kpop1-1, Exercise 3: Scope and sources

Model answer:

The course treats K-pop as music and as an industry, from its roots to the present. It focuses on South Korea, but covers the popular song of the whole peninsula before 1945 and 1948, when there was one music scene. It leaves out dramas, films, webtoons and festivals (separate courses), politics as a subject, ranking of artists and gossip about private lives. North Korean popular music gets at most a short factual note from open sources.

Three kinds of source:
1. The record (dates, charts, contracts, rulings). Weakness: figures often differ between sources.
2. Fan legend. Weakness: often has no source.
3. Industry marketing. Weakness: "first" and "record-breaking" are selling words, so check who counted and how.