Tracking the Korean Wave in Transnational Asia : K-Pop and K-Pop Fandom in Indonesia

R. Anderson Sutton 아시아음악학회 2018 Asian Musicology Vol.28 No.-

Indonesia’s embrace of foreign popular music began during the colonial era, with recordings of jazz and similar forms imported from Europe and the U.S. In recent decades, as Indonesians developed an indigenous popular music industry, other foreign influences have entered the popular music scene in Indonesia. Most prominent among these recently is Korean pop (“K-pop”)—which swept into Korea suddenly in the early 2000s along with a flood of Korean TV dramas. Few Indonesians could have named a Korean pop star in the 1990s, but by 2005 Korean dramas occupied primetime slots on several major TV networks and legal and pirated CDs of Rain, Se7en, and earlier stars (S.E.S., H.O.T., Shinhwa) were sold widely. BoA, born in Korea but producing CDs in Japan, was more closely associated with J-Pop, but came to be known as another KPop star. How and why did these stars from Korea gain the attention and the fandom of Indonesians? The sudden surge in awareness of Korea due to TV dramas is part of the picture, but fanrelated print media and, above all, social media have contributed in a spectacular fashion. Based on field work in Indonesia in 2005, 2008, 2010, 2013, and 2016, and extensive exploration of internet sources, I trace the contours of K-pop fandom in Indonesia, assessing the methods of distribution, the factors articulated by Kpop fans as contributing to their involvement with and enjoyment of K-pop music and its key figures. I consider the ways in which Indonesians are constructing notions of “Koreanness” in their interaction with Korean popular culture and the reasons underlying its appeal in relation to other popular musics transmitted transnationally. I conclude by considering whether the “Korean Wave” in Indonesia represents a new Asian cosmopolitanism more than an interest in “Korea” per se, as is claimed by the Korean media, and comment on the recent decline in K-pop fandom in Indonesia.

KOREAN FUSION MUSIC ON THE WORLD STAGE : PERSPECTIVES ON THE AESTHETICS OF HYBRIDITY

ANDERSON SUTTON 계명대학교 한국학연구원 2009 Acta Koreana Vol.12 No.1

Western music and musical elements have played a major role in Korea—not only in the direct performance of Western classical and popular music, but also in the varieties of hybrid mixes and interactions involving Korean and Western repertory, instruments, and stylistic features. From the popular shin minyo and t’ŭrot’ŭ songs that first appeared during the Japanese colonial period to the composer-based art music known as ch’angjak kugak that has flourished in the years since independence, Korea has developed a broad array of music that is distinctly “Korean” and yet also clearly indebted to foreign (primarily Western) music. Among these an increasingly important category is “p’yujŏn” (“fusion”) music, which differs from ch’angjak kugak in its emphasis on commercial appeal and popularity. But while Korean fusion music has been growing in popularity in Korea, and Korean fusion musicians have been making international tours, its reception overseas is not uniformly positive. This article explores the international exposure that Korean fusion music has experienced in recent years and proposes some reasons for its mixed reception. The findings of the article are based on evidence of various fusion musicians’ international tours, international collaborations, availability of recordings abroad, and a small sample of reactions by non-Korean audiences to Korean fusion music by Seulgidoong (Sŭlgi-dung), Samul Nori, Sagye, Kang Eunil/Haegum Plus (Kang Ŭnil/Haegŭm P’ŭllŏsŭ), and others. The paper seeks to uncover what aspects appeal to foreign audiences and what aspects are disliked. Central to the ambivalent reactions is a combination of orientalist expectations and a sense that some hybrid mixes use harmonic clichés, grating or shrill timbres, or overly sentimental arrangements. Individual tastes differ even among audience members of similar backgrounds, but it seems that foreign audiences are more likely to be drawn to traditional kugak than to Korean fusion music, seeing the latter as inauthentic and shallow, even though many Koreans find traditional kugak to be strange, boring, or linked to a past they feel they have long left behind and therefore would prefer fusion as the Korean music of the present.

Aesthetics of Javanese Gamelan Music : Structure, Style and Musical Feeling

R. Anderson Sutton 아시아음악학회 2006 Asian Musicology Vol.8 No.-

Innovation and Accessibility : Towards a Typology of Fusion Music in Korea

R. Anderson Sutton,조정은 서울대학교 동양음악연구소 2003 동양음악 Vol.25 No.-

Drumming in Java and Makassar, Indonesia - Structure, Process, and Experience -

R. Anderson Sutton,강혜진 서울대학교 동양음악연구소 2001 동양음악 Vol.23 No.-

World Music Education in American Schools : An Appraisal

R. Anderson Sutton 한국유초등음악교육학회 2004 음악교육 Vol.4 No.-

QUEST FOR MEANINGS AN INTERVIEW WITH BROTHER ANTHONY OF TAIZÉ

R. ANDERSON SUTTON 계명대학교 한국학연구원 2006 Acta Koreana Vol.9 No.1

Brother Anthony of Taizé was born in England in 1942, studied medieval literature at Oxford, then in 1969 joined the Community of Taizé in France as a religious brother. In 1980 he arrived in Korea, sent with other members of the community in response to an invitation from Cardinal Kim Su-Hwan. He became a full-time member of the faculty of the English Department at Sogang University (Seoul) in 1985, where he has twice served as Department Chairman. He is a founding member and former president of the Medieval and Early Modern English Studies Association of Korea. He is also active as a translator of modern Korean poetry and fiction. He took Korean nationality in 1994, with the name An Sonjae.

KOREAN FUSION MUSIC ON THE WORLD STAGE: PERSPECTIVES ON THE AESTHETICS OF HYBRIDITY

R. ANDERSON SUTTON 계명대학교 한국학연구원 2009 Acta Koreana Vol.12 No.1

Western music and musical elements have played a major role in Korea—not only in the direct performance of Western classical and popular music, but also in the varieties of hybrid mixes and interactions involving Korean and Western repertory, instruments, and stylistic features. From the popular shin minyo and t’ŭrot’ŭ songs that first appeared during the Japanese colonial period to the composer-based art music known as ch’angjak kugak that has flourished in the years since independence, Korea has developed a broad array of music that is distinctly “Korean” and yet also clearly indebted to foreign (primarily Western) music. Among these an increasingly important category is “p’yujŏn” (“fusion”) music, which differs from ch’angjak kugak in its emphasis on commercial appeal and popularity. But while Korean fusion music has been growing in popularity in Korea, and Korean fusion musicians have been making international tours, its reception overseas is not uniformly positive. This article explores the international exposure that Korean fusion music has experienced in recent years and proposes some reasons for its mixed reception. The findings of the article are based on evidence of various fusion musicians’ international tours, international collaborations, availability of recordings abroad, and a small sample of reactions by non-Korean audiences to Korean fusion music by Seulgidoong (Sŭlgi-dung), Samul Nori, Sagye, Kang Eunil/Haegum Plus (Kang Ŭnil/Haegŭm P’ŭllŏsŭ), and others. The paper seeks to uncover what aspects appeal to foreign audiences and what aspects are disliked. Central to the ambivalent reactions is a combination of orientalist expectations and a sense that some hybrid mixes use harmonic clichés, grating or shrill timbres, or overly sentimental arrangements. Individual tastes differ even among audience members of similar backgrounds, but it seems that foreign audiences are more likely to be drawn to traditional kugak than to Korean fusion music, seeing the latter as inauthentic and shallow, even though many Koreans find traditional kugak to be strange, boring, or linked to a past they feel they have long left behind and therefore would prefer fusion as the Korean music of the present.