Q-Pop: Performing Andean Indigeneity and South Korean Culture in an Unlikely Music Genre

• In Event: Asia, Oceania and the Americas: Cultural and Artistic Crosscurrents

Abstract

The 2010s saw the expansion of K-pop as a global music phenomenon from South Korea to the rest of the world, largely facilitated by online platforms. In Peru, K-pop has not only garnered a huge fandom but also inspired local artists such as Lenin Tamayo, a singer of Indigenous descent considered the founder of “Q-pop” or K-pop in Quechua. Relying on the dance, musical aspects, and aesthetics characteristic of the South Korean genre, Tamayo has been able to craft Q-Pop by centering Indigenous cultures through the mixing of linguistic and cultural markers of the Andes. I analyze the two videos that gave rise to Tamayo’s career in 2022, “Imaynata?” and “Inti Raymi,” to offer ways in which an unlikely encounter between Andean indigeneity and South Korean culture takes place. I frame my approach to Tamayo by two parallel processes taking place in contemporary Peru: an increased interest in South Korean culture and the emergence of Peruvian young singers who have incorporated Indigenous cultures into their work. I argue that Tamayo’s work is not merely a local strategic incorporation of foreign culture, but also forges Quechua-South Korean cultural relations. I draw from digital archives of Tamayo’s interviews, videos, and social media as well as local South Korean media coverage of his recent visit to this country; and utilize performance studies methodologies to demonstrate how performance operates as a language through which to trace Asian-Latin American cultural encounters.

Author

• Enzo E Vasquez Toral, The University of Texas at Austin