The development of media capitals is a result of globalisation, where cities are not only centres of media activity through the finance, production and distribution of content but also sited as an intersection for complex patterns of economic and cultural flows (Curtin, 2003, p.203-4). Media capitals are described as a switching point where national centres have been superseded into global centres (Curtin, 2003, p.204). In this blog post, I will be focusing on South Korea’s capital, Seoul, as a continuous and rapidly rising media capital.
In South Korea, there has been an influx in the proliferation of television shows and pop music production, as an outcome of the ‘Korean Wave’ or the ‘Hallyu Wave’ which is used to describe the rise of Korean pop culture in the late 1990s. In recent years, South Korean pop music (known as K-Pop) has grown to become somewhat of a phenomenon in the global music industry through communication technologies such as the Internet, particularly YouTube. It is not just popular within Asia but also in Europe, the U.S and the Middle East (Lie, 2012, p.340). Due to the increasing worldwide interest in the Korean Wave, K-Pop has started to become focused on breaking into the global music industry. With this intention, K-Pop has begun to find recruitments of foreign talent from nations such as the U.S, China and Japan in order to appeal to a global audience (Choi, 2011, p.74). In particular, the recruitment of foreign talent as idols who are fluent in either English, Chinese or Japanese can help with group promotion and activities in overseas countries (Lie, 2012, p.358).
An example of well-known K-Pop ‘idol’ groups is 9-membered girl group, Girls’ Generation. Girls’ Generation have achieved few international successes as they have had multiple worldwide tours, performing at famous concert venues like Madison Square Garden and Tokyo Dome. However, their most prominent global effort was the 2011 release of their U.S and Korean single, The Boys. The English version of The Boys served as their U.S debut, which was produced and written by Teddy Riley, whom SM Entertainment (Girls’ Generation’s record label) dubbed him as “one of the world’s top three producers” and “Michael Jackson’s producer” (Choi, 2011, p.70).
According to Lie (2012, p.342-3), Korean music has originated its sound and emulates musical concepts from American and Japanese (J-Pop) music such as U.S popular music genres (e.g. jazz, blues, pop, rock), the inclusion of English phrases and musical production and education from Japan. As demonstrated in the video above, rather than singing in Korean, The Boys is sung fully in English but still maintains the typical K-Pop element through the pop dance music and choreographed dance. SM Entertainment’s attempt at globalising Girls’ Generation and their ‘debut’ in the U.S landed them appearances on popular U.S talk shows such as ‘The Late Show with David Letterman’ and ‘Live! With Kelly’ with two English speaking members participating in interviews.
However, there have been doubts in the ability of K-Pop groups, including Girls’ Generation, to break into the global music industry and whether it can be successful or not due to culture codes. There have also been arguments whether K-Pop is truly Korean due to heavy Westernization as it becomes undermined by its global goals (Choi, 2011, p. 69). Nevertheless, it is clear that Seoul is an ever-growing media capital due to its efforts in globalising K-Pop which are exemplified through its active promotion by South Korean government to enhance its soft power and export prowess (Lie, 2012, p. 340).
References
- Curtin, M 2003, Media Capital: Towards the Study of Spatial Flows, International Journal of Cultural Studies, 6, No. 2, p. 202-228
- Lie, J 2012, What is the K in K-Pop? South Korean Popular Music, the Culture Industry, and National Identity, Korean Observer, 43, No. 3, p. 339-363
- Choi, YJ, 2011, “The Globalization of K-Pop: Is K-Pop losing its Korean-ness?”, Situations, Vol. 5, p. 69-75, viewed 6 September 2014, <http://web.yonsei.ac.kr/bk21/situations5/Yunjung_Choi.pdf >
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