The Formation and Differentiation of Modern Korean Music World

Abstract

This study examines the formation and characteristics of modern music world in colonial Korea during the 1930s. Modern Korean music world inherited the legacy of traditional Korean music, but at the same time was heavily influenced by the newly introduced western music and Japanese popular music. In analyzing the formation of music world, we focus on the dynamics between different musical genres and also on the relationships between composers and singers. Social Network Analysis of two-mode data on genre-singer, genrecomposer, and composer-singer networks reveals that boundaries between genres became more established over time and that the relationship between composers and singers show limited stability reflecting the high level of uncertainty in the market of popular music.