Critical Interpretation of Hybrid K-Pop: The Global-Local Paradigm of English Mixing in Lyrics

Abstract

In this essay, we examine the transformation of Korean popular music through an analysis of English mixing in lyrics in a broader socio-cultural context. In order to identify and analyze several key factors involved in the rapid growth of English lyrics in K-Pop, we document the development of English mixing in lyrics of Korean popular music. By surveying the nature of and the extent to which English is employed in K-Pop and how this hybridity is utilized as a discursive means of cultural hybridization, we also map out whether such hybridity has generated new creative cultures, ones which are free from Western dominance, or whether this trend eventually oppresses local music. Our aim was to investigate the contemporary cultural stages and transition of popular music in Korea occurring within the unfolding logic of globalization, and to interrogate the adequacy of cultural hybridity as a plausible framework to explain cultural phenomena currently under way throughout Korea.

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Dal Yong Jin

Dal Yong Jin has taught in several institutions, including the University of Illinois in Chicago, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and Simon Fraser University. His major research and teaching interests are globalization and media, new media and online gaming studies, transnational cultural studies, and the political economy of media and culture. He is the author of two books: Korea's Online Gaming Empire (MIT Press, 2010) and Hands On/Hands Off: The Korean State and the Market Liberalization of the Communication Industry (Hampton Press, 2011).

Woongjae Ryoo

Woongjae Ryoo has taught in several institutions and currently teaches at Hanyang University in Seoul, Korea. His major research and teaching interests are in the areas of global media and communication, communication and social change, cultural studies, critical social theory, discourse and rhetorical studies, and qualitative research methodology. He has published his work in Asian Journal of Communication, Media, Culture, and Society, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Journal of International and Area Studies, and the International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics, and is the author of multiple books.