Christina Klein discusses the unplanned consequences of the AFKN in South Korea, highlighting how the AFKN had immense influence on critically acclaimed Korean filmmakers/directors. She states that because of the language barrier, Korean audiences, one of them being the director of The Host, had purely absorbed his understandings of genre through visuals and semiotics. This allowed him to view genre in a way that was different to what the Hollywood industry did, and thus gave him more freedom in playing with genre and not feeling pressured by genre constraints.
What immediately came to my mind in Klein’s discussion is how YouTube acts as the new way of accessing foreign cultural products, and how KPOP music and its videos not only reflect past iconic production from Western pop culture, but also reinvents it by not conforming to genres. Perhaps that is why it is so hard to define what KPOP is, or what KPOP sounds like or looks like because just like what the AFKN had done for Korean filmmakers, YouTube has allowed the KPOP industry to be exposed to a multitude of cultural production that they then can incorporate into their own. In this post, I want to examine one particular music video to not only dissect the different genres being included in the song, but also how the videography and music video concept is a hybridization of different cultures.
Hate // 4Minute
4Minute’s Hate music video currently stands at over 54 million views. Having it be co-produced by Skrillex has not only helped boost its status but also exemplifies the hybridity of the song from the production standpoint. It starts off as almost a sad ballad, then transitions into a more R&B style, then the drop/chorus is a very heavy trap/bass/edm style song, and then the next verse begins as a slow rap. Within the first half of the song, 4 different “genres” of music can be heard, and yet the song overall doesn’t feel like a definable genre. Having Skrillex as a producer is an important fact as he has been making music in a pop punk band, and then more famously known as an EDM producer. Having worked with artist from all genres of music from Justin Bieber, to Diplo, to The Weekend, and A$AP Rocky, utilizing his work for Korean music (that is known to be a hybridity of genres) was a smart choice.
In terms of the visuals, the first shots are very rosy, and romantic, then transitions into a desert scene. For whatever reason, I immediate felt a sense of deja vu. I then did some digging and realized that the desert scene was reminiscent of Coming Home by Dirty Money ft. Skylar Grey. Take a look:
The main drop is obviously an ode to hiphop culture with the suit and timbs, an ensemble that has been seen over and over again in US hiphop culture. This isn’t to say that 4Minute’s videographers decided to copy Dirty Money’s music video. What I’m trying to get across is that Coming Home was a very popular song in 2010, and we see this desert concept being used not only in 4Minute’s work but in many other KPOP music videos. YouTube has allowed groups like 4Minute to gain access to other visual cultures to gain inspiration and play around with it. What makes Hate stand out against Dirty Money’s music video is that while his music video is very monotonic, 4Minute’s is more vibrant and uses the desert shot more strategically to match the tone and lyric of the song.
I think it can definitely be argued that YouTube can be seen as the new AFKN, despite it not being a political endeavor. The consequences of the gained access to YouTube is no doubt very similar to the consequences of the exposure to AFKN. Korean artists in the KPOP industry can utilize whatever visual/audio culture they absorb on YouTube and proceed to make a product that is never tied to one specific genre, rather, plays around with all of the genres to create something that is both aurally and visually stimulating.
The Politics of K-Pop 
I agree in that visual and cultural commodity is now exchanged in a frictionless way with today’s Internet and digital media platforms. In comparing YouTube to the AFKN, there are some timely differences. AFKN was borne out of the U.S. military empire for the purpose of providing Americans abroad entertainment, and in doing so, gave Korean viewers content that wasn’t for specifically for them. Fiske discusses this in our previous reading in that representation and semiotic power can be reinterpreted in the hands of the consumers. In light of this, a non-Asian TV program and can be used to speak to a Korean child. This is the case of Korean filmmakers like Bong Joon Ho who grew up with these programs.
In looking at notable differences, YouTube is a platform that has little to no barrier to entry in terms of producing content, so viewers are quite literally able to respond to and as Michelle Cho writes, bodily, react to the content being produced by non-Asian creators. YouTube provides space for the two-way street of meaning making to occur. In that there is so much content on YouTube, there is unlimited amount of visual culture and commodity to intake, analyze, and reproduce. In comparison to the AFKN being one of the few places to consume foreign content, YouTube is the complete opposite. Cho also comments on how cultural commodity can interpreted depending on national and geographic contexts further corroborating the fact that visual consumption like K-pop videos are just one of the few genres that we can be exposed to.
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Totally agree! Maybe I wasn’t articulate enough to say what I meant but I wasn’t trying to say that AFKN is the same as YouTube, rather YouTube is a modernized and revamped version of the AFKN. I also wasn’t trying to say that it was a one way exchange, I did say that it isn’t to say that KPOP industries are trying to make copies. What I wanted to emphasize is the fact that it is a space for KPOP industries to gain foreign inspiration the way AFKN has offered, and I think there are definite similarities in terms of making meaning out of something that is foreign to you, as the AFKN had done in the Korean community. It’s important to note that YouTube’s Korean localized version didn’t launch in Korea until 3 years after its initial launch, meaning though YouTube wasn’t necessarily FOR Americans specifically, it began as Video Dating site amongst Americans, then into an entertainment platform, and until a localized form based on IP address was created for Koreans, it wasn’t specifically made for Koreans either.
Again, this isn’t me disagreeing with you, just clarifying some of the things I think you may have taken differently than what I had intended to state.
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I also think YouTube is definitely participating in its role as a platform of hybridization. It lets people engage in a big cultural dialogue and broaden the aspect of the genre. A lot of feed-backs from the comments and the production of reaction videos are also taking their big part in broadening the cultural spectrum. Since YouTube lets all the diversities to blend in one place without any restrictions, the power of gathering bursts out with a great creativity. So for those who have only been digging one genre will get to have a chance to widen their point of view and try new things in their future works, and for those who have only known little things about the genre will get to own an opportunity to dive into the wider space of a hybridized genres of music and culture.
The point where you say YouTube is showing a very similar aspect to that of the AFKN, I strongly agree on that since AFKN was also the first media that made all the Koreans fuse their musical and cultural insights with those of American’s. Having to have these sort of media platforms is a blessing for people across the world in a sense that these actually help people to strengthen their potentials and to more aggressively proceed to an ingenious culture. Since we expect our next generations to be more neo and inventive, YouTube-like platforms should more be activated, and the viewers should also try embracing the newly hybridized and amalgamated ideas produced in the media in order to lead another wave to the world and practice better globalization.
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