Femininity and K-Pop

I have followed K-pop (as an academic subject) with greater and lesser vigor over the past few years and several times I've even written academic papers on the subject and presented them at conferences. The world of K-pop is fascinating in a bizarre train wreck sort of way, and sometimes the music is good. This year I'm on the job market and I want to show my multiple spheres of teachable knowledge to the maximum extent possible, so I applied to present on K-Pop at the IASPM (International Association for the Study of Popular Music) conference in Austin, Texas. I left preparing the abstract until the last minute, and somehow was not able to prepare one that folded in my previous knowledge or research in any but the most incidental and general way. I was accepted based on my abstract for a paper titled "The Construction of the Feminine in Korean Popular Music: A Performance Analysis of "I AM: SMTown Live" and Multi-Artist Musical Variety Shows."

Whoa. Wait a second. I'm not someone who works on gender. Ever. Never have.

So, here's my first paragraph (at the moment it looks this way, anyway):

According to Philip Auslander, "the field of cultural studies generally emphasizes the reception of popular music much more than the performance behavior of musicians" (2004: 3). Auslander identifies reception of performance and performance of performers as two objects of study. I suggest that research can also focus on the presentation or framing of the performance. In this paper I will primarily consider the framing of performers of Korean popular music as presented by live music shows Music Core and Inkigayo and the performance documentary I AM SMTOWN: Live at Madison Square Garden. Consequently my attention will focus on choices made by the television stations and their emcees, stage and video production crews that produce the two music shows and by the decisions made by the director, film and editing crews who created the documentary for SM Entertainment. 

I will proceed to discuss how femininity is constructed not through talking about clothing, song choices, and dance choreography (all decided by the management company and production teams in greater or lesser consult with the artists before we ever see the performance), but through observing how the performances of the women on these shows is framed differently than performances of men are framed (fortunately for my analysis either women perform or men perform, there are almost no groups in Korea that mix men and women together). I might be onto something, I might not. I have viewed two entire episodes of Music Core and Inkigayo, and I am proceeding through the 4 DVD set of the I AM SMTOWN DVD. 

I would love to have your help. Point out something. Challenge. Share your thoughts or observations. Anything you say might help me think through these issues, please do not hesitate to comment.

Here are some clips that could help you help me:

Here is Boyfriend on Inkigayo (top), and on Music Core (below). I see a large difference in how the production companies and video crew for these two TV stations chose to shoot the performances. If you see a difference between the Inkigayo and Music Core framing of the same song by the same group on consecutive nights, please let me know what you see that's different. I don't want to tell you what I see as it may bias you. 

Here's a comparison with a female group, Girls' Generation. Again, I've put Inkigayo first and Music Core second. 

Please note that I am not claiming that either of these songs is really great. I'm just comparing the two "biggest name" performances on back to back nights but shot by two different production companies. Also because both songs are "dance" and performed by fairly large groups of artists with a more "mature" image (they aren't rookies, they aren't 15 years old), the comparison is more legitimate than if I asked you to compare singing a ballad in comparison with a large group dancing...

If you just want to comment based on the above, that's great, but I am also analyzing these performances below~~

I don't normally listen to K-pop outside the "dance" genre, but watching these shows I discovered the beautiful voice of Juniel who is also (surprise!) able to play an instrument. Inkigayo on top, Music Core below:

Men also get to do ballads. However I only have one male-sung ballad that is on both of these shows (Jan. 13th and Jan. 12th), and it's a duo. I still think you can compare with Juniel, however. 

Hello Venus is definitely not likely to get onto my frequent play list (esp. not this song), but here you go Inkigayo first:

Following cute girl group with cute boy group-- A-Prince with "Hello" 

Here's a duo that really should have gotten a better name: Ego Bomb. Really? Ego Bomb? Inkigayo first, Music Core second (just trying to be consistent here).

And the somewhat comparable Glam (except I'm sorry, I think their voices are atrocious). 

Comments? Please. Please. Please.Thank you^^

p.s. if you think these videos are pretty crappy quality (it's true, they are), then watch the entire show on Hulu (if you're in the US only, I think Hulu doesn't work outside the US). 

K-Pop Releases in late April

Rainbow is a group I've sincerely found little redeeming qualities in from their first release. The latest is "To Me" a song that has the advantage of a good strong dance beat. Unfortunately it still has the annoying girls of the group using English really awkwardly (seems to be a trademark) and generally just being a plastic cut-out concept of a money-making ensemble, instead of actual artists. (Yes, I'm being a bit harsh but even the dance to the best part of the song (the chorus) is just completely unimaginative).

A-Team released a new song "Run It."   The group must be new, can't remember hearing of them before. They're a group of apparently 7 rappers, they seem to have some serious talent (one is even a woman!) and a social conscience. In other words they probably won't be doing that well. Too bad. Give it a listen. The video is not worth much though, it's too artsy for focus, apparently.

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.


NS Yunji has released a video in clay animation called "Talk Talk Talk."  The photo should let you know what the music sounds like. If you like that kind of thing, go for it.

San E, who had a first mini-album that I was completely impressed by (I thought he was super smart and funny and very good at rap), has released a crap-ass follow up. The song, 가면 안돼 (I Cannot Let You Go) , is a total freaking ballad with easy slow non-challenging rap about love (and loss). The reason that San E was impressive the first time was because he got away from that stereotypical trap of following what sells in Korean music, and here he is, smack dab in the middle of it.

After School has two new releases off their new CD "Virgin" (which has them in –red shoes- apparently Koreans don't know that that is a traditional sign of being a prostitute). Let's Step Up  is a tap piece. I don't quite get it, as in the clip that's online (which is a minute and a half long, much too long to be a teaser) the song definitely takes second seat to the tapping, which is pretty bad (except for one member).  The other song is called "Shampoo," no I don't think it sounds like a song name, either. Unless it's for an advert, of course. They've recently expanded their group, adding a member, and this video has a theme of a new girl coming in and getting hazed a bit and then working really hard to do well. But what irritated me about it (and I don't know if the video has anything to do with their recent auditions etc) is that there is this air of the male teacher/trainer/manager person has to legitimize the girl. It's in his eyes that she is working hard and eventually able to succeed.

2PM has released a Japanese track, "Waiting for the Take-off," so far only a non-HD track is online, sorry. At any rate, I think it sounds like bubblegum pop and I expect heavy-hitting mature dance tracks from 2PM, so I'm disappointed.

Former 2PM front man Jay Park has released a mini album including "Abandoned"  This Seattlite is a lightning rod in Korea, and I'm impressed he held off this long to release the mini album, which apparently are almost all songs he wrote (the way many a CD should be and the way K-Pop almost never is). He has an amazing voice and he's one of Korean pop's best dancers… he should go far, far, far if politics of the split from 2PM aren't dogging him too badly. It sounds good, not really my style but great.

Girls Generation (SNSD) has released the full version of "Mr. Taxi."  This track is also in Japanese, but it sounds more natural than 2PM singing in Japanese. I'm not sure why they'd call the song Mr. Taxi and then dress the girls up in taxi driver uniforms (if taxi drivers wore hot pants/skorts). It's a really fun dance track, I hope they release it in Korean.   

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.