K-pop and Youth

During my three years teaching stint in Malaysia I was indeed surprised to discover that Korean pop cultures are so popular with youths in Malaysia. . All around Kuching city (in Borneo, Sarawak), you can see Korean culture had definitely make an influence on the youth and business with the opening of numerous cosmetic shops selling Korean cosmetic, shop selling clothing imported from Korea as well as the springing up of  Korean restaurants, which is a popular hangout place with youths. My students, girl and boy would come to class dress up looking like their favourite k-pop stars, especially their hairs style and clothing. All around the college and city  youth are walking around looking like their idol. Indeed, Korean pop culture is popular with the Malaysian main ethnic groups such as the Malay, Chinese and Indian who is said to have different taste in music and television and most prefer to be entertained in their own language (Park, 2012).  It is therefore said that Korean pop songs, music and soap operas is crossing the divide.  This is what got me interested to look into the rise of the popularity of the Korean culture with Asian youth especially K-pop.

The spread of Korean popular culture in recent year had gain immense popularity with Asian youth particularly in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South-East Asia countries.  It ranges from Korean soap opera, movies, pop song and fashion that have crawl into the life styles of the youngster (Shim, 2006). Hallyu or Hanryu  is referred to as the Korean wave or  referred to as the 'Kim Chic' with  everything ranging from shoes styles, fashions, music, food and even to eyebrow-shaping are the rage with youth across Asia where as before it was the Japanese and Hollywood that influences the youth in Asia (Shim, 2006).

K-pop’s group are mainly comprised of boy bands and girl bands and their members are often styles similarly to increase the visual appeals to youth.    The K-pop stars have perfect looks, with the help of  plastic surgery, dress in the latest fashion and highly stylised and synchronised movement to the music, make k-pop rather attractive (Seabrook, 2012). The range of K-pop songs is broad and include playful early teen pop, rock ‘n’ roll, electro and house acts. K-pop song is rather catchy and very fresh and their similar outfit is rather appealing to youth and added to its popularity (Seabrook, 2012).  Below I have posted three popular K-pop videos which hopefully will help to illustrate what was described above.

"Nobody" Wonder Girls 

                                       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZv6SLuZYxM

The K-pop song "Nobody" (see above video) with its retro- theme music, hairstyles, costume and retro-themed music by the Wonder Girls released in October 2008 was a rage. Within hours the song ranks No. 1 on various digital music sites (Choi, 2011). The song is recorded and released in four different languages: Korean, English, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese. In October 2009, the Wonder Girls’ “Nobody” made it to the Billboard Hot 100 (Choi, 2011).  However, "Nobody" was surpass by the song 'Gee' by Girl Generations, (see video below)  which was to reach 50 million view on YouTube and is one of the most viewed K-pop video from September 2011 to September 2012 (Soshified, 2013).

'Gee' by Girls Generations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7mPqycQ0tQ

"Gee' was in its turn surpassed by "Gangnam Style" by Psy which become the first YouTube video to reach one billion views even surpassing Justin Bieber's  single 'Baby"  (Grunger 2013).  

'Gangun Style' PSY  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

If you have watched the video, you would have observed that the K-pop singers are usually young and pretty. Their music video is set in a contemporary setting with a touch of themes that have a blend of tradition values of family, friendship and romantic love (Seabrook, 2012).  K-pop is also a blend of new and old and not just a blend of traditional or western theme. The music is made up of 'lush soundscapes made with the latest synths and urban beats', often sung with a mixture of English and Korean (Seabrook 2012, p.90). The addition of English to the song make it more appealing with  the music adapted to suit the Asian way of thinking. The girls are sexy and demure in their styles and their lyric or video do not generally refer to sex, drinking, or clubbing which is the great themes of Western hit-markers (Seabrook 2012, p.90). Although K-pop may seemly to be all wholesome for the youth with its theme of family values and all clean lyric, however, in my research I found a documentary by SBS, Dateline broadcast on 19th March 2013 which showed the other side of the influence of K-pop.

The K-pop effect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjWqshVF5lA

The above video narrated the effect of K-pop where many young girls are going for surgery to look like their idol.  In a scene, a mother gave her daughter, who has just graduated from high school, a graduation gift, plastic surgery, double eye lips surgery (one of the most popular plastic surgery in Korea). The mother stated that her daughter think she look ugly compare to the K-pop star who look pretty and like a doll.  In my opinion, the girl look rather pretty without the double eye lips surgery. Perhaps, the girl could have been counsel before she even thinks of undergoing the plastic surgery. In any case, youth should be given guidance to distinguish between the good and bad influences whether it is Eastern or Western popular culture. 

So, although I may not be a fan of K-pop but I have to admit the song is rather catchy. I can unashamedly said that I found myself singing to the song 'Nobody"! 

Reference:

‘Gee’ Music Video Hits 100 Million Views on YouTube". Soshified. 1 April 2013.

Choi, Y.J. 2011, The Globalization of K-Pop: Is K-Pop Losing its Korean-ness? Situations Vol. 5 (Winter 2011).

Gruger, W. (2013). PSY’s ‚Gangnam Style ‘Video Hits 1 Billion Views, Unprecedented Milestone. Billboard.

Park, J. ( 2012)Malaysian firms tap into K-Pop power, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-18589777 

Seabrook, J. (2012). Factory Girls. New Yorker, 89.

Shim, D. (2006). Hybridity and the rise of Korean popular culture in Asia. Media, Culture & Society, 28(1), 25-44.

The K-Pop Effect: A look at how the K-Pop music is scene is literally changing the face of Korea's youth, fuelling an obsession with beauty via cosmetic surgery, based on the looks of their celebrity idols. [online]. Dateline (SBS Melbourne); Time: 21:50; Broadcast Date: Tuesday, 19th March 2013;