Claire’s Posts
K-pop Legend That Inspires Me as a Communicator
I’m a big fan of K-pop and I believe that K-pop influences me a lot throughout middle school and college. One person that inspires me as a communicator is Lee Soo-man, a South Korean record producer and the founder of SM Entertainment. There are many famous idol groups and solo artists under this entertainment company, and lots of them have achieved success in both music and business field. I admire Lee Soo-man’s courage and ambition to be creative in music and integrate music with other different elements to communicate with or send messages to music lovers and mass culture.
Lee Soo-man was a pioneer of building both male and female idol groups while other entertainment companies were trying to put resources on building and promoting solo artists. And with the development of SM entertainment and K-pop’s influence in Asia and the world, the company’s idol groups were built uniquely and featured with talented members and distinct musical styles. From large idol groups like Super Junior and Girl’s Generation to small groups like f(x) and Shinee, the company changed the general impression of idol groups and produced innovative ideas for each idol group’s growth. Without Lee Soo-man and his insight for idol groups, the K-pop industry wouldn’t be as prosperous as today.
Besides new ways for building idol groups, Lee Soo-man also led SM Entertainment to become creative in their artists’ music styles and combining music with other elements to communicate with the public. Not only did female idol groups and male idol groups perform different kinds of music composed by composers from all over the world, but also, they presented their songs in creative ways, which could be embodied by their music videos, beautiful clothes and catchy dances in their live performances. All of these added to the popularity of SM idol groups and the public’s expectation for each comeback. And K-pop even brought the improvement of the Korean fashion industry and the film-making industry as well.
Nowadays, when plenty of Korean entertainment companies tried to follow SM Entertainment and other big entertainment companies’ steps and build idol groups, the K-pop market seemed to saturate with similar music styles. Yet, Lee Soo-man and SM Entertainment worked hard to innovate new plans for idol groups. One of them is to blend music pieces with concepts that would be mostly social issues. For instance, SM Entertainment present active female idol group Red Velvet has released a ballad named “One of These Nights”, and many people analyzed that this song’s music video was actually in memory of people who died from the Sewol ferry disaster. By incorporating social issues with songs, Lee Soo-man and SM Entertainment attempted to bring more values to idol groups and K-pop instead of merely producing musical work that would please everyone.
Analysis on “The Truth About Your Chinese Takeout Box”
I watched “The Truth About Your Chinese Takeout Box” produced by Great Big Story. The video is mainly about how the Chinese Takeout Box developed and increased its popularity through time. I was surprised and attracted when I saw the clip and agreed that this is a great example of cultural analysis in several aspects.
First of all, the content of the video is well-structured. The video starts with the conclusion that Chinese Takeout Box is actually American, which surprises me and encourages me to discover the reason behind this truth in the following content. Then the narrative of the Chinese Takeout Box in this video goes with the flow of history as well as the box’s own development in Chinese food industry. The final reversal of the fact that Chinese Takeout Box is never used in China in the end of the video seems to reinforce the truth that Chinese Takeout Box has no relationship with China, which resonates with the beginning of the video and creates even more humorous atmosphere into the video.
The narrating style is very creative and capturing my attention. Besides the description of the story of Chinese Takeout Box, the narrator utilizes onomatopoetic words like the burping sound and “Mmmm” that imitates sound during eating. And the use of onomatopoeia in various parts of the video is spoken in different tones, which hooks and engages me throughout the video.
On top of that, I also noticed the visual of the video and considered it as one of the most intriguing components of the video. The clip’s background is only consisted of red color, which easily made me think of Chinese red and China. And the use of clear historical contexts like videos and newspapers also make it easier for me to understand the whole story of Chinese Takeout Box. When the narrator is talking about the convenience of the box in post-war boom, the suburbs are shown by little cute building blocks along with Chinese Takeout box. This innovative way of presenting the increasing popularity of the box attracts me as well.
Overall, I think that this video effectively presents the invention of Chinese Takeout Box and the development of it. The producer uses reverse facts at both the introduction and the conclusion of the video to challenge my perception about Chinese Takeout Box, draw me into the topic and keep me engaged in watching the clip. The combination of Chinese food culture and western packaging style is really a great angle in telling the story of Chinese Takeout Box and analyzing the influence of the mix and development of two distinct culture. If I were the producer, I would also start from the perspective of culture, but I might explain it in other ways like animating the Chinese Takeout Box and letting it tell its own story, narrating the truth of the box within the setting of Chinese restaurants and comparing it with similar boxes from other culture.
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