Keepin’ It Real: Authenticity, Commercialization, and the Media in Korean Hip Hop

Hare, Sarah; Baker, Andrea

doi:10.1177/2158244017710294

Cited by 21 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(82 reference statements)

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“…(Comment on YouTube) While these conflicts reflect, on one level, previous insights about battles for authenticity and legitimacy within online fan cultures (Denison, 2011), at the same time, viewing these through the center-periphery lens allows us to see how such battles also reflect quasi-nationalistic concerns. Given that K-pop heavily draws on non-Korean imagery and faces threats of being overly Americanized or ''internationalized'' (Hare and Baker, 2017), Korean fans feel a stronger drive to preserve the ''Koreanness'' of K-pop and defend their cultural ownership of K-pop. This, in turn, heightens tensions with non-Korean fans.…”

Section: Reinscribing Transcultural Identity Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural globalization from the periphery: Translation practices of English-speaking K-pop fans

Cruz

Seo

Binay

2019

Journal of Consumer Culture

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The international expansion of Korean popular music (K-pop) reflects the increasing dislocation of cultural globalization from Western centers, spurred by the rise of cultural, economic, and political institutions within different regions. This study adopts a translation theory perspective on how the meanings of such cultural products from the ''periphery'' become transculturally intelligible. In this endeavor, we analyze the role of online fan-generated paratexts in translating the global consumptionscape of K-pop. We reveal how translation practices enable cultural understanding and reinscribe transcultural identity politics, inverting and unsettling ''traditional'' center-periphery dynamics. Fan translation practices emerge as a key node in processes of cultural globalization, underscoring the role of consumer-as-translator and situating cultural globalization not only in localized spaces but also in the mediated transcultural space of the paratextual field.

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Section: Reinscribing Transcultural Identity Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural globalization from the periphery: Translation practices of English-speaking K-pop fans

Cruz

Seo

Binay

2019

Journal of Consumer Culture

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“…What’s big right now is audition programs and beefing and dissing.” For example, in the past 10 years, a plethora of Korean reality television and “hip hop” audition shows that focus solely on rap have been produced, including Show me the Money, High School Rapper, Tribe of Hip Hop, Unpretty Rapstar, Good Girl, SignHere , and Do You Know Hip Hop . Hare and Baker (2017) have investigated the “survival audition show,” Show me the money , through the lens of subcultural theory and cultural hybridization theory. Their findings show that K-hip hop is straddling the boundaries of authenticity and commodification, with Show me the money particularly aiding the commodification of local hip hop culture.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Blackness, Koreanness, and Han: Unmasking Race in Korean Hip Hop

Kim

2023

Journal of Black Studies

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Previous studies have analyzed Korean hip hop through the lens of authenticity, language, and cultural hybridity, but not through the lens of race. One of the main characteristics of hip hop culture is that it emerged in the form of resistance against dominant hegemony and as a form of resistance to systemic injustice; however, it is difficult to find K-hip hop artists that defy the racial supremacy of Koreanness and racism through their art. This article utilizes Yoon Mi-rae, who is half-Black and half-Korean, as a significant text to explore how race plays a role in Korean society and how Blackness, Koreanness, and han intersect in the K-hip hop scene. Utilizing the concept of community cultural wealth, interest convergence principle, and Koreanness, the study analyzes how Yoon Mi-rae’s “Black Koreanness” was consumed by Korean media and music industry, and how Yon Mi-rae, as an embodiment of Blackness and Han, uses hip hop and her intersectionality as a tool of resistance to both the mainstream American and mainstream Korean racial ideology and discourse. With the growing influence and popularity of K-hip hop globally, the article problematizes the message K-hip hop is reflecting and sending the world about race.

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“…When creating its own brotherhood, “there is a constant struggle between authenticity and commodification” (Hare & Baker, 2017, p. 1) in the development of hip-hop as well as hip-hop clubs. With increasing involvement in music promotion, social media attracts more capital to flow in and reproduce hip-hop music by removing geographic barriers and creating an imagined community powered by networks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brotherhood and Hip-Hop: The Case of Chinese Hip-Hop Club Triple H

2021

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After hip-hop increased in popularity in Chinese entertainment programs, different perceptions of hip-hop in China reflected a clash of various thinking patterns among audiences, with hip-hop club Triple H on the cusp of controversy. Taking Triple H as a case study, this paper aims to explore how emotional attachments influence the development of Chinese hip-hop clubs in post-subculture. The findings indicated that the brotherhood rooted in hip-hop culture has been reshaped by the hybridity of Chinese hip-hop featuring fraternity mixed with sensitivity, loyalty filled with controversy, and heroism heightened by diversity. This paper argues that the recurring theme of “brotherhood” contributing to the charisma of Chinese hip-hop clubs cannot be partially interpreted as either gangster love or an underground bond, which gives rise to a new approach to the notion of authenticity, with hip-hop interpreted as a distinctive lifestyle.

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Keepin’ It Real: Authenticity, Commercialization, and the Media in Korean Hip Hop

Cited by 21 publications

References 44 publications

Cultural globalization from the periphery: Translation practices of English-speaking K-pop fans

Cultural globalization from the periphery: Translation practices of English-speaking K-pop fans

Blackness, Koreanness, and Han: Unmasking Race in Korean Hip Hop

Brotherhood and Hip-Hop: The Case of Chinese Hip-Hop Club Triple H

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