This book is a seminal example of historical writing on Korean popular culture, based on solid data that integrates historical facts and cultural symbols within a broader analytical framework, offering insightful critical interpretation. It explores the history of Korean popular culture that has grown and developed on the foundation of modern history. The history of popular culture is not just the history of subgenres such as film, popular music, and television; it is intertwined with various cultural texts and authors that represent the era, issues of production and consumption, industry and markets, institutions and politics, ideological domination and resistance, technology and media, generational conflicts and differences, and the everyday lives and emotions of the public.