Show Me the Money and the Diffusion of Hip Hop in Korea
Hip hop used to (and still does, to a lesser extent however) get a bad rap in Korea. Those who listened to or performed within the genre were associated with other things that are not seen in a favorable light, such as having tattoos or not having a high degree of education. Thus, although most people knew of hip hop and maybe even dabbled in it, most did not adopt it.
This is in tandem with the point made in class that while weak ties may be a source of new information / novel ideas, strong ties are often needed in order to cause a diffusion and adoption of these new things on a larger scale. Applied to this context, most people at knew of hip hop but did not have enough people in their ‘cluster’ in order for them to want to adopt – I believe that the ‘threshold’ would have been set somewhat high because of peoples’ desires to be in line with the social norms in Korea. Those who did listen therefore also probably were not very vocal about their interest in the genre.
When it comes to the popularization of a music genre, it is hard, if not impossible, to point at one thing and say, “this is what caused it all”. There are definitely many different factors that each contribute a fair amount, resulting in an aggregate effect of popularizing the type of music. One factor that has undoubtedly played an important role in recent years in the rise of hip hop in Korea has been the show, “Show Me the Money”. The show is an audition show where rappers, experienced or inexperienced, go through multiple elimination rounds in order to ultimately win a grand prize of 100 million KRW. Having watched the finale of the 7th season just last week, there are many things I think that Show Me the Money has done to catalyze and be a part of triggering the massive popularization of the genre in the past few years.
The most noticeable thing to me that is relevant to the topics covered in class is the people that the directors decide to show in each episode. The show switches its focus back and forth between the performances of the contestants and the faces of the judges and the audience. This is to show the comments that the judges make while the rappers are performing, or to show how much the audience seems to be enjoying the stage. Often, the spotlight on the audience goes to those who are either well-known or those who are attractive. Most of the time, these people tend to look like they are in their 20s. For example, in the live broadcast of last week’s season finale, actress Ha Yeon Soo was shown multiple times in the audience, and it was said that during the live broadcast last week, search queries for her name increased dramatically.
What the constant appearance of attractive or well-known people does is that it ‘creates neighbors’ for those who are watching the show or happen to see parts of the show on a clip anytime afterwards (for example, people who are not highly interested but see a part of the show on Youtube or through a friend). I believe that these people are able to become pseudo-neighbors to the viewers of the show because they possess favorable qualities that most people want to associate themselves with; attractive people, those who look trendy, or those who have considerable public fame. These are all positive qualities that make the target demographic of the show (late teens to late 20s) believe that there are many others who are similar to them who attend and enjoy such music.
The fact that many famous figures come out in the audience of Show Me the Money also holds significance in that they probably possess powerful, influential positions within many networks and clusters. Because they are known to so many people, by appearing on the show, they essentially create an edge between themselves and all the people who are watching who are familiar with and like the famous figure. As more of these people appear on the show over a period of time, watchers of the show develop more edges to people who have adopted hip hop, and therefore become more likely to cross the threshold and adopt the music themselves.
The rappers themselves who become the focus of the show also have considerable impact on the success of the acceptance of hip hop. The season 5 winner, BeWhy, became well-known during that season for his lack of use of profanities in his lyrics, and his highly religious song topics. Through such rappers, the information that hip hop culture should not necessarily be stereotyped the way it is conveyed widely through weak ties. This novel information through weak ties in combination with the increasing number of people adopting the music taste themselves creates pressure both from weak and strong ties for others to adopt. I believe these are some of the features of the show which have played and will continue to play an important role in the broadening of the hip hop audience in Korea.
https://medium.com/@93/a-look-into-korean-hip-hop-culture-16850a441019