Pop City: Korean Popular Culture and the Selling of Place

Pop City explores how Korean television dramas and K-pop music are used to promote urban and rural places in South Korea, arguing that pop culture-featured place marketing dominates urban space by capital in more sophisticated and fetishized ways.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 252 pages
Publication date: 15 March 2021
Publisher: Cornell University Press

Pop City delves into the captivating world of Korean television dramas and K-pop music, exploring their powerful role in promoting both urban and rural destinations in South Korea. Building upon the pervasive influence of Korean pop culture, Youjeong Oh contends that pop culture-featured place selling serves as a bridge between two distinct realms: political decentralization and the global dissemination of Korean popular culture. Through a comprehensive analysis of the process of culture-featured place marketing, Pop City unveils the intricate ways in which urban spaces are crafted and marketed, akin to the production and promotion of TV dramas and pop idols. Oh's insightful examination reveals that these spaces are predominantly marketed through the creation and dissemination of spectacular images, rather than relying on tangible physical and cultural attributes.

Furthermore, Oh's research demonstrates how the speculative, image-based, and consumer-exploitive nature of popular culture shapes the commodification of urban space. He argues that pop culture-mediated place promotion entails a more sophisticated and fetishized domination of urban space by capital, which operates in ways that are both subtle and profound.

In conclusion, Pop City offers a thought-provoking exploration of the intersection between Korean television dramas, K-pop music, and the promotion of urban and rural spaces in South Korea. Through its meticulous analysis, it sheds light on the ways in which pop culture shapes the commodification of urban space, ultimately contributing to the domination of urban areas by capital in increasingly sophisticated and fetishized manners. This book is a valuable resource for scholars, researchers, and anyone interested in understanding the complex dynamics of culture, media, and urbanization in contemporary South Korea.

Weight: 396g
Dimension: 152 x 230 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781501755538