] Therefore, the other Asian countries began producing their own TV drama on youth love affair and urban lifestyle for their way of representing Asian modernity and national identification.

South Korea continues a process of economic liberalisation and deregulation, but the government has yet to adopt a fully laissez-faire policy where the economy and trade are concerned. The UK TI team in South Korea works actively to lift or loosen the many regulatory barriers that still exist to ease UK-based company enter to the market(UK Trade and Investment, 2009)

Kpop music is known as South Korean music in general and it consists of a variety of genres. Some examples of types of music used in Kpop are r&b, hip hop, EDM, pop, rock, rap, ballads, etc. They try and fuse American music although the lyrics are still Korean and contain a few words in English. The important elements in Kpop are the music correlated to the visuals of the performance such as the music videos. Mainly because they implement choreography that is related to the lyrics of the song. For lead singles, they usually have a ‘point dance move’ which just relates back to the topic of the song. They are known for their unique and colorful outfits and music videos.

South Korean popular music, or K-Pop, is a musical genre that has risen tremendously in

It is imperative for a country’s government to protect their own cultural interests. The creative and cultural economy spans many categories, but the film industry is one in which any sort of person can find enjoyment. The American film industry is transparently one of the most prevalent in the world, and so it must be a priority for countries to foster their own film industry. South Korea (hereafter Korea) is one such example of policies that have been put in place to fight the cultural war the United States leads. A cinema screen quota policy that proposes that a Korean theatre must show domestic films at least 73 days a year has been in place to different extents since 1966. While the Korean policies of screen quotas have marginally helped to establish the success of Korean cinema, it has in fact more noticeably damaged the industry and quality of films produced.

Nowadays, Korean wave is so famous in global rapidly. Korean wave is not only expanding in Asia, but Korean wave is expanding including in the Middle East, Oceania, Europe, and the United States. Korean wave was starting in 1990s. Korean drama and Korean music (K - Pop) were the first wave that spread in Southeast Asia. Then Korean wave became a new trend of the world because it was used by social media and internet to expand in global. In the 21st century, Korean wave is increasing growth, such as Korean drama, Korean music (K - pop), including tourism, food, culture and Korean language. Korean wave makes people can listen Korean music (K - pop) widely, addict to Korean drama and then it is inspiration of some people that they want to learn

Korea is ranked the 14th largest economy according to world bank GDP ranking. The scenario was totally different 50 years ago with Korea being poorer than Bolivia. The Korean economy has been able to register annual growth of 7% with banks more efficient than it was during financial crisis of 1990s.

Music has become a daily consumption of modern society; Either the high or the bottom class, everybody loves music. Among all music genre, pop music dominates the playlists of music lovers. The Instruments that are widely used in pop music is familiar, so that the melody, rhythm, and the beat producedcan be easily accepted by the public. Coupled with simple yet “eye-catching” lyric, also easily to memorize, give another value to the pop music genre. However, there is one kind of pop music which is now caught world’s attention, that is K-Pop or Korean Pop. Korean Pop is a part of the Korean Wave. Accordimg toSue Jin Lee (2011), she said that, “Korean Wave refers to the significantly increased popularity of South Korean culture around the world”, all the culture, inclluding dramas and films production, language, and literature, and also music industry; and K-Pop focuses on the music industry in Korea. K-Pop is a genre of music specifically comes from South Korea which combines music with dance performance. The synchronization between dance movements and the beat of music become a highlight performance of

Korean wave (Hallyu in Korean) is term coined by Chinese media to describe the popularity of the Korean cultural products in China. It is said that the first wave of Hallyu is brought by Korean TV series that became a huge hit in China and Japan in mid 1990s. Two dramas, What Is Love About (1997) and Stars in My Heart (1999), are usually credited with kickstarting the Korean wave (Huat, 2012). In the early to mid-2000s, two more dramas, Winter Sonata (2002) and Dae Jang Geum (2003), catalyzed the Korean wave by shattering ratings records, not only in South Korea, but also in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, and Vietnam (Chen, 2016).

The surge in the visibility of Korean culture has been coined ‘The Korean Wave’ or ‘Hallyu’ which translated literally means the flow of Korea. The Hallyu wave first began by the spread of Korean dramas being televised in other areas of Asia and continued to grow once Kpop artists began utilising social networking services and in particular YouTube. Much of the Hallyu Wave’s success can be attributed to the video sharing website. YouTube has allowed Korean (and other nationalities) artists to post their content online and be viewed by the larger overseas audience. As of 2012, the most viewed video that has ever been uploaded to YouTube is a Korean pop music video, holding a world record for the achievement and now totalling over 1 billion views. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 3

“Korea had become trendy because it provided what the youth wanted throughout the region. The phenomenon can be partially explained by noting how Korean popular culture catapulted forward during the 1990s, leaving much of Asia behind as it abandoned conservatism and censorship, diversifying, appropriating, absorbing and innovating. In its fusions, it created an Asian equivalent of European and American pop. Japanese pop, of course, had long had this function throughout the region, but the 1990s was a time for re-examining the Pacific War’s legacy, and Korea offered a less-tainted alternative to Japan.”