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Pop Pacific

Pop Pacific

The “Pop Pacific,” focuses on the creation of transnational popular culture like K-pop and J-pop. The ancient Polynesians looked at the Pacific as a path connecting people rather than as a barrier separating them. The same can be said about Korean, Japanese, and American popular media culture originating from transpacific contact zones such as Japantowns and Koreatowns in the U.S, cosmopolitan cities in Asia-Pacific, or American military bases. This blog, written in a non-academic style, bridges fan posts and  academic readings. We welcome submissions or suggestions. Please send correspondence to Dr. Jayson Chun (jmchun@hawaii.edu) or Dr. Pat Patterson (ppatters@hawaii.edu).

Okabayashi Nobuyasu and the Rise of the Pop Gods
Transnational K-pop (part 1) - REMIX
What is J-pop and K-pop? (part 2) - K-pop innovations REMIX
What is K-pop and J-pop (part 1) J-pop roots REMIX
Asian Man, Black Woman (AMBW) and the K-pop and anime connection
Introduction to the Pop Pacific - REMIX
Asian Man, Black Woman (AMBW): Transpacific love emerging from the Shadows (part 1 introduction)
Generation Z is Japanese
Languages of the Pop Pacific - Japanese (part 2)
Radio Killed the Record Star
Languages of the Pop Pacific (part 2) – English
Reverse-engineering popular songs
Languages of the Pop Pacific (part 1) - Korean
Tokyo Ondo
The Hidden Mainstream
Baby Metal: Musical Entrepreneurs
The Great "Rokabirī" panic of 1958
Bedlam at the Nichigeki Theater: The Japanese Rokabirī (rockabilly) craze of 1958
“The Girl is Mine”: Selling Dreams in Akihabara
BLACKPINK, New Jeans, Stray Kids, Enhyphen, and NMIXX: Australian K-pop Idols
Kasagi Shizuko, Tokyo Boogie Woogie and the Reinvention of Post War Japanese Popular Culture
Patti Kim: US Bases, Korea and popular music in the 1950s
Apples, boogie and shamisen: A Brief look at Japanese Popular Music during the Allied Occupation
J-pop is J-WAVE Pop
American Bases: Crucibles of the Pop Pacific
The Wildcat of Shanghai
Manila Sound and the Roots of Pinoy Pop
Something Old and Something New
Transnational K-pop, part 3 (China)
Tokyo March
Transnational K-pop (2): “K” as Asian America
Forging the formula: the making of Japan’s first “hit song,” 1914
Transnational K-pop (part 1)
The “Butterfly” effect: how a Boston music teacher and an ambitious Japanese bureaucrat changed Japanese music
Hawai'i, Okinawa and the Pop Pacific
Shanghai: The 1930s, Jazz, and Popular Music in “The Paris of the East”
K-culture and J-culture
What is K-pop? (part 2)
What is K-pop and J-pop (part 1)
Prewar Transnational Pop Stars
Introduction to the Pop Pacific