This research delves into the influence exerted by BTS and BLACKPINK, prominent K-pop idol groups, on Chinese K-pop fans’ perceptions of gender, gender equality, and inclusivity. Employing data ...collected through a comprehensive survey distributed among a diverse cohort of fans (35 young Chinese K- pop fans), the study examines the impact of these musical phenomena’s image and temperament on their Chinese followers’ conceptualization of gender constructs and roles. A transformation from traditional binary notions of gender is revealed, that is, most respondents ascribe gender to a complex interplay of biological sex and social constructs. Besides, Fans’ enthusiasm for gender temperaments, in particular, exhibits subtle patterns that resonate with K-pop’s acceptance of a variety of gender presentations. Overall, this study substantiates the pivotal role of popular music acts in shaping Chinese K-pop fans’ contemporary conceptions of gender and fostering a climate of inclusivity, as well as underscoring the vital importance of taking cultural context into account when interpreting gender representations in K-pop.
O cenário da pandemia de Covid-19 estimulou a exposição de músicos em lives musicais. Artistas que já se faziam presentes em plataformas de streaming e em mídias sociais digitais buscaram espaço com ...vistas a superar a exigência de distanciamento social. O artigo observa a intrínseca relação entre o campo da música e os processos de midiatização e propõe-se a examinar como ocorre a inserção da música regional gaúcha em algumas das transmissões de maior audiência no período no streaming. Analisa-se especificamente o fenômeno de uma canção reconhecida como pertencente a uma identidade específica, a partir da relação entre letra e sonoridade, e sua divulgação a partir de memes para audiências desterritorializadas. Constata-se que, a partir do linguajar de zombaria em temas já tratados pela narrativa mítica, a vertente musical galponeira assumida na canção manifesta o desprezo por formas cultas e críticas de expressão musical, e conquista tanto audiências regionais como nichos regionalistas nacionais. Seu êxito expressa a busca catártica de superação da asfixia social determinada pelo contexto da pandemia. Midiatização; Música regional gaúcha; Música Popular; Grotesco.
The rise of Korea’s musicians from local celebrities to international superstars is credited to Lee Soo-man, the godfather of K-pop. The industry he developed gave rise to groups like BTS, which has ...been the biggest-selling band in the world for two years running. Now, Lee has sold most of his stake in SM Entertainment, the company he founded, to one of its biggest rivals. On this week’s podcast, hosts Mike Bird, Alice Fulwood and Tom Lee-Devlin delve into the world of K-pop and examine how the businesses making one of Korea's newest export industries operate. Author, Mark Russell, tells them how K-pop went global. Analyst, Bokyung Suh, breaks down the secret to its commercial success, and explains whether fans should fear a potential K-pop commercial monopoly. Sign up for our new weekly newsletter dissecting the big themes in markets, business and the economy at www.economist.com/moneytalks For full access to print, digital and audio editions, subscribe to The Economist at www.economist.com/podcastoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
As the platform economy continues to infiltrate all aspects of people’s lives, internet platforms have emerged as key arenas for the development of pop music. K-pop, a globally recognized pop culture ...phenomenon known for its globalized marketing strategies and stage performances that reinforce gender binary traits, is epitomized by BTS and BLACKPINK. These groups have significantly influenced the gender perceptions of their fans worldwide. This research employs the methods of textual analysis and critical discourse analysis to comparatively analyze two songs by BTS and BLACKPINK, their respective stage performances, and the comments of Chinese fans. The research reveals that BTS, as a male idol group, has transitioned from reinforcing traditional masculinity to expressing universal values. On the other hand, BLACKPINK, as a female idol group, despite incorporating elements of power and cultural hybridization, has yet to break free from the stereotypical image of women within the traditional binary concept of gender. The interplay between agencies’ globalization strategies and the participatory culture of fans has had a dual impact on the gender concepts of Chinese fans. Firstly, the dissemination of universal values has further expanded the cultural influence of K-pop. Secondly, the participatory fan culture has perpetuated the gender digital divide, which is a manifestation of post-feminist modernity in popular culture.
From 1987 to 1995, Bristol, England's Sarah Records was a modest underground success and, for the most part, a critical laughingstock in its native country-sneeringly dismissed as the sad, final ...repository for a fringe style of music (variously referred to as "indie-pop,a ? "C86,a ? "cutiea ? and "tweea ?) whose moment had passed. Yet now, more than 20 years after its founders symbolically "destroyeda ? it, Sarah is among the most passionately fetishized record labels of all time. Its rare releases command hundreds of dollars, devotees around the world hungrily seek out any information they can find about its poorly documented history, and young musicians-some of them not yet born when Sarah shut down-claim its bands (such as Blueboy, the Field Mice, Heavenly, and the Wake) as major influences.Featuring dozens of exclusive interviews with the music-makers, producers, writers and assorted eyewitnesses who played a part in Sarah's eight-year odyssey, Popkiss: The Life and Afterlife of Sarah Records is the first authorised biography of an unlikely cult legend.
Semiotics, or semiotics as it is commonly known, is an interdisciplinary research field that examines the sign strings of studies in many fields such as music, sociology and linguistics. Today, ...semiotics, which makes metaphorical analysis of various disciplinary fields such as literature, art, music and cinema and has a wide range as a field of study, has been an important communication tool in this sense. The science of semiotics, which has both a principled and free movement environment due to its multidisciplinary structure, has explained objects, figures and situations in this way by revealing the meaning and establishing a connection with the place of that meaning in society. Among these fields, especially in music, graphic designs used in the creation of album covers, concert posters, posters have an important role in conveying the message that the musical product wants to convey. In this research, it is aimed to make a semiotic analysis of the cover images of the ten most listened songs in the field of Turkish pop music in the Spotify 2021 list. Within the scope of the purpose of the study, cover images were evaluated semiotically in terms of elements such as writing styles, color preferences, use of figures and objects. In this case, questions such as how the current album cover designs examined are, what kind of differences they have with the album covers of the past, how the effects, colors, figures, etc. used in the design of the album covers are, whether the album covers are meaningfully compatible with the title of the album. According to this analysis, ten cover images determined by scanning reliable sites on the internet were reached. The covers were analyzed semiotically in four groups with the criteria of object, human, digital photograph and color under the elements of signified and signifier according to the sign method created by F. Saussure. In addition to these examinations, the content of the lyrics in the albums was also evaluated and it was determined whether they were meaningfully compatible with the album title and cover image. In the light of the evaluations made, it has been concluded that some of the album covers are compatible with the name of the album and some are not. It has been observed that the design of the album covers is influenced by the general fashion sense of the global music industry, and for this reason, they are far from the old album covers in terms of design and meaning.
Semiotics, or semiotics as it is commonly known, is an interdisciplinary research field that examines the sign strings of studies in many fields such as music, sociology and linguistics. Today, semiotics, which makes metaphorical analysis of various disciplinary fields such as literature, art, music and cinema and has a wide range as a field of study, has been an important communication tool in this sense. The science of semiotics, which has both a principled and free movement environment due to its multidisciplinary structure, has explained objects, figures and situations in this way by revealing the meaning and establishing a connection with the place of that meaning in society. Among these fields, especially in music, graphic designs used in the creation of album covers, concert posters, posters have an important role in conveying the message that the musical product wants to convey. In this research, it is aimed to make a semiotic analysis of the cover images of the ten most listened songs in the field of Turkish pop music in the Spotify 2021 list. Within the scope of the purpose of the study, cover images were evaluated semiotically in terms of elements such as writing styles, color preferences, use of figures and objects. In this case, questions such as how the current album cover designs examined are, what kind of differences they have with the album covers of the past, how the effects, colors, figures, etc. used in the design of the album covers are, whether the album covers are meaningfully compatible with the title of the album. According to this analysis, ten cover images determined by scanning reliable sites on the internet were reached. The covers were analyzed semiotically in four groups with the criteria of object, human, digital photograph and color under the elements of signified and signifier according to the sign method created by F. Saussure. In addition to these examinations, the content of the lyrics in the albums was also evaluated and it was determined whether they were meaningfully compatible with the album title and cover image. In the light of the evaluations made, it has been concluded that some of the album covers are compatible with the name of the album and some are not. It has been observed that the design of the album covers is influenced by the general fashion sense of the global music industry, and for this reason, they are far from the old album covers in terms of design and meaning.
Banding together Lena, Jennifer C
2012., 20120212, 2012, 2012-02-12
eBook
Why do some music styles gain mass popularity while others thrive in small niches? Banding Together explores this question and reveals the attributes that together explain the growth of ...twentieth-century American popular music. Drawing on a vast array of examples from sixty musical styles--ranging from rap and bluegrass to death metal and South Texas polka, and including several created outside the United States--Jennifer Lena uncovers the shared grammar that allows us to understand the cultural language and evolution of popular music.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the key success factors behind Bangtan Boys’ (BTS) popularity, and how they can contribute to sustaining it, along with detailed strategies for the ...success of global pop.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a mixed-methods approach that uses text mining and interviews and uses the success of BTS to find the key factors accounting for its sustained popularity. For use in text mining, we collected data related to BTS from social network sites (SNS) and analyzed this data using latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modeling, term frequency analysis and keyword extraction. In addition, we conducted interviews to explore the key factors accounting for the sustained popularity of BTS.FindingsWe found ten key success factors—active global fandom, SNS communication, fans' loyalty, empathy through music, storytelling and world view, performance quality, music video quality, overseas expansion at an early stage, efforts for self-development and teamwork among members— for a global pop group's success and sustained popularity.Research limitations/implicationsThis study contributes to the literature by finding key factors for success and sustained popularity of a global group through using a mixed-methods approach.Practical implicationsOur results suggest strategies to sustain the popularity of global groups and its potential to benefit across the entertainment industry.Originality/valueThis study is among the first to comprehensively examine the key factors for Korean pop’s (K-pop) sustained popularity by using a mixed-methods approach of text mining and interviews.
Fandom practices are often considered meaningless and unnecessary. However, the use of social media carries the potential for positive as well as negative impact on the users. Using the fraemwork of ...Community of Practice, the latest theory addressing community formation and interaction, as its theoretical framework, the study explores the Twitter-based online fandom community (called stan twitter) of Korean Pop-Music (K-Pop) as a working Community of Practice (CoP). This community is a hub of non-native English language speakers, who actively communicate on this platform. This qualitative study uses semi-structured interviews and participant observations to collect data, and analyzes it using qualitative coding. The study finds that the members of K-Pop Stan Twitter form interpersonal bonds, communicate regularly, and create a close-knit community where everyone contributes in their own capacity. The study suggests that the platform in question does possess the characteristics to be considered a working CoP, with the addition of another element that makes it unique: power hierarchy among the participants of the community, which is usually the least noticed aspect in research on online platforms. Moreover, it carries implications for inculcation of various positive qualities in the users.
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