Korean Popular Music (K opular Music (K-Pop), Youth Fan Cultur an
Culture, And Ar e, And Art Education Curriculum
INTRODUCTION: RESEARCH STATEMENT AND QUESTIONS
As various digital media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook are utilized as
popular
numerous audiovisual elements simultaneously. The music video is one of the most
The popular music industry
releases and distributes its products via YouTube to intentionally utilize the dynamic
participation of Internet users. Since youth are the most active group who consume and
produce digital media content and since they are skilled at adapting to digital
technologies and languages, those cultural products are shared and re-created, acquiring
new meanings and being understood in different contexts by global youth.
At this point, educational implications can be found regarding youth as active
prosumers in a digitally globalized world. The current Korean
popular music (K-Pop) industry is aimed at the global market, and their cultural content
has successfully reached youth around the world through digital media. Regarding the
pedagogical aspects of the interaction between popular media content and youth, the
following research questions will be examined in this thesis: (a) What characteristics does
K-Pop have as a form of global media content? (b) How has K-Pop extended its
audience across borders and built up a global fandom? (c) In which ways do youth
consume K-Pop and produce their own meanings? (d) What kinds of pedagogical
approaches that utilize K-Pop as an educational resource can work? I hope the findings
regarding these questions will be of some help in mapping popular visual culture
education in the digital age.
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
People today constantly experience elements of other cultures and communicate
with each other through digital technologies, and youth are the group who most quickly
adopt digital media into their everyday lives. According to a new study from the Pew
by the convenience and constant access
provided by mobile devices, especially smartphones, 92% of [American] teens report
going
online daily.
2).
Increasingly, t various social networking services or social media channels, such as
YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. As the global social environment of
youth culture has changed and with it, the way young people communicate and
experience the world
there have also been changes in youth culture itself. Bennett
. 163) in
which interactions take place not in physical spaces, such as on the street, in clubs, or at
festivals, but in virtual spaces facilitated by the Internet.
With advances in digital technologies popular cultural signs and media images
increasingly dominate our sense of reality, and the way we define ourselves and the
. 205). That is, popular culture, as experienced
through digital media, constitutes a large part of the substance of everyday life for
. Duncum (2002) emphasizes the importance of everyday exposure to
popular imagery, which
plays a major
. 6). He notes that
thought, feelings, and actions precisely because they are every day. It is because they are
. 6). In this sense, examining the popular
culture of the present moment through visual images can serve as a meaningful
pedagogical opportunity in art education because by doing so, it is possible to understand
how youth consume and negotiate globalized visual culture more deeply.
to
the
patterns of participatory fan culture among global youth. Specifically, the chapter
discusses how popular media reflect the living ,
how global youth enjoy hybridized cultural products and communicate with each other
through them, and what kind of pedagogical implications can be drawn from the global,
growing phenomenon of the transcultural popularity of such media texts.
K-Pop as a Global Phenomenon: Strategies and Diffusion
K-Pop is a genre of popular music in (South) Korea that is largely characterized
by the audiovisual marketing strategy2 of using music videos. During the initial stage of
its emergence, around the early 2000s and before the advent of digital media
technologies, K-Pop was mostly isolated within Korea. Since the mid-2000s, digital
technologies like YouTube have allowed K-Pop to cross borders and reach all over the
to emphasize a distinctive feature of K-Pop that it is mainly consumed
via music videos, through which viewers consume K
itself.
world. During the 2000s, several Korean entertainment companies tried to market their
singers to a global market.3 Their efforts led to the expansion of K-Pop listenership in
East Asia, Europe, South America, North America, and the Muslim world (Korean Wave,
dissemination of compelling material can be summarized as follows: diversity of
audiovisual content, systematic training of singers, synchronized dance formations,
key movements in the choreography, and rapid distribution via the Internet (K-Pop,
n.d.). As a prolific YouTube user has said of K-Pop 4
One aspect of his expression, K-Pop
music videos present multicultural
and hybrid
elements in their music production and visualization. The French audiovisual
K-Pop
synthesized music, sharp dance routines and fashionable, colorful outfits combining
bubblegum pop with the musical elements of electro, disco, rock, R&B, and hip
(Rousse-Marquet, 2012). In addition to these international music styles, to create
multicultural products for the global market, many K-Pop entertainment companies hire
or contract producers, composers, and choreographers from around the world (Park,
2013). To foster the ideal multicultural image seen in many idol groups, the use of
multiple languages also seems crucial. Many members are from foreign countries for
3 YG Entertainment, SM Entertainment, and JYP Entertainment are three representative entertainment
companies in South Korea. For more information about their strategies for globalization, refer to Oh
(2013), Shin and Kim (2013), and Shin (2009).
4 rtainment. Visit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekJ-ldOD0TQ&feature=share&list=SP23C220A2C5EC0FDE for the
full video.
example, the United States and China and are scouted from auditions abroad to become
future members of idol groups. In particular, many of them are native English speakers
who are able to more naturally and fluently sing and rap in English, which is important
for K-Pop performances, since they often blend Korean and English. This multicultural
method of production and the hybrid characteristics of K-Pop help popularize it in the
global market.
Idol groups are a dominant form of K-Pop ensembles, consisting of multiple
members who are given standardized training by entertainment companies, with each
member performing a specific role in well-ordered choreography that includes a visual
hook a repeated dance sequence that matches the melody and lyrics of the song.
Visually captivating images of beautiful young men and women executing tightly
choreographed dances are one of the strong elements of K-Pop performances onstage and
in music videos. Many entertainment companies in South Korea initially contract
children or teens who are eager to be members of a pop idol group. These young people
are trained in a strictly regimented environment in which they learn the various practices
anguages, and
the diet and exercise to have the right look and physique (usually Westernized body
proportions are preferred). According to the Wall Street Journal,
for everything; leading talent house SM Entertainment has pegged the cost of rearing a
performers need to learn to conform to public tastes and mores, not only in their
appearance but also in their personality or persona. Their contracts require that they learn
how to behave in public, be fashionable, express themselves in a unique and appealing
way, and sometimes even get plastic surgery. After they debut, the company controls
every move in their daily lives. They smile the way they are taught, dance the way they
are trained, and say what they are told.
Finally, since
around the globe in 2012 via YouTube, new K-Pop songs have come to be routinely
uploaded onto YouTube to be broadcast to a worldwide audience at the same time they
are released on domestic Korean television. Often, a company officially announces that
their group will reunite and release a new album and restarts promotional activities
(Ramstad, 2012).
posters on YouTube and other websites in the same fashion as movie trailers before the
release of their official albums. These materials quickly circulate all over the world
online.
culture and, in particular, music; contemporary teenagers enjoy music not merely by
listening to it but also by viewing it through digital channels like YouTube. In addition,
they freely communicate with each other about the music, both visually and aurally.
Those in t
have produced themselves. In this respect, the consumption of K-Pop is an active rather
than passive cultural practice, furthering K-Pop
countries. Thus, an inquiry into the aesthetic and sociocultural influences of the K-Pop
phenomenon on its teenage fans seems useful. In the next section, I will examine the
digitally mediated distribution system of K-Pop, which is a key factor in the relationship
forms.
Border-Crossing K-Pop: Transcultural Media Flow and the Participatory Fan
Culture of Digitally Mediated Youth
As examined in the previous section, the strategies for the promotion of K-Pop
depend on the dissemination channels opened by digital technologies that allow cultural
products to easily cross borders and be shared by fans worldwide. Oh and Lee (2013)
explore the relationship between media technologies and the birth of new music genres.
Following Hirsch (1971), they explain how FM radio stations were crucial in spreading
rock-and-roll music all over the world and how television, particularly the MTV (Music
Television) network, drove the fame of Michael Jackson, highlighting his dancing and
fashion as well as his songs. Similarly, K-Pop can be considered not only a new music
genre but also a new kind of genre based on innovative digital tools that takes advantage
and imbue them with their own meanings. Jung (2014) states that fans play a significant
role as promoters of the K-Pop industry, dovetailing with the distinctive K-Pop
distribution system through free streaming music and video platforms like YouTube,
which allow it to reach mainstream markets in different countries directly, crossing
cultural borders, and to be distributed by local youth fans in multidirectional ways. This
creates cultural divergence and ultimately disrupts the mono-directional flows of global
cultural industries previously dominated by Western culture.
Several YouTube users stated that this opportunity for multidirectional
minute video on the Internet that I made in my bedroom in Canada that you
watched in Hong Kong, and then you told me that you shared it with your friend
in Singapore?7
They also rated the multi-directionality of communication on YouTube as opposed to the
6 -Pop is helped massively by this global platform we all make a career
on called YouTube. How do you feel knowing people can watch your content all around the world when
-
.
Entertainment (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuSYtAsMxfY). 7
Excerpted from the previous video above.
trapped in this physical object. This reflects how international fans pursue
active, public participation in a cultural phenomenon like K-Pop and expect and rely on a
media platform that can make it possible.
of the participatory youth culture that drives online K-Pop circulation. According to her,
K-Pop has been widely circulated via new technologies such as fan-blogs, peer-to-peer
YouTube, there are countless videos related to K-Pop produced by youth themselves.
(1) a main character, protagonist, or personality, playing a kind of guide or MC role,
introduces the video s/he is going to watch and shares his/her excitement; (2) s/he
displays a small screen beside her/his face and plays the video; (3) s/he shows her/his
feelings and thoughts about the video while it is playing on the small screen. This format
enables the audience to watch the music video simultaneously with another
to it, sharing emotions and thoughts among the whole community of viewers. Moreover,
the international audience can easily communicate with the producers of the reaction
videos (for example, by leaving feedback or requests for future videos). These YouTube
users are also very often interested in connecting with different people from around the
world (i.e., of different cultures, genders, ethnicities, and generations) and in their distinct
reactions to the material. Therefore, they often create specific forms of reaction videos
with titles like people react to K-Pop
Many
teenagers or young adults form their own dance teams and practice dances imitating their
favorite K-Pop groups; sometimes they dance in the classroom, showing off to their
classmates for fun, in gyms or auditoriums for events like homecoming, or even in public
as professional dancers. K-Pop dance covers have led to the emergence of phenomena
like K-Pop dance video games, flash mobs, and more broadly, dance festivals and
contests all over the world. Another example of participatory youth cultural practices in
this context includes translation teams for non-Korean-speaking fans. These teams
translate videos of their K-Pop idols into various languages through a collective work
process. This kind of active user participation further blurs national borders and language
barriers within the globalized youth culture.
K-Pop music videos can thus be regarded as a medium that reflects the conditions
eir
lived experiences. Thoroughly examining and analyzing specific idol groups and the
cultural productions related to them help to further our understanding of the K-Pop
phenomenon and the pleasures and desires of its young fans. In the next section, I briefly
sketch the landscape of competition among K-Pop girl groups, which is one of the most
prominent issues in the contemporary K-Pop music scene. In addition, through the
juxtaposition of the two most popular K- ion,
and their fan cultures, I examine how popular culture mirrors the life conditions and
women around the world and how global youth negotiate the
consumption of these cultural products under a transcultural media regime.
Image vs.
the Subversive, Powerful Girls of 2NE1
of the prevalent business model in the South Korean music industry that emerged in the
1990s. He argues that K-Pop groups were established in the
late 1990s when the first Korean boy band, H.O.T. by SM Entertainment, achieved great
success in the domestic market. The success of H.O.T. provided a formula for other
entertainment companies to create idol groups, and many similar boy bands and girl
groups subsequently launched.12 During this period, the so-called first generation of
. and S.E.S., attained success and stimulated the
market to mass-produce numerous latecomers that mimicked them. In the next decade,
despite the large number of girl groups on the market, they took a largely standard form
and image. Maliangkay (2015) claims that many music videos represented two typical
ard examined
the Korean pop industry chronologically from a socio-economic perspective.
. 94).
include, for example, members of Fin.K.L. and S.E.S., who were called yo-jeong (fairy),
implying the fantasy of an innocent, beautiful young girl presenting a pretty doll image
without sex appeal. Meanwhile, other girl groups and female singers, such as Um
JungHwa, Babyvox, and Chakra, fostered images of oversexualized femmes fatales. In
short, until the mid-2000s, female images represented in K-Pop idol groups were binary
and stereotypical.
Diversification into more varied and hybridized female representations began in
the late 2000s, leaving behind the simple dichotomy of the older period and moving into
a complex and multidimensional representative economy that reflected both the desires of
women have traditionally been under a Confucian social order that places women in a
subordinate position to men, similar to the binary system of gender roles and
relationships that is driven by the tradition of European Enlightenment. In their empirical
study of contemporary Korean drama and its Asian women viewers, Lin and Tong found
that as many Asian women as men receive higher education and participate in the wage
economy, moving beyond the traditional Confucianist framework and improving their
position compared to women of previous generations. Despite this, Lin and Tong found
from their informants that many Asian women still tend to be attracted to
. 106), such as attractive appearance and
comforting/subtle/courteous/amiable/delicate/thoughtful personal qualities, even while
they still pursue the development of strong and independent characters. Therefore, Lin
desire of many Asian women to have the best of both worlds (i.e., career and
. 110). To explore how these ideal female images are reflected in K-Pop
when viewed as a popular cultural product, I now turn to the examination of music videos
, which represent two predominant female images in
KPop that have been mass produced and successfully marketed throughout Asia and the
West.
love. After the success of their first album, Into the New World, in 2007, they started to
diversify their characters and play a variety of stereotypical female images. The nine
friends in a way that shows politeness, affection, and sometimes flirtation. This term is frequently
referenced in Korean pop culture in general, such as K-drama and K-Pop.
In their music videos, members of the group often stare at and talk to the camera lens
(and thus the viewer) as though they are speaking to someone on the other side of the
screen. This effect removes the barrier between the fantasy space of the image and the
real world, and the audience becomes immersed in the video and the music.
Epstein and Turnbull (2014) examined music videos from various K-Pop girl
groups and analyzed visual images and lyrics, sequence by sequence. Scrutinizing the
cuteness that infantilizes those (most frequently female) who engage in it in the hope of
.
319).
pairing of football players with cheerleaders emphasizes gender differentiation a
(Epstein and Turnbull, 2014, p. 319).
members show their
confidence as beautiful and successful modern women. They highlight their femininity as
a key feature of their success as global stars. In the The Boys album (2011), they show
their proud, sassy, and chic attitudes via black costumes and their overtly sexual, powerful
dance. Thus, even though the members of
, sometimes they present themselves as
independent women who can take the lead in their relationships with men because they
know that their feminine attractiveness can function as a weapon and leave men
disarmed. s reflect two contradictory images:
a modern, successful, and powerful Asian woman and a traditional, cute, and submissive
female.
2NE1
-member girl group formed by YG
Entertainment in 2009, more definitively embraces a powerful, modern female image.
They display strong confidence, and sometimes even arrogance, in the use of hip-hop
16 17
and they embrace hip-hop as part of their musical background.
According to the interview with Robert M. Poole (2012), Teddy Park, a KoreanAmerican
producer of 2NE1, always wondered about the lack of Asian acts in the world music
scene, and he said he now works to make Korean hip-hop a big wave in the mainstream
music industry. In addition, Park emphasized the attitude of Korean women,
For more information about this word, visit http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/swag
17 YG Entertainment is one of the most predominant entertainment companies that has pursued hip-hop
music since its establishment in 1996. For more information, visit
http://www.ygfamily.com/index.asp?LANGDIV=E
such as Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry are wild . Even
within the strong, distinct image of 2NE1, nevertheless, the group also embodies various
personae as young, modern females who are honest about their feelings while living in a
globalized, cosmopolitan world. 2NE1 shows a far different attitude to romance and men
. They do not yearn for oppa aegyo gestures,
and do not wear excessively feminine clothes; instead, in their music, they tend to bluntly
address uncomfortable issues regarding (hetero)sexual relationships and their emotions
about them. For instance, members alternately take on the roles of an auto-racer looking
2009).
One unique music video from this group takes the form of a
short anime clip. In it, the group displays their characters as independent, strong women
who take on the role of bounty hunters seeking a wanted man. They find him at a pub
and fight to capture him. Finally, they shoot the fugitive, and he transforms into a
monster: His arms grow longer and attack the group until eventually one of them severs
his extended arm, another blows him up, and he dies.
extended arm might be interpreted as evoking Judith and the head of Holofernes. In the
music video, 2NE1 uses aggressive, conventionally masculine weapons such as swords,
guns, baseball bats, and firebombs. They ride motorcycles, race cars, and a Hummer.
. They often glare at the camera, raising their
eyebrows and exposing tattoos. They wear pants decorated with studs, rather than
conventional miniskirts. 2NE1 presents threatening and powerful female images, and
unsurprisingly, a young, female audience comprises the great majority of their fandom.
Thus, 2NE1 shows very new and unique characteristics of femininity in South Korea.
The audiovisual strategies used by these two all-female groups serve as examples
of how current conditions of media production targeting specific audiences are
intertwined and how cultural products and consumer demand are connected. The music
images of young
women in the sociocultural context of contemporary Asia. Building upon this, the
following section will use these two groups to discuss their transculturally oriented,
culturally hybridized features and the participatory cultural practices of global youth in
relation to K-Pop.
Mono-Directional Westernization or Multi-Directional Hybridization?
Central to the representations of women in the music videos considered above are
the issues of transculturality and cultural hybridization. In these videos, it is easy to
notice how members of these girl groups have Westernized features, particularly in terms
of their appearance, fashion, and cultural context. members are
frequently presented as stereotypically attractive females in the terms of Western (mainly
American) pop culture and are surrounded by visual elements that evoke that culture, -
and-
black-
2NE1 is also clearly influenced by Western culture but in different ways from
cutting-edge fashion trends into their own image and group identity. For example, in the
-forward and internationally trendy items such as retro-style
jackets with power shoulders and futuristic sunglasses are used to give the four members
their stylized visual identities.
fashion trends, the group later collaborated with Adidas on a line of shoes by American
fashion designer Jeremy Scott, who
adopted CL, the leader of 2NE1, as his muse for the line. These kinds of hybrid
The Westernized visual images of these two groups might seem reasonable in
terms
bubblegum pop (Benjamin, 2015) and electropop (Covington, 2014) while 2NE1 take
inspiration from American hip-hop, as mentioned above. However, these K-Pop groups
deliberately use Westernized styles to create hybrid images for global consumption and
profit, which differs from the previously Western-dominated Korean media industry.
and performers, and global dissemination of musical contents through [social networking
Meanwhile, this blended cultural production sometimes transcends its various
elements. Iwabuchi (2002) suggests the concept of mukokuseki
explain the successful worldwide distribution of Japanese cultural products, which he
Korean cultural products by conducting empirical studies of audiences in Japan,
Singapore, and the West. She insists that the hybridity of contemporary Korean popular
homogenizing tendencies of globalization and the heterogenizing aspects of local desires
and hybridized K-Pop music videos are understood as cultural products targeting the
global market and transnational consumption by global youth.
Adding to the hybridized and transcultural images mentioned above, another
noticeable feature of K-Pop music videos is the use of virtual space. K-Pop videos are
rarely shot outdoors or in everyday living spaces. Spaces often look very futuristic,
suggestive of science fiction movies or iconic stage sets. Moreover, various
special effects techniques. Such unreal virtual spaces make their protagonists look like
fabulous, flawless, imaginary people who live in a fantastic fictional world beyond real
life altogether let alone any specific nationality. In the media products in which they are
represented, K-Pop stars do not look like real people but like perfect dolls in virtual
worlds. Both they and their backgrounds imply a kind of mukokuseki that allows them to
hybridize enormously disparate elements simultaneously. This strategy of blending
different cultures or going beyond one specific culture can appeal to people from a range
of cultural backgrounds, and contemporary digital youth are especially attracted to
crossing national and cultural borders.
Additional aspects of the hybridization of K-Pop videos can be seen in the work
of other idol groups: blurring borders between nationalities/ethnicities (in the
representations of performers), languages (in lyrics), and gender (with the use of
ambiguous gender expressions). For example, many male artists have feminine faces,
with makeup and pale skin, but at the same time frequently perform fierce dances to a
driving, masculine beat. Some groups have members who are visualized as epicene
beauties while others are hypersexualized. Many groups have foreign members from
different countries and members who speak multiple languages; they are often called by
foreign names. BigBang, one of the most popular boy bands, frequently casts White
women as their opposites. 23 (2015), the five male
members of BigBang are initially depicted as romantically involved with five White
women, and by the end, all ten of them are portrayed wearing traditional Korean clothes
on an asteroid, under a romantic moon. This song also intentionally blends musical and
visual cultural elements. It is common for backgrounds of many music videos to evoke
while at the same time clearly
representing different cultures. For example, 2NE1 shows a denationalized virtual future
backstreets with graffiti, ninjas inside Asian architecture, Amazon women in a jungle, and
dancers in virtual space. Moreover, most idol group members achieve a somewhat
transracial appearance by dying their hair unnatural colors, wearing makeup to look like
anime characters, and even undergoing plastic surgery to eliminate specific features of
the Asian face. Many YouTube users point out that many K-Pop stars look like manga
characters, implying that global youth accept the images of K-Pop idols as transcultural
iconic characters in a similar way to the deodorized export products of Sony Television
and internationally successful anime, such as Pokémon. As Iwabuchi (2002) suggests,
this transnational characteristic of K-Pop music videos is part of what helped K-Pop
groups penetrate the global market and win the affinity of global youth, as this
transculturality resonates youth and the digital-
technology-mediated youth culture.
Grassroots Youth Fan Culture of K-Pop
Alvermann, Moon, and Hagood (1999) emphasize the importance for youth to
become critical new media consumers and construct their own meanings by
communicating with their peers. Many K-Pop youth fans use YouTube and other social
media outlets to engage in dialogue about visual representations, narrative, aesthetics,
and other aspects of their favorite music videos. For example, some YouTube users have
swapping them out for the western standard of beauty like the majority of popular music
video [sic] 25 Young people from various ethnic backgrounds, countries, and genders all
over the world have expressed their opinions on this and other questions regarding K-Pop
videos, including exchanging opinions on meanings and plots. For instance, the music
.
This is
just based on my opinion. The old her (the weak, sad, beaten CL) died and the new
her (independent, strong and happy CL) came which means she already move on from
the 26 An unusually high number of people, 126, have responded to this
comment to
These examples of active social interactions among YouTube users above show
how digitally mediated youth actively consume and negotiate popular culture and share
their knowledge and reactions with other youth all over the world through the web.
position in the audience, to construct their knowledge of the text genre, and to negotiate
individual voices and identities. At the local level, in classrooms and communities,
popular culture is related to social and cultural group identities, allegiances, and
25 To see these comments, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKD03uPVD-Q
26 To see the comment, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yW13T2sfKg, and find the username
Kookie Llama.
27 To see these comments, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yW13T2sfKg.
ermann et al., 1999, p. 30). Various social media channels
such as YouTube, blogs, and fan websites provide youth with a space to discuss their
favorite topics related to popular culture productions such as K-Pop.
Besides actively consuming popular culture, many young people also take on the
role of digital media producers. Duncum (2011) brings the concept of prosumer (a blend
of consumer and producer) into the field of art education while examining the creative
activities of youth on YouTube. This term was first used by a futurologist Toffler (1980)
appropriate, resample, remix, and rework existing cultural artifacts, images, and
activism (Ivashkevich, 2015, p. 42).
B K-Pop produce
their own media content and share them with other fans via YouTube. Existing K-Pop
content functions as an attractive cultural resource for youth to borrow because it has a
considerable cross-cultural fan base. For example, Simon and Martina, a popular
YouTube channel, shows the possibilities of can
create a social sphere in which youth all over the world can meet each other and
communicate about the grassroots media content. Simon and Martina, a Canadian couple
living in Korea, create videos about various culturally relevant subjects such as food,
social issues, popular culture, and tourism, including a large number of videos about
KPop. For examp Simon and Martina
talk about the strengths and aesthetics of the music video and show their own Gangnam
Style production, including playfully reenacting some scenes and creating their own lyrics.
They also a
parodic, humorous manner. This video is a clear example of the transcultural prosumption
of K-Pop, as it is remixed and reinterpreted via Westernized lenses by a couple who resides
in Korea. Their familiarity with Korean culture allows them to grasp
own cultural
identity as outsiders in their own remake, which creates a transcultural flow of K-Pop fan
production.
However, it is necessary to address that personal media productions also can be
risky because of their ability to display unfiltered, personalized cultural biases and
stereotypes. Simon and Martina sometimes show their inevitable limitations as White
prosumers of Korean media and culture, especially when they discuss different cultural
-Dragon,30 they mock the
attitudes toward and value of different cultures even while active participation in media
productions offer expanded channels for multidirectional communication all over the
world.
K-Pop can serve as an effective channel for bringing young people into a
crosscultural, globalized public sphere, as it is a transnational popular culture product that
encourages spontaneous participation among youth from all around the world. However,
both K-Pop videos themselves and their playful prosumer reappropriations often contain
elements of sexism, racism, and cultural toadyism (Western cultural domination) that
need to be critically examined and addressed. In the art classroom, K-Pop pedagogy can
offer unique opportunities to engage youth in both critical analyses of K-Pop videos and
the mindful production of their own creative responses, remixes, and reappropriations of
K-Pop texts in collaboration with their peers. Therefore, in Chapter 2, the research
project that I conducted in Seoul in 2016 will be described. It will provide concrete
examples of applying the previously examined theoretical framework to youth in a school
setting.
CHAPTER 2: DESCRIPTION OF THE SETTING AND CURRICULUM UNIT PLAN
As explored in the previous chapter, music videos are one of the most powerful
are surrounded by digitally
mediated visual culture. Youth actively produce as well as consume forms of popular
culture using digital devices and software, and they also share videos through the
Internet. Utilizing this spontaneous participatory fan culture, music videos became one
of the most effective media to promote cultural products in the global cultural production
industry, including K-Pop. For this reason, K-Pop music videos not only represent the
life conditions and desires of youth who are its primary consumers, but they also operate
as a platform for role models who can influence the fashion, attitudes, and tastes of
youth, as many fans follow their stars. Needless to say, this form of media production
affects youth in developing their identities, building their lifestyles, and constructing their
worldviews. Because of the tremendous influence of digital media, K-Pop music videos
can be useful pedagogical resources that are familiar to youth; furthermore, when used in
this way, they can incre participation in educational activities and improve
critical prosumption of popular media, critical media text reading, and creative
meaning-making.
Meanwhile, due to the limitation of being products that have to be commercially
consumed, music videos tend to engage in materialistic marketing strategies. To attract
public attention and maximize their profits, many music video producers often choose
violent and sexually suggestive content rather than creating something innovative or
experimental. Many researchers have mentioned various issues regarding the dark side
of K-Pop music videos, criticizing their sexism, racism, materialism, and complicity in
other social issues (Jung, 2010; Jung, 2012; Kim, 2011; Unger, 2015). Because of this
and the complicated nature of music videos as media texts composed of both visual and
auditory elements, media literacy is the key starting point for pedagogical approaches that
seek to enhance critical discussions with students in classroom settings. Students need to
be encouraged to analyze each element of a music video, including colors, lyrics,
characters, compositions, fashion, choreography, props, shots, mise-en-scéne, and
sequences. Decoded elements have to be explained verbally and understood as being
connected to the social/cultural/economic background of music video production. While
connecting cultural representations to their social contexts, students can understand the
correlation between society and the individual. Additionally, the exchange of different
opinions about the same media texts will foster a better understanding of various
socioeconomic contexts from diverse perspectives. Then, the decoded interpretations can
be used to create new meaning on a personal level.
Appropriation can be an effective way for youth to create their own meanings
through consuming and producing media content, but in order for pre-existing media
texts to be appropriated in critical ways and for new contexts to be created, students must
be able to fully understanding and deconstruct dominant media texts. One artistic
technique that allows for the effective deconstruction and critical re-purposing of such
texts is collage, which utilizes pre-existing elements by mining images and remixing
them, thereby creating new forms and meanings. While collage has a long history in the
field of fine art flood of information, people experience collages every day
through various media texts, including music, illustrations, graphic design, architecture,
fashion design, and film. Furthermore, with the development of digital technology, the
manipulation and replication of media texts using software programs, applications, and
other devices has become an everyday cultural practice that can also be used in the arts
education classroom. Relying on the critical interpretation of images, students can
collect video clips, digital images, and stills from various resources on the Internet to
remix and recreate their own video projects, and using these images and concepts, they
can build storyboards to convey the ideas and themes of their work and choose visual
effects for each scene.
The primary goal of the video collage production project that was conducted with
Seoul high school students in 2016 was to enhance critical media literacy by
challenging them to read and create multimedia texts that respond to the social, political,
cultural, and economic contexts of the media content as well as
technical knowledge of digital languages. Throughout this project, students practiced
how to read dominant media texts and re-create their own meanings by producing video
collages that utilized pre-existing media elements, including sounds, music, images,
videos, and phrases, all of which were found on the Internet.
Project Location: Seoul Art High School
This project was conducted with 16- and 17-year-old students at Seoul Arts High
School, a private arts high school with approximately 1,000 students. The school was
founded by Dr. H. D. Appenzeller, an American missionary, in 1953, after the end of the
Korean War. This school is located in Pyoungchang-dong, an area of Seoul that is
and is surrounded by large mountains and a
national park. This school specializes in arts education with three departments: dance,
music, and art. The Dance Department offers three majors: Korean Dance, Ballet, and
Contemporary Dance. The Music Department allows students to have numerous chances
to enhance their skills through school programs such as orchestra, piano ensemble,
recital, and composition study as well as basic music courses like music theory, music
history, and ear training. In art first year, the Art Department provides courses
that cover the basic knowledge of art, including art theory, art history, and basic
techniques of Korean painting, Western painting, sculpture, and design; during this year,
students also explore which specific area they will choose for their university entrance
exam and career path. In their second year, students start an in-depth study of art in one
of the following areas: Korean painting, Western painting, sculpture, or design.
This school is one of the most prestigious arts high schools in South Korea, and
most students are expected to be accepted by top universities. Ironically, th
reputation and the high expectations for individual students became barriers to their
participation in my research project because my project was an extracurricular activity
that focused on popular culture and not a required subject or a project that would enhance
artistic skills for the university entrance exam. Most art school applicants in
South Korea are very busy preparing for college entrance exams that require a high level
of skill in several academic areas as well as the arts. In addition, most students commute
to school from long distances because school enrollment is not based on their places of
residence. For these reasons, it was not easy to expect students to actively participate in
this project. Fortunately, I was able to contact a passionate social studies teacher at the
school who showed an interest in the pedagogical approach of bridging popular culture
with teens. He was also an advisor of th club and conducted
extracurricular activity classes one Friday per month. We agreed that I could use the time
for my lessons. I sent him my research proposal and curriculum unit plan in spring 2016,
and we continued communicating until I visited South Korea in summer 2016.
When we met in June 2016 in Seoul, and I suggested a detailed curriculum with
four lessons. In the Korean academic calendar, the spring semester starts in March, and
the fall semester begins in September. Since summer vacation begins at the middle of
July, June is the busiest time in the spring semester because final exams and other tests
take place before the summer vacation. Furthermore, Seoul Arts High School has various
events, such as a student art exhibition, an art skills test, a music festival, and a Bible quiz
contest. Therefore, my art project could not be done during the spring semester. The
teacher and I agreed to start the project in the fall semester, and finally, I met the students
for the first time on Friday, September 9. The sessions continued once a month until
Friday, December 2.
The place where I conducted lessons was in the main building where there were
classrooms for general education, including liberal arts, social studies, and sciences.
Each department had its own building for art technique and skills classes. Unlike most
schools in South Korea, where students are assigned to one classroom, are provided a
class schedule that is followed by all students in that classroom, and do not have many
options for which classes they want to take, Seoul Arts High School provides classrooms
to teachers, and the students move from classroom to classroom. The classroom for my
project was assigned to the social studies teacher, and inside the classroom, there were
about 35
a class schedule, and a large monitor that could be used to show television programs,
DVDs, schoolwide broadcasts, and the computer screen.
The Participants
members.
provide opportunities for future artists to participate in and prepare their own art shows.
Half of the students were the first-year general visual arts majors and the other half
consisted of second-year students (with three design majors, four Western painting
majors, two Korean painting majors, and one sculpture major); there were no third-year
students.
At the first session, students completed a short survey about their grade and
major, and they answered five additional questions: (1) Do you have any experiences
with courses or workshops in media education? If you have, what were they about? (2)
How long are you online per day? Which device do you mainly use? (3) What do you do
online? (4) Do you like watching music videos? What do you think about them? (5)
What kind of courses or workshops do you want to take relating to popular culture?
Nineteen students participated in this survey: 10 second-year students and 9 first-year
students. Most students did not have any experience with media education. Only 5
students answered yes to the first question; however, the courses or workshops they took
were computer skills classes for certificate exams or one-time workshops through school
broadcasting that were designed to promote the reduction of Internet usage.
Eighteen students accessed the Internet mostly via smartphone, 3 students used various
devices such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones, and only 1 student used a laptop only.
Four students used the Internet 1 hour per day, and 13 students answered that they are
online 2 to 4 hours per day. One student said she is online 5 to 6 hours, and another
replied that she is online at all times, day or night. Students reported that they mostly
enjoy visual culture (e.g., YouTube, Webtoon, animations, movies, American TV series)
and social network services (e.g., Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Kakao Talk) via the
Internet. Most students showed their interest in music videos: 15 students noted that they
frequently watch music videos because music videos can be a way to understand music
well while simultaneously pleasing the eyes and ears. For the last question, many
participants expressed their interest in learning the technical skills to be proficient in
digital languages and in learning about Korean popular culture (and other cultures) in the
context of a global cultural landscape. They wanted to know more about other cultures,
including how they differ from Korean culture and what people from different countries
think about Korean culture.
The school schedule was very flexible, and each student had a different schedule
due to afterschool programs and additional art skills classes in the evenings. The only
time the school officially allowed me to conduct lessons was during the
time, which occurred once per month on Fridays; however, this class was
frequently canceled for various reasons. Also, it was difficult to contact each student
through the teacher in order to find the best times when students could attend.
Eventually, communicate with the
students directly.
Korean smartphone users. By uploading pictures of and short messages about their
everyday lives and communicating with each other on individual and group levels, this
application plays a role in creating the biggest cyber-society in South Korea. Beyond
simple chatting services, functions of the
in Korea, including finances, taxis, public transportation, shopping, personal blogs, and
games. Every student in the club had a smartphone, which they used actively and
regularly, and teachers did not prohibit the use of smartphones at school except during
-
school lecturer,
such as asking their availability for lessons, notifying them of assignments, sending
handouts/class materials/video resources, and responding quickly to their questions. The
students freely and easily contacted me via Kakao Talk.
The club had a leader who was a second-year student. The teacher introduced her
to me at the first session, She will handle everything
was cheerful and supportive. She contacted students if they did not arrive at the
classroom on time and managed student attendance. The leader also controlled the
atmosphere of the class (for example, keeping the students quiet when they made too
much noise). All the members listened to the leader, and the club had its own rules.
During the first lesson, I told them that groups would be needed for making videos.
Soon, the leader contacted me via Kakao Talk and sent me a well-organized list with five
groups. In the second lesson, I asked students how they formed their groups, and they said
they got together based on closeness; however, many first-year students were grouped at
random by the leader. Therefore, the five groups created consisted of four members in
each group, as follows: (1) Group 1: four second-year students, with two majoring in
Western Painting, one in Design, and one in sculpture; (2) Group 2: four second-year
students, with two majoring in Design, one in Western Painting, and one in Korean
Painting; (3) Group 3: four first-year students majoring in art; (4) Group 4: two second-
year majoring in Western Paining and Korean Painting, respectively, and two first-year
students majoring in art; (5) Group 5: four first-year students majoring in art. When I
observed the atmosphere of each group, even though some students were not close to each
other first, they quickly became intimate, except members of Group 5.
Curriculum Overview: Educating Critical Prosumers K-Pop Music Video and
Video Collage Production
The goal of this project was to provide an opportunity for the students to
deconstruct the myths of the dominant visual culture around their everyday lives and
practice how to analyze and appropriate K-Pop music videos in critical ways. The
procedure of the curriculum was as follows: Students would (1) analyze and interpret
KPop music videos to develop their critical thinking skills, (2) descibe the social/ethical
issues and messages in the visual expressions of various K-Pop music videos, (3) collect
prevalent images from K-Pop music videos and other resources, such as magazines and
Internet websites, and (4) appropriate typical images from music videos and produce new
videos to create their own meanings set in new contexts.
Lesson 1: Analyzing K-Pop Music Videos
I first met the students I would be working with on September 9. The teacher who
I worked with notified me to be in the classroom by 3:00 p.m. and told me that students
would come around 3:20 pm. I arrived at the school at 2:30 p.m. and went to the office
of the teachers who were in charge of social studies to prepare worksheets. I created a
PowerPoint presentation, a short survey, and a roster. I then went to the classroom and
connected my laptop to the monitor to display the prepared presentation
file.
Students came into the classroom one by one. It seemed that they were in high
spirits after class and moving from another building where they practiced art skills. They
brought backpacks, artwork, and food, and they were wearing school uniforms, which
consisted of gray skirts and white blouses. It took around 30 minutes for all students to
sit down and be ready to listen. During this time, I distributed the short survey that I
described earlier in this chapter, and the students filled it out as they chatted with each
other and played on their smartphones. Once 20 girls had arrived in the classroom, one
the teacher for K-Pop? I am the club leader. We
need to do something for our
exhibition project.
Then, she hushed the noisy
students.
exhibition leaflets, please bring the money to me now, she said. Students paid money,
and the club leader organized her notes and called the roll.
The teacher came into the classroom, and he introduced me. After introducing
myself, I asked the students if they like K-Pop, and the students had enthusiastic
responses. I asked them who was their favorite group, and all of them started to talk
about different K-Pop stars. I knew that most Korean students tend to be quiet in class,
even in discussion activities, but these students were vivacious when talking about their
favorite K-Pop videos.
Renaissance icon. The latter was a work of contemporary art that had been shown at the
a collaboration with
K-Pop idol G-Dragon. Then, after viewing several contemporary works of art by
DongHyun Sohn that hybridize various elements of visual culture from the past to
present . To begin
discussing the myths and composition of the images, I showed various types of examples
such as advertisements, movie posters, and campaign posters. The students talked about
the purposes, audiences, messages, strategies, and visual elements of those images. I also
juxtaposed several works composed of appropriated images with their originals,
students discussed the relationship among the three works and their re-created meanings.
Then, I briefly introduced the K-Pop phenomenon and its characteristics through
a global lens. We talked about various kinds of roles that music videos play in a digitally
connected world, and we examined several elements of music videos with suggested
examples. Lastly, I asked students if they could find any critical issues while analyzing
the music videos. Then, I showed typical images from K-Pop music videos that imply
violence, sexism, racism, and materialism. The students discussed which elements of the
media texts suggested those social issues and how they function as strong messages in
societies. They also watched YouTube videos that treated, appropriated, and remixed
KPop music videos, and they discussed the ways in which these new videos
deconstructed the original messages of the K-Pop videos as well as their effectiveness in
re-creating meaning. At the end of this session, a brainstorming assignment was
announced to encourage students to think about various elements of music videos and to
find critical social issues that they wanted to express by creating their own visual
productions. Students were asked to create two mind maps reflecting two themes: One
was about their thoughts regarding K-Pop in general, and the other was about the
problematic issues found in some K-Pop music videos (i.e., racism, sexism, materialism,
etc.) that they ultimately wanted to explore by creating their own music videos.
Lesson 2: Finding Social Issues in K-Pop Music Videos and Planning Video-Making
The second lesson was on September 23 around 3:00 p.m. The atmosphere of the
classroom was similar to the first lesson. The participants came in one by one, and it
took some time for all members to arrive. The leader checked the attendance and talked
about their exhibition for a while. After the club business was done, I started the lesson
by .
In groups, students presented the mind maps that they brainstormed together (see
Figure 2.1). Group 1 critically discussed problematic issues found in K-Pop such as
Figure 2.1 Mind maps consumerism, plagiarism, competition, sexual objectification,
clichés, obsessed groupies, similar themes, cultural toadyism, lookism, and the unfair
contracts between stars and entertainment companies. They created another mind map
to consider the topic for their own video-making. While their second mind map was
difficult for me to understand, Group 1 explained that they would produce a video to
introduce the concept and worldview of EXO, their favorite boy band, because they
thought this idol group was unique and that it could be differentiated from other groups.
Group 2 showed a similar point-of-view with Group 1 about K-Pop in general, noting its
excessive uniformity, commercialization, and various negative issues surrounding
entertainment companies,
.
Group 3 created a simple concept map that was not much different from the previous two
groups, suggesting a critical perspective on K-Pop idol music videos, including a
discussion of violent and sexually suggestive content and biased gender images. Group
Hallyu
surgery, teenagers, stress, fandom, competition, panic disorders, and social networks.
advertisements, body exposure, and image consumption. Group 5 submitted a work very
similar to other groups but without much clear effort.
To encourage students to think about other ways they could express the ideas that
they explored through mind maps, we talked about what kinds of digital languages we
use every day and how we communicate with them. Students discussed various forms of
media culture, such as photography, text, animation, video clips, and communication
platforms like Instagram, blogs, and YouTube. I introduced them to stop-motion
animation. Most students knew what it was and had watched similar animation
techniques before. I explained the process, preparation materials, pros and cons, and
other considerations of this technique by showing various examples. The reason I chose
the technique of stop-motion animation was because it did not require high-quality video
recorders and other expensive devices. It only needed a simple camera that could take
pictures and a laptop for editing. I suggested that students use their own smartphones and
laptops because those devices were their everyday objects. I prepared tripods and
distributed one for each group. Also, I suggested that students utilized pre-existing
images from video clips on the web and images in magazines. I brought a number of
magazines to share in the classroom, and I let them use the magazines to create their
animation videos.
In addition, project planners for video-making were distributed for each group so
that students could share their roles and manage the timeline for their schedules. I also
gave out storyboard worksheets so that students could create detailed plans based on their
mind maps, including image/shot, camera movement/location, spoken text, written text,
and music/sound effects.
Lesson 3: Making Stop-Motion Animation Videos
To accelerate the video-making process, I tried to set up the third meeting as soon
as possible after the previous session. However, the school schedule did not allow for
students to meet easily in October. The students were assigned art skills lessons after
school on different schedules. I contacted each participant and adjusted the schedule via
Kakao Talk. Finally, the third lesson was conducted twice on October 28, once around
3:00 p.m. for first-year students and 8:00 p.m. for second-year students. Due to their
class schedules, the lesson lasted less than 1.5 hours, and pizza, wings, and drinks were
provided. Three students who had to commute long distance could not attend because
they share the private shuttle with other non-participant students.
For the third lesson, I wanted to review their project plans, storyboards, and their
videos--in-progress. Students were already in the process of taking pictures and
collecting images or video clips from the Internet. While the students kept doing their
work in groups, I discussed the plan and process separately with each group. Group 1
planned to edit images and videos that would be collected from the Internet to show the
worldview of their favorite group. Four of the students were composing the plot and
discussing which images they needed. Group 2 focused on the theme of the -
both images from magazines and the
consumption of female
ideal beauty in the K-Pop in They
planned to mix various images and videos from multiple sources, and group members
were creating props by cutting up colored paper. Group 5 did not actively participate,
and its members were still working on their project planner and storyboards; moreover,
they struggled to concentrate on the project. I tried to motivate them and suggested
various ideas based on their mind-map.
After making and/or collecting still images for their animation videos, some
groups started making their videos. I introduced various kinds of editing software, such
, and Adobe® Premiere®.
I found that many students preferred using Windows® Movie Maker because it was easy
to learn, free of charge, and most widely employed in South Korea. Even though I did not
teach them how to use this software or help them edit their videos, once introduced to the
various options and features of the software, students chose what they would use, installed
it on their laptops, and learned how to use the programs/apps by themselves via
information found online. Because the video-making process was expected to take a long
time, I recommended that they set their own schedules and meeting times with their group
members and told them to contact me via Kakao Talk whenever they needed to,
encouraging them to keep me posted on the work process until the final lesson.
Lesson 4: Sharing and Discussing -Motion Videos
Since the last lesson had to be done at least 2 weeks before their final exams, all
parts of this project were supposed to be finished no later than the first week of
December. The last session was conducted on December 2. Since the previous session,
students had frequently contacted me to discuss various issues, such as themes, how to
insert music, and asking for more examples of videos that they could refer to. Thanks to
their active communication with me via Kakao Talk, I could follow their works-
inprogress and had general expectations regarding the results of their projects. A week
before the last lesson, I asked the students to send me their final works in mp4 file
format. They suggested sharing the files
Korean people commonly use to share large files. Groups 1 through 4 submitted
completed videos before the last session.
The following passage describes the final works of the four groups that completed
2.2). It starts
Twice, a popular girl group in South Korea. The point-of-view goes inside the video.
Next, the video continues with several clips from popular music videos by girl groups
and boybands. Then, the viewpoint comes out from the monitor and laptop, and they are
turned off. Two female students say, Why are all the music videos the same? We need
something new. The students start to draw and explain the worldview of EXO, a popular
Korean boyband. Showing music videos
clips, the students have conversations describing the story of the videos. The images that
are used in this section are
from each other. The video
ends with this comment: because they are different from other standardized works, and
they show a fantastic
Figure 2.2 Selected frames from video by Group 1
The video by Group 2 begins with a close-up of a television
(see Figure 2.3). The scene is drawn by the students. The television scene changes to
various images of celebrities that are cut from magazines, and the background is piles of
the storyboards that I distributed. After showing cut-out images with a soundtrack of
Figure 2.3 Selected frames from video by Group 2 cheerful music, the scene changes to
a clip from a concert with flashy lighting and the shouting of an audience. Soon the
music changes to something gloomy, and a simply drawn figure with no facial expression
walks down the stairs. Then the female figure that is cut from magazines changes clothes
and turns on the laptop. Various offensive
she go
She
figure, and she dispels them. The female figure changes
clothes again and begins to dance. Then, its body is broken into pieces and finally
collapses. Immediately after, hand-drawn images of sad facial expressions are displayed
sequentially. Lastly, the hand-drawn girl who appeared in the first scene reappears.
The work of Group 3 is relatively short, as it lasts only 1 minute and 11 seconds
(see Figure 2.4). The screen is framed by a television set. First, it shows the outside of a
shopping district. The scene changes to showcase cut-out images of female idols who are
in similar clothes and poses. One of those girls is picked up by an actual hand, and
everything else is mixed up and disappears. Then, cut-out images of four girls in boxes
with descriptions of their ages and weights appear on the scene. They are removed from
the scene by hand, one by one.
Figure 2.4 Selected frames from video by Group 3
A lump of fat with a face and the comments from advertising copy open Group
video (see Figure 2.5). As the voice continues talking ( about
), the fat is tailored by cutting an outline, and it turns into a thin shape with a
smiley face.
well. In the next scene, the face of a female with freckles and a gloomy facial expression
appears along with . Then, her eyes, nose, lips, and freckles
disappear, and bigger eyes with long eyelashes and a new nose and lips are shown. She is
smiling,
. The text that follows nt to get
natural-
Then, 5 dancing women alternate with dancing figures that
are cut out from colored paper. A girl played by one of the group members watches them
on the screen and starts to imagine getting an ideal nose, eyes, and lips. Various cosmetic
products surround her. Soon after, several fingers point at her, and her newly beautified
face shows tears. She cries with a blanket pulled over her face. The next screen shows a
close-up of the blanket. In the last scene, the girl wakes up on a bench and again watches
the music video with dancing women that was shown in the beginning. Then, she flips
over the smartphone on the desk as if she has decided something, and she leaves the
scene.
Figure 2.5 Selected frames from video by Group 4
On the last day, I started the lesson by distributing worksheet
so that the students could compose their thoughts and discuss the results of their projects.
Then, the students in each group presented their finished music videos. To attract
voluntary participation from students, I let each presenting group show their video first,
and then we discussed various elements of the video. However, not many students were
willing to speak out, so I addressed questions to the rest of the students based on the
format of the artist statements so that they could think about the contents of the other
videos. My questions were: What is the story? What is the theme? Who are the
main characters? How do you feel about the colors, music, sounds, and effects? Are
those elements used effectively to display the theme? Can you figure out which images
are adapted from pre-existing ones?
intentions? By answering the questions, students were better able to grasp the themes,
intended messages, and structures of narratives and video compositions.
Lastly, I conducted another survey using the following questions: (1) Do you feel
any changes in your perceptions of K-Pop after this class? If so, what are they? (2)
Please describe the best part of this course. (3) What were the challenges of this project?
Please tell me your suggestions. (4) If you have another opportunity to take a class on
media-making in the future, what kind of class do you want to take? (5) Do you think
media education is needed in school? If so, why?
Eighteen students participated in this anonymous survey. Most students replied
that they started to think critically about popular culture and K-Pop through this
workshop. Many students mentioned that they never thought about dark side of K-
Pop before; as one noted experienced through mass media was
always gorgeous and enviable. I accepted it superficially and took it lightly. By taking
this class, however, I was surprised that just one picture or three-minute video could
portray various social issues such as racism, sexism, and violence indifferently, even
attractively. I realized what the problem of popular culture is and that a critical point of
vi first lesson on analyzing images
and videos the greatest advantage of this project. Furthermore, students were happy to
experience the creation of videos together as a team. Surprisingly, more than 75% of the
participants said that this was their first time producing videos; as one student wrote,
entirely new for me. I never thought that I could create a video,
even though my major is art. Regarding the third question,
however, many students expressed difficulty handling the editing software and other
technical challenges. Also, almost every participant was inconvenienced by not having
enough time to work on the video and managing the different schedules of their team
members. In answering the fourth question, students showed roughly two kinds of
interests in popular culture. First, students wanted to gain more technical knowledge
about making videos, such as computer graphics, set design, and editing techniques.
Second, they wanted to get insight into popular culture (for instance, its history, current
trends, global media, commercial value, influence, Korean wave, and popular culture in
other countries). Regarding the last question, most students emphasized the importance
[
media education] necessary. In the 21st century, the Internet is highly developed, and the
media has become an important issue.
crucial. We spend a long time encountering media, and there are a lot of negative aspects
that should be expected. Media education is needed to have a critical perspective and
accurate judgment about the
CHAPTER 3: ANALYSIS OF CURRICULUM OUTCOMES AND IMPLICATIONS
FOR ART EDUCATORS
Through the experience of developing and implementing a curriculum using K-
Pop music videos, I was able to reconfirm various theories and experiences of researchers
and educators who have contributed to visual culture and media education. Among
several findings, three primary outcomes will be discussed in this chapter: (1) the
importance of teaching students how to analyze media texts and engage with digital
languages, (2) the characteristics of media production by youth as understood through the
framework of and (3) ambivalent attitudes toward critical
issues in popular media texts. This project enabled me to explore the possibility of K-
Teaching Media Analysis and Digital Languages In the
survey conducted in the first lesson, many students used the words
in terms of understanding the music. Students were
interested in literary stories and enjoyed interpreting the storylines in their own ways.
However, as Duncum (2013) points out, many students lack the language to describe
visual elements in the pervasive images of popular media productions. In the course of
Taeyeon and were asked to
interpret the video, most students answered from a literary point-of-view, discussing the
overall plot and its message. As art school students, they were also sensitive to visual
elements like color, line, balance, and harmony and were able to engage in the critique
using a formalist perspective. However, the language that they used to describe the
scenes and elements that they determined to be significant were somewhat limited. For
created by lenses, cameras, props, computer graphics, and other techniques and devices.
I explained various items that comprise music videos, such as colors,
backgrounds, lyrics, lighting, choreography, facial expressions, frames,
cinematography, and sound and how they all play specific roles in constructing meanings.
Then, we examined several examples. After practicing analyzing music videos, students
watched the a worksheet that addressed
various elements, including the following: (1) Who are the main characters? (2) Talk
about the plot. How are the characters developed? (3) How are light and colors used,
and why? (4) How are audio elements and visual elements combined? (5) Where is the
background, and how is it visualized? (6) Do scenes change quickly or slowly? Where
and why? (7) How is choreography connected to characters? (8) Were you impressed by
specific lyrics? Why? (9) Are any of the scenes particularly memorable? Why?
I included questions about these elements of music videos to encourage students
to analyze the videos more deeply. They could summarize the whole story within the
first several sentences and then describe the visual characteristics by responding to the
questions that followed. The following are excerpts of answers .
As one student described,
Taeyeon, who worked as a waitress in the city, suddenly encountered a butterfly,
and she looked back on her meaningless life. Then she escaped the daily life and
traveled to find her dream. She finally discovered another identity of freedom and
nature. -eye view, and it also gives
viewers this feeling of escape.
She
visualization of the plot and themes. Another student responded,
Taeyeon, who is stuck in the realities of life, is represented in black-colored
clothes with smoky makeup, and she looks tired in narrow spaces. On the contrary,
another Taeyeon is portrayed in brighter colors of outfits. She looks happy and
comfortable in beautiful nature. The two contrasting places are shown alternately.
When she drives from the city into nature, the scenes change very quickly, and this
shows her strong emotion regarding the change. This student shows an understanding of
how the character s body language can create meaning without verbal expression. In
another analysis of same video,
one student wrote o identities and different backgrounds
are contrasted using (1) colors: gloomy vs. natural, (2) lighting: dark/artificial vs.
bright/natural, (3) camera movement: zoom-in vs. zoom-out, (4) subjects:
After this activity, they could make deeper connections between various
components of music videos and the construction of meanings. I found that by
introducing students to the detailed terms of visual analysis, they were able to read media
texts more easily and comprehensively. They could also apply these understandings and
knowledge to their own media productions. For example, in Group 4 , students
discussed scene change techniques for making a natural turning point in the narrative.
They talked about using colors, zoom-in/zoom-out, or close-ups. Members finally chose
to use a close-up of the blanket to connect the two different threads of the story. The girl
in the dream covers her face with the blanket; then, the blanket is shot in close-up and the
whole scene is covered with the blanket. Finally, the story returns to reality. The students
tried to use what they learned about camera work to express what they wanted to
visualize. As this example and others from this project illustrate, in order to have better
media literacy, students need to be taught the appropriate language for visual analysis of
the technology-driven cultural productions they encounter every day.
Media Production by Youth as
While conducting the video-making project and observing teenage participants, I
YouTube. He found that animals that move in swarms in nature had similar
characteristics to groups of young YouTubers in terms of following principles: (1)
, which allows youth to influence each other in creating
forms
and themes and facilitates independent and sustainable media production in meaningful
patterns;
, which provides users with feedback and
information on various options; work together while they keep creating independently;
and which is the key motivating force for the spread of media productions and which
inspires
33-34).
My project was situated on the borderline between formal education at a school
setting and the informal learning of an (Jenkins, 2009, pp. 9-11). Even
though the participants regarded the series of lessons as a kind of extracurricular class at
school, I wanted them to feel free from the pressure of a formal educational setting. They
were not forced to produce work because of grades or particular results, which promoted
spontaneous participation; however, as a consequence of this learning environment, one
group (Group 5) did not submit their final project. Therefore, I could fully observe
through the framework of
First of all, the students had a vast amount of experience with watching videos on
YouTube and a general understanding of the aesthetics of video techniques. While
,
working on their media projects, they naturally tried to mimic what they had already seen
and accepted those predetermined media production rules. For instance, in the video by
Group 2, students made a natural scene change using similar colors (the dark color of a
cut-out image from a magazine connected to the next scene of a concert without light).
Second, the students chose various methods to produce their own videos and referred to
pre-existing videos on YouTube. They constantly searched for inspiration via videos
produced by others. After discovering useful techniques, effects, and other production
methods to solve their problems, the students did not hesitate to apply them to their own
projects. For example, Group 2 included several scenes of tearing, folding, and rolling
papers as they found similar fun expressions on the Internet. Third, the students
quickly learned the video editing techniques that they needed by watching YouTube
videos. They did not ask me very many questions about the technological issues they
faced. It seemed that they had countless teachers online who could help
them. Finding information from cyberspace appeared much more convenient and
comfortable for students than asking me for advice. Fourth, most students showed
interest in and motivation toward what they enjoyed every day, and it seemed that they
were happy to talk about these subjects freely in the classroom. They were willing to
watch music videos and talk about them together while also discussing their desires to
analyze and interpret media texts, which much exceeded my expectations. Students
played with videos, showing their favorite ones to their friends, recording their friends
mimicking their favorite stars, and sharing funny videos in their group chats on Kakao
Talk.
Ambivalent Attitudes Toward Critical Issues in K-Pop
I found that youth are mostly interested in the issues that are familiar to them and
that they are surrounded with. Most participants of my project were female teenagers
from upper-middle-class backgrounds with family support and economic stability. As art
school students, they also had a sophisticated sense of visual imagery. Moreover, being
surrounded by the capitalist culture of consumerism, the girls were very sensitive to
fashion, makeup products, and trendy styles in popular culture that were highly
accessible via their own digital devices. Not surprisingly, their primary interests were
beauty, diet, and plastic surgery. Many students talked about their plans for plastic
surgery after finishing their university entrance exams and shared knowledge about diets.
I even saw that members from one group were demonstrating a makeup product,
spreading cosmetics out on the desk, and referring to a magazine. On Kakao Talk, they
uploaded profile pictures of themselves wearing heavy makeup.
I observed that many students uploaded pictures of female K-Pop idols as their
profile pictures on Kakao Talk. They often enjoyed mimicking the gestures and
choreography of popular girl groups that are regarded as cute. When I talked to them
a popular girl group, most students mimicked the gesture of the
choreography of the music video, and they all burst out laughing. They also frequently
talked about members of K-Pop girl groups whom they deemed beautiful. When they
were working with magazines, many students kept looking at the photos of the female
idols, talking about their make-up, their fashion, and rumors of their private lives. Some
students cut out their favorite pictures to keep as their own.
At first sight, their behaviors toward stars might seem problematic. The teenagers
looked like they showed their loyalty to the idol industry without a critical perspective.
However, as Buckingham (2000) found, children and youth have the ability to discern the
commercial intentions of advertisements; so, too, could my students see various critical
issues beyond palatable contents. Most students criticized issues even as
they enjoyed the videos, including commenting on the standardized beauty among K-Pop
idols. In the mind maps they created during the second lesson, most groups pointed out
issues related projects
illustrated the same issues. Therefore, the students showed ambivalent attitudes toward
female idols: On one hand, the girls admired the female stars as embodying an ideal
beauty and tried to imitate them; on the other hand, they also criticized the fact that most
idols had a standardized appearance by getting plastic surgery. Through the process of
-making, this tendency was observed clearly. For example, in the video
by Group 3, students criticized the idol industry for sexually objectifying female idols.
However, at the same time, it seemed they had fun talking about the
appearances while cutting out the images from the magazine. In other words, what they
admired, they also criticized.
Indeed, the students seemed conflicted in their attitudes toward K-Pop. Therefore,
I believe that educational interventions are necessary and important to address such
issues. By acknowledging the pleasures these students experienced when engaging with
popular media texts, I helped them understand how the producers of the idol industry
could create attractive products and make profits. According to Alvermann, Moon, and
Hagood (1999),
understanding and the meanings they have attached to popular culture texts. But
pleasures derived from popular culture are also noteworthy because they are
complicated and at times uncomfortable, and it is through the exploration of these
various pleasures that students may take a more in-depth look at popular culture
and ponder other possibilities and positions of political, social, and cultural
relevance that they have not examined before. (p. 35)
To support students in constructing their own meanings from their favorite popular
culture products, I embraced their pleasures and allowed them to discuss and express
what they felt when watching their favorite K-Pop videos. Alvermann, Moon, and
Hagood (1999) also asserted that
to balance the components of active audiencing, individual pleasures, and critical
literacy teachers [should] consider several issues. These include a practice
pleasures and to critical awareness, and flexible teaching practices that allow for
teachers to take on multiple roles within the context of a single lesson. (p. 38)
I agree with their suggestions, and in this curriculum, I
in viewing these media products with critical approaches toward their admired idols.
Thus, through this project, I worked to achieve a satisfactory result via several avenues,
including utilizing K
lives, creating a comfortable classroom atmosphere to let students talk about their
interests outside of the school curriculum, and minimizing the tra
while providing various types of guidance.
Conclusion: Implications for Art Educators
When I presented the issue of K-Pop and global visual culture at the National Art
annual conference in 2016, I was curious how many art
educators in the United States would show interest. -Pop seems to
indicate a local culture that originated from Korea, I thought that not many people would
come to my session. However, many more art teachers came to listen to my presentation
than I expected. After the session, several educators came to me and said that they were
there to learn what K-Pop is and why their students were fans. K-Pop has benefited from
the proliferation of digital technologies and globalization, which have also created new
ways of forming identities, constructing learning processes, and socializing for global
youth. This is the common youth in both Korea and the United
States. Therefore, the educational implications of this K-Pop music video project in
Seoul is not limited to Korean youth and educators.
After investigating K-Pop from a theoretical perspective as well as designing a
curriculum that utilizes K-Pop as an educational resource, I am convinced that embracing
popular media texts in K-12 art education is both necessary and unavoidable. The
outcomes from this research project have suggested various possible pedagogical
approaches to global youth who participate and communicate with each other through
transnational media practices as active prosumers. To engage youth in the critical
prosumption of K-Pop videos, I suggest the following series of curricular activities:
1. Decoding: Students talk about their favorite K-Pop performers and choose
their favorite music videos. After watching a video, the students are asked to
analyze its key elements, such as lyrics, melody, choreography, fashion,
colors, scene, sequences, viewpoints, narrative, mise-en-scène, shots, and
frames. Students are also encouraged to identify any cultural biases and
gender, race/ethnic, class, and other stereotypes that might be present in the
video.
2. Creating: Students produce their own short video remixes based on what they
learned during the decoding stage. They can experiment with several
strategies to create these videos, such as recontextualization (placing existing
characters into a new context to create a new meaning), narrative disruption
(intentionally subverting a predictable storyline), and parody (creating
alternative meanings in a playful manner) (Ivashkevich, 2015). In addition,
they can learn technical expects of video production that include video and
voice recording techniques, how to use video editing software, and the
utilization of digital tools, such as video cameras.
3. Sharing: Students share their products on YouTube for public viewing and
exchange opinions and ideas with their peers from around the world. After
gathering peer feedback, students reflect on the reception of their videos, how
responses may be different from what they originally intended, and how their
productions generate transcultural dialogue and make new meanings with
different viewers on YouTube.
By decoding images that students see every day in popular media, they can
experience visual culture differently than before. They can also reflect on and
deconstruct the myths of the everyday visual culture that surrounds them by encoding
their own thoughts into remixes of pre-existing images. Lastly, students can share their
work with peers and communicate encoded messages to each other. In addition, by
consuming and producing popular transcultural products, youth can reflect on themselves
and their own culture and society in ways that transcend their conventional views while
also gaining a better understanding of and sensitivity toward different cultural
perspectives.
I believe that art educators can help students examine transcultural media texts
more critically, produce their own media more critically, and negotiate these products
with peers from different sociocultural contexts and backgrounds. Because education is
not isolated from the society that our students are members of, we need to use the
classroom to address sociocultural phenomena, including economic conditions, cultural
issues, and technological development. K-Pop is one example of such cultural
phenomena that can be engaged with in the art classroom. As the global rise of K-Pop
demonstrates, it is important for educators who work with young people to acknowledge
the current transnational youth culture and recognize its pedagogical possibilities in terms
of youth-led, autonomous participation in a multidirectional global mediascape.
