Since emancipation from Japanese colonial, division of territory and the Korean war, Korea has accepted
American capitalism and been influenced by American culture. And Korean pop music has accordingly
passed into the pop culture of the world capitalist system centered around America. Korean pop music that
emerged under America’s influence has spreaded throughout Asia including China, Japan and Southeast
Asian countries since the mud-1990s, and is now becoming more widespread even into America, the very
country that had affected the Korean pop music, as well as South American and European countries.
Finally Korean pop music, now called as K-Pop, is ready to enter American pop music market. It is needed, at this point, K-Pop display a tendency of more complicated hybridity rather than seeking for a
one-way directivity limited either from domestic to international market or vice versa in the globalization of
K-Pop. To understand the hybridity, it is required to identify what kind of American pop cultures we
accepted, which of them affected Korean pop culture, what cultural orientation they had in their pop music,
and which of them are preferred. To view and understand American pop music, in this study, technological
perspective would not only be appled, but historical and musical perspectives would be applied, especially
by analyzing genres and styles of pop music, and identifying what cultural orientation American pop music
has and what music preferences Americans have. This study suggests the following two results as the most
basic and fundamental characteristics in understanding the American popular music: fusion through hybridity
of whites and blacks which are the two conflicting views, and separation through exclusiveness.