AOA Music Video as Promoting Cross Cultural Consumption

In this essay, I argue that AOA’s music video for their song “Come See Me” promotes cross cultural consumption by largely using visual elements such as setting, costume, and props along with the use of English in their lyrics. In a time where there is so much information out there, it is really hard to stick out from the crowd and to be heard above all the noise. With the emergence of things like streaming services (like Spotify) and user generated content (like YouTube), it is hard to be heard over all that ‘noise’. “Kpop culture, unlike the first Korean wave in the early 2000s, is, in part, preplanned and well organized cultural product demonstrating synergies among: (1) marketing strategies of the music industry (strategies of industries created out of empire); (2) a dispersed, yet strong, global random; and (3) the power of Youtube (Ono and Kwon 2013: 201). AOA is adhering to a combination and balance between hybridity and authenticity in order to promote such cross cultural consumption vis-á-vis their music video in order to be seen by the world. “In cross-cultural media consumption, two aesthetic pleasures (i.e., enjoyment and interest) are also expected. First, audiences enjoy culturally similar foreign entertainment because they can easily understand the meaning of underlying symbols (e.g., verbal or nonverbal behaviors) or identify media characters (e.g., actors or singers). Second, audiences find culturally different foreign entertainment interesting if unfamiliar symbols, characters, or storylines are perceived as cognitively challenging but ultimately understandable”. (Baek 2015: 733).

As aforementioned, AOA uses mostly visual elements (with the exception of some English lyrics) in order to both hybridize and authenticate themselves to the world. To start off, AOA strictly uses sets instead of actual places, but half of the sets show off ‘Koreanness’ through visuals, which is easier to add than through audio. Their sets are generic, not recognizable as one place, but still recognizably Korean. This gives them that perceived authenticity by the foreign audience, but on the other hand, they visualize their hybridity through their costumes and props. Their costuming and props (mostly weapons) are used in order to show power, but not through sexuality, but through masculinity instead. “There is no denying the sense of empowerment offered by some female idols’ images and music, as some images and performances appear to promote a greater openness about sexuality and a freer expression of female sexual desires in a strict society. “ (Lin and Rudolf 2017: 31). Most females use sexuality as power, but in order to stand out and hybridize themself, they don’t do this. Another way that they hybridize themselves is not through their visuals in their music videos, but through their use of English throughout their song. “While K-Pop has been mixed with Western music genres and styles, the nascent development of English mixing in lyrics of K-Pop is also burgeoning as a unique form of hybridization” (Jin and Ryoo 2014: 113-114). Baek also mentions the use of English in K-pop by stating “Many K-pop songs also feature English lyrics interweaved with the Korean lyrics in the chorus, which may help reduce the linguistic barrier for foreign audiences” (Baek 2015: 371).

“With the wide diffusion of social media like YouTube in the world, it becomes much easier to access foreign cultural products, which facilitates cross-cultural consumption of media content” (Beak 2015: 1). I argue that in order to stand out, and be heard above all of the noise that is out there in this information age, you have to have a balance between hybridity and perceived authenticity by the viewers. The way that AOA creates this balance in their music video for “Come See Me” is through their set design (authenticity from being Korean) and their props, costuming, and use of English lyrics (hybridity from these Western/Non-traditional Korean ideas) and is able to promote cross cultural consumption.

Bibliography:

Baek, Young Min. “Relationship Between Cultural Distance and Cross-Cultural Music Video Consumption on YouTube.” Social Science Computer Review, Vol.33(6) (2015): 730-731, 733.

Jin, Dal Yong & Woongjae Ryoo. “Critical Interpretation of Hybrid K-Pop: The Global-Local Paradigm of English Mixing in Lyrics.” Popular Music and Society, 37:2 (2014), 113-114.

Lin, Xi & Robert Rudolf. “Does K-pop Reincorce Gender Inequalities? Empirical Evidence from a New Data Set.” Asian Women, Vol. 33, No. 4 (2017), 31.

Ono, Kent A. and Jungmin Kwon. “Re-Worlding Culture? YouTube as a K-pop Interlocutor.” In The Korean Wave: Korean Media Go Global, edited by Data Kishan Thussu, Herman Wasserman, and Youna Kim. Chapter 12. 201. University of Westminster, 2013.