In Progress

While Japanese popular culture has already become an integral part of American youth culture (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Pokemon, whatever’s next), most of the rest of Asia has been shut out up to now. Also, Japanese pop stars haven’t broken through (not for lack of trying) in film or music. J-pop, as it’s known, is still mainly an Asia-continent and diaspora trend, with little to no mainstream attention in the US. K-pop, as you can probably suss out, is the Korean pop music scene, and in recent years, has been dominated by the girl group Wonder Girls.

The Wonder Girls has a nearly three year history that hews closely to the script for a girl group—formed through auditions, introduced by MTV, lost one member, under the aegis of a male producer and his talent agency. They are veterans of three seasons of a reality show, and their fame has so far spread to Thailand, the Philippeanes, and France at the very least.

Two videos encapsulate their appeal and commercial packaging perfectly. Their first hit features the quintet, first in the requisite plaid Catholic schoolgirl skirts on a schoolbus. Their dance sequences are super simple and easy to imitate, and the video features transformation into superheroes. The verses are in Korean, and the chorus in English.

The second video tells the iconic girl group origin story, in which they go from backup singers for a male star to being the breakout act on their own, undergoing Supreme-style makeovers along the way. Again, Korean verses and a chorus in English make for a potent combination, this time, with the “retro-nuevo modern-day Motown” sound made a worldwide sensation by Amy Winehouse, Adele and others. It’s also a more grown up style and sound, as befitting their age.

They’re about to hit the States in a big way, as part of the upcoming Jonas Brothers tour of North America. Which mean that this group of mostly 19 and 20 year olds are about to be presented to hoards of tween girls for idolatry and hysteria, woo. MTV is pushing them through their various concerns, including MTV Iggy, which is their new site for hybridized global youth culture. Another marketing tactic is using Perez Hiton’s website to introduce them as a new trendsetting group. Hilton doesn’t say he’s shilling the group, but the few K-pop posts make it pretty clear that he is.

I was fascinated by a few things about this group—one, their cultural products. The songs are pitch-perfect pop, but the added challenge of language barriers makes it a modern pop conundrum. Latin stars have crossed over with English-language albums, but have been able to retain a Latin flavor to their sound and style. In the case of the Wonder Girls, their early bubblegum pop stylings so popular in Asia have been replaced by the more sophisticated global retro sound—but still stripped down to a very simple structure. Their songs are half titled in English and half in Korean. The English choruses are simple and easy to pick up for non-English speakers, and I’m sure they’ll be putting out English-language versions of their songs for the North American tour. The simple visual signifier of difference will always be there in that it is a group of five Korean girls. In some ways, this is also a perfect update of the Supremes, replacing the black girls with Asian, updating a sense of Otherness for the new global environment.

The videos display many of the visual signifiers of pop and the common themes of friendship and transformation so essential to appealing to the tween/teen audiences. I know next to nothing about Korean culture, so I’m not able to see if Korean cultural themes are evident in their songs and videos, but I’ll be interested to see if any are incorporated in the future in a way that is evident to non-Koreans if they are a success in the States. The group has also received Chinese language lessons as well, so will the Wonder Girls become a true worldwide sensation with versions of their songs charting in different region based on the language they’re sung in? Curious.

Posted on June 6th, 2009 by DeepthiW
Filed under: Global Culture, Music, Uncategorized