Sociologist John Lie, a professor of sociology and the chairman of the Center for Korean Studies at UC Berkeley, attempts to answer this question with his upcoming book “K-pop: Popular Music, Cultural Amnesia and Economic Innovation in South Korea.”
By discussing the preconditions and changes in South Korea that led to the development of export-oriented K-pop, Lie provides a detailed analysis of the music genre to explain the country’s economic, social and cultural transformations.