Asia Pop: From Hanok to Hanbok

Feb
24
6:30 pm
Event Status
As Scheduled
Traditional Iconography in Korean Hip-Hop Music Videos
Presenter
CedarBough Saeiji

Dr. Saeji will explore the contradictions and effects of the use of imagined and real Korean settings and traditional iconography in recent videos from Korean hip-hop artists with a particularly close reading of the rapper Beenzino’s mid-2016 offering “January.” She investigates what symbols and icons are used to visually represent Korea in the videos, as they take a foreign genre and imbue it with Koreanness. These videos circulate and re-circulate a limited number of icons of Korea, because the images are meant not to portray pre-modern Korea in its complexity, but traditional Korea both as a symbol of national pride and as a (domestic and international) tourist destination where the palace is a backdrop and you wear a hanbok to create a visually striking Instagram post. Operating as the king of the music video’s world, the hip-hop artist maintains his artistic independence through challenging tradition with juxtaposed elements of the present day.
Register

Virtual event
Location
via Zoom
Event Type
Lecture
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