K-Pop: The International Rise of the Korean Music Industry

Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia #40

by JungBong Choi (Editor), Roald Maliangkay (Editor), Stephen J. Epstein (Contributor)

K-pop, described by Time Magazine in 2012 as "South Korea’s greatest export", has rapidly achieved a large worldwide audience of devoted fans largely through distribution over the Internet. This book examines the phenomenon, and discusses the reasons for its success. It considers the national and transnational conditions that have played a role in K-pop’s ascendancy, and explores how they relate to post-colonial modernisation, post-Cold War politics in East Asia, connections with the Korean diaspora, and the state-initiated campaign to accumulate soft power. As it is particularly concerned with fandom and cultural agency, it analyses fan practices, discourses, and underlying psychologies within their local habitus as well as in expanding topographies of online networks. Overall, the book addresses the question of how far "Asian culture" can be global in a truly meaningful way, and how popular culture from a "marginal" nation has become a global phenomenon.

Genres: History

194 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2014

Reviews

[kelly]

Convoluted in some of its academic language, but, overall, a good intersectional look at the impact of K-pop on the world.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent range of topics covered in this anthology, but too densely and academically written for my high school audience.

[Arielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

2024 Reading Challenge - A book about K-pop