![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
purekpopology.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
omonatheydid
By: Hannah Waitt
moonROK Founder and Editor-in-chief
With most genres, it is hard to tack down an exact date, time, or place where the music originated. The music genres that we listen to today have intricate and complex roots, geographically diverse points of origin, and developed over a history of decades, if not centuries. K-pop is unique in this manner, because we know exactly where, when, why, and how K-pop began: it was on April 11th, 1992 at the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation weekend music show, when Seo Taiji and the Boys performed live on national television for the very first time. Before we get to that beginning point though, it is important to consider the historical conditions that led up to it in order to truly understand how and why K-pop became K-pop.
After a period of political instability following the Korean War, a general named Park Chung Hee took control over South Korea, becoming the nation’s first post-war leader and holding his position as dictator from 1961-1979 (fun fact: his daughter, Park Geun Hye, currently serves as South Korea’s 11th president and first ever female president). Park was adamant about enforcing cultural conservatism – so adamant, in fact, that he had police patrol the streets with rulers, performing snap inspections on Korean citizens to ensure that men’s hair wasn’t too long and that women’s skirts weren’t too short, as seen below.
Image courtesy of The Grand Narrative
In 1975, Park established the Korean Arts and Culture Ethics Council in order to give the government the power to oversee the censorship of all broadcasts, performances, and film and audio recordings. Today, it is that same organization that requires idols to cover their tattoos on broadcasts and determines whether or not lyrics or choreography is appropriate for weekend music shows.
In this live performance of miss A’s “Hush” by SISTAR, you can see that Hyorin was required to cover the tattoo on her stomach with a bandage
(visual and audio media courtesy of MBC)
After Park’s dictatorship ended with his assassination in 1979, Korea came under the rule of a new dictator, Chun Doo Hwan. Chun went a step further than Park and brought the Korean media under complete government control. He closed all of the commercial television stations and licensed only two state channels: the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) and Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC). The new purpose of these stations was not to entertain the people, but to inform them, and to do so as the government demanded.
When South Korea was finally democratized in 1987, Korean popular music remained rigidly conservative. The music industry, although no longer controlled by the government via broadcast control, continued to produce content that encouraged morality and innocence rather than licentiousness and rebellion in order to maintain good relationships with the media, who after years of complying to government-required censorship, were too scared to air anything controversial. Broadcast companies continued to tread lightly throughout the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, fearful that they might anger the still-traditional government or offend the conservative Korean people by airing something unwholesome.
It is through this brief historical summary of modern Korean entertainment that we can really see just how deeply censorship and conservatism are entrenched in the Korean music industry. The fact that producers and musicians continued to create suppressed, conservative content even after Korea was democratized is a testament to just how deep the cuts go. Even today, idols are singing about their first love, shy glances, hugs, and being nervous around members of the opposite sex. It is incredibly rare to find a mainstream K-pop song that explicitly mentions sex, drinking, partying, drugs, or violence. Meanwhile, in the United States, it is rare to find a song that doesn’t include at least three of these subjects in the chorus alone.
I know that we all hated history class in high school, but it is important to realize that a foundational standard of wholesome, censored content was established by a combination of a highly oppressive Korean government and the already conservative values of Korean society. Korea’s political history is a huge reason why K-pop is the way that it is today, and we here at moonROK are glad that you took the time to read this in order to truly understand and appreciate the roots of this genre that we all love today.
That’s it for today’s history lesson! Come back next week to read about weekend music shows, how they came to be, and why they are so important.
The History of K-pop, Chapter 2: Video Killed the Radio Star
The History of K-pop, Chapter 3: Seo Taiji and the Boys
The History of K-pop, Chapter 4: How Lee Soo Man's First Big Fail Resulted in Korea's Modern Pop Star System
source: moonROK
The kpop news site moonROK has a series of articles going that I just found yesterday called "The History of K-pop", and I thought it was really interesting! Reading the cultural/political context in which k-pop started gave a lot of understanding to some of the censorship, music shows, and other unique aspects of k-pop.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 01:46 am (UTC)Gotta wait for part 5, apparently.
CAN'T WAIT!
no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 02:20 am (UTC)1990: Hyun Jin-young
1991: Han Dong-joon
1991: Kim Kwang-jin
1994: Major
1994: J&J (duo)
I have no idea who the fuck these people are (excluding Jinyoung). /Fail SM Stan
no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 02:23 am (UTC)I feel bad, too, but not super bad.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 02:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 02:38 am (UTC)Blackbeat, Milk, Shinvi, my beloved Isak and Jiyeon... we hardly knew ye.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 02:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 02:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 02:22 am (UTC)Reading this made me realize just who Hyun Jinyoung was/is. Like, I have this oldddddd clip at like a year end awards show where BoA, FttS, Kangta and Heejun are singing his hit and he pops up and when I was getting into this stuff I had no clue who that guy was, but I liked the song.
So, thank you, OP, for posting this because it helped me realize a longstanding mystery.
Even if it also made me search for more performances and then I saw all of TVXQ sing it with BoA and the Grace and then I was like 'I'll never have all five of them together again...' and got sad.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 02:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 02:41 am (UTC)DAMN YOU, LEE SOO-MAN!!! DAMN YOU FOR CREATING THINGS I LOVE AND THEN BEING INSTRUMENTAL IN THEIR DESTRUCTION!
no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 02:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 02:48 am (UTC)Because, really, if it's anyone's fault... it's his. And all this old school k-pop feel-ness is just making me remember how much I loooooved that.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 02:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 03:01 am (UTC)They were VERY touchy/feely in the old SM 'winter/summer' videos, and they were near each other a lot live on special stages and there was one pic of them holding hands, but they were performing, and it was just like "MAKE BEAUTIFUL BABIES SO I CAN WORSHIP THEM, TOO!"
no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 02:36 am (UTC)Even though Papa YG drives us all insane with his lack of knowledge about schedules, you really have to give the guy respect for being part of Seo Taiji and the Boys! He was literally point zero of the kpop fandom we all love.
The impact of television being the prime medium for kpop to evolve in finally gives reason to how/why the visual of kpop is practically 50% of the game. Having a reason for that now is kind of an epiphany moment haha.
There was just so many great facts in these articles I want to mention them all haha.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 03:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 06:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 11:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 05:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 06:32 am (UTC)I'm going to have to read the rest when I'm not about to pass out from exhaustion.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 06:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-21 11:11 pm (UTC)Thanks for sharing this with us.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-22 12:01 am (UTC)