Project Updates

Last Fans Standing: Longtime and Adult Fans of Korean Popular Music (K-pop)

Crystal S. Anderson

watches

This survey has been revised! Click here for new survey!!!

Most people assume that the only audience for modern Korean popular music (K-pop) is teenagers. As a result, they also assume that K-pop music lacks longevity.  However, the presence of longtime fans suggests that K-pop remains appealing to some fans for years. The existence of adult fans challenges the notion that K-pop only appeals to teenagers. Both groups represent understudied demographics in studies of K-pop fandom.  This project uses multiple case study and oral history to understand K-pop’s lasting appeal.

Multiple Case Study

This multiple case study seeks to understand why individuals remain K-pop fans for years and why adults find K-pop appealing. For three years, I will be asking questions about these atypical fans of K-pop. This survey contains several open-ended and multiple-choice questions that ask how fans see themselves and ask about their K-pop music preferences and fan activity.

 

Project Updates

K-pop Essentials: Shinhwa

Crystal S. Anderson
Source:
Shinhwa

The ‘Essentials” series is part of my digital humanities project, KPopCulture, which curates the music, visual culture, choreography, promotions, media and fan culture of K-pop that support this global cultural production. “Essentials” items tell you about a group through playlists of key music videos, performances, choreography and promotional videos. It also offers a bibliography of articles, music reviews and videos. The first ‘Essentials’ item is, fittingly, on Shinhwa, the longest-running K-pop group with its original members. Click here and enjoy!

Project Updates

“Playing the Race and Sexuality Cards in the Transnational Pop Game: Korean Music Videos for the US Market,” Eun-Young Jung

Crystal S. Anderson

 

JournalofPopularMusic

Eun-Young Jung examines how the visuals of Korean music videos by BoA, Wonder Girls and Rain play on “racialized notions of sexuality” and “sexualized notions of racial identity.”  . . . . Read more at Public Circulation!

Project Updates

“The Globalization of K-pop: Korea’s Place in the Global Music Industry,” Ingyu Oh

Crystal S. Anderson

KROBS

Ingyu Oh challenges approaches to Korean popular music based on cultural hybridity by arguing that the globalization of K-pop involves modifying musical content from Europe and other locations into Korean content and redistributing it to global audiences. In doing to, it occupies a void between Western and East Asian music industries. . . . read more at Public Circulation!