Blog 5

1) Progress report- How many interviews did you do so far? And/or many materials (i.e. media texts) did you research, and how did you research on the texts- textual analysis, genre study, etc.?

Interview questions:

How long have you been listening to K-pop?

What are the charming part of the singer/group you like?

Which you think is the most important thing that makes you get into K-pop, idols or songs?

How much you put on K-pop?

Do you think it is worth it to pay those prices on K-pop?

Do you think the K-pop culture can affect last more longer?

I have done three interviews in the past two weeks, and the last will be next Monday finish.

Done

The first one is my friend (girl, 22 years old) that listen Korean music for about 5 years and her basis is the idol group BIGBANG. She will buy their CDs and go to concert when they came to Hong Kong.

The second one is my cousin (girl, 18 years old) that listen Korean music just 2 years and her basis is the idol group EXO. She will buy CDS, photo book, or whatever the product produce by the official entertainment.

The third one is my friend (boy ,21 years old) that like to listen and dance Korean music, always go out performance. He don’t have any basis idol group but he like to listen Korean music and think it is fashion.

Going to interview

The last one is also my friend (girl, 22 years old), that listen Korean music for 5 years and her basis group is Girls’ Generation but will also follow other girls groups. She always goes to Korea or other country to watch their concert and like to buy presents to her idols.  

2) Preliminary finding- what do you discover up till now? (For example, what are the commonalities amongst the texts/ interviews?) How do your finding help you answer your research question?

As I have interview three teenagers, I discover that when I ask them about what is the charming part of the singer they like, they immediately tell me that “the face”, they think the idols is so charming, so they can have energy to follow their news.

Although they think they don’t get understand about the language of Korean music, they still get enjoy it. The melody like them easy get into the music, match with the music video, it is perfect to them.

Their interviews let me discover that how the entertainment put such effort on the idols group to get attention on people, their face, the melody of music, and the music video.  

Blog 4

Literature review

Research topic:

Why do Hong Kong teenagers like consuming Korean music?

Summary on articles:

1) KPOPPED!:UNDERSTANDING THE FILIPINO TEENS’CONSUMPTION OF KOREAN POPULAR MUSIC AND VIDEOS, SARAH KRISTINE M. ALANZALON, http://iskwiki.upd.edu.ph/images/d/d5/Alanzalon,_Sarah_Kristine_Masiglat_04-11_Kpopped!.pdf

This is a research about why the Filipino teens consuming on the Korean music and videos, wrote by SARAH KRISTINE M. ALANZALON, a Philippines student. From her research, we can found that K-pop giving the teens a happy and a positive image, contains dreams and goals. From her interviews, also found that the fans worth to wait their idol’s comeback because their teaser is already beautiful, the fashion style also attracted them.

This research is very match to my research as their target also teenage, it is very detail on different part on Kpop research.

2) The Global Phenomenon of K-Pop Culture: The Case of Music Industry in Korea, Abdul Malik Badeges, http://eng.iwahs.org/data/Korea_Exchange_Summer_Program_Abdul_Malik_Badeges_UM.pdf)

This is a research about the phenomenon of Kpop and find out the marketing of the three biggest music entertainments in Korea. From his research, he mentioned that the melody of Kpop is different to other countries, it is good to hear and ears love it. From the data of the entertainment, we can see that it is rising rapidly as Kpop is keeping popular.

As my research want to know why Kpop can be such popular, I would also like the take a reference on the entertainment data as the entertainment use lot of effort to package the idol, may see how successful on their marketing.

3) Research on the Identity Construction of Korean Pop Music’s Fandom Groups on the Weibo Platform, Exemplified by G-Dragon (Kwon Ji-Yong), Yifan Chang, http://www.diva-portal.se/smash/get/diva2:725402/FULLTEXT01.pdf

This is a research specific research on a fandom group of a Korea idol group. From her research, I found that fandom group also is a key point on Kpop culture, their power is strong to support their idols. The group will share information of idols and promote the idols in the social media, let other get attention.

This research may help me know more about the running of a fandom group and see how the teenage can have such power to support their idols.

Key concepts of my research:

1) Cultural Identity:

Definition:

People’s judgments about whether they or others belong to a cultural group can be influenced by physical appearance, ancestral origin or personal behavior (dressing, speech, holidays, and celebrations). A historical event, political conditions, who is present, situation/site of interaction and public discourse, also affects cultural identity.

 (Cultural Identity Theory, Communication Theory , http://communicationtheory.org/cultural-identity-theory/)

2) Promotion and Package:

Definition:

Promotional packaging refers to those features of a product’s packaging, which serve to enhance its image and advance its brand. …. Focus, eye-catching and customized. (Promotional package, http://www.deufol.com/en/glossary/promotional-packaging.html)

Research:

“The wonderful thing about Korean promotions is that artists come back quickly. Someone is always coming back. K-pop fans get to see new releases after several months, with bigger acts gone for at most 13-14 months, and even then some are fortunate to have other releases like Japanese singles and OSTs.”

(Do As The Americans Do?: American Vs. Korean Promotions, seoulbeats, http://seoulbeats.com/2013/08/americans-american-vs-korean-promotions/)

Research progress:

1) Finish the first interview and she is my friend that always listen Kpop. In the following week, I will have another two interviews, a boy that love listening and dancing Kpop music, the other is a Kpop girl fan that always go to watch idols concerts.

2) Already finish grafts the survey questions, ready spread out to the teenagers to do it.

Blog 3

Research topic:

Why do Hong Kong teenagers like consuming Korean music?

What is the refined research question that you are setting out to answer?

1) Why teenages like to listen K-pop and Korean Idols.

2) From the package of idol and music to see how success of Korea can get such popularity

3) Can K-pop still can last longer within this few years?

How does this develop themes and debates explored within the lectures of this module? (Please put down the revised short introduction to your project based on the one in blog 2. Remember that the introduction should include the purpose of your research project, significance and key concept(s) that may be useful for your analysis.)

In the start of 00s, our idols are Twins, Eason Chan, Yung ChoYee, etc. We will buy CDS, or magazine. However, in these few years K-pop start gets into Hong Kong, many teenage start to listen K-pop instead of Canto-pop. Especially, the news appears the most in the teenage magazine is Korea singer, not Chinese singer anymore. From this research i would like to find out K-pop have what special characteristics, example, melody, music video, the package of idol, etc. can get attention from Hong Kong teenage.

What critical methodologies are you going to use? How are you going to produce the evidence you’ll need to answer your research question?*

Example: In-depth interviews with five immigrants from Mainland China

1) Doing a questionnaire with 30 teenagers (around 16-25 years old)what they think about Korean music

2) In-depth interview with 4 teenages (18-23 years old) that is addicted to Korean music

What physical resources (e.g. camera) will this primary research require?

No / Yes (Please specify): No

Where and when exactly is this primary research going to take place?

(NB for health and safety reasons, we need to know the EXACT locations at which this research will take place and the EXACT times that you’ll be working there)

Place(s):	Mongkok Starbucks (Interview)
Date and Time:	14/3 4:00pm

Which key persons (e.g. family members, trustworthy friends, business owners, etc.) have agreed to help and support you in carrying out this research?

Yes (Please provide name and contact):

(In-dpeth interview)Trustworthy friends So Long Hang(21 years old) 97172XXX

Self-assessment of risk:

Is this research exercise likely to expose you to any health and safety risks or any risk to property? (If the answer is yes, please specify the risks)

(NB these might include: exposure to theft by using a camera in a public place; journeying into an unknown area of town; entering into people’s homes; carrying out ethnographies in places in which excessive alcohol consumption or drug use takes place; etc.)

No / Yes: No

References:

1) Harry S. Truman, The Globalization of K-Pop: Korea’s Place in the Global Music Industry1,

http://www.iwahs.org/research/data/research_file_07.pdf

2) Yifan Chang, Research on the Identity Construction of Korean Pop Music’s Fandom Groups on the Weibo Platform, Exemplified by G-Dragon (Kwon Ji-Yong), http://www.diva-portal.se/smash/get/diva2:725402/FULLTEXT01.pdf

3) Errol Ace L. Agatep, Jaime Alejandro A. Carvajal , Arvin Jerome A. Ballesteros, Carlo B. Navalta, Gabriel Earl F. Dulay, Rey Angelo B. Espinueva, Dominic D. Magpali, Fernando P. Oringo,

, What is K-poppening? Behavior and Academic Performance of 3 rd and 4 th year Students of Lorma Colleges Special Science High School Students, http://www.dlsu.edu.ph/conferences/dlsu_research_congress/2014/_pdf/proceedings/LCCS-I-006-FT.pdf