Analysis on the Music Sociology in East Asia

Abstract

By examining the ways in which East Asian regimes transform popular music into soft-power infrastructure, this dissertation decolonizes music sociology. Using digital ethnography, emotional-economy modeling, and qualitative analysis of 42 cultural-policy white papers from 1997 to 2023, I follow the legal, financial, and computational processes that turn leisure into geopolitical leverage in China, Japan, and South Korea. The study demonstrates empirically how Beijing’s viral “Subject Three” challenge weaponizes participatory etiquette, Tokyo’s idol–City-Pop matrix commodified post-bubble emotion, and Seoul’s post-IMF Music Industry Promotion Act Financialized K-pop. Theoretically, I suggest a non-Western language that weakens Weberian orthodoxy and strengthens the region’s epistemic voice: crisis cultural Keynesianism, algorithmic patriotism, and counter-public fandom. By juxtaposing these findings with neglected tonal ontologies (Korean jeongak pentatonic, Chinese lü-lü twelve pitches), the thesis offers a decolonial re-reading of music sociology and a policy toolkit for states seeking to program music into soft power with experiences in East Asia context.