Research Guides: Undergraduate Guide to Korean Studies: Search

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Japanese & Korean Studies Librarian

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Subjects: Asian Languages & Civilizations

How do I keep track of the resources I find?

You can use Zotero. It's free software that works with your browser to make tracking your sources and citing them later much easier. Check out the Libraries guide on using Zotero.

Search for Books and Scholarly Articles about Korea

OneSearch is the Libraries' Search Engine. It can help you discover books, eBooks, and scholarly articles that Google cannot provide access to. Your search results will be better if you can understand how to use keywords to get better results.

First, some general rules:

You will probably have some bad searches, dead ends, etc.
Use keywords relevant to your topic, don't search with sentences
Vary your keywords, try different combinations, and do multiple searches
Keep track of interesting materials you find as you go using Zotero.

Example Search: kpop -- Basic Keyword Search (Part 1 of 3)

How to Search Well with "kpop" as an Example Topic

You can start with a simple search like "kpop," here are the first 5 results:

⭐Note: Search results change over time, your results may vary.

K-pop idols: popular culture and the emergence of the Korean music industry by Jin, Dal Yong; Lee, Harkjoon
A simple search like "kpop" will often give you general histories of the topic. These books can be helpful for understanding the framework of a topic.
K-Pop: the International Rise of the Korean Music Industry by Roald Maliangkay; JungBong Choi
This is another "broad scope" book on kpop.
New kings of the world: dispatches from Bollywood, Dizi, and K-Pop by Fatima Bhutto
This books is a cross-cultural comparative study. These can be very useful as it helps highlight what is specifically unique about the Korea's music industry. It also helps identify broad trends applicable across cultures.
From Factory Girls to K-Pop Idol Girls: Cultural Politics of Developmentalism, Patriarchy, and Neoliberalism in South Korea's Popular Music Industry by Kim, Gooyong; Kellner, Douglas
Here is a great example of a more specific topic. This book more explicitly focuses on female kpop singers in a culture that is largely based on patriarchy and free-market capitalism. You can tell the book is more academic in nature as the (sub)title does not appeal to a broad audience.
KPOP by Orenstein, Claudia
from Asian Theatre Journal
This is actually a review of a theatrical performance written for a peer-reviewed journal. Reviews can offer insight into timely issues and can reveal many other resources to advance your research.

Example Search: kpop -- Vary Your Keyword Search, Do Multiple Searches (part 2 of 3)

Slight Changes in the Keywords You Use will Reveal Different Resources

Don't just do one search, do multiple searches: In addition to "anime," you can also search:

These simple changes give surprisingly different results, here is the first result for each search string above:

⭐Note: Search results change over time, your results may vary.

Chinese Fans of Japanese and Korean Pop Culture: nationalistic narratives and international fandom by Lu Chen
First result from searching "korean pop"
This book shows that you could explore consumption of Korean popular culture in many countries (at least China, what about the US, Europe, Africa?).
K-Pop - the International Rise of the Korean Music Industry by Roald Maliangkay; JungBong Choi
First result from searching "korean pop music"
This book also appeared with just a basic search only using the keyword "kpop," but if you look at the full list of results, you'll see they are actually very different.
Non-Korean consumers’ preferences on Korean popular music: A two-country study by Ryu, Jungyop; Capistrano, Erik Paolo; Lin, Hao-Chieh
From the International Journal of Market Research
First result from searching "korean popular music"
The article explores how K-pop fandoms exist despite language barriers and lack of access to shows and products.
Reconsidering Transnational Cultural Flows of Popular Music in East Asia: Transbordering Musicians in Japan and Korea Searching for "Asia" by Shin, Hyunjoon
From the Journal Korean Studies
First result from searching "korean popular musicians"
This article looks at how popular musicians in Korea and Japan facilitate postcolonial relations between the two countries.

Example Search: kpop, pt. 3 of 3 -- Focus Your Topic

Discover more Specialized Resources as You Build Foundational Knowledge on Your Topic

⭐ Notice that once you start to do more specific searches, you will start seeing more journal articles.

"kpop" is too broad a topic for doing a research paper. Think about what you would like to focus on, what are you passionate about in addition to kpop?

Are you an business major? Research the economics of the kpop industry.
If you are interested in gender inequalities in kpop, consider looking at how gender affects kpop bands and singers.
Exploring "soft" diplomacy? What does the Korean government do to promote kpop?

A simple search like "kpop diplomacy" will provide new and interesting results. Even without reading the materials, the search results will provide you with lots of concepts, ideas, and vocabulary to better explore your topic. Below are some examples:

"kpop industry" keyword search:
This search starts to reveal kpop's intersection with other ideas like globalization, webmetrics, culture industry, etc. The search results themselves start to reveal that kpop is an important "export" from Korea, used to improve the country's image on the global stage.
"kpop gender" keyword search:
This search starts to reveal issues related to women's labor rights in Korea. It also surfaces a variety of LGBTQ issues around kpop and it's consumption. Including terms like "male" and "female" can provide more specific results. "Masucline" and "feminine" also offer some interesting results.
"kpop diplomacy" keyword search:
These search results show how kpop is being consumed globally by different populations, from Indonesia, China, and Latin America. As well as kpop's use in North Korean relations.

⭐ Varying kpop AND k-pop may produce different results.