4/4

@miasmicfungus

....the role of the visual in Kpop and in the performance and appreciation of music in general.

Kpop is often derided for the emphasis placed on idols' appearance, and Kpop fans can sometimes be sheepish about this aspect of the industry; I suspect that some of those fans who claim that "they are only in it for the music" are trying to convince themselves as much as anybody else.

I, on the other hand, am one of those fans who considers the stress placed on idols' beauty and styling one of the industry's greatest strengths and most enjoyable aspects. In fact, I worry that as the industry tries to capture a larger share of the western audience, this aspect of kpop will be played down in attempt to imitate the (in fact spurious) "authenticity" so prized in western, especially American, popular culture.

I'm sure that studies in the psychology of music have revealed something about how the appearance of performers might affect listeners' perception of music. That's a topic I'd like to investigate.

I would also like to think and read about a related question that is less psychological and more philosophical; can our experience of music ever be understood as based on perception through a purely auditory module, or is the auditory inseparable from the visual ?

I know that raising this question might well horrify some music formalists/purists...