Scholars have consistently highlighted the challenges of studying cultural products like K-pop, given its amalgamation of diverse musical and artistic genres, as well as production processes that are becoming progressively globalized and decentralized from South Korea. A commonly employed approach to investigate K-pop as a subject of study involves adopting a “top-down” perspective, aiming to pinpoint the individual at the apex of the production hierarchy—the one wielding the most decision-making authority over the final product.

Drawing on ongoing fieldwork conducted in Seoul, South Korea, I elucidate the constraints inherent in adopting a “top-down” approach to comprehend the contemporary cultural industry. Through an investigation into the semiotic gap between discourse and practice among various creative professionals, including songwriters, choreographers, and producers, I unveil the intersecting and conflicting visions within the K-pop industry. Moreover, I illustrate how a professional's vision may diverge from the very logic underpinning their creative endeavors. In essence, this paper contends that “professional vision,” as conceptualized in the social sciences, cannot be regarded as singular, nor does it seamlessly correspond to a fixed cultural entity, as implied by the categorical label “K(orean)” in “K-pop.” Instead, professional vision must be decentralized and contextualized within production processes to comprehend how, although individually insufficient, they collectively sustain a distinct genre of aesthetics.

Compared to the burgeoning scholarship on K-pop’s global circulation and consumption, very few studies have focused on K-pop’s production and the workforce involved in this process. In this study, I advance a processual understanding of K-pop by foregrounding how it is actually produced and how the notion of K-pop, or “idol music,” as a bounded category is reproduced. To this end, I draw on five months of ethnographic fieldwork in an organization based in Seoul, Korea that provides vocational training and mentorship for individuals aspiring to work in Korea’s popular music industry. In specific, I triangulate 1) participant observations of an eight-week-long A&R (artist & repertoire) course and a study group that produced two “concept proposals” for a newly debuting K-pop male idol group and 2) sixteen in-depth interviews with the organization’s staff, guest lecturers, and students. Based on such data, I find that the substance and form of vocational training have important implications for how different individuals–especially young women–are (re)socialized into the world of K-pop and begin to see, hear, and think like a producer who treats K-pop as a vocation, rather than solely as an object of consumption. I conclude that future studies of K-pop will benefit from conceptualizing K-pop production as a sustained collective activity carried out by a workforce whose reproduction requires a set of hiring, training, and mentoring processes; that is, without understanding the organizational socialization of individuals who partake in K-pop production, we cannot fully make sense of the symbolic elements of K-pop.

Drawing on fieldwork conducted on K-pop cover dance in southwest Chinese cities (Kunming and Chengdu) from May 2022 to February 2024, this paper examines the intersection of K-pop cover dance, referred to locally as Hanguk Dance (Hanwu), with hip-hop/jazz dances (street dance, jiewu), and its role in shaping Chinese perceptions of neoliberal capitalism as mediated through Korea. Through participant observations of K-pop cover dance events, in-depth interviews, and extensive causal conversations with both amateur and professional dancers, this paper explores how these dancers conceptualize the relationship between K-pop and hip-hop/jazz, and its cultural, economic, and political contexts.

As I demonstrate, the younger generation of Chinese dancers, whether amateur K-pop cover dancers or professional hip-hop dancers, tend to overlook the Black traditions underlying hip-hop and jazz, focusing solely on them as technical movements. In contrast, when they perceive K-pop choreography, which has been heavily influenced by hip-hop and jazz, they often consider it as Korean in cultural and ethnic terms. The conflicting viewpoints between these two communities primarily stem from their differing levels of respect for K-pop as a fandom culture. In doing so, I underscore the combined role of mediatized dance studios, neoliberal Chinese urban space, and the post-socialist state. I specifically focus on a dance crew called the Yunnan Ethnic Street Dance Crew when they vigorously incorporate ethnic dances from southwest China into hip-hop while actively promoting K-pop cover dance. In doing so, I question to what extent Hanguk dance is an ethnic dance in their practice.