As technology has progressed, the spread of pop culture around the world has reached new audiences. People have been able to experience other cultures and different styles of art that they never would have been able to explore before. This has allowed humanity to become closer than ever and allows us to share similar experiences.
Functionalism, as argued by David Grazian, is a theory that argues that culture serves as a way to unite individuals and communities. Through shared experiences, such as watching shows, listening to songs or going to conventions, and images recognized by multiple people, the social bond between groups becomes strengthened. The images, often called symbols, become a language that can be understood across a variety of speech barriers.
The process of globalization is thought of in terms of economies. As the world grew to trade and interact with each other, countries have become interdependent with each other’s economies and abilities to manufacture. However, the same can be seen with pop culture, as ideas and products such as movies and songs begin to influence another country’s cultures.
The spread of American movies and songs is what tends to be thought of when discussing globalization, but the best modern example of globalization enabling what functionalism describes is South Korea. South Korean pop culture has been described as being a tidal wave in how it has exploded in popularity throughout the world.
Dal Yong Jin, a professor at Simon Fraser University in Canada, argues in his book “New Korean Wave” that South Korea only started exporting pop culture since the 1990s, with the early 2000s being when South Korea began to compete with the countries usually thought of in pop culture, such as the United States and Japan.
“K-pop,” or Korean pop music is one such export that raised South Korea’s pop culture standing throughout the world. From 2005-2019, the Korean music industry exports went from a worth of $22 million to over $756 million. Korean brands such as BTS are now selling tickets out in mere minutes in the United States. BTS’s label brought in over $500 million in revenue in 2019, due to BTS and other boy bands under their label performing, as well as mobile games and films that soon hit the top of their respective charts throughout the world
Films and television shows have also been quickly picked up which has caused the Korean culture to gain more and more recognition. Since 2002, there has been widespread recognition throughout the world of South Korean films at award shows. This culminated in 2019 at the Oscars when “Parasite” directed by Bong Joon-Ho won Best Picture, a first for a foreign film. Then, earlier this year, the Netflix series Squid Game premiered and quickly set records for viewership. These films and shows, almost entirely in Korean and set in South Korea, is an example of what functionalists argue.
All of the films and songs from the South Korean pop culture industry are mostly, if not fully, in Korean. American viewers and listeners most likely have to use subtitles to be able to understand what is spoken or being sung. However, those who enjoy Korean culture have been able to connect with others using the shared experiences they have over enjoying K-Pop or the films, as well as the shared images that can be seen in the music or the films.
While few in the U.S. and the rest of the world might not understand Korean or aspects of class in Korea, many people in those countries can understand the images of the struggling of the lower classes due to the rich. While K-Pop listeners might not be able to understand all of BTS’s lyrics, they can create a bond with fellow listeners throughout the world by learning the group’s dances and the experience of going to a concert.
Pop culture is something that society has taken for granted. I never thought of how pop culture was something that was able to allow for the transcending of language barriers as much as it has. It also allows me to find common ground with people in another country that I have never met due to the shared bond we made over having similar experiences and seeing common symbols in what we watch, see and listen to. Pop culture shows that we are not really different from those in other countries and that through pop culture, humanity can become even closer than it already has.
