ABSTRACT
K-pop products generally avoid cultural particularity, but they speak to specific neoliberal aspirations of middle-class urban audiences in Asia, even if such dreams are a distant reality in working-class regions in Thailand. This paper features the popular “Deksorkrao” YouTube channel, produced by a group of K-pop fans in Thailand’s northeast. We provide a discourse analysis of their home-made cover of Blackpink’s “Pink Venom” that incorporates symbols particular to agricultural life. We argue that this form of creative participatory engagement is a uniquely authentic expression that speaks to a familiar discourse in Thai life, but uses K-pop as its vehicle.
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Notes on contributors
Matthew Robert Ferguson
Matthew Robert Ferguson teaches in the Intercultural Studies and Languages program at Mahidol University International College (Bangkok, Thailand), teaching courses in Popular Culture and Intercultural Communication. Research interests include narrative inquiry, cultural identity formation, and the internationalization of higher education in Thailand.
Thanyavee Thanyodom
Thanyavee Thanyodom is a recent graduate of the Intercultural Studies and Languages program in the Ethics, Philosophy, and Economics concentration at Mahidol University International College in Bangkok, Thailand. For her undergraduate thesis, she completed a project on the hegemonic influence of the Korean pop culture industry on the economy and culture of Thailand.