In class we have studied many mediums that express the effects of globalization and glocalization.  K-pop shows these processes quite explicitly through their TV dramas that match Western dramas such as Sex in the City and Gossip Girl.  We also see examples of this in the show Tiny Times based in Shanghai.  When watching this show globalization and Americanization seem to be synonymous while looking at many of the trends and habits that East Asians are taking up.  In this show we see how capital is constantly exploiting different forms of labor in order to accomplish its commodification of social life (Hall, 30).  What these best friends choose to consume creates a structure of feeling of what type of world they envision themselves living in, which ironically usually re-creates the local in the global.  It is this global youth imaginary that contributes to the modulation of globalization, Americanization and pop commodities.  For example, Korea is somewhat forcibly fascinated with America, as a result from the Americanization so deeply embedded since the 1950s.  These days, people go as far as to get plastic surgery to increase their chances of employment.  Many of these plastic surgery procedures are used to make Asian women look more western.  

In the context of globalization, what has occurred amongst youth in South Korea is an emphasis on individuality, self-determination, and self-development.   This is also seen in Tiny Times through each of the girl’s own experiences in their self-development.  Based on their findings, in “College Rank, and Neoliberal Subjectivity in South Korea: The Burden of Self-Development”, it appears that South Korean youth tend to envision and measure self-development in the context of aspects such as family and material achievements (i.e. the national and perhaps international ranking of the college they received a degree from). It is important to note that this commodification of self-achievement is not solely confined to South Korea, but is a commonly recurrent phenomenon in much of the rest of the world. However, it is interesting to observe how South Koreans in particular perceive and deal with these ideals in their cultural context.  Hall elaborates on this feeling by explaining how this intensification of culture in the “modern world” comes in many ways through historical identity, and a nations position in the commercial world.  This has also created an international interdependence.   Many East Asian’s believe in order to better their self-development they must attend college in the U.S. and contribute to this global cultural economy.  There seems to be a feeling of instability and incompleteness if one is not culturally sound and worldly.  The entire college process/experience has been globalized/glocalized as a way to contribute to commoditizing youth and looking at them as products with accessories such as a Duke degree.  

1. Cultural Harmonies: Successes and Failures of Musical Hybridity through International Collaboration
2. K-Pop Idols and Youth Body Imagery
3. Western Influences on K-Pop (Knife Party - Boss Mode)