Pop Culture in Korea

“여기저기 Fresh 근데 이미 본 듯해
같은 노래 노래 흥얼대 입술과 코 끝에
옷을 고를 때 거기서 거기 Style에 손을 대
You think you got a got a swag?
다 그저 따라 따라 따라해
요즘엔 유행어를 모름 대화가 안 돼
모두 Fashion 잡지 TV Show를 보고 단장해
보고팠던 영화조차 평점 따라 관람해
이미 다들 다들 하는데 다 따라 따라 따라해”

“Here and there, fresh, but it seems familiar
Hum the same same song, from your lips and your nose
When you pick your clothes you add your own style
You think you got a got a swag?
Every copy copy copy that
If you don’t know the trends these days, you can’t even talk
Everybody looks at fashion magazines and TV shows and dresses up
They even judge the movies they wanted see based on ratings
Everybody everybody already does so, so just copy copy copy them”

-Epik High, 2009, [e], 따라해 (Wannabe) (feat. Mellow) [translation: Copy Me (Wannabe) (feat. Mellow)]

The excerpt, from a song by the Korean hip-hop group Epik High, is only the first verse in which the group criticizes the trends of Korean pop culture; their words intended to criticize the Korean pop music industry, but can also be applied to Korean pop culture as a whole.

Epik High, a group of three – Tablo, Mithra Jin, and DJ Tukutz – criticize the Korean pop music industry for their trend of copying whatever is popular, and marketing it until the next ‘big’ thing comes around. One of the biggest, and most recent, examples of this was in mid-2009; or, perhaps, a little earlier.

On March 27th, 2009, a new girl band was unveiled by a Korean entertainment company called YG Entertainment. What made this girl group’s debut so famous was that their first song ever released, which was done for a commercial of a cell phone (yet another popular trend in Korea: using famous celebrities – especially popular girl groups – to market their cell phones; and I specifically point out cell phones because it is common practice to have celebrities featured in commercials in Korea, but there seems to be a prominent focus on popular girl bands in the cell phone industry). Their unofficial debut song, LOLLiPOP (link to official video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIRW_elc-rY ), was alongside an extremely popular Korean boy band, Big Bang. Because of the catchy song, the girl group, 2NE1, gained immense popularity and recognition even before their official debut.

When 2NE1 finally did debut on May 6th, 2009, their song, Fire (link to official video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwq-XdPfpeA ), the song was an instant hit, generating more than one million hits in a day. Their ‘concept’ – a term in the Korean pop music industry meaning literally the ‘concept’ or ‘look’ that the group is trying to portray – was that of strong, independent city girls, deviating from the Korean fixation on cuteness for this concept of ‘not-quite-cute-but-not-quite-sexy’ girls.

With 2NE1’s success with their concept of independent, borderline sexy girls came a new wave of girl group concepts. Girls’ Generation’s new concept with the release of their second mini-album “Tell Me Your Wish” saw the group of nine girls transform from cute, bubbly girls to sexy, strong marine/navy girls. Another girl group, Kara, also displayed a sexier side with the release of their second full-length album “Revolution.” Especially enjoyed by male fans all across Korea – and probably Asia and beyond – was their signature “butt” or “hip” dance during their performance of their hit song “Mister.” (link to performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0PhxB3CYq0 ) A third group to follow suit was the girl group Brown Eyed Girls, with the release of their third full-length album “Sound G.” Much like Girls’ Generation, Brown Eyed Girls changed their concept from a more ‘innocent’ look to a sexy, independent, mature look with their hit song ‘Abracadabra.’ (link to music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR0R_4cFxEc )

This all happened over a course of month or two, with each group promoting their sexy, strong, independent concept for as long as it was popular before going quiet from the music scene for several months until the next wave of girl group trends. Of course, the preparation of the ‘concepts’ for each group takes place over months; or so the groups claim. But it would not be too difficult to change their concepts last minute; for example, with Girls’ Generation, it would not be too difficult to imagine a scenario where they would have been preparing a more ‘cutesy’ marine/navy look, but with the rising popularity of the sexy/independent concept with girl groups, changing their concept to fit this new trend. After all, there was a two month gap between the success of 2NE1’s Fire and the appearance of these other girl groups’ new sexy looks.

It is exactly this trend of copying each other that Epik High is criticizing. But this is not only a trend in the pop music industry, but in popular culture in Korea as a whole.

It is a bit of an issue, or at least so Koreans seem to think. When I visited Korea last summer after not being there for almost 6 years, despite my infatuation with Korean pop music, I was completely unaware of what the popular culture there would be like until I actually arrived there. Much to my surprise, unlike in America where different ‘styles’ and subcultures exist – such as the typical high school groups like the punks, Goths, emos, jocks, etc. – the majority of Koreans dressed similarly, listened to similar music, and there existed overall a single, overarching ‘clique’ with extremely small pockets of other subcultures. But for the most part, Epik High’s line of, “If you don’t know the trends these days, you can’t even talk” rings especially true in Korea.

My relatives in Korea even talked about this during my stay, noting Korea’s tendency to have periods of ‘craze’ over certain things – such as clothes, bands, or various products – for a period. One of my aunts believed that this was especially prevalent in Korea because of its small size and concentrated population, which made it easier for producers to market to the consumers, causing a massive outbreak of desires and tastes.

But another line from ‘Copy Me’ also rings true: sometimes, the producers do not even have to work hard to market their goods to the public. All it takes is a celebrity endorsement – such as a celebrity wearing a certain brand of clothing, or appearing in a certain ad – to create the phenomenon of the masses suddenly desiring very similar goods. This is especially popular with clothes – “Everybody looks at fashion magazines and TV shows and dresses up” – and sometimes, the celebrities are not even endorsed by brand names to wear certain clothes. It is the celebrity’s popularity that makes whatever they wear instantly popular. I saw many examples of this during my time in Korea; whenever I went shopping, I would often see strange, outlandish clothes that made me wonder who in their right mind would wear such clothes. But, as was the case with most of these clothes that did not fit the dominant Korean street fashion, they had a sign attached that said “So-and-so celebrity was seen wearing this on this-and-that show” along with a picture showing that So-and-so celebrity had indeed worn such a strange article of clothing on this-and-that show. It didn’t make me want to wear the piece of clothing any, but I could understand why certain people would buy such clothes.

Such copy-cat behavior has resulted in many criticisms within Korea, where the citizens are aware of the copy-cat trend, but cannot or do not want to break out of the trend. Unlike in Korea, in America, not a single overarching style of dress nor does a very small group of artists heavily influence the music industry. In fact, it’s almost the opposite; different parts of America are almost like different countries in terms of culture. I often find myself wondering if I’m really still in America here on the East Coast – after all, there is no In-N-Out here, and people don’t say ‘hella.’


Sources:

Girls' Generation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNSD


KARA:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara_%28band%29


2NE1:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2ne1


Brown Eyed Girls:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Eyed_Girls


따라해 (Wannabe) (feat. Mellow) lyrics:
http://aheeyah.com/lyrics/epikhigh/epikhigh_6_kor.htm


Epik High official website:
http://www.mapthesoul.com


Video sources:
http://www.youtube.com