Hyunjoon Shinin the introduction to this chapter is what has been erased or buried during the process of the
rampant globalization.
If K-pop is subaltern, then can it be another example of Asia’s challenge to the empire of
Anglo-American pop in spite of its ultra-commercialism? What is for certain is that the Korean
music industry keeps doing it, however vain it may be. It chooses to not choose its own destiny.
acknowledgment
I respect the order of Korean personal names, which begin with the family name (usually, one
syllable), followed by the given name (usually two syllables), when transcribing them. How-
ever, a hyphen (-) is added between the two syllables of the given name in order to avoid the
prolonged sound. This method of transcription also corresponds with the McCune- Reischauer
Romanization System, which has been standard in international Korean Studies. It is also
applied consistently to Korean words other than personal names. Exceptions to the McCune-
Reischauer Romanization System are those Korean authors who have published in English
using a different spelling in their publications and those with internationally known names. For
instance, Lee Sooman would be rendered Yi Su-man according to the McCune-Reischauer
Romanization System, but the former is used instead. The first time this personal name comes up
it will appear as: Seo Taiji (a.k.a. Sŏ t’ae-ji). In all subsequent cases, only the former will be used.
Notes
1 It is rather surprising that the revenue of the industry is not as big as one might expect from the boister-
ous news. The total sales of the Korean music industry comprise only about 5 percent of Korea’s cultural
industries as a whole. In terms of export sales by this industry, though rapidly rising, they do not exceed 5
percent of the total value of exports. Putting aside the meager part of the Korean music industry, exports
to overseas markets (US$235 million) are less than 10 percent of cultural industries as a whole (approx-
imately US$2.683 billion). Moreover, Japan takes up a big part of the music industry’s overseas markets,
occupying more than 80 percent of the demand for K-pop (MCST 2014, 38, 46 and 47).
2 It was reported that the revenue in 2011 from abroad by SM and YG was 43.7 percent and 40.8 percent,
respectively (Yi 2012).
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