way around, so K-POP will be in flux according to the changing situation in East Asia.

#NorthEastAsia
#K-POP #KoreaLimitationOrder #China #Japan #U.S

To sum up, even though the popularity might not decrease in the region because of politics, an order can cut the revenue from China like mentioned in the class. A soft power like K-POP is hard to measure in international relations. Mostly, hard power influences everything else, not the other

Unless Korea’s industry model entirely changes, we will have to be dependent on China. At the same time, Korea can’t ignore America’s policy toward China. As seen in the THAAD conflict, if the Korean government fails to find a middle ground, it is inevitable for the K-POP industry to suffer.

could be complicated and very different in the near future. It has already been complex and ugly because of all the THAAD and Korean Limitation Order that followed. Korea is heavily dependent on China in terms of economy and politics, as they are one of the largest to import from and export to.

background, the U.S. is strongly pushing trilateral cooperation in this East Asia region. Even though we have multiple issues about history and territory, the alliance ties us very strongly, and it will not change unless we both decide to be out of this circle. In the case of China, however, things

Japan and Korea will have bumpy and rocky moments sometimes, but mostly will be fine, at least on the surface level, just like now. Both countries’ anti-sentiment has settled for now after the No Japan movement (and as the last administration was favorable to Japan). Despite all the historical

#K-POP #kpop #Abracadabra #AOA #IU

sexiness. Ironically, I think this had made K-POP less poppy in domestic market. They still have the popularity among youth, teens to early 30s, however, the nation-wide, phenomenonal idol singer’s hit song is really rare compared to early 2000s.

They got freedom to experiment in styles of femininity which might not exactly align to Korean men’s taste as it can fit into the global fan’s instead. In a nutshell, alternative music market for female artists has allowed more room for artistic element in their music instead of straightforward

and ‘Short Skirts’ by AOA, or with the innocence of young girl, represented by IU, who solidified this term ‘Samchon fan’ by her phenomenonal ‘좋은 날’ release. In 2020s, however, the girl group’s target audience has changed a bit, more toward ‘core fans’ rather than genral Korean male audience.

fandom to flourish in that system. So the strategy they took was to catch public’s attetion and make a ‘hit song’ and gain nation-wide popularity instead. At the time most of the girl groups targeted the general audience either with sexy dance movements such as ‘Abracadabra’ by Brown Eyed Girls

I feel like the way K-POP earns money has changed a lot, expanding their stage from domestic to abroad. Back then most part of K-POP earning came from selling physical album. To sell lots of copies, you need a huge fandom-vast majority was female- but the girl groups didn’t have a large enough

#KPOP #Gendergap #SouthKorea #Irene #Mysogyny #Backlash

so casually, but when the male celebrities, on the other hand, say something so outdated and mysogynistic, surprisingly nobody cares. It's not only the K-POP's problem but this society's, however, it's enough to make me feel very uncomfortable and rethink about my choice once in a every while.

on the newspaper revealing a complete different self from they have showned. Plus, the gender gap in K-POP industry is so clear that it makes hard for me to support them wholeheartedly. Not just the case Irene got attacked for reading that book but lots of female artists get attacks from everywhere

them to be perfect idols. Part of this distrust came from the long crime history boygroups have made in the society section of the paper, not in the entertainment one. Many fans would agree that the idols don't show their real self(who would actually but), sometimes ending up make an appearance

not to go around those. However, ocassionally I get those uncomfortable feelings from their behavior or a word they spoke, I try not to read into it, although my brain immediately does. And that disappoints me in them because now I know they are just ordinary men in their 20s. So I no longer imagine

It is important for me to be sure that I'm supporing someone who believes in at least similar values to mine. When it comes to K-POP, it is hard to point mysogyny in public speech because they are very consious to make speech around those subjects and their company encourage them

#PSY #BTS #masculinity #Koreanmen #KPOP

not aligned to the social norm and it provoked them an urge to categorize BTS into something else and in a way to isolate from the normalcy.

PSY and BTS is still a little different. PSY was not considered as a threat because clearly he was not popular because he looked good or attractive. On the other hand, BTS and other boy groups are attractive to the female audience and that made the people define them as something, because it was

idols are accepted by female audience, however, now this "soft masculinity" could be joined in the line of various type of masculinity and diversify the definition of hetero sexual manness in the western perspective.

standards, I think the term is even accepted by the fans who think their idols are "sexy". So the discussion over "soft masculinity" can be seen as a way to embrace a different type of masculinity amongst fans. So initially, it was made by the one who were threathened, seeing female-looking male

I agree that the term "soft masculinity" is first used in an attempt to deny the masculinity of male idol, however, it could be reinterpreted in a new context. Although it stemed from an attempt to explain -and even to demasculinize- the male idols' looking, which didn't fit into the western

Because it is artistic, interesting, and convenient all at once.

#English #kpop #Korean #hook #catchy

about the difficulties that the Korean language has in genres which were traditionally made for Western languages. However, it is clear that if Korean is used for the simple, catchy hook, it will sound very much childish. In that aspect, using English is not just a good option, it's the best option.

an aesthetic feel to the lyrics and interests people because it’s foreign, you can't get the meaning at first sight. It’s not the language you hear in markets, hospitals, buses, but in books, classes, and media, so it has an artistic effect in itself. I’m not a music expert, so I can’t say much

Koreans having a good familiarity with English made it easy to adopt it in pop culture. But at the same time, it is not entirely clear for them to understand. Sometimes you have to look up the meaning of a word from the lyrics just to understand the content. This subtle exoticness adds

The point is why it could be successful to Korean audiences because using a foreign language could rather be a barrier to them. In that sense, I agree that English lyricism is partially driven by Koreans’ ‘English Fever’, without it, it wouldn’t have succeeded in the first place in domestic market.

Korean pop has been heavily influenced by American music, so it is natural to have those influences in K-POP.