Same Music, Same Genre. Same Stance and Same Purpose?: A Cross-Linguistic Genre Analysis of Music Criticism in Korea and Britain

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper presents a cross-linguistic/cross-cultural analysis of music criticism in classical music magazines of Korea and England as a means of examining how genre and culture are jointly understood. On a micro level, the analysis closely examines the features of rhetorical structure, writing style, register, and the various ways in which critics index the participant musicians and the readers of these magazines. More importantly, it attempts to situate textual features within socio-cultural contexts with a view to understand each community's specialized communicative needs, power relations, and various aspects of traditional philosophies. The findings reveal that the genre of contemporary music criticism is socially and culturally constructed and developed in each rhetorical community. The English criticism consists of evaluative discourse motivated by advertising, implicitly from the point of view of the consumer. As a result, it may no longer serve as a genuine forum for authentic discussion for music aesthetics. In contrast, the Korean criticism consists more of “teaching” discourse to promote a high standard of criticism. Through the educational message of Korean music critics, the genre becomes a professional communicative space in which the European classical music discourse conventions coexist with Korean traditional values and cultures (connectedness, holistic perspective, and hierarchical social order). Considering the unique dynamics and learning motivation in Korean classrooms in the US, this study will have pedagogical implications for teaching the concept of genre by introducing students to micro level instances of discourse and the macro level notion of genre, complete with its socio-cultural traditions and influences.