Soul in Seoul

African American Popular Music and K-pop

Crystal S. Anderson

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781496830111
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Ethnomusicology

K-pop (Korean popular music) reigns as one of the most popular music genres in the world today, a phenomenon that appeals to listeners of all ages and nationalities. In Soul in Seoul: African American Popular Music and K-pop, Crystal S. Anderson examines the most important and often overlooked aspect of K-pop: the music itself. She demonstrates how contemporary K-pop references and incorporates musical and performative elements of African American popular music culture as well as the ways that fans outside of Korea understand these references. K-pop emerged in the 1990s with immediate global aspirations, combining musical elements from Korean and foreign cultures, particularly rhythm and blues genres of black American popular music. Korean solo artists and groups borrow from and cite instrumentation and vocals of R&B genres, especially hip-hop. They also enhance the R&B tradition by utilizing Korean musical strategies. These musical citational practices are deemed authentic by global fans who function as part of K-pop's music press and promotional apparatus. K-pop artists also cite elements of African American performance in Korean music videos. These disrupt stereotyped representations of Asian and African American performers. Through this process K-pop has arguably become a branch of a global R&B tradition. Anderson argues that Korean pop groups participate in that tradition through cultural work that enacts a global form of crossover and by maintaining forms of authenticity that cannot be faked, and furthermore propel the R&B tradition beyond the black-white binary.

1

“LISTEN TO THE MUSIC”

African American Popular Music and K-pop

Before BTS exploded into the American pop culture imagination in 2017, South Korean rapper Psy propelled K-pop to unprecedented worldwide recognition in the summer of 2012, when his video for the song “Gangnam Style” was the first to achieve over one billion views on YouTube. Since its release, it has garnered over two billion views. Psy was the first South Korean artist to chart at #1 on the iTunes Music Video Chart. He also won the Best Video Award at the MTV Europe Music Awards. Spurred by the popularity of his video, Psy embarked on a promotional jaunt in the United States that included a performance for President Barack Obama as well as appearances on several talk shows. However, his closing performance at the American Music Awards on November 18, 2012, raised a few eyebrows. It began with an introduction by will.i.am, member of the American group Black Eyed Peas, who referenced the millions of YouTube views received by “Gangnam Style.” Psy’s performance began with the now familiar intro to the song. Centered on the stage and surrounded by dancers, Psy performed the “horse dance” choreography for the majority of the song. Near the end of the song, the stage suddenly went dark and Psy whispered the phrase, “Hammer Time.” The lights came up to reveal MC Hammer, a popular African American rapper and performer from the 1990s, standing next to Psy. Both entertainers then danced to a mix of Psy’s “Gangnam Style” and MC Hammer’s 1991 hit song, “2 Legit 2 Quit” (1991). During the performance, MC Hammer and Psy performed each other’s signature choreography. While the performance may have amazed some, it was a given for Psy: “Psy admits that he’s been a lifelong fan of Hammer so it wasn’t hard for him to go Hammer-time at the AMAs. He tells CNN, ‘Honestly, I practiced his move[s] 20 years ago, so I’ve done that for 20 years” (Schwartz 2012). Some may have dismissed the performance as a quirky, onetime gimmick for the AMAs, but the optics of the performance of MC Hammer’s “2 Legit 2 Quit” and Psy’s “Gangnam Style” gesture toward the more substantial links between black American popular music and K-pop music. Psy’s comment suggests that he was well aware of MC Hammer’s work, even as a Korean entertainer. While MC Hammer garnered fame during his heyday, his popularity did not rise to the level of his contemporaries, like Michael Jackson. So Psy’s knowledge of MC Hammer’s work was more than casual.

While Psy’s success reveals hip-hop as a major influence on K-pop, R&B in general exerts an even greater influence. It not only influences Korean acts with obvious hip-hop connections, but even dedicated R&B and more pop-oriented performers. Rain (Jung Ji-hoon), also known as Bi, may be familiar as the lead in the 2009 film Ninja Assassin, but he also enjoys a thriving career in East Asia. He showed promise in the American market with two concerts in Madison Square Garden in 2006, when American media dubbed him the Korean Justin Timberlake and the Korean Usher, referencing two major R&B singers in the United States (Sontag 2006). Beginning in 2004, Park Jin-young, the CEO of JYP Entertainment, Rain’s Korean agency at the time, consciously incorporated more R&B elements into Rain’s music. Performing under the stage name “The Asiansoul” in Korea as an established artist himself, Park also had been writing and producing music for American R&B artists like Mase, Omarion, and Tyrese (H.-J. Shin 2009, 515). Several other Korean artists followed Rain in an attempt to gain a measure of success in the United States. Many of them drew from R&B genres. While Rain achieved a measure of success in the United States, several other Korean artists have not been able to do so. What is interesting is that they all draw from R&B genres. The Korean singer Se7en (Choi Dong-wook) is known for his soulful voice, as an online reviewer of his 2016 album I Am Se7en (2016) notes: “On ‘Good Night,’ we switch to a smooth R&B groove, punctuated with techno highlights. Everyone here is on point here, with Se7en’s trademark vibrato and a mellow rap from Reddy. The vocal work here is fantastic, and Se7en does plastic soul as well as anyone” (eric_r_wirsing 2016). Wonder Girls, a Korean pop girl group, may have failed to garner the interest of teenagers, but their music drew attention to their use of R&B in their most popular song, “Nobody” (2007): “It revived the industry with a modern update to old school sounds that drew on Motown and the disco era for inspiration, which resulted in the single becoming one of the most popular Korean songs ever” (Herman 2017a). From R&B to pop singers, R&B has had a clear influence on K-pop.

In order to understand the meaning of the impact of black American popular music R&B on K-pop, we need to change our perceptions of it as trendy, teenage music. Defining K-pop with a focus on hybridity reveals citational practices that draw on African American popular music and are confirmed as authentic by global fans. This definition goes beyond “idols,” or Korean performers who sing and dance, to capture the diversity of K-pop artists that transcend genre. Hybridity, K-pop’s most salient characteristic, is largely informed by African American popular music and incorporates Korean musical strategies. As a result, K-pop reflects intertextuality through the emulation of R&B genres and enhancement of those genres through the application of Korean popular music aesthetics. Global fans, or fans located outside of South Korea, deem K-pop’s citational practices authentic through music reviews. In doing so, they function as part of K-pop’s music press.

Defining K-pop

Popular perceptions of K-pop based largely on “idol” groups and singers fail to capture the full extent of the diverse artists under its umbrella. My definition of K-pop goes beyond “idols” to include the range of K-pop artists that share other commonalities.

Popular Definitions of K-pop

Popular descriptions of K-pop narrowly focus on one aspect of K-pop and, as a result, fail to capture a more comprehensive view of the music. Some focus solely on “idols,” overlooking the variety of non-idol performers that find themselves under the K-pop umbrella. Others define K-pop by the teenagers that make up the most visible part of its fan base, ignoring its appeal to a broader audience. Still others characterize K-pop solely by its commercial nature, overlooking recognition it acquires for its musical innovation and creativity.

For some, K-pop encompasses all Korean popular music. Writing for Time, Ben Cosgrove (2014) pens a story with the headline “K-pop Pioneers: The Kim Sisters Take America,” and describes the group as “a kind of proto-K-pop group.” This characterization retroactively applies the term K-pop to older forms of twentieth-century Korean popular music rather than the specific mode of post-1990 popular music that “K-pop” represents. Kim Chang Nam (2012) reminds us that “it would be inadvisable to jump to the hasty conclusion that K-pop is merely synonymous with Korean popular music in its most general sense…. The K-pop at the center of growing international interest in Asia and Europe is being applied to a specific form of popular music emerging in a particular period” (9).

When people think about K-pop, they tend to envision “idols,” pop groups made up of attractive Korean performers who sing, dance, and cultivate enthusiastic fan bases while engaging in extramusical activities, such as acting in films and television, hosting music and variety programs, endorsing products, and participating in fashion magazine photo shoots. Recruited by large Korean entertainment agencies at young ages, these performers undergo extensive training for years. Some debut and continue to develop their vocal and dance abilities as well as other skills such as foreign-language proficiency and acting. David Bevan (2013) of the Washington Post defines K-pop as “an artform—closer to a science” where “prospective performers are recruited and sent through a specially designed, deeply competitive training program meant to prepare them for careers as global pop exports.” This training program has been subject to critiques that point to excessively long exclusive contracts and demanding work conditions that require practice after school for the younger trainees and arduous promotion schedules for established groups that often take them away from their families. Critics also frequently describe K-pop “idols” by their appearance and performance. JungBong Choi and Roald Maliangkay (2015) describe K-pop as “a new standard of popular music that is characterized by, among other things, the visual appeal of its idols and performances, as well as by a significant degree of musical conservatism” (1). Writing for the New Yorker, John Seabrook (2012) focuses on the eye-catching choreography: “The performers are mostly Korean, and their mesmerizing synchronized dance moves, accompanied by a complex telegraphy of winks and hand gestures, have an Asian flavor, but the music sounds Western: hip-hop verses, Euro-pop choruses, rapping, and dubstep breaks.” Using the “idols” as a foundation, others see K-pop as a genre. Michael Fuhr (2016) outlines K-pop’s boundaries based on a global imaginary that “is shaped and reflected by multiple practices and textures, as have become evident, for example, in the flexibility of language use, in the multi-dimensional attractivity created by a 360-degree idol star system, in performance-centered songwriting, hook songs, ppong melodies, and in choreography and music videos” (118). Many of these characteristics described by Fuhr apply largely to “idols,” who are known for their foreign language acquisition, choreography practice, and an emphasis on appearance. It is mostly idols who are employed by “a few talent agencies in place that can afford the investments and provide all facilities necessary to send talents through all of the manufacturing processes and maintain a whole career life cycle once they’ve made their debut” (Fuhr 2016, 76).

However, defining K-pop solely by “idols” overlooks the other kinds of solo artists and groups that fall under the K-pop umbrella. For example, “The Best K-pop Songs of 2017,” a list compiled by Tamar Herman, Jeff Benjamin, and Caitlin Kelley (2017) at Billboard magazine, includes not only “idol” groups like EXO, BTS, and Red Velvet but also a number of non-idol acts like Akdong Musician, Loco, and IU. Akdong Musician is a brother-sister singer-songwriter duo represented by YG Entertainment, one of the “Big Three” Korean entertainment agencies that represents “idols,” but they do not engage in choreography and their music is not “performance-centered.” Loco is a Korean rapper represented by AOMG, an independent hip-hop label founded by Korean American rapper Jay Park, and Korean rapper Simon Dominic. IU, a female singer, was also featured on the New York Times Magazine “25 Songs That Tell Us Where Music Is Going” list in 2018. Lindsey Weber (2018) describes her as “one of K-pop’s rare chart-topping singer-songwriters.” Online East Asian music databases show that K-pop audiences recognize non-idol acts as part of K-pop. jpopasia, an online community for enthusiasts of Japanese popular music (J-pop), also features in-depth profiles of Korean R&B artists like Big Mama, Brown Eyed Soul, and Lyn, Korean electronic music groups like House Rulez, Korean rock groups like Jaurim and Nell, and Korean indie groups like Urban Zakapa and Standing Egg. A search for K-pop on generasia, a website that describes itself as “the largest Asian media wiki on the planet,” brings back results that includes a similar range of artists. A definition of K-pop that only focuses on “idols” excludes artists like these, who are considered K-pop artists by critics and audiences alike.

Moreover, the boundaries between pop and other types of music in K-pop are more fluid than many expect. Pop groups often feature respected Korean rappers on tracks. Kim Hyun-joong, a member of the Korean pop group SS501, features rappers on his 2013 solo album Round 3. The promoted track, “Unbreakable,” features respected Korean American hip-hop artist Jay Park. In 2017 Park signed with Roc Nation, the management company run by American rap mogul Jay-Z. Korean R&B artists also create tracks that feature Korean rappers. Big Mama, a female Korean R&B group, features veteran Korean hip-hop artist MC Mong (Shin Dong-hyun) on its track “Heaven” (2007). Veteran Korean hip-hop group Dynamic Duo features Naul from the Korean R&B group Brown Eyed Soul on its track “Chulchek” (2007). These artists work in different genres but they also work together. The artists themselves acknowledge K-pop’s fluidity, as Tablo of the hip-hop trio Epik High suggests an interview: “Even K-pop influences us. Even K-pop of this time. A lot of people would be surprised by that…. Even the Wonder Girls [an “idol” group]. Or a lot of the songs that JYP [Entertainment] makes. I hear their stuff and it’s not like that’s my preferred choice of genre or whatever, but there’s a lot in that music that I hear and I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s pretty cool,’ you know?” (S.-Y. Kim 2011). Moreover, Korean television shows referred to as K-dramas expose global audiences to a wide variety of music that audiences describe as K-pop. Most K-dramas have an official soundtrack (OST), which brings together artists from different genres. The lead ballad for Descendants of the Sun, one of the most-watched K-dramas of 2016, is performed by Yoon Mi-rae, also known as Tasha, a female hip-hop artist and member of the Korean hip-hop trio MFBTY, which includes veteran Korean hip-hop artists Tiger JK and Bizzy. The soundtrack also features songs by pop vocalist K. Will, R&B vocalist Lyn, and rock band MC the Max.

A definition of K-pop based solely on “idols” also contributes to the tendency to describe K-pop’s audience as only made up of teenagers. Fuhr (2016) describes K-pop as “teenager-oriented, star-centered, and mass-produced by multi-faceted entertainment conglomerates” (59). Kim Chang Nam (2012) notes that K-pop artists “have come to enjoy popularity among teens” (9). Mainstream media and online sources echo these sentiments by comparing male Korean pop groups to American boy bands who also boast large teenage female fan bases. The general consensus of comments in a K-pop subgroup on Reddit in response to the YouTube video, “What Koreans Think About Foreigners Who Love K-pop” confirms the belief that K-pop is only for teenagers: “I mean, if you’re from America and in your mid-20s, don’t you think it’s strange among your coworkers if you tell them how much of a One Direction fan you are? That’s the equivalent here. K-pop appeals mostly to the preteenteen crowd.” While teenagers may make up the most visible demographic of K-pop fans, they are not the only audience for the music. Several K-pop groups who have been active for decades have fans who started out as teenagers, grew up with the group and maintained their interest as adults, making them adult K-pop fans. Despite a four-year hiatus, first-generation K-pop group Shinhwa sold out a concert commemorating their fourteenth anniversary in Seoul in 2012 in a venue that seats twenty thousand with no new material released and little promotion before the concert. Jarryn Ha (2015) points to the emergence of “uncle fans,” or “adult males, mostly in their 30s, openly following young female pop idols and actively engaging in fan groups and activities” (44). The 2017 KCON, a global Korean pop music convention, featured the panel “The Return of the Secret Life of K-pop Fans Over 30,” the sequel to a similar panel the previous year.

Others characterize K-pop by the high level of extramusical activity by “idol” groups, which contributes to the perception of K-pop as a solely commercial venture lacking any creative merit. John Lie (2014) contrasts K-pop with high art: “K-pop, as a mercenary pursuit, does not stay true to its art (such as its art may be). In this sense, K-pop flatly contradicts the European Romantic ideal of the artist as a seeker after Beauty and Truth…. Nearly every aspect of K-pop is functional, intended to satisfy the market rather than fulfill some deep artistic or political urge” (176). Zoe Chace (2012) of NPR describes the K-pop music process as a factory, where “Korea decided to produce pop music like it produces cars…. So music moguls in the country created hit factories, turning young singers into pop stars and sending them on tour around Asia.” Writing for SPIN magazine, David Bevan (2012) describes the producers of K-pop as “architects” and K-pop as “Korea’s most useful export to U.S. and European labels.” These metaphors focus on the constructed nature of K-pop, embodying the ideas of Theodor W. Adorno (2000), who also criticized popular music on similar grounds: “Popular music, however, is composed in such a way that the process of translation of the unique into the norm is already planned and, to a certain extent, achieved within the composition itself. The composition hears for the listener. This is how popular music divests the listener of his spontaneity and promotes conditioned reflexes.” Adorno implies that the commercialization process strips pop music of any artistic merit, making it merely a shadow of “real” music made solely to appeal to the masses. Similarly, K-pop functions exclusively as a vehicle for profit in this view.

K-pop is also viewed as primarily commercial fare because it lacks the social relevance of other forms of popular music. Robert W. Stephens (1984) argues that 1960s soul “[responded] to changes in the social, political and philosophical views of the black community” (31). Punk music represents a rejection of the materialism and corporatization in mainstream music of the 1970s. Tricia Rose (1994) points out that rap music is “a direct extension of African-American oral, poetic, and protest traditions” (25). These radically different music genres of popular music share what Gracyk (2007) describes as the sociohistorical valuation of music, which suggests “that every evaluation of every piece of music (including ‘aesthetic’ evaluation) can and should attend to social and political values” (49). Because K-pop is not the soundtrack of a social or political movement, it lacks this kind of sociohistorical value, which contributes to its perception as creatively insignificant.

However, K-pop’s commercial nature does not negate its creative value. Gracyk (2007) notes that comparisons between “high” and “low” art have particular implications: “Exploration of aesthetic value is so inescapably bound to the history of fine art that aesthetic values just are fine art values, which are, in turn, elite values” (34). Yet, Gracyk argues that popular music can also have aesthetics: “Most cultural products … have an aesthetic dimension that can, is, and should be assessed. In some situations, other modes of value can and should take precedence” (Gracyk 2007, 33). Just because K-pop is not produced in the same way as fine art does not mean it does not have aesthetics and creative value. David Sanjek (1997) argues that music can be simultaneously commercial and possess creative and aesthetic value: “Separating the creators of musical forms from their marketers may satisfy for some of us a lingering predilection for the debatable notion that commerce inevitably sullies creativity. However, it enables us neither to construct a broad-minded analysis of national popular expression nor to understand the constraints within which all forms of culture, musical or otherwise, operate” (538). Viewing K-pop solely through a commercial lens overlooks the very aspects of the music that have contributed to its global success. Survey data reveals that music is the primary reason that fans outside of Korea like K-pop. In their quantitative study of K-pop fans in Latin America, Dani Madrid-Morales and Bruno Lovric (2015) found that 85 percent of respondents identified K-pop as their favorite music genre (33). K-pop fans’ keen interest in the music itself is also demonstrated through their downloading and streaming habits. Some take to YouTube to make covers of their favorite songs, sometimes even rearranging the music itself. It is not just fans who find K-pop’s music compelling. Claude Kelly, an American songwriter who has worked with Bruno Mars and Ledisi, is part of a cadre of American music songwriters and producers who sees K-pop as fertile, musical ground: “Some writers with bridges to spare have found an unexpected—though not unwelcome—refuge in South Korea, where K-pop artists still treasure the songcraft that persisted in R&B’s mainstream until the early 2000s: Meaty chord changes, harmonic richness and a bridge that demands a singer demonstrate range and ad-libbing ability” (Leight 2018). K-pop’s global reception suggests that people are drawn to K-pop because of its musical innovation, even as commercially produced music.

Definitions of K-pop focused on Korean pop groups, a teenaged audience, and its commercial nature fail to account for the wide variety of artists under the K-pop umbrella. But if this is the case, then how can we describe K-pop?

A New Definition of K-pop

In order to capture the diverse array of artists under the K-pop umbrella, I define K-pop as a kind of contemporary Korean popular music that first emerged in the 1990s, has global aspirations, and features a hybridity that combines Korean and foreign music elements.

K-pop has been linked to broad conceptions of Korean popular music. Keith Howard’s (2006) edited collection, Korean Pop Music: Riding the Wave, the first monograph in English on K-pop, begins its analysis by tracing K-pop’s roots back to the 1930s. K-pop: Popular Music, Cultural Amnesia, and Economic Innovation in South Korea, by John Lie (2014), begins its analysis with “traditional Korean music” and “the world of sound before the introduction of Western music towards the end of the Choson dynasty (1392–1897)” (16). In K-pop: Roots and Blossoming of Korean Popular Music, Kim Chang Nam (2012) prefaces the discussion of K-pop with an overview of the Korean popular music from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

However, the term K-pop began as an analogue to J-pop to describe popular music from Korea that began to make inroads in other, largely East Asian countr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 “Listen to the Music”: African American Popular Music and K-pop
• 2 “A Song Calling for You”: Korean Pop Groups
• 3 “Soul Breeze”: Korean R&B Groups and Soloists
• 4 “Rewriting the Résumé”: Mainstream Korean Hip-hop Artists
• Conclusion
• Discography
• References
• About the Author