2) Consider the role of television (as compared to other media devices) in your daily consumption and perception of popular culture, in comparison to that of the presence of television and its implications on the direction of contemporary popular culture in South Korea as suggested by Kim Suk-young in chapter 2.
In chapter two of her book, Kim Suk-young writes about the role that TV has played in the presentation of media. Initially, TV was envisioned as a media platform which could deliver a theatre like performance in the comfort of one’s home. As one might expect, cable TV at the time it was introduced was extremely popular, and continued to grow during the late 80’s into the 90’s with the introduction of colored broadcasts.
At the time of their inception, there were three major broadcasting companies in Korea which each had their own tv music chart programs. These programs focused not only on the music, but the visuals as well, allowing for fans to put both the image and voices of their favorite artists together. In Western culture, this can be likened to MTV, and the music billboard. A stark difference however, is that in Korea these TV broadcasters today, still retain some control over the music industry despite the vast new ways to consume media.
That is to say, we no longer need to watch TV to get the experience of watching our favorite music videos, or figure out who the most popular artists currently are. Instead, we have the availability of programs such as Vevo, Youtube or any other website online that allows us to stream uploaded content. Instead of listening to music that is “popular”, clever software built into applications such as Apple Music and Spotify look at our preferences and personalize a list of recommendations. Such advances in the distribution of music media would lead one to question how the same TV producers in Korea still retain a lot of power.
As explained in Kim’s book, music producers still try and kowtow to the individuals in charge of the selection of which artists will be put on TV broadcasts. Despite all the other media outlets available today, these TV broadcasts still remain essential to the k-pop industry. This is explained by circumstances within the k-pop industry; the star system used by entertainment companies, and the “manufactured nature of popularity by various media forces”. A balance exists now, where entertainment companies allow their biggest starts to perform on TV shows, in exchange for the same TV broadcaster to present some of their lesser known performers.
Even though these shows do not draw in massive audiences, the time and effort (usually 24 hours goes into putting together a 5 minute video) is worthwhile because this content is usually pushed to other online platforms which would generate more views.
It is interesting to imagine that TV broadcasts would remain important in Korea, but have for the most part gone extinct in Western entertainment culture. I can’t remember the last time I saw a music video on the TV. It seems to me that in the k-pop industry, most of the control over the production of music remains in the hands of the media and production companies, and less so that of the artists, especially when compared to the Western frame work.
Kim, Suk-Young. K-pop Live: Fans, Idols, and Multimedia Performance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018. Kindle.
Hi Joel!
Thank you for sharing your response for this week’s discussion. I found it very interesting when you mentioned that in our generation today, “we no longer need to watch TV” in order to require daily entertainment. In such ways that with our technological advancements, we are able to encounter similar experiences through online video streaming programs. I, myself, can validate this issue as I have not touched a cable TV in years. I would resort to other media services providers such as Netflix, Youtube, and Spotify for my entertainment purposes. In particular, the special algorithms within these media services providers is a benefit to many consumers who consume media daily. Therefore, these Youtube, Spotify, and Netflix are able to distinguish your favorite genres to further suggest and customize a playlist for you.
According to Kim Suk-Young’s book, it allows us to illustrate this difference within the k-pop industry and the western pop culture. To my knowledge, in western society today, television broadcasts are not as heavily perceived than from before. I totally agree with you, Joel! The last time I have seen a music video on the television was back in elementary school on MuchMusic. It is fascinating to notice how we are slowly changing our main media outlet sources. I am also confident to say that whenever I have free time to watch television, I would go on Netflix instead. I think in Western culture, we are becoming so used to online streaming services that we simply begin to ignore TV cable broadcasting. This is because we know for a fact, that we are able to catch any missed shows or videos simply on the internet.
However, I think it is significant to also consider the effectiveness of strong fan-base within the K-Pop industry. It can be another reason why Korea still value TV broadcasting. TV broadcasting to me is like a “live show” at home. Just like in our Western culture, we watch hockey and other sports on our TV cable to ultimately catch it live. Although we are not physically present at the game, we are still able to grasp the ‘live’ experiences as if we were in the crowds. Hence, do you think TV broadcasting is still important today because “K-pop music” is heavily embedded within their culture to create collective effervescence? Just like how Dr. Saeji has mentioned in class today that the K-pop industry is ingrained within the Korean culture even within the Korean government.
I totally agree with what Joel said that TV is getting less popular nowadays when comparing to the past. Watching TV with family at home was considered as a great communication time before. With more and more people have their own computers or laptops at home, the usage of TV is largely reduced. People can watch everything on their phones or tablets. It is much more convenient for them to watch their favorite TV shows or music videos on their way back home or to work. For me, I remembered that I liked watching cartoons or TV programs when I was a kid. However, when I grow up, I prefer to download the whole series of TV dramas onto my laptop and watch them later when I have time. It definitely saves me more time because there will not be any advertisement in between. This will not disturb the pace of watching. Also, we can stop whenever we want or even go back and watch again in case we miss some important parts. I think this is one of the reasons why TV plays a less important role nowadays among other media devices.
On the other hand, I also think that TV broadcasts still play a role in Kpop industry. The Kpop live performances and Korean dramas are widely shown on TV in Korea. People in Korea can watch their favorite idols or stars on TV. Meanwhile, the clips of the Kpop live shows and the Korean dramas will be posted onto different platforms. And the most popular one should be Youtube. Everyone else who does not stay in Korea can still have a chance to watch Korean programs. This can definitely attract more people from many different places to watch Korean shows and enhance their interest towards Korean culture. As what Emily mentioned above, I also believe that the power of fandom in Kpop industry is one of the reasons why TV broadcasts in Korea still play an important role. Some fans may not have a chance to go to the live show. And watching the live performance on TV at home will be a great optional choice for them to scream for their idols.
Hey Joel,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the role of television and its impact on advertising Korean popular culture compared to other media devices. To me, I believe television and broadcasting ignited the Korean wave (Hallyu) globally and began to promote Korean popular culture through drama shows or k-pop. I was first introduced to Hallyu when one of the Hong Kong broadcasting company decided to play foreign films from Korean, Japan, India, Europe etc. Similar to what was said in the lecture, Korea was one of the countries affected by the 1990s Asian economic crisis and the nation began to mass produce popular culture as an attempt to boost the local economy. In the meantime, Korean popular content was shipped out abroad to lure international fans. There was this Korean show called “Dae Jang Geum” or known as Jewel in the Palace in North America, I remembered everyone would be talking about the show during the weekdays then proceed to watch and record the latest episode for further viewing.
If I can remember correctly, internet explorer was commonly used by daily living people and fans would create websites to update news and blog discussion similar to modern day supporters. Apart from TV drama shows, Korean media company saw the potential in the television advertisement and started to display Korean music video content to Television broadcasting companies. Popular channels such as MTV provided music fans a platform to experience auditory and periphery stimuli in music videos, MTV was one of the shows that were invaded by Korean groups and artists, this Korean popular content subsequently entered unfamiliar and uncharted markets abroad and attracted more international fans. I agree with your statement about Korean fans and their reason to be amazed from k-pop music video, according to Ono and Kwok, visuality in music dictates the success of the music video and the visual aspect usually consist of intense choreography, lighting show, musical talent display, emotional story-telling, historical montage etc. With the modern inventions of tablets and internet, Hallyu fans can browse Korean popular content without turning on the TV and imitate dances from their cellphone.
Hey, Joel. Thank you for sharing your opinions and thoughts.
I also couldn’t remember last time I watched TV. And I just remember when I was very young, I do not have phone in that time, I only can watch TV after dinner. Or when Spring Festival’s coming, our family will sit together to watch Festival TV shows. But it was a long time before. Right now, lots of media devices we can choose to use and lots of people use their phones, computers to instead TV because they are more convenient and we can receive news on time. For example, if we want to learn some music or watch something. We have to go back home, take off our shoes then turn on the TV and sit down to watch it. However, if we use phone, just open it! And sometimes, we always missed TV shows that we want to watch or we have to wait on an exactly time. If we use phone, we can watch it in anytime. I think is also the reason why TV got less popular in our daily consumption. I even do not have a Television at home, and in my opinion, laptop and phone are enough.
However, TV broadcasts are still popular in Korea and K-pop industry. Some of Korean people are traditional. They enjoy in sitting in front TV and wait for their idol shows. They can watch Korean drama, music broadcasts. As Kim Suk-young said, some TV broadcasts try to put most popular shows on TV to increase TV rating. So I think Korean people want to people interested in TV broadcasts, they still work on it. For example, lots of idols join in different TV broadcasts, advertisements, dramas. Such as Big bang, they joined one TV broadcasting called Weekly Idol, they performed both their music and dancing. And telling lots of their life stories. It makes more opportunities to let people get interested in TV and it makes fans get more expectations.
And I also want to say, whatever TV gets less popular in Western culture or still popular in Korea. The fandom become stronger, if non-Korean fans could not support their idols on TV, they can choose YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc. It does not matter. We can watch Korean K-pop in any media devices and we can catch up TV shows. For Korean fans, it is good to watch TV shows at home with your family, and share to your parents about your favorite idols and k-pop. Both are good choices and there are no conflicts. Just choose a convenient way to enjoy the K-pop.
Hi, thanks for sharing. I think you made a very truth point that TV is no longer the most popular media device nowadays, especially in younger generation who owns a computer or smartphone.
We used to spend so much time on watching TV before these high technology products was invented, also in South Korea, TV played an important role in the field of music programs, especially after the colored broadcasts was introduced. TV programs are still essential in contemporary South Korea, due to those idol reality shows are massive produced. TV reality shows are largely consumed by fan groups and people who enjoys watching performances and musical competitions. We discussed different types of music reality shows in class today, the most popular ones like Produce 101 and Show Me the Money. More importantly, songs are produced during these shows are very likely to hit the top charts in Korean music billboard, which supported by the audiences who watch these reality shows on TV, and it could be hard to understand the song and have less context for those people who did not watch the show.
However, in my daily consumption, watching TV is no longer the priority in my sparetime, since there are so many websites and applications have access to the music video I would like to watch. By using websites and applications, there is more time manageable than watching TV at home. TV cannot not provide the convince that smartphone and laptop brought to us, which I think that is the main reason why younger generation are no longer liked to watch TV, and since we can find everything online. Especially, in westerner culture, people are busy to going to work and school, younger generation like myself would choose YouTube, Netflix and other online media to watch music videos or TV shows, TVs are aimed for people are too young to have online access or too old who has trouble to access to online programs.
Hi Joel, I really enjoyed how your essay really focused on how TV’s role in Western and Korean societies influence music consumption, respectively. You bring up not only Vevo and Youtube, but music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music that offer us smart technology in enjoying music. The latter was a point that piqued my curiosity, because I wonder if streaming services in Korea (Melon for example) offer the same catering services that Spotify/AM does. Thank you for this essay!