In recent years, K-pop culture has gained a lot of popularity in Mexico and Latin America as a whole. K-pop has a huge fan base in the country and Latin America. This year alone, Mexico City has hosted many K-pop concerts. To a considerable extent, K-pop is interpreted and perceived as a multimedia exhibition emphasizing visual and auditory elements. Consequently, the publication of music videos and singles often co-occurs. Since 1994, many notable K-pop idols of Mexican and Korean mixed culture have entertained K-pop enthusiasts with sound-class concerts such as Samuel Kim and Carlos Galvan. Thus, K-pop culture in Mexico has gained much popularity and is slowly increasing in other Latin American cities.
There is a huge K-pop following in Mexico City, and KAMP Fest is one of the critical events that K-poppers would not miss. The massive following of Mexican K-pop culture within the City is attributed to K-pop dance academies that offer dancing classes for people to perfect their moves. The diverse musical styles represented in K-pop, its high production values, and the marketing tactics employed by the Korean entertainment business to appeal to the world’s constantly evolving consumer tastes all contribute to the genre’s massive popularity (Zuart, 2023). K-pop is familiar and alien since it draws as a result of multiple allusions; it cannot be deemed an innovative departure from well-established musical styles or a profoundly ingrained ubiquitous phenomenon allusions. Fans often mention how K-pop’s ability to encompass many different musical styles initially appealed to them because it is both novel and perhaps counterintuitively familiar. Fans’ perceptions of pop music are partly shaped by the K-pop industry’s branding, which is innovative and forward-thinking.
The success of Korean pop music in Mexico is evidence of the genre’s widespread appeal to the modern generation. People from various countries and experiences have been drawn to the show by its captivating performers, intricate choreography, and appealing musical compositions. The proliferation of social media platforms has also served to amplify this appeal since it allows fans to exchange content, participate in fan culture, and keep up with the most recent news regarding K-pop (Yoo, 2023). The ultimate result is a thriving fan community that is deeply interwoven and defies traditional geographical limitations. Additionally, streaming services have also been a significant contributor to the globalization of the entertainment industry by making it more straightforward for musicians from other countries to connect with fans in other countries. K-pop record labels have made the most of this opportunity by vigorously promoting their artists in Mexico. These labels have organized concerts, fan meetups, and other events to build a substantial fan base and promote interest in K-Pop merchandising.
In Mexico, a pervasive and dynamic auditory phenomenon exists wherein the vibrant and energetic cadence of K-pop music permeates the atmosphere, captivating an increasingly expanding demographic. The global influence of Korean pop culture persists, exerting a profound impact on the Latino nation’s music, lifestyle, and economy. The data reveals a notable surge of 44 percent in online purchases of products related to K-Pop from January to September in the current year, as reported by the online shopping platform (Yoo, 2023). Backpacks, Korean mask kits, and Black pink t-shirts are desired by the typical K-Pop fan in Mexico, who is willing to spend roughly 1,000 pesos on merchandise. Not only have online sales increased because of the K-Pop craze, but so have sales at brick-and-mortar retailers stocking similar merchandise. The buildup reached its apex in April when news of the country’s inaugural K-Pop music festival began circulating.
Major corporations are deftly weaving themselves into the storyline of the K-Pop explosion to show their support for the genre. Starbucks, a well-known corporation for its strategic collaborations, recently released a collection created in collaboration with Black Pink, regarded as one of the most popular acts in Korea (Oberoi, 2023). Due to this action, Starbucks could reach out to the K-Pop fandom and provide its consumers with an experience that was contemporary and culturally relevant.
Academic discourse, experts in K-pop concur that due to South Korea’s longstanding reliance on exports, K-pop represents a genre of musical output intentionally crafted for consumption in foreign markets. The term “K-pop” carries connotations of an external perspective, even though K-pop is primarily a product rooted in Korean ideology. Possessing a Korean bloodline while remaining a citizen of the world is integral to the definition of K-pop and gives rise to a sense of identity crisis (Oberoi, 2023). The K-pop industry exhibits a dual-orientation, engaging in local and global competition, exemplified through its promotional strategies. Original K-pop songs are typically appealing, while the lyrics are available in Korean and English. They are frequently translated into additional languages to ensure competitiveness in non-South Korean market regions. Given the present assertive efforts being undertaken by K-pop entertainment enterprises in international markets, alongside the seamless dissemination facilitated by the Internet, the genre has successfully transcended geographical boundaries, particularly in Latin America. This expansion has resulted in unparalleled popularity and acknowledgment, surpassing that of other Asian pop music genres in the region.
Although K-pop groups have already made an impression on Mexican popular culture, men’s performances of feminine choreography have made an even bigger impression on the Mexican public and the local K-pop counter public (Yoo, 2023). The K-pop cover dance’s reception on Mexican social media and the dancers’ metapragmatic discourse regarding their practices sheds light on violating categories that hold significance within the local context, as Yoo (2023) observes. Male K-pop performers who employ citational embodiment to represent female K-pop stars are typically portrayed as unconventional, gender-nonconforming individuals.
Mexico’s vernacularization of Korean pop music along with its mischievous capacity can be found in the statement that “citational acts can open up new horizons of possibility, signification, and performative power” (Yoo, 2023). Through the temporary embodiment of a mediatized figure, young Mexican men can perform K-pop cover dances, which allows them to negotiate gender norms and entail something new. Repetition and recreation give rise to semiotic excesses, transform local activities into new meanings, and form fan (inter)subjectivities.
In conclusion, the discourses and performances of Mexican K-pop fans on social media have been analyzed, with a particular focus on references to the mediatized K-pop idol, who represents an idealized and desired ethnic other. Fans of K-pop may emit a contagious vitality for K-pop to notions of Koreans and Asians according to how they understand their activities. The understanding of K-pop fan activities accounts for the sociohistorical specificities of Asian racialization in Mexico, the character’s growth is both impacted by and a consequence of prevailing prejudices regarding race within the larger society. Metasomatic expressions of fan diversity, including inclusivism and intellectual curiosity, form the foundation for new subjectivities that followers appropriate as their own through K-pop.
References
BNN. (2023, August). ‘Music Bank in Mexico’: Unveiling the Power of K-pop in Latin America. Retrieved November 9, 2023, from https://bnn.network/arts/music/music-bank-in-mexico-unveiling-the-power-of-k-pop-in-latin-america/
Oberoi, S. (2023, October 31). The K-pop beat in Mexico: A Symphony of Global Appeal and Cultural Fusion. BNN Breaking. https://bnn.network/arts/the-k-pop-beat-in-mexico-a-symphony-of-global-appeal-and-cultural-fusion/
Yoo, J. (2023). A Raciosemiotics of Appropriation: Transnational Performance of Raciogender among Mexican K-Pop Fans. Signs and Society, 11(1), 68–92.
Zuart, L. (2023, May 13). K-pop culture is popular in Mexico. Latin Times. https://www.latintimes.com/k-pop-culture-actually-popular-mexico-544060
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