Author: ziye pan

1. What is your answer to criticisms of K-pop masculinity?

  As Korean K-pop music becomes more famous all around world, people are going to have a new concept of aesthetic: What is the real masculinity? In normal Korean males, they have grantee to serve the military, then they became real men. In K-pop industry, males are not necessarily stronger or dressing formal to follow in the traditional style. They can make up, act like a spoiled child or even dressing bonzer and become “Pretty boys”(Colette 2017). In my opinion, I think whatever the male’s style in K-pop right now, as long as they can contribute in K-pop and their fans, then they have masculinity

Male’s style in K-pop industry influences their fans as squeals of delight and excitement(Colette 2017). It means male idol’s style can let their fans become excited, then it is the masculinity and it is also their contribution for K-pop. For example, Colette Bennett said in his article “How male K-Pop idols are redefining masculinity”: “While K-pop may not suit the taste of many, its continued popularity in the U.S. means that hundreds of thousands of people are falling in love with a new kind of man, one we’re meeting for the first time through the music. It’s refreshing and exciting” (Colette 2017). So after K-pop explored in U.S, more fans get interested in the new kind of male. They actually changed their aesthetic and they even fall in love with the male who actually doing make up. And those male idols just did what they desire to do as: “It’s OK for me to dance, to sing, to enjoy who and what I am”(Colette 2017). Their realistic is a responsibility to K-pop industry and their fans. Whatever they look like, they are themselves and they can perform themselves in good attitude. It is the real concept of masculinity.

In 2009, the music video called Abracadabra by 2 pm had a total hit count of 1,150,000 on YouTube. It became the queen of the girls group mimickers(Jung 2010 p.164). It also proved people accepted 2pm’s performance as girls mimickers. However it did not mean they wanted become girls or they are gay. They just opened a new path of male’s aesthetic and a new style of K-pop music video. Those are all their achievement and I think their achievement let them become masculinity.

In conclusion, we should change our mind about how a male should be look like in K-pop industry. There’s no exactly rule that a male couldn’t make up or dressing in female style. Those are all their styles even features. We cannot say if a male who wear ear ring is not masculinity. We should focus on what they did for their fans and how they work hard for K-pop, this is their identification of masculinity.

References:

Jung, Sun. Korean Masculinities and Transcultural Consumption: Yonsama, Rain, Oldboy, K-Pop Idols. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2011.

Colette,Bennett. “How Male K-Pop Idols Are Redefining Masculinity.” The Daily Dot. February 24, 2017. Accessed November 22, 2018. https://www.dailydot.com/upstream/k-pop-boy-bands-masculinity/.

Based on the question, our group will give some ideas about how Korean idols balance the nationalistic while still appealing to international audiences who do not care about nationalistic elements. As we know, Korean people are patriotic. They expect their country has stable development while still remember the Korean history. So we can see some Korean dramas, Korean movies, even Korean music, the Korean idols’ performance still keep Korean traditional, the old style. It is also to remind young people how Korea getting stronger. However, if Korean idols want to maintain Korean nationalistic and bring them to other countries, they need to change strategy. The reason is most international audiences especially young audiences; they are not interested in nationalistic. They desire popular.

To give a specific analysis, we would like to talk about Korean music. Some traditional music is melodic and memorable. Even though those classic music given Korean audiences strong emotionality, let them go though back. They do not catch international audiences’ attention. Most international audiences they do not know about Korean culture, and even they do not feel interested. If the music has much nationalistic components will let them feel boring and sleepy. And most young people like to aspire popular music, and the most famous idol in right now. So I think if the Korean idols want to balance this problem and expanse their music companies to international. They need to change their music’s style.

For example, nationalistic music is peaceful and we think is the main reason why international audience do not like it. It is so boring. To be an international audience, I would like to listen the Korean music is let me feel relax. Nationalistic music let me feel sleepy. So I think if Korean idols expect to let international audiences accept Korean culture positivity, they can make some hip-hop music. Back to today, hip-hop is the most popular music in the world even in Korean. For instance, there has a website called Medium and it tells about Korean hip-hop as: “As I see it, hip-hop is a culture, something larger than a genre of music. It encompasses many things, fragments of life at the time of its creation, into an art form which anyone of any race, ethnicity, skin color, or origin can enjoy.” (Medium 2017). Hip-pop music is an idol’s passion and it is a culture’s spirit as well. The hip-pop music itself is vive and noisy, it is a good way to let young people to freed their pressure. And it is also a good way the Korean idols let nationalistic elements in hip-pop, it likes to change another style to tell international audiences the Korean culture without boring. It is a good idea to attract international audiences listen Korean culture and an awesome strategy for Korean idols appeal their country’s nationalistic.

Citation:

. “A Look Into Korean Hip-Hop Culture – – Medium.” Medium. August 08, 2017.

Accessed September 26, 2018. https://medium.com/@93/a-look-into-korean-

hip-hop-culture-16850a441019.