ABSTRACT
Introduction Popular music studies in East Asia since the 2000s has taken a decidedly transnational and inter-Asian turn. Inquiries into popular music scenes, audiences, stars, circulation, entertainment industries, and genres attended to the globalization processes and trans-local interactions. This hybrid consciousness partly grew out of the border-crossing realities of East Asian popular music industries, practitioners, and fans. For example, J-pop, K-pop, Mandarin pop, and various Westernized, nationalized, and industrialized forms of popular music have all experienced regional popularity, albeit through different paths and intensity of mediation. While music and entertainment industries have been the most visible structural players in market expansion and talent grooming, colonial histories and deterritorialized production complicate the branded purity of national popular music in East Asia.
