In the last two decades, Korean popular music (K-pop) has gained an enormous following, both regionally and internationally. The incorporation of English into K-pop has seen a general increase over the years, and has arguably... [ view full abstract ]
In the last two decades, Korean popular music (K-pop) has gained an enormous following, both regionally and internationally. The incorporation of English into K-pop has seen a general increase over the years, and has arguably played a role in its popularisation. While the use of English in K-pop serves as a means of self-expression (Lee 2004), it is also viewed by some as primarily an image-making tool necessitated by globalisation (Jin & Ryo, 2012). This tension with respect to the role of English is especially prominent against the backdrop of the global rise of English, as well as in the context of South Korea, where there exists the ideology that English is incongruent with Korean national identity (Park 2009).
This study investigates how patterns of English use in K-pop over time reflect an evolving negotiation between local and global identities. The present approach is informed by Pennycook’s (2003) notion of performativity in his analysis of Japanese hip-hop lyrics, in which multidimensional identities are enacted through language in performances. I examine data from between 1990 and 2014 for language use in three domains within K-pop – stage names, song titles, and song lyrics. The results reveal an increasing attempt to strike a balance between the local and global: the utilisation of English in the construction of hybrid names, a growing resistance towards song titles that are purely in English, and the incorporation of ‘quirky’ English into song lyrics as a means of local ‘branding’. These results suggest a move towards the construction of glocal identities in K-pop, reconciling two conflicting desires of fashioning a globally appealing identity, and maintaining a local Korean identity.
Jin, D. Y., & Ryoo, W. (2012). Critical interpretation of hybrid K-pop: The global-local paradigm of English mixing in lyrics. Popular Music and Society, 37(2), 113-131.
Lee, J. S. (2004). Linguistic hybridization in K-pop: Discourse of self-assertion and resistance. World Englishes, 23(3), 429-450.
Park, J. S-Y. (2009). The local construction of a global language: Ideologies of English in South Korea. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Pennycook, A. (2003). Global English, Rip Slyme, and performativity. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 7(4), 513-533.
