Interrogating Trot, Situating the Boom: New(tro) Nostalgia, Old Songs, and National Identity Performance (183–226)

Abstract
Across 2019–2020 a number of South Korean TV competition shows branded their musical identity as “trot.” This term denotes a perceived genre of popular music considered normative to South Korea’s developmentalist decades and thereafter as the music of older generations, yet the surprise success of the TV shows seemingly indicated a younger uptake heralding a “trot boom.” However, in much...