This book introduces readers to the historical, performative, and cultural context of pansori, a traditional Korean oral story-singing art. Written by a scholar-practitioner of the form, this study is structured in three parts and begins by introducing readers to the technical, aesthetic, and theoretical components of pansori, as well as the synthesis of vocal and … [Read More]
Booklist: Music history
You Call That Music?! Korean Popular Music Through the Generations
You Call That Music?!: Korean Popular Music Through the Generations provides a critical overview of the history of Korean popular music from 1920 to the 2000s from the perspective of cultural history. First published in Korean in 2017 by one of the best-known critics, Lee Young-Mee, this book is a timely and much-needed source of information on Korean … [Read More]
Sound of the Border: Music and Identity of Korean Minority Nationality in China
Using ethnographic data collected in China and South Korea between 2004 and 2011, Sound of the Border provides a comprehensive view of the music of Koreans in China (Chaoxianzu), from its time as manifestation of a displaced culture to its return home after more than a century of amalgamation and change in China. As the first English-language … [Read More]
Soul in Seoul: African American Popular Music and K-pop
From the publisher’s website: K-pop (Korean popular music) reigns as one of the most popular music genres in the world today, a phenomenon that appeals to listeners of all ages and nationalities. In Soul in Seoul: African American Popular Music and K-pop, Crystal S. Anderson examines the most important and often overlooked aspect of K-pop: the … [Read More]
Presence Through Sound: Music and Place in East Asia
Presence Through Sound narrates and analyses, through a range of case studies on selected musics of China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Tibet, some of the many ways in which music and ‘place’ intersect and are interwoven with meaning in East Asia. It explores how place is significant to the many contexts in which music is made … [Read More]
Broken Voices: Postcolonial Entanglements and the Preservation of Korea’s Central Folksong Traditions
From the publisher’s website: Broken Voices is the first English-language book on Korea’s rich folksong heritage, and the first major study of the effects of Japanese colonialism on the intangible heritage of its former colony. Folksongs and other music traditions continue to be prominent in South Korea, which today is better known for its technological … [Read More]
K-pop – The International Rise of the Korean Music Industry
From the publisher’s website: K-pop, described by Time Magazine in 2012 as “South Korea’s greatest export”, has rapidly achieved a large worldwide audience of devoted fans largely through distribution over the Internet. This book examines the phenomenon, and discusses the reasons for its success. It considers the national and transnational conditions that have played a … [Read More]
Korean Musical Drama: P’ansori and the Making of Tradition in Modernity
From the publisher’s website: P’ansori is the quintessential traditional Korean musical drama, in which epic tales are sung and narrated by a solo singer accompanied by a drummer. Drawing on her extensive research in Korea and its diasporas, Haekyung Um describes and analyses the creative processes of p’ansori, weaving into her discussion musical, social and … [Read More]
Made in Korea: Studies in Popular Music
From the publisher’s website: Made in Korea: Studies in Popular Music serves as a comprehensive and thorough introduction to the history, sociology, and musicology of contemporary Korean popular music. Each essay covers the major figures, styles, and social contexts of pop music in Korea, first presenting a general description of the history and background of popular music … [Read More]
SamulNori: Korean Percussion for a Contemporary World
From the publisher’s website: SamulNori is a percussion quartet which has given rise to a genre, of the same name, that is arguably Korea’s most successful ’traditional’ music of recent times. Today, there are dozens of amateur and professional samulnori groups. There is a canon of samulnori pieces, closely associated with the first founding quartet … [Read More]
Performing the Nation in Global Korea: Transnational Theatre
From the publisher’s website: This book illustrates how local awareness of Western cultural hegemonic entities such as Broadway and Shakespeare have been implemented within South Korean theatre in the global era. With a focus on performances that targeted global audiences, Lee explores the ways in which Korea’s nationalistic desires for global visibility are projected on … [Read More]
Key Papers on Korea: Essays Celebrating 25 Years of the Centre of Korean Studies, SOAS, University of London
Key Papers on Korea is a commemorative collection of papers celebrating 25 years of the Centre of Korean Studies (CKS), SOAS, University of London that have been written by senior academics and emerging scholars. The subjects covered in this collection reflect the different research interests and different strengths of the CKS and include historical perceptions of … [Read More]
Korean P’ansori Singing Tradition: Development, Authenticity, and Performance History
In 2003, the Korean singing tradition of p’ansori joined the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, a distinctive honor bestowed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. P’ansori is a music genre—an oral tradition comprising arias and narratives. Often the individual singer acts out the story of young and old, … [Read More]
Music as Intangible Cultural Heritage: Policy, Ideology, and Practice in the Preservation of East Asian Traditions
Focussing on music traditions, these essays explore the policy, ideology and practice of preservation and promotion of East Asian intangible cultural heritage. For the first time, Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan – states that were amongst the first to establish legislation and systems for indigenous traditions – are considered together. Calls to preserve the intangible … [Read More]
KPOP: Roots and Blossoming of Korean Popular Music
Publisher description: K-pop, referring to pop and dance music performed by idol groups mainly targeted at teens, has been expanding in popularity beyond Asia to Europe and South America. It was the 1990s when this school of music first appeared in Korea, but its emergence was not abrupt and its roots are sunk deep into … [Read More]
Music in Korea: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture
From the publisher’s website: Despite its longstanding position as a distinct cultural force in East Asia, Korea continues to be underrepresented in world music texts. Music in Korea is the first brief, single-volume text to provide a thematic, succinct introduction to the music of Korea—a region whose volatile political climate has often overshadowed its rich cultural and … [Read More]