Mamamoo is a girl group well known for its vocal talent, but the members also show themselves to be musically versatile. The group performed “Destiny (우린 결국 다시 만날 운명이었지)” for its finale on the music competition show Queendom, and the track was later included on the 2019 album Reality in Black. Kpopmap notes that “It is hard…
Tag: k-pop
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…
The Multiple Meanings of Manufacturing in K-pop
Media coverage and scholarly writing about K-pop often negatively characterizes it as a manufactured mode of music. However, there are other connotations of this term that more comprehensively address the process by which K-pop is made. It is common for stories about “idol”-based K-pop (singers and groups who sing and dance, appear on television shows…
Why Is K-pop Coverage So Negative?
Much like the current tone of the Internet, wholly negative criticism threatens to skew our perceptions of K-pop. On any given day, one can wander out on social media and witness what has become the all-too-common negative critique of K-pop. A recent Twitter thread began by Yim Hyun-su pointed out how media tends to write…
Decennium: #TenYearsWithKPK
KPK: Kpop Kollective, the oldest aca-fansite for K-pop, celebrates its 10-year anniversary on these K-pop streets! BRIDES says that the traditional anniversary gift for the 10th anniversary is tin or aluminum, symbolizing flexibility and resiliency. It seems appropriate for KPK, because no matter if we are many or few, we are still here using our…
Labor from Below: What Neoliberal Capitalism Overlooks in K-pop
Crystal S. Anderson, PhD Director, KPK: Kpop Kollective Scholars frequently use the neoliberal capitalism frame to contextualize K-pop within the Korean wave, but the over-reliance on critiquing capitalist forces further silences the creative personnel of K-pop. If we approach K-pop using the “history from below” framework, we can reveal the perspectives of the individuals in…
#WheeWednesday: “Heaven,” EXO
Crystal S. Anderson, PhD Director, KPK: Kpop Kollective Last week, I kicked off the first #WheeWednesday with a song by an artist unfamiliar to many K-pop fans. This #WheeWednesday, it’s a song by a group most K-pop fans know: EXO! EXO burst onto the K-pop scene seven years ago with 12 members and the Gregorian…
#WheeWednesday: “With Me,” Wheesung (2003)
Crystal S. Anderson, PhD Director, KPK: Kpop Kollective At KPK: Kpop Kollective, we are all about K-pop music. Kaetrena writes about the musical influences on K-pop in her series Let KPK Introduce You To… In that vein, I’m starting a new series, #WheeWednesday, where I share music by some of the lesser-known K-pop artists as well…
Streams and Views: What the History of Music Charts Can Tell Us About Popularity and K-pop
Increasingly, K-pop songs are being measured outside of South Korea by chart performance. This relatively new development puts greater emphasis on using charts as metrics for popularity, which some equate with music value. However, such metrics are not neutral, and obscure other ways of ascertaining popularity among K-pop listeners. While subcultures in several countries have…
Not Just Pretty Faces: K-pop Idols and Quiet Storm Masculinity
KPK Director Crystal S. Anderson writes about a different kind of masculinity in K-pop “However, members of 2PM are more than pretty faces and fit bodies. Like many K-pop idol groups, 2PM is heavily influenced by R&B. While the group has its share of uptempo tracks, it is are also known for ballads informed by R&B…
KPK: Kpop Kollective 