This module examines the social history of (South) Korea from the 1930s to the dawn of the millennium through the lens of popular music. The module starts with songs on gramophone records made during the Japanese colonial period and ends with Psy's 'Gangnam Style,' which achieved global popularity while satirising urban lifestyle in Seoul. Each week, students and the module lead perform a close analysis of the selected song(s), informed by relevant socio-historical contexts such as Japanese colonialism, national division, the Cold War, urban migration, state censorship, democratisation, and globalization. Secondarily, the module introduces students to issues that are relevant to the study of popular music in any national or transnational context.
1930s, New Popular Music, New Genres
1930s, New Musical Infrastructures and Colonial Modern Sentiments
1945-early 1960s, Sound, American Modernity, and Cold-War South Korea
1960s, American Military Entertainment and Korean Popular Music
1960s-, Trot (t'ŭrot'ŭ)
1970s, Popular Music, Censorship, and Propaganda
1970s, T’ong Kita and P’okŭ as Counterculture
1980s, Television and New Urban Pop
1990s, Seo Taiji and the Youth Culture Revolution
2000s-, The International Rise of Korean Popular Music
The Next Generation: Marking the Sustained Success of Kpop
critical ability
communication skills
academic writing skills
cultural agility
Independent learning
knowledge
digital technologies
The University recommends that you spend 200 hours working on a 20-credit module. This will include:
Lectures 11 hours
Seminars 11 hours
Independent study 178
Portfolio of essays 100%