There are two main contents covered in this paper. One is about the topography of Korean popular music in the 1980s and 1990s, the birth of new consumers, and their cultural practices. The other is an analysis of the recontextualization of popular mus...
There are two main contents covered in this paper. One is about the topography of Korean popular music in the 1980s and 1990s, the birth of new consumers, and their cultural practices. The other is an analysis of the recontextualization of popular music in the 1980s and 1990s, which has appeared in TV dramas and music entertainment programs since 2010. In addition, in order to analyze the social and cultural implications of the retro phenomenon of popular music in ‘Now, Here’, it was approached from the perspective of generation theory and media theory.
First, the topography of Korean popular music in the 1980s and 1990s and the media of the popular music industry such as TVs, radios, ‘Gilboard Chart’, and magazines and specialty magazines were dealt with. Then, with the emergence of ‘new’ consumers in the 1980s and 1990s, how they practiced culture around popular music and how they differentiated into various subcultures in the process were considered. Teenage youth emerged as the mainstream consumer group of popular music in the 1980s. This is a phenomenon that was not seen before. In the 1990s, teenagers grow into fandom that moves more systematically and exerts more powerful influence than previous fan clubs. In the 1990s, fandom was divided into various subcultures such as ‘shaking up gender norms’, fanfiction, and criticism of fandom. In addition, the Korean popular music fandom in the 1990s was the main body of a cultural movement to respond to various social issues. These include the campaign to abolish the pre-deliberation system for popular music and the campaign to abolish TV music ranking programs.
The second topic covered is largely two divisions. One is an analysis of the recontextualization of popular music in the 1980s and 1990s, which has appeared in TV dramas and music entertainment programs since 2010. The other is about who are the subjects of these ‘memory consumption’ and ‘memory struggles’, why they are enthusiastic about the recall and experience of popular music in the 1980s and 1990s, and what role TV media plays in this process. Through this, the socio-cultural implications of the retro phenomenon conducted in ‘Now, Here’ were highlighted. To this end, the entire songs of the TV drama ‘Answer me’ series, which was broadcast in the early and mid-2010s, and the participation of the TOP10 singers of the music entertainment program ‘Sing again’, which was broadcast in the early 2020s, were analyzed. Through these retro programs, it was confirmed that popular music in the 1980s and 1990s emerged as a device that strongly reminded people of ‘cultural memory’. The keywords presented here are the 86·97 generations, and generational empathy, which are the parties to ‘memory consumption’ and ‘memory struggle’. The 86·97 generations, who spent their teens and twenties in the 1980s and 1990s, continue to appear as mainstream consumers of popular music even after 2010. However, it is correct to say that these two generations were almost indifferent to musical consumption in the K-pop market centered on idol groups, and then exploded interest in the wake of retro programs in TV media. In addition, popular music in the 1980s and 1990s became a medium that formed a structure of social, cultural, and emotional solidarity and communication with not only the 86·97 generations but also the generations after that. Therefore, the present recontextualization of popular music in the 1980s and 1990s is not just a retro cultural phenomenon. It has been canonized across generations since 2010.