Abstract

This paper examines the audience’s participation in Korean popular music performances and their interactions with artists during live music events. For this examination, I first outline a history of participatory and interactive performances of various musical genres in Korea, ranging from premodern Korean folk music to contemporary Western-oriented or global pop music genres or styles. Secondly, recapitulating the audience’s singing along and chanting to live performances of popular music, I suggest the definition of the specific Korean term ‘ttechang’ that is commonly and idiomatically employed by both the general public and media outlets in the current K-pop movement as well as the pop music scene at large. Also, drawing upon multiple sessions of participant observation of K-pop concerts and Korean television music shows, I not only provide an ethnographic analysis of particular ttechang cases but also discuss how musicians and audience members interact with each other during live performances and reframe K-pop. I then claim that the application and presentation of ttechang in the Korean popular music scene can reconceptualize musicianship.