• Review of Culture and Economy
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.21-50
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• 2017

The rise of Hallyu (Korean Wave) has generated a treasury of historiographic and cultural inquiries into the phenomenal success of South Korea's media entertainment industry. Whereas the majority of such studies focus on TV dramas and popular music, there is a medium, or rather a hybrid sub-genre within the medium category of short films, that must be reexamined and thus appreciated as the archetypal predecessor of popular Hallyu contents: music videos. The rapidly changing social, political, and economic climate in the mid- to late 1990s called for content that would grasp the attention of a younger, increasingly mobile population with diversified interests and routines that no longer guaranteed fixed-time viewership. Meanwhile, the advent of cable TV channels and high-speed internet service ensured greater temporal and infrastructural accessibility. The media entertainment industry's response to the new opportunities and challenges arising from these sudden growths in the scale, range, connectivity, and mobility of consumer demographics was synergetic cross-sector collaboration in the form of dramatized blockbuster music videos, which combined two popular and lucrative genres: trendy dramas and ballad music. In this essay, by relocating Hallyu's archetypal medium/genre, I claim that increasing upward and sideways mobility across sectors not only inspired new production but also reconfigured the very concept, form, and impact of media-driven cultural imaginary in South Korea.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.9-37
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• 2020

The present study examines the transnational "Hallyu" (the Korean wave) phenomenon after the 1990s in the context of a solidarity movement of East Asian women. It also focuses on the passion for the world stage given the cultural industry was supported by the government as a "chimney-less factory" during the IMF financial crisis. Over the past twenty years and through Hallyu 1.0, Hallyu 2.0, and Hallyu 3.0, "K-entertainment" has been advocated, as a concept that encompasses K-drama, K-pop, etc. in the cultural industry. Furthermore, everything Korean, through K-culture, is being put at the forefront. However, there is insufficient discussion regarding the actions of the women who led the Korean wave. This paper examines the female fans and girl groups who played leading roles in the rise of popular culture and its transnational prominence within the context of the female agency and female labor involved. The lack of acknowledgment of their roles is linked to the current erasure of the discussion on the female youth. Discussion on "woman" is still limited to the domain of reproduction in the generational discussion that has replaced the existing nation-state or class led discussions in the current era of neoliberalism. However, since The reboot or the popularity of feminism in recent years, the interest in the female narrative, in works such as 'Kim Ji-young, Born 1982' has been expanding beyond East Asia to the rest of the world. Just as Hallyu was created by women in the beginning, there is a new trend in which women across national borders are joining in solidarity. As such, the present study attempts to prove that the female fan, girl group, and female youths must be one meta-narrative through a feminist reading, rather than individuals with separate identities.