Korea And The World

Since its rapid growth in the nineties, K-Pop has become a multi-billion dollar industry and an integral part of South Korea’s image both domestically and abroad. In stark contrast and despite support from the South Korean government, Korean traditional music, or Gugak, remains a somewhat unknown tradition in and outside Korea. How do we define Korean traditional music? What position does it hold in contemporary South Korean society? What role has the government played in its evolution since the end of the Korean War? Will Gugak follow a path similar to K-Pop – a product designed for export – or is it still a living and thriving tradition? To answer these questions, we had the pleasure of interviewing Prof. Hilary Vanessa Finchum-Sung. Prof. Finchum-Sung earned her Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from Indiana University in 2002 and is now Associate Professor in the Department of Korean Music at Seoul National University. She has served as the Chair of the Interdisciplinary Major in Music Education at Seoul National