Category: Works From Spring 2021
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Jae and the Toxicity of K-Pop Culture
One recent news headline caught my attention recently, and it left me stumped, to say the least. I find it difficult to label this a controversy, per se, but for lack of a better term, I will call it as such. K-pop star Jae Park of boy band Day6, signed under JYP Entertainment, recently deleted…
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The Longevity of SHINee
Due to the ever-changing nature of the K-pop industry, it is not an easy feat for a K-pop group to maintain relevance over a decade after their debut. many 2nd generation K-pop groups have ended in disbandment or are stuck in indefinite hiatus, so having one of your most successful comebacks 14 years into your…
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Survival of the Fittest: Tracing YG Entertainment’s Love for Survival Shows
Hearing the news that iKon is participating in Mnet’s reality program, Kingdom: Legendary War reminds me of my time watching their old survival shows. In the process, I noticed a unique trend between YG Entertainment’s boy groups. Asides from coming from the same label, Big Bang, Winner, iKon and Treasure all share one more similarity. It is that survival…
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“I Won’t Love Again”: How K-pop expresses LGBTQ Allyship through Music Videos
As a Korean-American raised in Los Angeles, California, I had the privilege of being surrounded by diverse cultures and beliefs. My Korean heritage brought me the joys of Korean food and beautiful cultural practices. As an Angeleno, I was exposed to an accepting community from an early age. Oftentimes these identities shared a happy marriage;…
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Twice’s Creation Story
Twice is probably one of the first K-pop groups I had heard about. I was completely unfamiliar with K-pop before this school year. The only group I heard about was BTS, and I only knew about this because of how prevalent their fandom was. First semester, one of my friends was raving over Blackpink’s The…
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How Bang Si-Hyuk Is Leading (And Will Lead) K-Pop
Given his established record and auspicious new company, Bang Si-Hyuk is best positioned to take Korean pop (K-Pop) to the next level. Bang Si-Hyuk and Big Hit Entertainment Bang Si-Hyuk, 48, born in Seoul, South Korea, is the mastermind behind the world’s most popular boy band, and naturally the world’s biggest K-Pop group. Founding Big Hit…
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The Day The Lights Went Out: The Great Spotify Purge of 2021 and Capitalism in K-Pop
It’s a beautiful Monday morning, I’m getting ready to begin my day of classes at Duke after getting out of the shower and getting dressed. Before I get ready to log onto Zoom for the day, I’ve got some time to kill. As I’m getting ahead on some work, it’s time to open up Spotify…
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SHINee’s “Sherlock (Clue + Note)” Reaction Video
Today, we’ll be reacting to one of SHINee’s most iconic songs, “Sherlock (Clue + Note).” Both of us had a lot of fun making this reaction video and we each had a lot of things to say. Edgar: I had always known about SHINee and how important they are in the K-pop industry, and “Sherlock”…
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Loyalty and Crime: The Burning Sun Scandal and #JusticeForSeungri
To learn that your favorite idol may be a criminal is a jarring thing, and for some, an earth shattering moment that fractures reality. A K-pop star is a singer and a dancer, and also a role model, a personification of both perfection and down-to-earthness. For an idol to be more like a gangster is…
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AKMU “How Can I Love the Heartbreak, You’re the One I Love” MV Reaction
Our group had trouble picking a song to talk about, which was more from the wealth of interesting music videos than anything else. AKMU’s “How can I love the heartbreak, you’re the one that I love” stood out to us from the very beginning. On the first watch through, we could tell that AKMU’s music…
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Haru Haru M/V Reaction Video 🕺🏼🌟
The group of Brandon, Harrison, and Andrew reacted to the iconic music video for Big Bang’s “Haru Haru.” It was a great experience to be able to come together with different people and discuss what we viewed in the music video. One can definitely learn a lot in group settings as different perspectives, observations, and…
Musings on K-pop by Duke Univ. Students 