Author: Emily Chow

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Literature Application: Jung’s “K-Pop Idols, Social Media, and the Remaking of the Korean Wave”

In Jung’s article, “K-Pop Idols, Social Media, and the Remaking of the Korean Wave,” it illustrates how K-pop industries are a strong believer of the success behind social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube as a generator of new waves to reach out to the American markets.  In reference to this wave that Jung has mentioned, it is called Hallyu. His focus is determined on four Korean wave formations and in particular, Psy’s fame resonates within the fourth wave of the social media explosion era.

In accordance to Jung’s explanation of the fourth wave, the emergence of Psy’s popularity is referred as the latest Hallyu K-pop idol within the late 2000s to present. During this wave, K-pop idols embodied “music and dance styles, visual stylistic emphasis, and multimedia presence” as a way to “generate new waves and reaching different shores, including America and Europe (Jung 2015, 80) This was followed by the introduction of a contributing factor that have progressed Hallyu within the American markets. Through the “intense development of information and communication technologies,” it has allowed many fans to video-share and to exploit “new social media to the maximum, including K-pop flash mob…and K-pop cover dances (Jung 2015, 81).”  Hence, Psy’s signature horse dance in “Gangnam Style,” has enabled fans from all over the world to use these technologies such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to communicate and to generate “a greater circulation” all over the world (Jung 2015, 82).

In conclusion, Psy is one of the K-pop idols that has ever reached in such epic crossover success. There is no doubt that Psy’s fame is solely based on Hallyu K-pop as the facilitation of technological advances in site-sharing spaces like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube has enabled him to reach new shores.

Bibliography

Jung, Eun-Young. Hallyu 2.0: The Korean Wave in the Age of Social Media. Edited by Sangjoon Lee and Markus Nornes. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2015.

 

 

 

 

 

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Video Analysis: Psy’s “Gentlemen”

In Psy’s music video, “Gentleman,” it portrays an opposite perspective of the normative ideals of a true gentleman. This music video has been a sensational hit on YouTube and has effectively displayed strong images of mockery against such gentlemen behaviour. In the music video, it has included many non-gentlemen behaviours like unstringing bikinis and pulling chairs away from women when they were about to sit. All these Psy’s pranks with women have ultimately shown us this problematic nature of this masculine identity within our modern world. Therefore, the presentation of Psy’s “Gentlemen,” can be perceived as a comic relief which incorporates dance and lyrics as a way to exhibit the treatment women being constantly sexualized and objectified in a patriarchal society like Korea.

First off, the success of his first viral hit, “Gangnam style,” has aligned many similarities with “Gentlemen,” due to the fact that it illustrates many critiques of randomness of the video. In particular, within each of these music videos, Psy includes iconic dance moves as a way to further provide entertainment and as a “sexless and clownish performer (Park 2015, 203).” In this case, in “Gentlemen,” not only did he execute many childish pranks on women, but also created a signature move with his hips swaying and his hands under his chin, that further produces Psy as an arrogant character. This results in reflecting an image of gentlemen displaying a satire way treating women today. In addition, the women in “Gentlemen,” were constantly being sexually objectified through their dances with bikini outfits and short dresses. For many instances, women were swaying their hips in bikinis like Psy while standing on top of a man laying down. As a result, this characterizes as “men [being] more powerful, dominant, aggressive, and violent, while women…to be presented as weak, dependent, submissive, and nurturing (Lin & Rudolf 2017, 30).” Certainly, the role of “costumes, [and] choreography” has provided a powerful empathises on women on “Gentlemen” being innocent and submissive within their role within the patriarchal society in Korea (Lin & Rudolf 2017, 30).

Although the majority of the lyrics in “Gentlemen” were in Korean, Psy has also ended the music video with an English chant. The exact phrases where he chants repetitively, “I’m going to make you sweat, I’m going to make you wet.” It is apparent that English mixing in lyrics was present in “Gentlemen” and has been used as a technique to “illustrate the playfulness [in] accompanying the convergence of multilingual ingredients…[to] reveal…national popular culture in general, and Korean popular music in particular (Jin & Ryoo 2014, 128).”Overall, these lyrics are constantly being repeated in Psy’s “Gentlemen,” to expose this excessive arrogance of hyper-sexualizing and illustrating obvious objection of women in the video.

All in all, the idea of women continually perceived as a sexualized object is constantly being framed in music videos like “Gentlemen.” There is no doubt that small theatrical acts like dance choreographies and even lyrics within the song that represent gender politics within our modern world. In this particular music video that Psy has created produces a mockery of real gentlemen that encourages the concept of disrespecting women in society today. As a result, “Gentlemen” presents dances and lyrics to facilitate the realignment of the role of women within the patriarchal society that Korea currently still embodies today.

– Emily Chow

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 Society37, no. 2 (2012): 113-31.

Lin, Xi, and Robert Rudolf. “Does K-pop Reinforce Gender Inequalities? Empirical Evidence from a New Data Set.” Asian Women33, no. 4 (2017): 27-54.

Park, Michael K. “Psy-Zing up the Mainstreaming of “Gangnam Style”.” Journal of Communication Inquiry39, no. 3 (2015): 195-212.

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Discussion #5

Question D: After the class on sexual objectification, explain what you think about sexual objectification in K-pop

The success behind K-pop hides behind the extravagance of revealing outfits, cheesy smiles, catchy melodies, and seductive dances. In the K-pop industry, sexual objectification is very prominent within female artists by the way they are dressed and perceived within the lyrics of their songs. Therefore, the success of a K-pop idol completely relies on their image. Unfortunately, within K-pop, it purely embodies the idea of how “sex sells.” Today, women are commonly being sexualized and objectified in K-pop where societal pressure exists for these idols to be flawless. Thus, sexual objectification in K-pop illustrates disempowerment in women by exercising the pressure for them to conform to set beauty standards and traditional gender roles.

There is no doubt that in every K-pop music video there are certain images that female K-pop idols need to conform to. In the normative male gaze perception, there are strong desires for a woman’s long, smooth legs. Thus, many K-pop idols are to assimilate to this kind of perfect body perceived by the audience. In addition, plastic surgery is very common for female idols to attain that perfection. As Saeji argues in her article, many idols are chosen to be within a certain group and are controlled “with a carefully pre-prepared image under the tutelage of K-pop’s major entertainment companies” (Saeji 2013, 330). Ultimately, the entertainment companies are the powerhouse that determines how they should be in their everyday lives. Hence, this forces female K-pops artist to simply comply in order to enhance their career. As a result, sexual objectification within K-pop further disempowers women through the importance of conformity within set beauty standards.

On the other hand, Korea is still embodied as a very male-dominated society today. As K-pop being the cultural ambassador of Korea, they are forced to follow the ideals of traditional gender roles. This is shown in many music videos like “Dream Girls” from class which has exemplified gendered ideas that “manipulates young female idol’s femininity in order to meet socially prescribe role expectations in a male-dominated society” (Lin & Rudolf 2017, 28). By sexually objectifying women as “exotic sexual objects” this further results in women to be portrayed as “submissive, fragile, and innocent maidens” (Lin & Rudolf 2017, 28).  Therefore, the practices of K-pop reinforces women to continue to execute these traditional gender roles.

The idea of “sex sells” is embedded within the practices of K-pop culture. It is shown in the evidence above that female artist groups are still consistently being sexually objectified in their music videos.  As a result, sexual objectification is a technique that is not only used to achieve success and fame but to also realign the standards of beauty and traditional gender roles of women within the Korean culture.

Reference

Lin, Xi, and Robert Rudolf. “Does K-pop Reinforce Gender Inequalities? Empirical Evidence from a New Data Set.” Asian Women 33, no. 4 (2017): 27-54. doi:10.14431/aw.2017.12.33.4.27.

Saeji, Cedarbough T. “Juvenile Protection and Sexual Objectification: Analysis of the Performance Frame in Korean Music Television Broadcasts.” Acta Koreana 16, no. 2 (December 2013): 329-65. doi:10.18399/acta.2013.16.2.003.

 

Emily Chow

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Cover Video Reflection

In the course of creating our cover video, I have learned that it is crucial to embody creativity and a strong vision in order to make it a success. Hence, this consists of a huge production that takes a great effort from different roles of expertise to re-create the music video well. These roles include performers, choreographers, videographers, producers, and editors.

By being the main videographer for the cover video, it made me realize how important it was to get the right shot. In particular, it is significant to have a clear vision of how you are going to capture the performers in a particular scene. Through using specific camera angles, it further helps shape the meaning of the lyrics and the song. There were many particular instances where I had to be creative with camera positions to perform different camera angles to further dramatize the scenes. Therefore, as an individual videographer,  I had to be innovative to adopt different angles in order to imitate Hangover’s scenes.

However, without having a clear vision and creative idea in mind, it is really hard for the group to start the project. There were many instances where we had to use one of our film days to figure out the props, the scenes, and the roles for our cover video. There is no doubt that K-pop stars like G-Dragon, who have the capability of not only performing, but also choreographing, composing, and producing their own songs are truly labelled as a K-pop idol. Overall, I adore and applaud fans who have created cover videos on Youtube because this kind of task surely takes lots of time and energy to assemble.

Emily Chow

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