Who impacted Korean Music most?

Throughout Korea’s history of being colonized and influenced by different powerhouses in their past, I believe that the United States had a bigger influence on the development of Korean music than Japan did. Even though Japan had colonized Korea for 35 years which impacted Korean societal culture, the United States had the much larger impact when it comes to the development of Korean music itself. This is due to the hybridity of the US music into the Korean music scene where as Japan just limited Korean music.

Durring the Japanese colonial era, the Japanese decide what Korean traditions were of value what which ones were not, including their music. Even though they kept some types of music influencing the Korean Music scene, this created pride in Korean songs and culture surrounding music. If a song or genre seems ‘too Japanese’, they would try to enhance the music so that is was culturally ‘more Korean’. This does influence Korean music, but does not contribute to the development of it like the impact that the United States had on it. Even though Japan had allowed Koreans come over to Japan to release recordings, Koreans were only allowed one recording agency in their own country. I argue that this didn’t change much of their music style, but did limit their expression. During the radio era, the first radio in Korean was the fourth owned by Japan (Japan’s first radio outside of their home country). Only one of the stations was Korean, opening up in 1933, all the others being Japanese until 1941 when radio was turned into all news broadcasting. Again, this limits Korean citizen’s access to Korean music and exposing them to Japanese music, but it did not influence the development of Korean music like the United States had done with Western music.

Wester culture was seen as elite and because a lot of Korean culture was changing, people like Yung Simdeok thought learning western culture would modernize Korea quicker and a lot of people started learning how to play wester musical instruments. Before the recording era, Korean songs and music typically were very long and went up and down in emotion. The Western way of recording was shorter, with a song style that built up and then ended, fitting the typical length of the records, three to three and a half minuets. The Koreans ditched their long emotional rollercoaster like songs and styled them more as a hybrid with the Western ones. This has also influenced the development of K-pop in modern times. The enhanced hybrid style of K-pop is what a lot of fans say draws them into the genre. It is foreign, yet similar to what they know, and the combination and collaboration of those two forces is what interests and engages a lot of fans and other listeners (Yoon, 2019). Once the American Soldiers moved into Korea, a lot of the media was used to cater towards them. For example, the AFKN was important to the development of Korean music because there was limited broadcasting there at the time, so they would listen to Western music that was being played through the radio and broadcast systems. The more that Korean citizens listened and incorporated the Western style of music into the own music, the more they are hybridizing it. In the 1950’s, the United States was a heavy influence on Korean music. Korean entertainers started learning how to preform English songs and performances for the soldiers on bases and in camp towns. Eventually instead of keeping the Western music with Western audiences, it started to make its way into spaces with Korean audiences as well. Rock and Roll was one of the Western genes that caught on in the camps, made it’s way into the Korean music scene, and eventually paving the way for K-pop. The first Korean entertainment businesses were also based on performances for soldiers, casting performers, training them on how to sing Western songs and performances, and finding them bases and camp towns to do their performances at. This was also where the emergence of “boy and girl groups” came from, again helping influence the development of Korean music.

I argue that the United States influenced the development of Korean Music more than the Japanese. This is due to the Koreans developing a more authentic sound and were very proud of their music during the Japanese colonial period and created more of a hybrid sound with Western Music due to the presence of the United States in Korea.

Yoon, Kyong. “Transnational fandom in the making: K-pop fans in Vancouver.” In The International Communication Gazette, Vol. 81(2) (2019): 176-192