Equal Opportunity Sexual Objectification in K-Pop

After all my fevered research and writing, as you know, I presented my paper on K-Pop last weekend in Austin. I actually feel pretty good about it, and I'm further editing to share with a couple friends and then submit it for publication. Since I talked about it so much on here, I thought you'd like to see at least how the introduction looks today... 

Introduction

Since the late 1990s Korean popular music has achieved an audience beyond Korea, becoming a leading part of the growing phenomenon of inter-Asian popular music (Shin 2009: 472). Musically indebted to hip-hop and Western pop, Korean popular music is generally performed by groups of a single gender. Although scholars have discussed the global rise in "girl power" in the field of popular music using examples such as Madonna, the Spice Girls, and Faye Wong (Fung and Curtin 2002, Dibben 1999, Lloyd 1994, McClary 2002), there are few that can argue for "girl power" in Korean popular music (hereafter K-Pop). One reason is that K-Pop is almost entirely a manufactured commodity; the stars, called "idols," are scouted, trained, and assigned to a group with a specific image under the tutelage of K-Pop's major entertainment companies, such as SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, Cube Entertainment, and Starship Entertainment. At the helm of each company CEOs oversee the production of K-Pop idols in a way strikingly similar to preparing other commodities for the market.[1]

            In K-pop with few exceptions the songs, choreography and costumes of the performers are chosen by the management agency. The agencies control their lives, including housing them in dormitories, choosing their diet, and doling out cell phone privileges as a reward for hard work. Analyzing the lyrics, choreography, and costume choices of the artists reveals less about the performers and more about the agencies, their understanding of the market, and the particular persona that they have assigned to the members of each group. However, a comprehensive performance analysis of popular music,[2] including a specific focus on presentation and framing of gendered lyrics, choreography, and costumes in live performance provides a new window on the construction of femininity through K-Pop. 

            For my research I chose to analyze live music performances on the TV shows Music Core (MBC) and Inkigayo (SBS). Consequently my attention focuses on choices made by the television stations and their emcees, stage and video production crews. In this paper I begin by sketching the connections drawn between music and morality, and discuss the Republic of Korea's cultural laws and statutes that relate to popular culture. Finally, through an analysis of specific live performance videos I analyze how the music shows treat gendered behavior to construct Korean femininity.

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[1] The fans of K-Pop also have affective power both vis a vis the artists and their management companies (c.f. Gitzen 2013) although the degree of fan influence is difficult to quantify.

[2] Such a performance analysis is needed—scholars such as Philip Auslander have remarked on the emphasis on the "reception of popular music much more than the performance behavior of musicians" (2004: 3).

p.s. the title of the post is part of the title of the article. Pretty cool, huh? Anyone would stop to check out an article on Equal Opportunity Sexual Objectification!

K-Pop Releases in Early April 2011

New group Brave Girls has released the video for 아나요? (Do you know?).  I was expecting that they'd be a group with a strong rap song and perhaps a good dance beat but I was pretty disappointed. They seem to sing well enough if you like ballads, but the video isn't especially visually appealing unless you want to look at them flaunting themselves. At the end of the video there is a teaser of what they'd sound like if they were a rapping dance group, and I'm somewhat intrigued to see what their next release will be.

제 블로그를 방문해 주셔서 고맙습니다. 저는 이 블로그에 일주일에 4번 정도 한국 전통 공연 문화에 대해 쓰고 있습니다. 처음에는  K-pop에 관심이 있으셔서  방문하셨겠지만 나가시기 전에 한국 전통 문화에 관한 것도 한번 봐 주시면 좋겠습니다.


2NE1, one of the most fun groups ever to come out in K-Pop has released the English version of "Can't Nobody."  The song track itself was out before (I even own it) but now the video is out in HD. It's got a really stupid chorus, like the kind of English chorus you know every word to and can sing along with the first time you hear it because it's that predictable, but otherwise it's a good song and the visuals are the usual awesome 2NE1 visuals.

Brian Joo has released the MV for 사랑하다 끝났어.  With a title like that, of course it's a ballad, but his singing isn't bad. The story is apparently that he's sabotaged his own relationship but doesn't realize that till the end.

Eloise—if you want to hear Korean alt rock, here it is. The song is 진심을 너에게  and the group features actual playing of the instruments we're hearing! There's a woman guitarist, a singer who gets most of the video spotlight, a drummer and a bassist. It's not bad music, I'm just not a big alt rock person- I went through that phase and was done with it in the early 90s.

Kim Greem (Geu Rim) has released 너밖엔 없더라 a total ballad. I do appreciate that these days ballad singers tend to be better singers than the singers for "idol" groups but... I'm still not particularly impressed. Honestly I didn't even listen all the way through the track. I've heard enough people warbling "사랑해" to last my lifetime.

 

Raina, a group produced by Teddy Riley (producer for Michael Jackson) has released their first MV. It's an over-the-top sexual track called "Dr. Feel Good." They literally have sex with the camera in so many different ways it's almost like a sex manual. Or a trip to a strip club, without the bare tits. With lyrics like "I want to feel real good" as they run their hands over their pubic mound, I think it may be an ode to self-pleasure. (It amuses me to think that Dr. Feel Good is the name of their vibrator).

 

Kara, one of the worst and most untalented K-Pop idol groups has released the Japanese-language track "Jet Coaster Love." The link takes you to the close-up version of the MV, whatever. They really need to learn to either sing or dance, but preferably both. The close-up version at least shows that they're pretty (good surgeons).

 

4-Minute's new song is 거울아 거울아 or Mirror, Mirror.  The mirrors in the video provide the interesting visual elements. The song itself is good, not their best but a relief after forcing myself to listen to the Kara number. Actually there are parts of the song I like, it's the part with a background chorus of "yah" that drags the song down. The actual chorus where they chant Mirror, Mirror, is pretty catchy.

 

K-Pop Releases as Winter Begins

K-pop Releases

First of the new crop of releases is JYJ’s “Ayy Girl.” This is an extremely unsuccessful attempt to translate the popularity of the deservedly famous and legitimately talented smash hit group DBSK/TVXQ who have disintegrated through a nasty contract dispute with SM Entertainment into JYJ (three of the members and you can guess what their names begin with) and then the other two are going solo (exploring acting at the moment). They still have huge problems with SME which controls much of the Korean entertainment industry (they’re by far the largest company), for example SME managed to block the release of their first JYJ recording from sale in Korea (perhaps only temporarily, I haven’t been following much recently). Anyway, this song is an attempt to go somewhere where SME isn’t powerful—the English speaking world. Produced by and with guest vocals from Kanye West, this should be better than it is, but in fact it’s crap. The video set is corny, the close-ups of the guys seem designed just to appeal to their rabid fans, the lyrics are laughably bad (“we’re so high, touch the sky” and so on) and even the dancing (one of DBSK’s strong points) isn’t special (probably didn’t get a decent choreographer, since like most K-pop groups, they don’t do their own choreography). Also, if they’re trying to cross-over into a more Western part of the world, they might have rethought the make-up, clothes and some of the movements of the boys because they are coming across (to Western eyes) as quite effeminate. I’ve actually written about this in my academic writing, and I actually see a lot of Korean male groups are being quite masculine, just in a different way than people in the west are accustomed to, however in the case of this video I am not getting a masculine read off JYJ.

Nothing says girl group like a bunch of girls running around in cheerleader uniforms. Kara proves this by releasing a second video of their latest, “Jumping.” If you want to see the original version, it’s located here. It doesn’t matter which version of the video, the girl’s just sound awkward to me in Japanese. Not that I speak Japanese, I don’t.

[Edit: here is the link for Kara's newly released Korean version of Jumping which -does- sound better to me.]


Girl’s Day has a new song out, “Nothing Lasts Forever.” The video has a real party image, it’s a little different from most K-pop videos, the song is fairly standard for the “dance” genre, just perhaps a bit harder (and not as cutesy as you’d expect from a group with their name. There seems to be some posing about them being actual musicians, but I doubt anyone is silly enough to think they know what they’re doing with those instruments (they certainly didn’t get enough training in how to fake it). Overall, you could give it a pass.

Rainbow has a new song, “Mach,” this is pronounced Ma-ha for some reason. The song is the best of Rainbow’s songs so far, but I can’t find a real MV (I found something it seemed like a weird fan-made thing). So I’ve linked a music TV program recording instead. Anyway, it’s just another “dance” song but, it’s not bad.

Supreme Team has a new song out, “Then Then Then” with decent rapping but the other parts of the song, esp. the sappy music video, sort of ruin it for me. The best part of the video is figuring out what coffee shop the guy is patronizing.

Nine Muses (the group of former “super models”) has a song out called “Ladies,” perhaps there isn’t an MV, I can’t find one so I’ve linked this music show recording instead. Since I don’t find watching them dance poorly that exciting, I’ve only got the song to go on here, and their singing is too weak to carry it off. Oh well, ‘cause the lyrics are actually very empowering, something I appreciate.

2AM is totally irritating and all their songs sound the same. Not sure why I even bother to put the link up for this song, "Like Crazy". Whatever, it’s probably getting a lot of airplay with sappy 14 year-olds. To make it worse, they have TWO songs out right now, the other is “You wouldn’t answer my calls.” Which is slightly better, and I watched till the end just to find out what was going to happen in the video.

SNSD has released a new song, 훗 or Hoot. The video is, as you’d expect from nearly the top group in Asia, a well produced and visually arresting use of the 9 members of the group, showing off their “honey thighs” by dressing them in nothing but thigh bearing or skin-tight clothing. It feels a bit forced with the 007 theme, and an awful lot like they’re copying JYP Entertainment’s Wonder Girls “Two Different Tears” concept, but it works well, this SME group definitely is around to stay, and the song will surely be a huge winter hit.


Co-ed (남녀공학) has come out with their second single, which is called 삐리뽐 빼리뽐 (Bbiribbom, Bbaeribbom) and seems to feature the group in a mental hospital. Well, it’s certainly catchy! Visually and musically (although auto-tune isn’t a strong enough word for it), it stands out. I think I approve. I mean, a bit like Gaga’s Telephone in places but not too much so.

Lots of K-pop Releases (but nothing really good)

There are a handful of groups in K-pop that actually know how to play instruments, amongst them CN Blue has lately been getting the most notice, but Trax, a group that has been around since 2004 is SM Entertainment’s “rock band” offering. Their new song, Oh My Goddess, is mostly being hyped because fellow SM artist, Seohyun of the top group Girls Generation, is featured in the video. Actually the video seems pretty standard, and the song’s not that interesting, the best part of the whole thing is just that I appreciate that these artists can do more than just dance around with a lot of auto-tune to help their weak voices (the lead singer has a decent voice). Oh and I like that TRAX actually stands for, believe it or not, Typhoon of the Rose Attack on Xmas.

Dalmation: This brand new group does indeed wear black and white with spots. No, I’m not kidding. They are another offering in the ultra-young and super bubbly category, but this time with all male members. About half the song is rapping, again in the bubbly category of rap. I have a friend who has done some research on this and she found that without singable (chantable?) lyrics that would even work with karaoke, rap doesn’t fly in Korea. Needless to say rap does not contain a lot of explicit and objectionable to some content. The song, Round 1, has a little too much chanting of “bow wow wow” for my taste, but it’s reasonably catchy so it may be quite successful.


Sunny Side released a song with Gayoon from 4 Minute. The song, Bad Guy Good Girl, is not so bad, but it doesn’t stand out, it’s fairly conventional for K-pop. The vocals are better than most releases, though. Both of the Sunny Side guys are rappers, so it’s Gayoon, who may be the best singer in 4 minute, singing.


Kara, one of the annoying interchangeable girl groups, has released a song that’s actually part of the soundtrack for an online game. The song itself is called 2ME I think (hard to tell), the video just has the girls in the studio, which is refreshingly under-produced. It’s a bit amusing just because they sing “kiss me touch me show me what you want from me” and such and they look pretty young (they’re not as young as they look) and some netizens have been getting all in a bunch about how they must not know what they’re singing when it’s English, how it’s so racy for young girls, etc.


G.NA’s latest song is also for a soundtrack, the new drama “Playful Kiss.” The video shows scenes from the drama. I haven’t watched it yet, because only the pilot has aired so far, but since the drama stars Kim Hyun Joong (of the group SS501 and the hit drama “Boys over Flowers”) it should do well. The song, 키스 해줄래, which I’d translate as “Gimme a Kiss” would be forgettable if you didn’t hear it five times per episode of the drama.




After listening to all these new songs, none of which are exciting to me I had high hopes for Nassun and G.O. (of MBLAQ)’s release O-IWI-O, because G.O. can really sing and Nassun is a good rapper, but the song is too soft and dreamy for my tastes. The video is black and white, fairly simple, but nicely made.


The group Goofy, very popular a couple years before I first came to Korea, has released their first EP in a very long time, including the single 못난 남자야 Ugly Guy. It’s not bad, but I doubt it will catapult them back into the spotlight.



I just hope 2NE1's upcoming release isn't as disappointing as the pre-release 30 second clip made it sound...