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[I can now tell that] cultural content can be more powerful than guns and swords … After I’ve been travelling around the world, I realized that “the world is big and there’s lots to do” like the book title written by Kim Woo-Jung, the former chairperson of Dae-Woo Group. Then, it came to my mind that I should become a powerful (cultural) product which can represent the made-in Korea brand in the global cultural content market … I also realized that the most Koreanized is not necessarily the most globalized. Representing things overly Koreanized often can be a reason of failure. Thus, the best solution I found is the amalgamation between something Korean (Asian) and something global. —Rain, from an interview with G. H. Lee on January 3, 2010 In this concluding chapter, I look at some of the most recent developments in South Korean popular culture, using the example of idol boy bands and their manufactured versatile masculinity. I argue that, in addition to mugukjeok or the effort to make South Korean stars Asianized and/or globalized and to play down their Korean specificity, another characteristic is increasingly demanding of attention. This is chogukjeok (cross- or trans-national[ity], 초국적, 超國籍), or the tendency to retain national specificity while deploying it as part of a transborder and multinational cultural figuration. It appears that such tendency is widely practiced and eagerly developed in the South Korean popular entertainment industry that is driven largely by its capitalist desires for globalization. In 2009, the year-end South Korean popular music (K-pop) festivals and awards were filled with pretty boys disguised as girls.1 At the SBS Music Festival (Gayo Daejeon), some of the top idol boy bands — Super Junior, SHINee, 2PM, 2AM, B2AST, MBLAQ — re-interpreted and re-presented the 2009 hit songs and dances of idol girl groups. Not only boys mimicking girls, but girl bands also performed the hit repertoires of boy bands. Such transgender role-playing practices among idol girl and boy groups were a huge trend in the K-pop scene in 2009, due mainly to the phenomenal success of many idol — particularly girl — groups in South Korea.2 In many game shows and music programs, wearing wigs and mini5 K-Pop Idol Boy Bands and Manufactured Versatile Masculinity: Making Chogukjeok Boys 164 Korean Masculinities and Transcultural Consumption skirts, idol boy group members repeatedly imitated girl group performances. Two of the most popularly mimicked pieces are Gee by Girls’ Generation (aka. SNSD) and Abracadabra by Brown Eyed Girls. In particular, the parody music video of Abracadabra by 2PM and 2AM has gained enormous recognition inside as well as outside South Korea, and has rewritten the history of the K-pop parody genre. One of many uploaded video clips on YouTube drew a total hit count of more than 1,150,000 (February 3, 2010). One of the performers, Jo Kwon, a leader of 2AM, has become the queen of the girl group mimickers and has conquered the South Korean entertainment industry by way of dizzily re-presenting all kinds of — sexy and cute — girl group performances on various television programs.3 In a game show, Quiz to Change the World (Sebaqui), after watching Jo Kwon’s performance, a veteran actor even remarks, “this is my first time to feel like being with a man [to be attracted to a man] after twenty-something years of my acting career” (broadcast on February 20, 2010). Not only the girl-mimicking feminized pretty boys, but the tough-looking boys, who show off their fully masculine features, have also attracted the nation’s attention in the year. Since late 2008, a few idol boy bands that claim to embody “beast-like” masculinity, such as 2PM, B2AST, and MBLAQ, have made their debuts. 2PM was unquestionably at the center of the nation’s feverish embrace of beast-like masculinity. 2PM, a six-member South Korean idol boy band, from JYPE debuted with their single, 10 Points Out of 10 (Sipjeom Manjeome Sipjeom), in September 2008.4 Since their debut, 2PM has been displaying dynamic acrobatic and b-boy dance styles, maximizing their tough manly images. Following their image of wild masculinity, the local media and netizens have nicknamed the group jimseungdol. Jimseungdol is a coined term that is a combination of a Korean word, jimseung (짐승, animal or beast), and dol from the word “idol”. Due to the increasing variety of idol girl and boy band branding, it has become a trend...

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