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Globalization of Korean culture
Cultural influence and global business
South Korea and culture globalization
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The Exportation of Culture in South Korea Builds Economy
From Korean Pop stars to dramas, South Korea has it going on. It seems that there is not one Asian country that has not had the Korean Wave, a Chinese term given to South Korea referring to the exportation of their culture, completely wash over it. What started as an Asian sensation, the Korean Wave is now beginning to spread globally, ranking South Korea as one of the top countries known for its exportation of culture. Between music, television, and video games, South Korea’s economy is rapidly increasing as the world continues to fall in love with its entertainment industry.
Korean Pop Music
A mixture of western and eastern music, Korean Pop, or Korean Pop, has boomed as fans drool over the idols, their dance moves, and their combination of Asian culture with Western hip-hop verses, Euro-pop choruses, rap, and even some dubstep. Korean Pop hit the waves in Asia quickly becoming popular in China, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, and many other countries (John Seabrook, 2012). The Korean Wave has continued to spread throughout the East to countries farther west such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, and others, which are quickly getting drawn into the fan base (Clair Weber, 2014).
For most western citizens, however, Korean Pop was unheard of until Psy, a Korean rapper, released his horse dancing music video, “Gangnam Style,” back in July 2012 (Joohee Cho and Sungeun Lee, 2012). Psy, also known as Park Jae-sang, is the very first Asian to hit the top of the music charts for the United Kingdom and number two on United States’ music charts. This has exposed the West to Korean Pop and cracked the door to open up opportunities for other Korean artists and the opportunity for the Korean ...
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...h Korea (Chen Tian, 2014).
Not only are Korean cosmetics gaining popularity due to dramas, but Korean food has also spread its wings. In China, fried chicken and beer became immensely popular due to the drama You Who Came from the Star. Customers waited three hours in line to buy fried chicken and beer at different restaurants in making the income shoot up compared to the previous income from the year before (Chen Tian, 2014).
Korean dramas have become so popular that the tourism in South Korea has multiple tourist packages that center around dramas. One of these tourist packages is a two day-one night tourist package that centers on visit sites from the drama Boys over Flowers. This tourist package has been extremely popular since 2009. Other tours include touring the sites of Winter Sonata, Beethoven Virus, and My Lovely Kim Sam Soon (Good Morning Tours, 2010).
... Popular Music Studies 23, no. 1 (2011): 19-39. Accessed April 28, 2014. Academic Search Complete.
With Korean lyrics delivered by a cartoonish rapper named Psy riding an invisible horse, “Gangnam Style” was an unlikely candidate to become a worldwide phenomenon. On the contrast, however, the popular song has been an obvious epidemic embedded in the modern music culture of our nation as well as other nations.
Pop music is a contemporary genre of music which originated in the United States and United Kingdom, and goes back as far as late 1940’s. There is also the term “Popular Music” which is sometimes used interchangeably, although they are not quite the same. Popular music is used to define various genres which have been widely praised around the world, such as Rock, Jazz, Hip-Hop etc.
Quite a huge number of American pop singers has already visited Singapore to have multiple concerts held here. Different people who enjoy American pop music or particular artist, came together as one to again experience and consume the Americanization through music. However, even though these concert activities contribute to the spread of American popular culture through music, technology plays even a bigger part as people grow attention and interest for the artists through listening to their music or watching their music videos through internet or television which will be discussed further towards the end of this
Soh, C. S. (2001). South Korea. In C. R. Ember & M. Ember (Eds.), Countries and Their Cultures (
Psy, is a singer, song writer in his 30’s whose real name is Park Jae-sang, he is married with two children and comes from Gangnam, Soeul, South Korea, media have ...
Cha , F., & Eun, E. (2013, November 26). How 'hanbok' is influencing biggest fashion names - CNN.com. Retrieved 5 Feb. 2014, from http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/13/travel/korean-hanbok-fashion/
Starting from 1980s, South Korea underwent economic development, which not only improved the quality of life among Koreans, but facilitated cultural exchange as well. After the end of Cold war, the “cultural protectionism” was alleviated throughout East Asia and other parts of the world (353). This allowed influx and outflow of cultural contents from one country to another. A suitable example to explain this phenomenon of cultural flow is the “Korean Wave”, also known as Hallyu (351). With Korean dramas and celebrities entering the global market, entire South Korean popular culture was introduced to the world, especially East Asia. K-pop soon emerged as “successful South Korean export product”
The Korean wave is regarded by the author as a regionally specific phenomenon that does not have many modern comparisons other than the American culture spread. It is bringing on new global transformations and has the effect of blurring the boundaries between cultures, which could be considered very effective cultural globalization. A South Korean student is quoted as saying, "we feel like we can live like them in a few years,” which is in reference to the American’s and their rather unique, consumer oriented lifestyle. However, it seems that South Korea has turned the cultural desires in a different direction. Surrounding countries now want a taste of the South Korean lifestyle and it is often easier for neighboring Asian countries to quickly
Fifteen years ago, South Korean cinema was in precipitous decline. It was facing deadly competition from Hollywood as import barriers were dismantled, and had almost no export market. Today, South Korean cinema is widely considered the most successful and significant non-Hollywood cinema anywhere in the world today. It is successful both in the domestic market, and internationally. This essay sets out to understand this phenomenon. First, it attempts to trace South Korean cinema’s comeback story. I feel a need to do this because I find that so many of my South Korean friends and colleagues are reluctant to admit this, or focus solely on the problems the industry is facing in the future. There may be worries about the future and there may be “ifs” and “buts” about the present state of the South Korean film industry. But we should start out by acknowledging its success.
The Hallyu Wave is a “wave- like” South Korean trend spreading across the world. The term Hallyu was first used when the Chinese noticed the popularity of Korean entertainment in China by the late 1990s. Since then the meaning of the word has slightly changed to mean the popularity of Korean entertainment as it spreads around the world (korea.net). Korean culture has spread due to multiple factors including the interest for Korean dramas, culture, and popular music, also known as K- Pop. Another contributor to the popularity of Korean culture is the internet. As more people surf the internet many more discover popular Korean culture, and as more discover the foreign culture even more learn to love K- Pop and consequently use the internet to feed their addiction for the Korean popular music.
Korean food is unique. It’s known for its spicy flavor and the use of other seasonings to enhance the taste. Dishes are usually flavored with a combination of soy sauce, red pepper, green onion, bean paste, garlic, ginger, sesame, mustard, vinegar, and wine. The Korean peninsula is surrounded water on three sides, but connected to the Asian mainland. This environment contributes to the uniqueness of Korean cuisine. Seafood plays a very important role as do vegetables and livestock. Let’s examine three of the most common and famous types of Korean food.
Korean Pop music, also known as K-Pop, has been struggling to enter the global music scene but was able to make it because of social media. Dal Yong Jin explains that K-Pop has undergone a huge shift in late 2007 due to the advancement of social media. Korea has also made innovations in social networking sites (SNS) and smartphones which played a role to the globalization of K-Pop (6). For the past decades, Asian music, including K-Pop, finds it difficult to enter the global scene because it is completely dominated by Western culture. Artists have always viewed United States of America and Europe as the ideal place to promote their music. However, getting to the global market is difficult for artists who don’t have enough money to promote themselves overseas. Be...
With the music being the highly profitable, capitalist enterprise that it is today, it is no wonder that it is controlled and regulated by a few large conglomerates that exist is today’s world. It is important to make clear that although evidence is being presented of the positive aspects of globalization through music that there is overwhelming evidence that cultural imperialism is more than it seems on the outside. One must keep in mind that cultural imperialism, globalization and the creation of a global village is a business. People are profiting at other people’s loss of cultural identity, they are sold a culture and heritage. With the every growing N’Sync fan clubs and Britney clones, the world is turning into a stage for pop culture and its glamorous unattainable standards.
Korean pop music happens to be very popular in Korea. It is most popular among the youth of Korea. For the purpose of clarity for this one-thousand-word essay, the youth is defined roughly as ages 0 - 22. Now, there is a phenomenon that occurs with Korean pop music and older Koreans. This phenomenon is a distinct characteristic of Korean pop that separates it from the older Korean pop music of the seventies. This phenomenon is that the older Korean people do not understand the words that come out of the mouths of the singers of Korean pop music that pumps out of the music industry of today in the nation of Korea. This phenomenon parallels that of the pop music of the biggest country of North America—also known by many humans as the United States of America—where older people have trouble connecting with the popular trends in music. This might be illustrated by American people who tend to like country music. If it is not obvious, fans of country music like country music because, as the author of this text has heard, "you can understand [the words]". It is also the tendency that fans of pop music dislike country. These two seem to be mutually exclusive musical tastes. In fact, the older pop of Korea, in the opinion of the author of this text, sounds like country just a wee bit. Trends tend to have the effect that older people can’t understand the words that come out of the mouths of the setters of the trends.