From Hybridity of Cultural Production to Hyperreality of Post-feminism in K-pop: A Theoretical Reconsideration for Critical Approaches to Cultural Assemblages in Neoliberal Culture Industry

This paper evaluates a current discourse of cultural hybridity that is deployed to examine the global success of local popular culture from South Korea. Indicating the discourse is descriptive without retaining an explanatory merit, I propose an alternative perspective based on Jean Baudrillard’s notion of simulation and hyperreality, while focusing on the political economy of cultural hybridization. Examining how the Korean popular music (K-pop) industry mixes various audio-visual elements, I argue cultural hybridity in K-pop is not so much an autonomous, self-reflective cultural endeavor as an industrial means to maximize profits while perpetuating the status quo of gender relations. Re-inserting K-pop within the industry’s structural configurations, I analyze how and why a hyper-real personality of female idols who sport contradictory characteristics, innocence and explicit sexuality, becomes a new ideal femininity. Indicating neoliberal and post-feminist ramifications in K-pop’s hybridity, I redress the myopic, descriptive nature of the current scholarship.