BoA: Cultural Globalization in Action

While the political and economic dimensions of globalization have been the focus of the majority of my blog posts, I would here like to explore the cultural dimensions, taking as my inspiration the recent release of BoA's first English single (along with a new album in the U.S.) Although the importance of culture in understanding globalization is often overlooked, culture is a driver of change just as important as politics or economics. Particularly in the last ten to twenty years, it has affected the way people consume products (in what way they choose to look, what their material goals are) but also how people conceive of themselves in the context of culture. Within the past eight years the proliferation of internet based media has made cultural entertainment products globally accessible on a level never seen before. Anyone with a computer and an internet connection can access a wide variety of cultural products through such services as YouTube, Veoh, iTunes, and host of other sites. However, until very recently the forces of globalization have acted primarily to export American culture elsewhere in the world.

The American music industry demonstrates the one sided nature of cultural globalization particularly well. One can find top ten albums and singles by American artists in nearly every country, however it has been rare for foreigners to have chart success in the U.S. Additionally, it is unheard of there being any popular Asian singers in the U.S. There is the rare British or Canadian artist that achieves success stateside, but those countries are culturally the closest to American culture. This suggests a surprising degree of insularity for a country that sees itself a nation of immigrants and a melting pot of different cultures. By contrast, Japan is a largely mono-ethnic nation such as Japan, that is in many ways much more receptive to global cultural, demonstrated by the popularity of 3rd culture artists such as BOA or Utada Hikaru. The failure of Japanese music artists to achieve popularity abroad was affected by the economic dominance of the West until very recently, and on a micro level, confusion about how to market Asian artists in the US due to existing stereotypes.

America’s global cultural chauvinism can be seen as a function of economic power. As America and Europe had the most economic power in the world, it was only natural that that Western culture would be more likely to be exported abroad in the form of not only products, but entertainment. The higher GDP per capita is the more disposable income consumers have to spend in such areas as entertainment, creating a more sophisticated pop-culture industry. As one can see by clicking on the above link, the majority of higher GDP per capita nations are still concentrated in North America and Europe. In Asia, only Japan, Korea, and Taiwan posess GDP per capita on a level equal to or higher than most European or North American nations. However, the global balance of economic power seems to be shifting ever increasingly away from Europe and America, and towards Asia, particularly China and Japan. As can be see on the graphic to the right there are already large concentrations of GDP in Japan, Korea, and North Eastern China equal to those in Western countries (indicated by deep scarlet). Japan has already reached a point where it is exporting culture to most of Asia in the form of Hamasaki Ayumi, Utada Hikaru, Johnny’s boy bands, manga, anime, fashion, and movies. Korea too has begun exporting its popular drama and music groups to the rest of Asia. With most of the acts listed before being fluent in several languages, including English, it seems only a matter of time before one of them makes significant waves on a more global scale.

BOA is a prime example of cultural globalization at work. She is a trilingual Korean singer whose biggest market is Japan, and her new album will be in entirely in English. She is demonstrative of the openness of Japanese culture to new ideas and culture from abroad. Japan has had a history of adopting foreign cultural ideas and rapidly remodeling it into something that is uniquely Japanese. In the same way, BOA’s Korean identity was not de-emphasized, however she was marketed as being kawaii ( the Japanese word meaning cute), a particularly Japanese image. She was presented as something both foreign, and therefore interesting, but also something safe. For that reason, her popularity in Japan easily exceeds her popularity in Korea, and the majority of her record sales and endorsements are in Japan. Narrowly she can be seen as part of the Korean Wave, the great increase in cultural exchange between Japan and South Korea, but more broadly as Japan’s growing openness to international trends, fashion, and culture.

The last time a Japanese artist had success in the U.S. was 1961, when a song called “sukiyaki”reached number one. Utada Hikaru, Japan's leading pop singer (both critically and commercially) attempted to release an album in 2005. Despite Utada having grown up in New York City and being a native speaker of the English language that effort failed to sell over 50,000 copies in the U.S. (although in Japan, it is the best selling English album ever). It is important to note that attempt involved a rather radical change of artistic representation that left Utada the artist in an awkward position. Her Japanese image is that of an intelligent, slightly dorky, musician, otherwise a multidimensional personality. However her American label decided to market her in different manner, most notably wearing a bikini under a clear raincoat for her lead single, “Easy Breezy”. In comparison to the video for either her previous Japanese single "Colors" or the following single "Be My Last", she is portrayed so differently as to almost make one wonder if it is the same person. If one goes further to actually analyze the lyrics you find an even greater disparity. The lyrics for both Japanese songs are sophisticated analyses on life and human. relationships, whereas the most memorable part of the American single was the line, "You're Easy Breezy and I'm Japaneezy". In order to sell albums, Island Records chose to reduce Utada to a one dimensional character that failed to resonate with the music buying public. American media commonly responds to Asian females, by exoticiing and over-sexualing them.

BoA also seems to be facing the same pressure to adapt to the American market, by presenting herself in a more aggressive and sexual manner in the video for the new single,"Eat You Up". When compared to the video for "Eat You Up" with either of her preceding Japanese singles,“Kissing You”and “Sparkle”, it is apparent that it has been decided to shift her away from a kawaii image towards a more sexual, urban image. This corresponds to previous portrayals of Asian women in American media. However, because this method did not work for Utada, it seems questionable how successful it will be for BoA. Fortunately for BoA, her lead single avoids any lyrical blunders on the scale of the before mentioned "japaneezy" line. It remains to be seen if BoA can create a image capable of engaging the American's public's attention, and then maintaining that attention long enough to establish a career.It will be difficult for BoA to carve out an individual artistic personality without first erroding stereotypes held by many Americans. As Asia becomes a more powerful economic presence, the amount of Asian culture that is exported abroad will likely chip away at American stereotypes. However, hit single or not, that may just be too late for BoA.