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Definition and Interpretation of Hook in Popular Music

서정환 1

1동아대학교

Candidate

ABSTRACT

“Hook song,” a newly coined word that is frequently cited these days in Korea’s pop music industry, passes as commercial pop music that hooks a person’s ears. It is difficult, however, to find systematic analysis or discussion on the “hook” itself, which is the essence of the newly coined word. Hook, as has been defined thus far, is mostly used to mean repeated chorus and has been in the same line of criticism as “hook song.” Yet, the concept of hook is not that simple, and thus we should not limit hooks to a narrow meaning. Recently, we have been witnessing the hooks in popular music developing into more diverse forms, not just limited to a certain category. This means that the range of hooks in music is flexible, and the flexibility affects their various definitions and differences. All music has hooks. Yet, the hooks that can be seen in the so-called art music or classical music and the ones in popular music are different in nature. Hooks in pop music have a differentiated characteristic to some degree, which is completely commercial. The reason hooks are given such significance here is hooks are perceived as the essence of the recent modern pop music. Each hook has organic quality and composes mélange, which is popular music. These hooks change the style and contents of music either visibly or invisibly. In this paper, I will focus on the characteristics of hooks used in pop music highlighting the concept of hooks, which has been defined by many researchers so far. In this way pop music will be seen from a new perspective. The concept of hook can be applied to various phenomena that appear in the pop music arena. Yet, it is also possible to pont out hooks' negative functions. Therefore, hook should be reevaluated as another yardstick by which pop music can be analyzed.

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