This blog post examines whether Korea’s karaoke culture for youth serves as a space for exercising autonomy and creativity, or if it is subordinated to the commercial culture of the older generation, thereby suppressing freedom.
Karaoke has long been established as a cultural space for teenagers in Korea. Emerging in the early 1990s, karaoke has evolved beyond a simple leisure activity to become a crucial space for communication among teenagers. It has become a place where they can socialize with friends and relieve stress, positively influencing the formation of social relationships and emotional stability among youth. However, it might seem trite to mention the karaoke culture of teenagers now. Yet, examining this culture remains meaningful because it offers a lens through which to view issues within youth culture.
In karaoke rooms, the “room” is a sealed space of about two to three pyeong (roughly 6.6 to 10 square meters). Why do teenagers flock to these enclosed spaces? One reason teenagers seek out these enclosed rooms is the lack of cultural spaces exclusively for them. In truth, public places where youth can freely gather and communicate are extremely limited in our society. For teenagers seeking to escape parental or teacher supervision, karaoke rooms become a safe haven. Stepping out of the enclosed room into the open square of society, teenagers find nowhere to stand. The public square is dominated solely by the culture of the older generation; teen culture has no roots there. Furthermore, under the guise of protecting young teens from corrupt and unhealthy influences, various prohibitions oppress them. It’s difficult for teens to find space in the public square to develop their own culture. That’s why they head to karaoke rooms.
The problem, however, is that karaoke rooms also fail to become a truly autonomous cultural space for teenagers. While karaoke rooms are appealing to youth because they enable disconnection from the outside world, teenagers still struggle to enjoy genuine autonomy there. It is extremely difficult for teenagers to develop their own unique culture within karaoke rooms. At first glance, it seems like teenagers are breaking away from the culture of the older generation and creating their own by singing different songs in different ways at karaoke. However, the songs they sing are not free from the commercialism of mainstream culture. In a capitalist society, culture is also governed by commercial logic. Popular music is no exception; songs that can achieve commercial success dominate the scene. This trend is clearly evident in the teen-oriented songs popular on broadcast television. By singing songs created according to commercial logic in karaoke rooms, teenagers are becoming immersed in that culture. Karaoke rooms are precisely the place where teenagers, who should be leading the creation of experimental culture, sing commercialized songs and lose their creativity.
Furthermore, while the spread of karaoke culture provides teenagers with a kind of refuge to alleviate feelings of social isolation, it can also lead them to evade the real-world problems they face. For a brief time in karaoke rooms, teenagers can escape the demands and pressures of the older generation, but this is merely a temporary sense of liberation. Thus, while karaoke rooms can be an important venue for youth leisure activities, they simultaneously reveal limitations in failing to become spaces for the self-discovery and creative pursuits that young people truly desire.
The unfortunate phenomenon of teenagers, lacking their own cultural spaces, turning to karaoke rooms only to become steeped in the commercial culture of the older generation, succinctly illustrates the problems inherent in today’s youth culture. This phenomenon also demonstrates that it is a vital duty of our society to enable teenagers to emerge from dark, enclosed rooms into bright, open plazas where they can freely enjoy their own culture and achieve creative self-development through diverse cultural experiences. Teenagers are neither sponges that passively absorb and become saturated with established culture, nor are they beings who unconditionally oppose the older generation. If open cultural spaces are provided where the creativity of teenagers can be fully expressed, youth culture will be revitalized and flourish healthily. At this time, teenagers are not subjects of protection and surveillance by the older generation. Teenagers become the agents who create and enjoy a bright and healthy culture, and youth culture will play a role in bringing new vitality to our culture.
