For Your Reading Pleasure: A Hallyu Bibliography, Part 12: KOREAN MUSIC

Kaetrena Davis Kendrick, M.S.L.S. University of South Carolina Lancaster Welcome to Part 12 of my ongoing series of bibliographic entries about Hallyu.   These entries are listed by year, not by author (TIP: If you know about a title or author and you want to see if it’s included in this listing, use the CTRL +…

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What We Are Listening To: “Girls” by Wheesung

Wheesung (Choi Wheesung) debuted with boy group A4 in 1999 and as a solo artist with YG Entertainment in 2000. Although his roots are in rock, he is known as a solid R&B artist. Wheesung also uses the stage name Realslow, and named his company such when he started it in 2017.  “Girls” is from…

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Is K-pop Fandom Becoming Less Visible and More Fragmented?

Online platforms have been a major force propelling the spread of K-pop globally, but are shifts in how they are deployed contributing to a more insular fandom? When you ask K-pop fans about their journey into K-pop, YouTube usually features prominently. Over the last few years, K-pop fans have been treated to content by companies…

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Let KPK Introduce You To…D’Angelo

Kaetrena Davis Kendrick, M.S.L.S. University of South Carolina Lancaster Song: “Aurora” Artist: Jonghyun (Kim Jonghyun) Album: 좋아 (She Is) Album Release Date: May 24, 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3WjWXDBlq8 Caption: Press Play to Hear “Aurora” by Jonghyun. “Aurora” echoes… Song: “Lady” Artist: D’Angelo Album: Brown Sugar Album Release Date: July 4, 1995 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmdUMwlrezs Caption: Press Play to hear…

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What We Are Listening To: “You Don’t Know My Name” (Prod Mokyo), pH-1

pH-1 (Park Jun-Won, also known as Harry Park) is a Korean-American rapper on H1GHER Music Records, which also houses GroovyRoom and G.Soul. While people want to make harsh distinctions between K-pop and K-hip-hop, I actually found out about pH-1 from the K-pop sub-Reddit. From the 2019 release Summer Episodes, this is one of those songs…

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How We Get Down: KPK Documents Your Stuff!

As part of KPK’s decennial year, we are launching K-pop Commons, a repository of K-pop project ephemera – documents and artifacts that were not created for formal publication or commercial display (e.g., books, book chapters, galleries/exhibitions), but that are meaningful to the creators of the items and that reflect the impact of K-pop on those…

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What We Are Listening To: “Rising Sun” by TVXQ!

  TVXQ! (also billed as Dong Bang Shin Ki/DBSK in Korean and Tohoshinki in Japanese) was a five member group from 2004 to 2010. In 2011, the group continued with two members (Jung Yunho – U-Know, and Shim Changmin – MAX). The group is known for their harmonies and sensual dance moves, and “Rising Sun”…

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K-pop Was Not Born Last Night

K-pop is old enough for us to recognize that it has a bonafide history, and the way we divide up that history affects the way we see K-pop. Some scholars place K-pop within a larger history of Korean popular music. In the article “Mapping K-pop Past and Present: Shifting the Modes of Exchange,” Keith Howard…

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