The Institute for Korean Studies presents:
"From Music Notes to Sound – Change of Musical Technology and Practice on the Korean Popular Music in the 1980-1990’s"
Ildong Joe
Academy of Korean Studies
Abstract: In this presentation, I argue that the process of globalization of popular music is a cultural process involving hierarchical struggle, competition, and dynamics among people with different habitus of different sounds, through interviews and participant observations with musicians who have been working in the Korean popular music recording scene in 1980’s to 1990’s. Examining modern popular music with questions like what is the technical basis needed to implement the styles and forms of contemporary Korean popular music and what is the tension and dynamics between technologies and culture is needed. In modern popular music, particular sound/timbre/rhythm texture is one of the most important things. Especially, in globalized modern world where it is common to experience music through recorded sound, the change of sound adjusted in the process of recording(, mixing and mastering) is enough to change the like or dislike of the music. Therefore, I examines how the importance of sound through the interviews of Korean musicians who had experienced the limitations to follow the rhythms and timbres (which is not marked on the music scores) of American/Western popular cultures. Even new technologies and machines, which overcome the difference of rhythms and senses of sound, have been introduced to musical industry all around the world, but the reason why these techniques are used is also cultural. Download the PDF flyer here.
Professor Ildong JOE received his Ph.D in Cultural Anthropology from Hanyang University, South Korea. Subsequently, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Ewha Womens University and then as a research professor at Shinhan University. Since 2020, he has been an Assistant Professor in the Division of Humanities and Culture at the Academy of Korean Studies. His research interests include globalization, transnationalism and postcolonialism of popular culture, including music. His particular interested in revealing the cultural implications of changes in media technologies. He has published more than 20 articles analyzing changes in Korean social structure in relation to popular culture, and has co-authored several books on popular culture. He has conducted various research projects on transnational migration and popular culture. His most recent research examines the transformation of the popular culture industry due to the introduction of digital media technologies starting in the 1980s.