Song Lyrics Contained Sexual Innuendo: A Reception Analysis of Korean Audience towards �Cookie� by NewJeans

MUHAMMAD DIETRICH AS, Dr. Wisnu Martha Adiputra, S.I.P., M.Si.

2023 | Skripsi | S1 ILMU KOMUNIKASI

Music is a mass communication medium in which the message is contained in song lyrics. One genre of music that has become a global phenomenon and is favored by young people is K-Pop or Korean popular music. Not only are K-Pop fans young, but many K-Pop group members are also young, even minors or underage, including several members of a K-Pop girl-group called NewJeans. While some of the members were still very young, they released the song �Cookie,� which, in the opinion of internet users, had sexual innuendo. Therefore, this research aims to discover how native Koreans, as people from the country that owns the K-Pop culture, interpret the lyrics of the song �Cookie.� Aside from that, this research also aims to know informants� opinions of the official statement released by the company that produced NewJeans, ADOR, and to know what are the possible impacts that could happen to NewJeans from the existing issue. This research is qualitative research using the reception analysis method. Even though the informants are native Koreans, these informants had different interpretations of the lyrics of the song �Cookie.� This is because each of the informants had different frameworks of knowledge, relations of production, and technical infrastructure which influenced their meaning creation as a decoding process. From the results of this analysis, the findings were influenced by several informants� backgrounds, namely: (1) how they enjoy music, (2) their knowledge of Korean language literature, and (3) their exposure to English slang.

Music is a mass communication medium in which the message is contained in song lyrics. One genre of music that has become a global phenomenon and is favored by young people is K-Pop or Korean popular music. Not only are K-Pop fans young, but many K-Pop group members are also young, even minors or underage, including several members of a K-Pop girl-group called NewJeans. While some of the members were still very young, they released the song �Cookie,� which, in the opinion of internet users, had sexual innuendo. Therefore, this research aims to discover how native Koreans, as people from the country that owns the K-Pop culture, interpret the lyrics of the song �Cookie.� Aside from that, this research also aims to know informants� opinions of the official statement released by the company that produced NewJeans, ADOR, and to know what are the possible impacts that could happen to NewJeans from the existing issue. This research is qualitative research using the reception analysis method. Even though the informants are native Koreans, these informants had different interpretations of the lyrics of the song �Cookie.� This is because each of the informants had different frameworks of knowledge, relations of production, and technical infrastructure which influenced their meaning creation as a decoding process. From the results of this analysis, the findings were influenced by several informants� backgrounds, namely: (1) how they enjoy music, (2) their knowledge of Korean language literature, and (3) their exposure to English slang.

Kata Kunci : K-Pop, NewJeans, Cookie, slang, reception analysis, music audience, lyrics interpretation