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Strumming a place of one's own: gender, independence and the East Asian pop-rock screen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2013

Eva Tsai  and
Hyunjoon Shin
Eva Tsai
Affiliation:
Graduate Institute of Mass Communication, National Taiwan Normal University, 162 Heping E. Road, Sec. 1, Taipei 106, Taiwan E-mail: etsai@ntnu.edu.tw
Hyunjoon Shin
Affiliation:
Institute for East Asian Studies, Sungkonghoe University, Hang-dong 1-1, Guro-gu, Seoul 152-716, Korea E-mail: homey81@gmail.com
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Abstract

The first decade of the 21st century has seen a concurrent rise of pop-rock screen productions in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, particularly feature films, documentaries and TV series informed by the guitar and/or band culture. This paper probes the popularisation of pop-rock in the region and asks what gender and sexual expressions have been mobilised in such productions and representations. The paper juxtaposes dominant gender tropes, such as the failing male rocker in search of rebirth (Korea), romantic youth pursuing authenticity (Japan), dazzling but also bedazzled rocker-girl on stage (Japan), indie music goddess in control of subdued femininity (Korea) and peripheral girl-with-acoustic-guitar who chronicles boys' sorrow (Taiwan). Responding to the familiar myth of rebellion in pop-rock discourses, our inter-referential analysis suggests that East Asian pop-rock screen is about the making of heterotopias rather than utopias.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 32 , Issue 1: East Asian popular music and its (dis)contents , January 2013 , pp. 7 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

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Filmography

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