ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses recent debuts of South Korean singers and musicians in the U.S., with regard to aspects of musical alterity and cross-border transformations. It analyzes production, promotion, visual, and sound strategies of four musicians and singers: dance artist BoA, pop group Wonder Girls, rock band YB, and reggae singer Skull. Since each represents a distinctive approach in the overseas endeavor by unfolding a characteristic set of transformational features and discursive strategies, these artists are key to understanding the conjunctures and disjunctures between South Korean and global pop music production. The compositional elements of what Koreans understand as a ppong melody remain ambiguous and depend on listeners' cultural background. The U.S. is a fascinating destination not only for mainstream artists and their agents in the chart-oriented pop business, but also in commercially less profitable music genres, such as independent rock music.
