{"id":64,"date":"2026-10-28T00:23:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T04:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/syproject\/?p=64"},"modified":"2026-10-28T00:38:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T04:38:37","slug":"behind-the-beat-blog-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/syproject\/2026\/10\/28\/behind-the-beat-blog-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Beat Blog 10"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A sincere thanks to Sam for the great suggestion! At this point, the academic focus of my research should shift to traditional Korean culture and the specific case study section. I need to read existing research on how traditional Korean culture is practically integrated into contemporary pop music, and to evaluate the outcomes of these fusions. To investigate this, I selected the paper \u201cWhen K-Pop and Kugak Meet: Popularising P\u2019ansori in Modern Korea<\/em>\u201d. Kugak<\/em> refers to traditional Korean music, encompassing both court music and folk genres. This article investigates the challenges imposed by popular culture on traditional performers, alongside how they respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The paper points out that contemporary audiences are \u201cfirmly accustomed to the popular culture that drives the Korean Wave, see little appeal in traditional culture (Yates-Lu, 2019, p. 52)\u201d. Consequently, young p\u2019ansori artists are forced to adapt and change. Because they consume K-pop and are influenced and inspired by Hallyu <\/em>narratives, they recognize the necessity of incorporating \u201ceasy and entertaining\u201d cultural elements into their performances to attract more audiences (Yates-Lu, 2019). Drawing on Sutton (2011), the paper notes that fusing traditional arts and musical forms with pop music has multiple benefits: it provides a pleasant listening experience and generates income for performers; it helps Koreans reconnect with their own musical heritage by gently guiding them from pop to kugak<\/em>; and it promotes Korea and its culture overseas. However, the popularization of traditional culture faces dilemmas. Adapted works often fall into an awkward middle ground\u2014they are neither mainstream enough to attract massive audiences nor traditional enough to satisfy the strict standards of purists and critics (Yates-Lu, 2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BTS\u2019s track \u201cBody to Body” from their latest album\u00a0Arirang<\/em>\u00a0will be\u00a0one of my case studies. It incorporates a sample of the eponymous, iconic traditional Korean folk song,\u00a0Gyeonggi Arirang<\/em>, also known as\u00a0Bon Arirang<\/em>. I believe the analysis of this song should go beyond treating it as a mere aesthetic choice.\u00a0It also serves as a successful model for traditional artists seeking to blend cultural heritage with popular trends.\u00a0For those currently navigating the dilemma of cultural popularization versus preservation,\u00a0BTS\u2019s case offers transferable insights. Returning to my research, I believe that it\u2019s worth examining how BTS\u2019s \u201cBody to Body\u201d achieves mass popularization while preserving cultural authenticity, as well as which strategies could be applied to other music productions. This is exactly what I’ll explore in the next step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sutton, R. A. (2011). \u201cFusion\u201d and questions of Korean cultural identity in music. Korean Studies, 35<\/em>, 4\u201324. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1353\/ks.2011.0011<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yates-Lu, A. (2019). When K-Pop and Kugak<\/em> Meet: Popularising P\u2019ansori in Modern Korea. Yearbook for Traditional Music, 51<\/em>, 49-71. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/ytm.2019.7<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A sincere thanks to Sam for the great suggestion! At this point, the academic focus of my research should shift to traditional Korean culture and the specific…<\/p>\n

Continue ReadingBehind the Beat Blog 10<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":38031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/syproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/syproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/syproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/syproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/syproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/syproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/syproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions\/68"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/syproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/syproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/syproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}