Industrial Hip Hop against the Hip Hop Industry

The Critical Noise of XXX

Authors

  • Pil Ho Kim The Ohio State University
  • Wonseok Lee The Ohio State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.42673

Keywords:

industrial hip hop, noise, XXX, gukhip, SMTM

Abstract

Since its humble beginnings about three decades ago, South Korea’s national hip hop scene (gukhip) has grown to a formidable industry that runs the gamut from cutting-edge underground artists to mainstream K-pop idol rappers. In recent years, the cable TV audition programme Show Me the Money (SMTM) has become the gukhip industry’s ultimate gatekeeper as many aspiring hip hop artists increasingly depend on making it on the show to advance their careers. In this article, we focus on XXX, an underground hip hop duo who bucks this commercial trend of gukhip in both sound and message. Their noise-filled beats and shifting grooves echo the avant garde aesthetics and confrontational attitudes of industrial music, and their words are harshly critical of the money-driven gukhip culture as represented by SMTM. We provide a musicological analysis of XXX’s own version of industrial hip hop and examine what makes their “outsider” status sustainable vis-à-vis the gukhip industry.

Author Biographies

  • Pil Ho Kim, The Ohio State University

    Pil Ho Kim is an assistant professor of Korean studies at the Ohio State University. His research covers a wide range of topics related to modern Korea, including popular music, cinema and urban culture. He is currently writing a book manuscript on Gangnam, the geographic symbol for the global rise of South Korean economy and popular culture.

  • Wonseok Lee, The Ohio State University

    Wonseok Lee is a PhD student in ethnomusicology at the Ohio State University. His research focuses on what is the exact meaning of “K” in K-pop, under the circumstances that the presence of non-Korean members and singing in non-Korean languages are common in the field. As a professional drum/percussion player, he also worked with K-pop artists for many years, including Lee Hyori, Shinhwa, BuskerBusker, SG Wannabe, among others.

References

Appert, Catherine. 2018. In Hip Hop Time: Music, Memory, and Social Change in Urban Senegal. New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190913489.001.0001

Baur, Steven. 2012. "Backbeat". Grove Music Online. https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2227622

Caramanica, Jon. 2015. "Getting Rowdy: Keith Ape and Real Rap in Korea". The New York Times, 13 August. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/arts/music/getting-rowdy-keith-ape-and-real-rap-in-korea.html

Crow, Thomas. 1996. Modern Art in the Common Culture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Doyle, Tom. 2015. "Throbbing Gristle 'Hamburger Lady'". Sound on Sound, August. https://www.soundonsound.com/people/throbbing-gristle-hamburger-lady

Elibert, Mark. 2018. "XXX Talks New Album 'Language' and the State of South Korean Hip-Hop: 'We're Very Angry'". Billboard, 10 December. https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/8489419/xxx-language-album-interview

Eng, Eddie. 2017. "EXCLUSIVE: Rare, Uncut Interview with Kanye West on J Dilla, Music/Fashion Parallels and Chicago". Hyperbeast, 7 March. https://hypebeast.com/2017/3/kanye-west-2013-rare-interview-exclusive

Hanley, Jason J. 2004. "'The Land of Rape and Honey': The Use of World War II Propaganda in the Music Videos of Ministry and Laibach". American Music 22/1: 158-75. https://doi.org/10.2307/3592974

-- 2011. "Metal Machine Music: Technology, Noise, and Modernism in Industrial Music 1975-1996". PhD dissertation, Stony Brook University. https://dspace.sunyconnect.suny.edu/handle/1951/56018

Hare, Sarah and Andrea Baker. 2017. "Keepin' It Real: Authenticity, Commercialization, and the Media in Korean Hip Hop". SAGE Open. April-June: 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017710294

Hegarty, Paul. 2006. "Noise Music". The Semiotic Review of Books 16/1-2: 1-5.

-- 2007. Noise/Music: A History. New York: Continuum.

Herman, Tamar. 2019. "SM Entertainment A&R Chris Lee Talks 'Cultural Technology' and Creating K-pop Hits". Billboard, 5 August. https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/international/8526172/chris-lee-sm-entertainments-kpop-interview

Hwang, Sun-woo and Yoo-kyung Choi. 2016. "Unknown Pleasures". W Korea, 15 April (in Korean). http://www.wkorea.com/2016/04/15/unknown-pleasures/

Im, Do-hyeon. 2018. "Moonshine Interview". Hiphop Playa, 20 February (in Korean). https://hiphopplaya.com/g2/bbs/board.php?bo_table=magazine&wr_id=33523

Im, Hui-yun. 2019. "The Korean Hip Hop Duo XXX Getting More Attention from US Media Such as The New York Times and Pitchfork". Dong-A Ilbo, 15 January (in Korean). http://www.donga.com/news/View/Footer/article/all/20190115/93701902/1

Kang, Daehan and Woongap Jueng. 2017. "Semiotic Research about Dominant and Counter Part Myths, 'Dragon Rises from Small Stream' and 'Spoon Class Theory' on South Korea" [sic]. Jeongchi keomyunikeisyeon yeongu [Political Communication Studies] 46: 103-142 (in Korean). https://doi.org/10.35731/kpca.2017..46.004

Kim, Hakseon. 2015. "A Few Stories about ESENS, 'The Anecdote'". MediaUS, 6 September (in Korean). http://m.mediaus.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=50205

Kim, Joshua Minsoo. 2019. "XXX: Second Language". Pitchfork, 27 February. https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/xxx-second-language/

Kim, Kyung Hyun. 2019. "Becoming-Black: Exploring Korean Hip Hop in the Age of Hallyu". Situations 12/1: 23-46.

Kim, Michelle. 2018. "XXX: Language". Pitchfork, 27 December. https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/xxx-language/

Kim, Pil Ho. 2016. "Hybridity of Cultural Nationalism in Korean Popular Music: From Saeui Chanmi to Jeongtong Hip Hop". Korean Journal of Popular Music 18: 219-46.

Kim, Tae-ryong and Gi-deok Kim. 2017. "The Present and Future Task of Korean Underground Hip Hop from a Perspective of 'Show Me the Money'". Tongil inmunhak [Reunification Humanities] 71: 139-67 (in Korean). http://www.riss.kr/link?id=A103527372 https://doi.org/10.21185/jhu.2017.09.71.139

Koo, Se-woong. 2015. "Korea, Thy Name is Hell Joseon". Korea Exposé, 22 September, https://www.koreaexpose.com/korea-thy-name-is-hell-joseon/

Kromhout, Melle Jan. 2011. "'Over the Ruined Factory There's a Funny Noise': Throbbing Gristle and the Mediatized Roots of Noise in/as Music". Popular Music and Society 34/1: 23-34. https://doi.org/10.1080/03007766.2011.539814

Kwon, Su-bin. 2015. "f(x) Release '4 Walls' Remix in Collaboration with BANA Artists". News 1, 6 November (in Korean). http://news1.kr/articles/?2480152

Lee, Elaine YJ. 2018. "XXX Language Interview: Kim Ximya and FRNK's Exclusive Language". Hypebeast, 28 November (in Korean). https://hypebeast.kr/2018/11/xxx-language-interview-frnk-kim-ximya

Lee, Eun-Joo. 2013. "The Core of Creative Economy is Contents Industry Made up of Korean People's Cultural DNA". Seoul Shinmun, 28 October (in Korean). http://www.seoul.co.kr/news/newsView.php?id=20131028017008

Lee, Jung-yup. 2016. "Broadcasting Media and Popular Music: Institution, Technologies, and Power". In Made in Korea: Studies in Popular Music, edited by Hyunjoon Shin and Seung-ah Lee, 35-45. New York: Routledge.

Mitchell, W. J. T. 2005. "Art". In New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society, edited by Tony Bennett, Lawrence Grossberg and Meaghan Morris, 6-8. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Mnet Official. 2018. "Show Me the Money777", episode 1. YouTube, 7 September. https://youtu.be/O8A1UzLEPEU?t=25

Na, Won-yeong and Gu-weon Jeong. 2019. "[Pros and Cons] XXX, Language". weiv, 3 April. http://www.weiv.co.kr/archives/24058

Pearce, Sheldon. 2019. "Radical Rapper Jpegmafia: 'Black people have things to be mad about'". The Guardian, 4 October. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/oct/04/jpegmafia-i-want-to-create-a-space-for-invisible-black-people

Reed, S. Alexander. 2013. Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music. New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199832583.001.0001

Rollefson, J. Griff. 2017. Flip the Script: European Hip Hop and the Politics of Post­coloniality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226496351.001.0001

Shelvock, Matthew T. 2020. Cloud-based Music Production: Sampling, Synthesis, and Hip-Hop. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351137102

Song, Myoung-Sun. 2019. Hanguk Hip Hop: Global Rap in South Korea. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15697-8

Um, Hae-kyung. 2013. "The Poetics of Resistance and the Politics of Crossing Borders: Korean Hip Hop and 'Cultural Reterritorialisation'". Popular Music 32/1: 51-64. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261143012000542

Whittall, Geoffrey. 2015. "Groove". Grove Music Online. https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-1002284508 https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2284508

Williams, Aaron. 2020. "Jpegmafia Doesn't Think Rap Fans Appreciate Producers". UPROXX, 16 March. https://uproxx.com/music/jpegmafia-peoples-party-producing-isnt-appreciated/

Woods, Bret D. 2007. "Industrial Music for Industrial People: The History and Development of an Underground Genre". Masters thesis, Florida State University. http://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/islandora/object/fsu%3A168948

Yang, Jae-young. 2016. "Korean Black Music and Its Culture". In Made in Korea: Studies in Popular Music, edited by Hyunjoon Shin and Seung-ah Lee, 95-106. New York: Routledge.

Yi, Jaemin and Jaebeom Kim. 2015. "An Exploratory Study of the Authenticity of Hip Hop in Korea: The Case of 'Show Me the Money 3'". Munhwa saneop yeongu [Culture Industry Studies] 15/2: 125-32 (in Korean). http://www.riss.kr/link?id=A100661019

Yonhap News Agency. 2020. "Five-Month-Old Boy Band X1 Disbands amid Vote-Rigging Scandal". The Korea Herald, 6 January. http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200106000797

Yu, Bo-gyeong. 2016. "The Reason Rappers Are Dying to Compete on 'Show Me The Money'". Ohfun, 27 December (in Korean). http://www.ohfun.net/?ac=article_view&entry_id=13660

Published

2021-02-15

How to Cite

Kim, P. H., & Lee, W. (2021). Industrial Hip Hop against the Hip Hop Industry: The Critical Noise of XXX. Journal of World Popular Music, 7(2), 190–208. https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.42673

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >>