Cultural globalization and the Korean promotion policy for music based on tradition : a study of the activation plan and its background

Abstract

Policy designed to promote traditional arts has arguably been the primary recent activity within the Korean cultural field. The Activation Plan, aimed at traditional arts in the private field, is a notable programme that was conducted between 2006 and 2010. This thesis aims to illuminate why and how the Activation Plan was carried out, by exploring the background to the Activation Plan itself and by looking at case studies of two of its subsidiary projects, the 21st Century Korean Music Project, and the Traditional Arts Star Project. By limiting the consideration of the Activation Plan to its policy to promote popular creative traditional music his study examines the historical conditions of popular hybrid music cultures for the Activation Plan and the perceptions of relevant policy makers, these being aspects that are not yet adequately discussed in existing studies about world music in the global music industry and in studies about the contemporary Korean genre of kugak fusion. In consideration of cultural globalization, this thesis employs a cross-systematic approach that divides cultural practice into four levels of operation individual, national, cross-national and global - and a cultural identity approach. Therefore, it identifies today's new aim of cultural policy as the 'cooperative conservation' of traditional cultures. Covering the period from the early twentieth century to the present day, this thesis explores how popular music cultures on four levels have been driven by dominant cultural identities. It finds that the Activation Plan was conducted within the post people's music culture, within a regional, Asian-centred phenomenon now known as the 'Korean Wave', and within the global world music culture. Ultimately, the Activation Plan was underpinned by a 'permissive' Korean identity which allowed for potential identities at different levels within music production, and it operated as a policy for the cooperative conservation of traditional music.