K-POP CASE STUDY

John-Francis Cabanus

K-POP GENRE

K-POP MIND MAP

HISTORY OF GENRE

Modern K-pop was revolutionised by the group, ‘Seo Taiji and Boys’ in 1992. Each member is counted as legends in the Korean Music industry audiences were amazed by the group’s disregard for the existing limitations and restrictions of the time and offered precise choreography and a new innovative style to the music industry. Rap Lyrics infused with pop music which was combined with hip hop dancing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC7

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CODES AND CONVENTIONS

Lyrics of every K-Pop song are dominantly in the Korean language, Hangul.

Groups are usually gender segregated. There are no groups in the K-Pop genre that have co-ed genders.

Well established groups would have an official fan club and take part in merchandising to broaden profits for their respective music labels.

Majority of videos have a very bright colour palette but depending on the group and their concepts for videos. Palette’s would vary so no group would be completely type casted.

A choreographed dance is always included within most K-Pop songs.

Groups have specific roles between their members. Roles would include; Lead Rapper/Vocalist, Sub Vocalists/Rappers, Main Dancer, Visuals and Maknae (Youngest member)

SUB-GENRES & HYBRID GENRES

Many other genres are

explored through K-Pop as

artists aim on broadening

their music as much as

possible in order to appeal to

the audience interests and to

improve profits for their

record labels. Hip-Hop,

Ballad, Rock, Electro among

other genres have all been

hybridised alongside K-Pop

have been explored in he

songs of various artists.

ICONOGRAPHY OF GENRE

One of the most known iconic songs of the genre would be songs from Psy. Known for two ground breaking songs around the world, Gangnam Style and Gentleman. The dance moves are known internationally as Gangnam style is the most viewed YouTube video to date with over 2 Billion views.

In all fairness, all dances of K-Pop music videos help the songs become more memorable to fans and associating both the song and dance would be iconography.

K-Pop is also known for exploring different styles of fashion. BIGBANG being the leading group who is recognised for their vast sense of style.

LEADING ARTISTS

EXO (Top-Left) BIGBANG (Bottom-Left)

Girl’s Generation (Top-Right) 2NE1(Bottom-Right)

RECORD LABELSThere are a wide variety

of record labels that house

the K-Pop genre. This

means there is a big

amount of competition

between artists in order to

reach the top spots of the

music charts. These are

just a few of the major

labels in South Korea that

have K-Pop as the main

genre they produce. The

most successful

companies being SM Ent.

, YG Ent. and JYP Ent.

RECORD LABELS – THE BIG THREE

SM Entertainment

Arguably the richest record label of South

Korea with the company revenue being

$212,401,103. SM houses big time groups

in the industry such as Super Junior, EXO

and Girl’s Generation.

YG Entertainment

The company revenue is $150,000,000. YG

houses the trend setters of Korean pop

culture and trends such as 2NE1 and

BIGBANG and introduced the mainstream

Hip-Hop Genre to Korea.

JYP Entertainment

Company Revenue being $20,000,000. JYP

rival the groups of YG with powerhouse

performers like 2PM and Got7. The CEO

himself being a veteran idol, he passes his

knowledge towards his succeeding

performers.

TARGET AUDIENCE

The obvious audience being the people of Korea mainly within the

female demographic of the Korean population. However due to the

globalisation and increasing popularity of K-Pop around the world. Fans

regardless of ethnicity or country of origin would listen to K-Pop and in

some cases idol groups would expand their promotions to other places in

Asia such as Japan and China but occasionally official English versions

of chart topping songs would be released world wide. Examples are

Taeyang – Eyes, Nose, Lips. Which has three official alternative

versions. Two being dominantly English lyrics.

The socio-economic group of this genre would be specified for C1,

C2,D,E but with K-Pop being a nationwide genre it’s heard by all socio

economic groups.

Psycho-graphic group would be aspirers and mainstreamers as people

believe idols live ‘ideal lives’ that would be better then their current ones

and considering this is culture in South Korea it is a mainstream aspect

of culture.

Demographics: You should have a keen interest in the K-Pop genre to

listen to it and fairly young adults and teens are the main audience which

take an interest in the genre, particularly females.

ISSUES/REPRESENTATIONS

There is a lot of conspiracy surrounding the genre the most important being slave contracts. Slave contracts involve signing people into companies training for long hours in bare minimum living conditions and stripping them of most of their profits they rightfully earn from that work. SM Entertainment are well known within this conspiracy as there’s been 3 cases involving slave or unfair contracts. Most recent case being a member of EXO.

The representation of woman, similar to mainstream western music over sexualise them as if they were objects. The sex appeal of these female idols are a way of attracting more audiences even though it isn’t accepted by netizens.