Post-Marxism and Howard's Korean Folk Songs for a Contemporary World

Yay! My first theoretical post!!!

Post-Marxism draws 2 conclusions about way of thinking about culture:
1)World exists outside culture but only in culture can the world be made to mean
2) The making of culture is always a potential site of struggle and/or negotiation

These can be related to Howard's article as follows:

1)World exists outside culture but only in culture can the world be made to mean
Howard: Korean folk songs have existed, but are made meaningful in context of culture...
For example, Arirang is an icon of national identity in Korea, especially the Korean struggle against Chinese and Japanese oppression, and stands for Korea in international collections, yet one version song itself is about a woman waiting on the banks of a river for her love....(there were later versions that sing about the oppression by Japanese)...there seems to be nothing nationalistic about the lyrics.

Another example is the project by the Korean government to "recommend representative genres for conservation as intangible cultural assets and to appoint individuals as holders". Here Korean folk songs/arts/genres are interpreted to be icons of national identity and were promoted through urban stages and state-controlled media.

Yet, often times the folk songs were changes or adapted for the modern audience which relates to the second conclusion of Post-Marxism

2) The making of culture is always a potential site of struggle and/or negotiation
Example: Concurrently with the protests for democracy, university students would also visit villages and appropriate and develop folk songs to be incorporated it into mass culture. Specifically, the example of Yong Woo Kim is cited. He learned to sing folk songs from Cho Ulson (sole holder of Cheju minyo) and Cho Kongnye (holder of Namdo Tullorae). Yet his versions are very different from that of his teachers. For example compared to Cho Ulson's version of Pongjiga his version is slowed down, a synthesizer and hourglass drum is added (which didn't exist on Cheju until after the Pacific war...thus not original). The reason for these changes was that his audeince was the urban youth and he needed to made the songs relevant today by adding modern aspects. For example, another version of his folk song added in a capella which was popular in 1990s. Finally Kim and another contemporary of his Lee resonated with nationalist appeal by adding a vocal style that invokes han (resentment/grudge which is the result of oppression during six centuries under the Chinese, 35 years under the Japanese, Korean War and decades living under a military dictatorship by using aewan chong or sad voice, by favoring slow-paced songs, adding vibrato and pre and post-tone ornamentation, yet this kind of style is that of southwestern singers and may not reflect the region where the original folk song came from. This original folk songs were changed to suit the nationalistic sentiments of the modern Koreans

The negotiation is especially clear in this quote of Howard's "If the development of folk songs began as student protest Yong Woo Kim is evidence that it has been achieved by harnessing the success of the government's preservation drive...fusion necessary...state system attempted to maintain folk songs that had little place in contemporary life"

Finally the use of western influences (guitars, pianos, oboes) can be explained also as negotiation as to preserve tradition yet make it popular at the same time musicians needed to unite the two poles of nationalistic/conservative/Korean and international/progressive/Korean. Groups such as the Seugidoong used Korean folk songs as the basis yet made them relevant by using western instruments, wearing western clothes, setting the music to regular dance bets, rearranging the arrangements, etc.

Thus a negotiation was made between the government's desire to make traditional Korean music mass culture and the masses adapting the culture to suit their contemporary tastes...