Full Details

Friday, October 20

The Magic of K-Pop
A Cultural Consumption Perspective
Time:
12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
Presenter:
Yun-Oh Whang, Clinical Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Katz Graduate School of Business
Location:
4130 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
Sponsored by:
Asian Studies Center along with Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures
Cost:
Free and open to the public
Contact:
Dr. Mi-Hyun Kim
Contact Phone:
412-624-5562
Contact Email:
kimmh@pitt.edu

The rise of Korean music (K-Pop) around the world in the last two decades has been a mystery to many industry experts. Some compares it to the explosion of British rock and roll in 1960s (“The British Invasion”), calling it “The Korean Wave (Han-Ryu)”. Even though it is not a part of the main stream music worldwide, it definitely deserves our attention as a cultural sensation. What is the magic ingredient of K-Pop for its worldwide popularity? How has a tiny country such as South Korea become a major exporter of a cultural product? We will first discuss the history of the rise of K-Pop and try to identify the answers to these questions. Our focus will be on K-Pop as a cultural product and examine the market forces including the consumers who adopted K-Pop as their music of choice.