[Article] 221112
"K-pop is now in the era of "Post Girl Crush"
The literary critic Shin Hyung-chul once defined the lyricism of the poem in this way by criticizing Na Hee-deok's poem. The time difference is when "too soon" is the time of the world and "too late" is my time. In other words, it is a poem that is the "fossil of conflict and clutter" caused by the failure of encounters between the world and others. Bringing this word and connecting it to other fields, I was slower than the world in the time difference of Korean hip-hop in the 00s. If the self-help and promise toward tomorrow from there were dominant emotions, Korean hip-hop says I am faster than the world since the 2010s. He achieved success faster than time in the world and came to the top of the society faster than others. This is the time difference of 'self-showoff', one of the traditional customs of hip-hop. And it is Girl Crush that has the same time difference as this in K-pop.
In fact, K-pop's girl crush has a personality that brings lyrics and stylistic elements from hip-hop and reverses gender. It is related to the background fact that agencies such as YG and JYP, which have attempted to lead this style, have musical roots in hip-hop or have referred to American hip-hop in content production. Of course, hip-hop is an extremely masculine genre. The emotions and goals that women expect from girl crush are contrary to that. However, when hip-hop's swagger is an attitude that shows off my style and life, there is an attitude that is certain of values such as self-love and affirmation of oneself. Women deserve to put themselves forward too and I want to say what I am. In other words, it is the type of girl crush composed of a cool and confident attitude that gives such a sense of freedom.
There is a question that follows here. If so, is the time difference correct? Am I really ahead of the world? Asking if the character as a rapper matches his life in reality is also the traditional custom of hip-hop, "sincerity." No one will believe that an unknown rapper who has just appeared in "Show Me the Money" has achieved wealth and honor. Furthermore, you can ask about the pleasure of self-show provided by hip-hop and the time difference between the reality of people who immerse themselves while listening to it. I once pointed out that Korean hip-hop constitutes a conservative ideology about society among the younger generation, reproducing the belief that self-made people are still possible in the reality that class movement has become difficult ('Korean hip-hop has become a preserve of self-development discourse').
The reality of Korean women also has a time difference with girl crush.
Their social situation is not yet as independent as the female image expressed by the song. However, the reason why this does not fall into an ideology that deceives reality is that people who listen to the song already know the gap from reality. The predominance of content that reflects women's wishes in the cultural industry, including K-pop, stems from the perception that women's subjectivity is alienated throughout the cultural community. At the bottom of it, there is an awakening to reality, and as a practice of changing it, there is a demand to provide a female image that is not distorted from a masculine perspective and a leading female image like men. In other words, if Korean hip-hop's self-show is a custom imported and popularized by creators, the girl crush trend has a characteristic that consumers have created from the base.
It has already been five or six years since the word girl crush began to be popular. For the convenience of discussion, the word girl crush is used, but in fact, there are times when I feel uncomfortable while using this word. This is because the context of the term that originally expressed the feelings of queer women can be blurred. Nevertheless, it is used because the reality and context of the girl group industry's change to women's orientation is meaningful, but now women-oriented girl groups have become the mainstream of K-pop so that they do not need to be referred to separately. Rather than the fact that the female idol fandom has become female, paying attention to the situation in which the state has gained universality can lead to a shift in discussion. There are still male fandom in this industry, but they also take content that reflects women's tastes as a matter of course and consume it. This means that it is necessary to pay attention to the state in which "girl crush" has become a universal style regardless of gender taste beyond the male taste concept and see what ripple effect it has.
Film theorist Laura Mulvey explained in the film that visual pleasure reproduces the structure of "male gaze" and women's appearance. A major change that has occurred in the female idol industry in recent years is the elimination of masculine applications. Women viewed with male desires are likely to be reproduced as passive objects that reflect their eyes. Female fans desire a character who looks at the world and the self as a subject, not an object of examination. This difference is bound to be divided from narrative and worldview as well as visual concepts. Female fans are strongly opposed to the transformation of girl crush into a sexy concept. Even if it is the same body-exposed costume, it detects differences in resolution and protests when it is sensational. Through active feedback, they reorganized the industry's standards with their own perspectives and tastes, and in the K-pop scene, one of the pronouns that represent Korea, "feminine gaze" has become a daily sense that replaces masculine examinations.
Looking back on the chronology of K-pop, it is not that there was no female-oriented group just because the male public was enthusiastic about girl groups, and even for Namcho fandom groups, women's tastes were not necessarily excluded. Compared to male idols, the consumers of female idols have always mixed gender, so the current period when the girl group industry has been unified toward women is meaningful to be distinguished from the past. Now, K-pop is saturated beyond the fact that girl crush has become the main stream.
NewJeanss, which recently debuted, is a sign of this supersaturated state. Although the proportion of female fans is larger than any other group, it was designed in a pure and sunny color, contrary to the mainstream concept of girl crush. As such, independent women are leaning within the theme and new alternatives emerge as a reaction, which is a typical phenomenon according to the development and maturity of the genre industry. This can be called a "post-girl crush," a stage that has become so common that there is no need for the word girl crush, a state where various girl crush planning has begun after girl crush.
