R. Anderson Sutton

10.18399/acta.2009.12.1.002

hybridity Korean traditional music (kugak) aesthetics Fusion reception

Western music and musical elements have played a major role in Korea—not only in the direct performance of Western classical and popular music, but also in the varieties of hybrid mixes and interactions involving Korean and Western repertory, instruments, and stylistic features. From the popular shin minyo and t’ŭrot’ŭ songs that first appeared during the Japanese colonial period to the composer-based art music known as ch’angjak kugak that has flourished in the years since independence, Korea has developed a broad array of music that is distinctly “Korean” and yet also clearly indebted to foreign (primarily Western) music. Among these an increasingly important category is “p’yujŏn (“fusion”) music, which differs from ch’angjak kugak in its emphasis on commercial appeal and popularity. But while Korean fusion music has been growing in popularity in Korea, and Korean fusion musicians have been making international tours, its reception overseas is not uniformly positive. This article explores the international exposure that Korean fusion music has experienced in recent years and proposes some reasons for its mixed reception. The findings of the article are based on evidence of various fusion musicians’ international tours, international collaborations, availability of recordings abroad, and a small sample of reactions by non-Korean audiences to Korean fusion music by Seulgidoong (Sŭlgi- dung), Samul Nori, Sagye, Kang Eunil/Haegum Plus (Kang Ŭnil/Haegŭm P’ŭllŏsŭ), and others. The paper seeks to uncover what aspects appeal to foreign audiences and what aspects are disliked. Central to the ambivalent reactions is a combination of orientalist expectations and a sense that some hybrid mixes use harmonic clichés, grating or shrill timbres, or overly sentimental arrangements. Individual tastes differ even among audience members of similar backgrounds, but it seems that foreign audiences are more likely to be drawn to traditional kugak than to Korean fusion music, seeing the latter as inauthentic and shallow, even though many Koreans find traditional kugak to be strange, boring, or linked to a past they feel they have long left behind and therefore would prefer fusion as the Korean music of the present.