Author: shuwei zhou

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Video Analysis of “Lion Heart” by Shuwei Zhou

Girls’ Generation’s ‘Lion Heart’ was published by SM Entertainment in 2015. This song was written by many producers from different countries, including Kenzie from SM Entertainment and The Underdogs who are from the US. The retro style of this music video had attracted many audiences. In the music video, members of Girls’ Generation fall in love with a man who wears a lion headgear, and they want to get his heart. Yet at the end of the video, they find that the man is dating with many different girls, so they all break up with him immediately. Girls Generation has been famous and successful for many years not only because they have beautiful faces, but also because they absorb cultures from other country and make K-pop more acceptable to the world.

We can see that Korean pop music is more and more globalized nowadays. Every elements of the video are retro style, including their clothes, makeup, choreography, and the story. It can remind audiences of the style of the American back to 1960s. Then, when the American audiences or audiences from countries which were influenced by the American culture watch this video, they might like it because audiences can get their cultural identity. Once Girls’ Generation opens the foreign market, they can perform to more people and then become more famous. In addition, the English lyric in this song is another representation of globalization of K-pop. Jin and Ryoo mentioned that although Americanization did not equal to globalization, adding English to songs could make the song more understandable to foreign observers because English is a globalized language (Jin and Ryoo 2014, 115). In my opinion, English lyrics in K-pop music videos are always simple and the word is usually used in our daily life. It is easier for audiences in many different countries to understand the meaning of songs, and to learn and to spread the song compared to only Korean lyrics in songs.

‘Lion Heart’s music video is interesting and understandable. The video is divided into chapters, and it tells a complete story. It is more likely to attract audiences and make them watch the video from the beginning to the end. The music video is one of the most important elements of K-pop. Because media is well developed now, people can usually watch music videos in the media. Ono and Kwon mentioned in their paper that YouTube is the best friend of K-pop because K-pop focuses on performance and YouTube is the way to visualize the music (Ono and Kwon 2013, 208). Then the music video of ‘Lion Heart’ takes good advantage of media like YouTube to tell the story about the ‘Lion Heart’ and to spread their music.

The story in the music video delivers a positive attitude about women in love. In the story, girls pursue their love bravely and when they find the man they love is a playboy, they leave him without hesitation. In some other K-pop music video, women need to present their sexy shapes to please men and get their love, which shows a problematic attitude. Then there is the possibility that teenagers who watch that video would form an inappropriate value for women. In Kistler and Lee’s paper, they mentioned that male college students were likely to objectify women and form a stereotype if they watch music videos including sexual content in a strong way (Kistler and Lee 2009, 67). Therefore, I think the music video of ‘Lion Heart’ delivers a correct and positive attitude toward women.

In conclusion, the music video of ‘Lion Heart’ is a successful video because it combines American retro style to K-pop and the story is not only attractive but also present a correct attitude to women.

 

 

Bibliography

Jin, Dal Yong and Woongjae Ryoo. “Critical Interpretation of Hybrid K-Pop: The Global-Local Paradigm of English Mixing in Lyrics, Popular Music and Society”, 37 no.2 (2014): 113-131.

Kistler, Michelle E. and Moon J. Lee. “Does Exposure to Sexual Hip-Hop Music Videos Influence the Sexual Attitudes of College Students?” Mass Communication and Society 13, no. 1 (2009;2010;): 67-86.

Ono, Kent A. and Kwon, Jungmin. The Korean Wave:YouTube as K-pop interlocutor. London: Routledge Taylor&Francis Group, 2013.

 

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Literature Application on “New Wave Formations: K-Pop Idols, Social Media, and the Remaking of the Korean Wave.”by Shuwei Zhou

Girls’ generation’s accomplishment and achievement are closely related to social media’s development, they had well used the promotion of media to gain reputation not only in Korea but more importantly internationally.

Jung is focusing on media studies, it emphasizes on the underlying reason of having the opportunity to communicate and marketing K-pop culture internationally is due to the presence of new media technology (Jung 2015:76). Girls’ generation had an outstanding performance on connecting and reaching out to international fans. They had offered diversity and all-embracing concepts and elements in different forms such as songs, dances, and music videos. In their music videos, “I got a boy” displays a hip-hop style, “Party” shows a sweet holiday style; “Genie” with a mature image wearing a uniform and “Lion Heart” was emphasizing on retro style. They had so many views on YouTube, which is a powerful type of social media platforms, and they are very active in different platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. They had well-used style conversion and fascinating content to show their charm and charisma through media. On the other side, they are appearing not only in the music field but also TV dramas, advertisements, films, music, and fashion fields. They are building their power and influence from the expansion of fans, for instance, there are cover videos of their dances on YouTube, and they are also impacting the fashion trends and cosmetic consumption.

In summary, K-pop is able to share and attract people by making improvement and advancing their technology to provide a better media space and platform. Using this low costing method, Girls Generation had expanded their influence with high returning effect.

 

 

 

Bibliography

Jung, Eun-Young. “New Wave Formations: K-Pop Idols, Social Media, and the      Remaking of the Korean Wave”. In Hallyu 2.0: The Korean Wave in the Age of Social Media, edited by Lee, Sangjoon, Nornes, Abé Markus. 73-89. Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2015.

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5C.What complications would ensue if pop stars were granted exemption from mandatory military service? Should they be exempted? On what grounds?

K-pop stars should not be exempted from the mandatory military service since it has enormous cultural, political and social influences on Korean society. Male image and masculinity are emphasized in Korea relating to attending the mandatory military service. It is common to expect a boy before military service and a real man after completed the military service. The media in Korea are always enlarging on the positives side and responsibility of attending mandatory services.

The mandatory military service is seen as a very important way in Korean male’s role to grow mature and become masculinity. As for male K-pop stars, they are especially focused and monitored by the media and society on the issues of trying to be excluded from the military service. One of the reasons behind this is that K-pop stars are role models and people want to see them contributing to their country and society. It would be unfair for K-pop artists to spare from the mandatory military service, yet every Korean male is responsible to attend the service. Attending to the military service is a chance for stars to build a good impression, it offers an opportunity to let go the past and the immature acts. But on the other side, trying to avoid it could destroy one’s career since it appeared as betraying. Yoo Seungjun, the singer had been an especially popular pop star since he had shown his loyalty and proudness of being a Korean performing in a foreign land (Yezi 2017:299). He had earned a lot of money and promised to go to the military anyways and viewed as a star who had positive influences. However, he didn’t go to military and abandoned his Korean citizenship, this results in losing his fans and fame.

Military service had risen to be a noble thing to do and people are proud of it. Nevertheless, this also gives chances for cyberbully, K-pop star Tablo was attacked because rumor of he didn’t attend military service (Shim 2014:479). We can see how much Korean society value the military service and it could success and fail a celebrity’s career. Due to the fact, the military service timing is usually in people’s twenties to thirties which is a golden time for people to work hard in their career. Further, some of the stars maybe exempted since they are doing things that are contributing to the country more than the military service (Joohee 2014:455).

Bibliography:

DOOBO, SHIM. “the Cyber Bullying of Pop Star Tablo and South Korean Society : Hegemonic Discourses on Educational Background and Military Service.” Acta Koreana 17, no. 1 (2014): 479-504.

Yeo, Yezi. “The Good, the Bad, and the Forgiven: The Media Spectacle of South Korean Male Celebrities’ Compulsory Military Service.” Media, War & Conflict 10, no. 3 (2017): 293-313.

Kim, Joohee. “Class Reproduction and Korean Male Dancers Receiving Exemption from Military Service through Dance Competitions.” Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science 24, no. 4 (2014): 453-460.

 

 

 

 

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Cover Video Short Essay

-shuwei

Girls Generation has come out for ten years, so they have many music videos and stages, which contains different styles of K-pop. We chose the newest music video named ‘lil’ touch’ to do our cover video because the number of the group member in the video matches the number of our member who can show up in the cover.

Every member of our group takes a different part of the video, and we did what we good at to contribute. Every each of us has our own strengths and we help with each other’s weakness. For example, I have learned the dance before and taught them every part of it, and Tong is responsible for videoing. I also learned that cooperation is very important from the process of covering because each of us did the preparation and be familiar with the lyric before we meet and take the video. In addition, as a group doing dance together, we need to look out for each other in order to make the right formation. I also notice that every member of Girls Generation has four different outfits, hairstyles, and accessories in the video. When they change the scene, they change their outfits, and different scenes change quickly. That is one of the key features of K-pop music video, which is a delicate music video. Furthermore, I also find that one or two dancing movement in ‘lil’ touch’ is impressive and easy for everyone to imitate. When I watch the MV at the first time, I can remember that dancing movement. I learn that almost every dance in K-pop MV has one or two impressive movements and then this MV can be spread boarder and quicker.

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