Associate Dean, Research, and Professor, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of SydneyAs Korean musicians and organisations have digested the recent success of cutting-edge "Korean Wave," so they have reassessed the way that Korean music is commodified and promoted, both in festivals in Korea and around the world. Locally, this is reflected in Kugak fusion, a genre that mixes Western harmonies and melodies with Korean soundworlds, and presented in spectacles that update traditional genres, incorporating technological wizadry, exuberant and outgoing performance, and flashy staging, in ways that are designed to appeal to new audiences. Powerful lobbies of performers and scholars within Korea who value traditional music, kugak, see in it a depth of identity that provides distinction, and reject Kugak fusion as a poor amalgam of East and West. Nor has the promotion of new genres been well received by foreign critics, revealing a distance between what is popular in Korea and what is popular abroad. This paper explores the discourse surrounding Kugak fusion within Korea and abroad.