Korean Pop

As part of the Carolina Asia Center’s Spring 2022 series on contemporary Korean culture, please join the Carolina Asia Center for an event with Prof. Erica Vogel (Saddleback University) and Prof. Hyewon Kim (Kennesaw State University) looking at Korean pop music, or K-Pop.

This event also coincides with Korea’s National Day, March 1.

Prof. Kim will speak on “Performing the Soundscape of K-pop”:

Because many scholars contend that K-pop is driven by the visual, academic analysis has been dominated by discussions of ocularcentric aesthetics; questions pertaining to K-pop as a process of performing the soundscape, especially as a sonic phenomenon and objectification, largely have been neglected. I approach K-pop utilizing sound theory and elucidate its interplay between technological mediation and perception; I attempt to interrupt the discourse of loss that assumes sound as ephemeral, ineffable, and elusive. Moreover, I treat sound as the combination of layers of culture, place, acoustic space, and technology and therefore aim to provide an aural turn in the discipline of K-pop’s soundscape. The industry’s sonic practices have responded to new recording technologies and new media, which are linked to specific aspects of South Korean time and space. The technological mediation of sound in studio recording booths, where K-pop singers give literal voice to their self-expression, has become an integral component of the sonic form. In addition to the vocal styles of K-pop artists, I therefore address the spectrum of sonic practices of recording artists ranging from singer songwriters to K-pop boy bands—from Lee Moon-sae, Cho Kyuchan, Lee Sora, and Sung Si-kyung to Red Velvet, Suzy, GOT7, and BTS—as well as the interventions of sound engineers and producers in the recording process to exemplify the soundscape of K-pop through the voices of the very artists.

These talks will be free and open to the public and held virtually over Zoom. Register.