East Asian Pop Culture: K-Pop
Online resources:
- BTS Bookworm, BTS: By the Book
- A podcast collection of various book chapters on the K-pop supergroup BTS.
- Please pick a few episodes of your choice to listen to.
- BBC Four, K-pop Idols: Inside the Hit Factory (2019)
- A BBC documentary on K-pop industry and culture.
- Hark-Joon Lee, 9 Muses of Star Empire (2012)
- A fly-on-the-wall documentary on a K-pop girl group in the making; it’s ten years old but still rings true about the ruthlessness of the industry.
- BTS: The Odyssey of Seven Young Artists (Koreana) (2019)
- Korean Culture & Arts Koreana Magazine special feature about BTS.
- Explained Season 1-4 K-pop by Vox Media(2018)
- Gateway to Korea (Korea.net)
- Introduction to North and South Korea (slides)
- K-Pop Idols by Apple TV Plus (2024)
- The First Idol by YouTube Originals (2021)
- The K-pop Dream Factory by Unreported World (2024)
- Lesson Plans about K-Pop:
Print resources:
- bangtan remixed: A Critical BTS Reader (2024)
- KOCIS (Korean Culture and Information Services), K-pop Beyond Asia (2015)
- This is now a bit outdated resource, but still pretty good guidebook for the history of K-pop produced by the South Korean government agency in charge of cultural promotion.
- The Cambridge Companion to K-pop (2023)
- Wonseok Lee, “'This is How we Support K-pop Stars': From Unilateral Support to Mutually Inspired Partnership” Korean Journal of Popular Music 30 (2022). Academic research article on K-pop fan culture.
- CedarBough Saeji et al., “Regulating the Idol: The Life and Death of a South Korean Popular Music Star,” The Asia-Pacific Journal 16:13 (2018)
- Trigger warning: this article talks about suicides and may not be suitable for everyone) A hard-hitting report on the dark side of South Korean society where the youth suicide rate high, and in particular K-pop industry where performers (“idols”) are under constant pressure.
- A Team of Their Own by Seth Berkman