In 2013, Ailee released the song “U&I” as part of her new album “A’s Doll House”, and the music video has close to 10 million views on YouTube. The powerful vocals, stunning visuals and American-style theme are all examples of cultural hybridization to appeal to foreign audiences. As Ono and Kwon (2013, 206) stated, this is a common occurrence in the current evolution of K-Pop as a marketing strategy to succeed in the global market.
Nowadays, many contemporary K-pop songs contain English lyrics as part of the main body (Jin and Ryoo 2014, 114). Keeping up with the trend of popular K-pop songs, “U&I” is interspersed with catchy English phrases within the main chorus of the song. Following the trend of extremely successful songs such as Girl’s Generation’s “Gee” and Kara’s “Jumping”, ”many K-Pop musicians have widely adopted a catchy hook song” (Ibid., 125) and Ailee is no different, with the song’s main chorus ending with a series of the catchy and easy to remember English phrase “you and I”. By mixing two languages into the lyrics, it attempts to bridge a gap between foreign audiences with little understanding of Korean language and build a connection with the song.
Ailee is known for her powerful vocal talent, and she is often compared to western singers, sometimes known as the “Korean Beyoncé”. The song “U&I” features her powerful vocal and is accompanied by a band with drummers, guitarists and trumpet players. There is a noticeably absence of Korean-ness with the melody. By incorporating foreign influences within the song composition, the composers are trying to “appeal to as broad an audience as possible” (Fedorenko 2017, 499) as they understand the “relations with foreign fans and audiences [are] the driving [forces]” (Ibid.) behind Hallyu’s success internationally.
Aside from the vocals and lyrics of the song, K-Pop is especially “driven by the visual, not only via live performance on television but in music videos” (Epstein with Turnbull 2014, 316). With the growing sophistication of the Internet, there is an increasing number of available channels for K-Pop to grow in the global market. In particular, YouTube has been one of the most significant contributing factors to the success of K-Pop in western audiences, generating almost 100 million views for some K-Pop MVs (Ono and Kwon 2013, 207). As a result, “music has become something both to listen to and view” (Ono and Kwon 2013, 208) and the visual components of a music video contributes directly to the success and popularity of the song (Ibid.). For the MV of “U&I”, the background is intricately designed with stereotypical elements of popular American music culture. There are several notable objects that reappear throughout the MV symbolizing various western music genres, such as the leather jackets reminiscent of the rock & roll era, and the overabundance of flashy jewelry and glitter which were a staple in Broadway performances. By creating a set reminiscent of nineteenth-century Broadway with the flashing stage lights and signs, the video is combining international aspects of musical culture within a K-Pop music video.
In conclusion, “U&I” is one of Ailee’s first music videos to incorporate the concept of cultural hybridity to appeal to international audiences. Every aspect of the song and music video contains a hybridity of Korean-ness and American culture. The song allows viewers from overseas with little understanding of Korean culture and language to feel more connected and engaged with Ailee.
Author: Cathy Leung
Citations
Epstein, Stephen J., and James Turnbull. “Girls’ Generation? Gender, (Dis)Empowerment, and K-pop” In The Korean Popular Culture Reader, edited by Kyung Hyun Kim and Youngmin Choe. 314-36. Duke University Press, 2014.
Fedorenko, Olga. “Korean-Wave celebrities between global capital and regional nationalisms.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 18, no. 4 (2017): 498-517.
Jin, Dal Yong and Woongjae Ryoo. “Critical Interpretation of Hybrid K-Pop: The Global-Local Paradigm of English Mixing in Lyrics.” Popular Music and Society 37, no. 2 (2014): 113-31.
Ono, Kent A. and Jungmin Kwon. “Re-worlding culture: YouTube as a K-pop Interlocutor.” In The Korean Wave: Korean Media Go Global, edited by Youna Kim. 199-214. New York: Routledge, 2013.
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