Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth: K-pop and the Fandoms.

As Cherie pointed out the lack of discussion of K-pop in the course on the Google Plus page, I thought that I might rise to the occasion as a self-professed K-pop expert (read: casual fan of K-pop).

I have been a K-pop fan since 2012, which is post-Gangnam Style, but this song was not the source of my interests. It was my random stumbling across a five-member boy group called SHINee and their song Sherlock (2012) that spurred my interests.

I often describe this song as 'entry level K-pop' as it is very flashy and catchy that makes for an enjoyable viewing/listening experience.

Unfortunately, this is a bittersweet memory for me. Late last year, SHINee suffered a terrible tragedy. One of the members, Kim Jonghyun (the first member to sing in the music video above), passed away as a result of his battle with mental illness. This sent such a ripple through the world that I saw it covered on Australian news the following morning.

I really didn't want to begin on such a negative note, but a lot of Western coverage of K-pop is often negative and determined to expose the 'dark side' of the K-pop industry. On the other hand, I really want to show how amazing and inspiring K-pop truly can be!

So first, I need to describe what K-pop actually is as I have just jumped straight in! On the surface, and on Spotify and the likes, K-pop is simply a genre. It is pop music in the Korean language, of course. This is a little bit presumptuous, however, as the genre encompasses a wide range of different types of music. Some artists like to focus on hip-hop and rap style songs, some artists focus on ballads, and some artists experiment with their sound, drawing from many different influences.

Riding the Wave.

K-pop also does not exist as a singular entity, but as a part of a ‘wave’ of Korean cultural influence. The wave, affectionately dubbed Hallyu (한류), emerged from a period of dramatic and monumental changes in Korean society. In the early 90s, Korea transitioned from a military dictatorship to a democratic society, which heralded policies such as the 'globalization policy' (Kim, 2018, p. 27-28). This policy focused on education, economy, environment, politics, law, administration, mass media, and culture. Some of these elements fuelled the K-pop industry, with the government looking at culture as a marketable commodity in the face of a financial crisis (Kim, 2018, p. 28). Hallyu, however, encompasses many aspects of popular culture such as T.V. shows, films, music, games, and even fashion and food (Yoon & Kang, 2017).

Jin Dal-yong notes that the current expansion of Hallyu is the result of the prevalence of social networking sites, YouTube, and an increase in user-generated content (2016). Celebrities often have twitter and/or Instagram feeds that they regularly update. Fans also tweet constantly about their favourite groups to such an extent that they trend often! The power of twitter helped K-pop group BTS (방탄소년단/ Bangtan Sonyeondan/ literally translated as Bulletproof Boy Scouts/ also known as Beyond the Scene in the west) to win the Billboard Music Awards Top Social Artist in both 2017 and 2018, beating out the likes of Justin Bieber's 'Beliebers' in terms of sheer fan power. This led to BTS' songs charting in America and opened up the opportunity for appearances on multiple T.V. shows (Ellen (x2), Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, James Corden, etc.).

YouTube is another major platform for K-pop. Music videos, dance practices, and vlogs are often uploaded by the artists or their management, and fans engage by posting dance covers, reactions, or reviews. The latest K-pop music video often breaks viewing records when released, and spurs hundreds of reaction videos of dedicated fans watching it for the first time.

There is also a Korean media platform called V-live that stars often use to livestream and interact with their fans, or even post professional fully-edited shows that need to actually be bought to be streamed. This platform is a mixed bag, with content ranging from make-up tutorials to web dramas. I personally enjoy watching these web dramas and mentioned them explicitly in my first assignment as a way that I interact with authentic Korean as a language learner. Authenticity in language learning is a complex range of concerns that is promoted in Communicative Language Teaching, but often focuses on how the target language is used within the culture (Gilmore, 2007). I have picked up a lot about how Korean is used in daily life and certain situations thanks to my exploration of authentic materials.

Fantastic Fans and Where to Find Them.

The 'wave' is in an ocean that is heavily populated with fish. This is a poor attempt to provide an analogy of the fans of K-pop. K-pop fans are a varied bunch that are depicted as being "young, trendy, media savvy, and future oriented" (Kim, 2018, p. 25). Korean fans in particular are seen to be 'wiping the slate clean' of their turbulent ancestry, and granting freedom from political burdens (Kim, 2018, p. 25).

K-pop is very fan oriented, with fan groups not seen as complete until they have an official label or name. For EXO their fans are called EXO-Ls, GOT7's fans are called IGOT7 (Ahgasae), and fans of TWICE are called ONCE. These fans also have elaborate lightsticks which they brandish proudly at concerts.

Returning back to BTS, their fans are scarily nicknamed 'ARMY'. But this is actually an acronym (most things in K-pop are) which stands for Adorable Representative M.C. (Master of Ceremonies) for Youth. One of BTS' running themes is youth, which will be discussed in detail later.

Fans often congregate on twitter or tumblr, but there are also apps like amino where people post a whole range of content including art and music video theories. There might also be a paid site where fans can interact called a 'fancafe'. These fancafes are often only in Korean, but occasionally the members of the groups use it to interact with fans.

Trip the Language Fantastic.

As I have an interest in sociolinguistics, I cannot ignore the unique vocabulary of the K-pop fan. Some of the words are universal to fandoms in general, and some of the words are derived from Korean.

Stan: Stan is a word that is synonymous with super fans, and seems to be derived from Eminem's song of the same name that was released all the way back 2000 (Whitehead, 2017). In the song, Stan is a super fan of Eminem who meets a tragic end.

Netizen: Netizen is not technically a fandom word but it often appears alongside K-pop. Netizens are literally 'citizens of the internet', and they make a lot of comments about K-pop idols on the internet. They are quite conservative in nature and seem to lack the ability to process fun and so they mostly contribute nasty or harmful opinions. For this reason, I like to imagine that netizen actually means 'denizens of the internet'!

Bias: Bias can refer to someone's favourite idol (e.g. my bias group is GOT7), or can be used to refer to a particular member (e.g. my bias is Jinyoung from GOT7). A bias wrecker is someone's second favourite member!

Oppa- 오빠: 'Oppa' literally means 'older brother', but it is also used as a sort of honorific for a women to use with a man she is friendly with. Fans use this if the idol is older than them.

Unnie- 어니: 'Unnie' literally means 'older sister', but it is often used by women to address other women who are older.

Hwaiting/fighting 화이팅: This is a sort of encouragement that fans either shout or use in the internet to support their favourite idols.

Maknae 막내: This word is pronounced like mang-nae and is the label given to the youngest member of a K-pop group. For example, you might find people talking on the internet about 'the Golden maknae' which is the youngest member of BTS, Jeon Jungkook.

Diminutives: In Korea people often add 이/ 아/ 야 (ie, ah, ya) to the end of names as a term of endearment. The members of K-pop groups often use these in interviews when talking about their group members to show how close they are.

SBS PopAsia complied a handy list of other K-pop terms you might see in the wild.

Young Forever: The Impact of BTS:

I may be showing my own bias, but BTS is the group that I know most about, therefore I am most comfortable discussing at length.

This is proof of me being a fan: the BTS playlist on my iPod. That's nearly 7 hours of music after I cherrypicked the best songs! It does include solo projects that the members have done also.

As previously mentioned, BTS' name has many different forms and meanings! This is partly because they chose a completely Korean name to promote with. Many K-pop groups actually use English names or names with English in them.

BTS, or Bangtan Sonyeondan (방탄소년단) is a 7 member boy group that debuted in 2013 managed by Big Hit Entertainment. The members are Kim Namjoon (Current stage name RM, previous stage name Rap Monster), Kim Seokjin (Jin), Min Yoongi (Suga), Jung Hoseok (J-Hope), Park Jimin (Jimin), Kim Taehyung (V), and Jeon Jungkook (Jungkook). Their main concern has always been the treatment of youth and they often make politically charged songs that criticise society.

This is the dance practice for the song 'Go Go' (Go민보다). It seems to be a parody of the 'avocado toast' generation frivolously spending their money, but it actually makes comments on how society is unaffordable for the youth of today.

So, let's return to the beginning. This is the very first music video that BTS released called 'No More Dream'. It is about a young person not knowing what they want to do and feeling the pressure of society:

From the outset they were the underdogs being from company that was not as powerful as the 'Big 3', and were immediately labelled a B-grade group.

Regardless, they kept on releasing music, with their next album focusing on a school aesthetic. When talking about school, BTS are often very against the controlling nature that they felt that the adults have on young people in society.

The 'Dark and Wild' era saw the boys singing about masculinity. The song 'War of Hormone' showcases this in particular. The song was actually censored when it went to broadcast and has come under fire for being misogynistic. (This song also has English captions, click CC to see the translation).

Then, the 'Most Beautiful Moment in Life (Part 1 and Part 2)' (2015) era began. This heralded music videos with an overarching plot about the struggles of youth. 'I Need U' and 'Run' had fans trying to decipher its meaning and created theories that still haven't been resolved. It was during this era that BTS began to gain popularity, and started to win awards in Korea. The music video for 'I Need U' as shown below is age restricted to 19 and over in Korea.

Next was WINGS (2016), an album inspired by Hermann Hesse's Demian (1919). The book is described as a masterpiece of youthful rebellion on the blurb of the edition I own and is steeped in religion and philosophy. This fascinated the German youth at the time. Young people found that they could relate to the characters, and the narrator specifically (Solbach, 2009, p. 82-83). Admittedly, I haven't had the chance to read it yet! The music video for 'Blood, Sweat and Tears' features a passage from the book, and the trailers for the album also featured passages from the book.

BTS' most recent era 'Love Yourself' started in 2017 and continued into 2018. There are three albums in this series titled Love Yourself: Her, Love Yourself: Tear, and Love Yourself: Answer. These albums capture different stages of love, from inception to heartbreak and acceptance. 'DNA' is from Love Yourself: Her.

During the promotion for these albums, BTS launched the Love Myself campaign with Unicef in order to combat violence against youth. It is their work with Unicef that got them invited to the U.N. General Assembly a few months ago to talk about youth. RM's speech is so inspiring that it is being used in TESOL classrooms as readings and test material! Although, having completed a unit about second language testing, I think that this may not be a useful test by the standards of Bachman and Palmer (1996), but if it is inspiring learners then I'm all for it!

Finally, their most recent song, 'IDOL' from Love Yourself: Answer addresses their role in the K-pop industry, and challenges their critics. This music video is also peppered with references to Korean culture, to show their critics that their Western success has not changed who they are. This music video is a stark contrast to their first video 'No More Dream', however the topic of the song is very similar. They also collaborated with Nicki Minaj on one of the versions of the song.

Closing thoughts:

I hope that I've captured a snapshot of why K-pop is popular and the inspiration it can have for young people in this post. Although, I'd like to remind you that K-pop is enjoyable no matter what your age is! My mum is a major BTS fan, and now will only listen to BTS in the car because she hates the radio so much! She loves to collect K-pop albums with me as they have photobooks and cards inside them.

(From top to bottom: Love Yourself: Answer, Love Yourself: Tear, Love Yourself: Her, The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Part 2, The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Part 1, and The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever).

If you want to give K-pop a try I'll leave some recommendations here (that aren't all BTS!)

G-DRAGON: Crooked (When I first saw this I could understand what the song was about without knowing any Korean because the music video is so well done. G-Dragon was in Brisbane last year at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, but I had a Korean class on that night and couldn't go!)

GOT7: Teenager (GOT7 have also been to Brisbane!)

BTS: Spring Day (This is my favourite BTS song. The music video has subtle references to the Sewol Ferry Tragedy and BTS donated to the cause to support the families of this incident).

Mamamoo: Um Oh Ah Yeh (Mamamoo is a girl group with good humour and really strong vocals)

Ladies' Code: The Rain (Ladies' Code Suffered a tragic car accident that killed two of their members a few years ago. Since then their music has been muted and classy, which is a break from all of the bright and colourful songs that K-pop often produces).

Girlfriend- Navillrera (G-friend are known for their cutesy songs).

Pentagon- Naughty Boy (This song is inspired by the Korean folklore of the green frog 청개구리)

N.Flying- Hot Potato (This band plays their own instruments!)

A.C.E: Take Me Higher (Try to spot the packet of Tim Tams in this video! Hint: it's on the table at 1:52).

References Used and Perused:

Bachman, L., & Palmer, A. (1996). Language testing in practice : designing and developing useful language tests . Oxford, [England]: Oxford University Press.

Gilmore, A. (2007). Authentic materials and authenticity in foreign language learning. Language Teaching, 40(2), 97–118. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444807004144

Jin, D. (2016). New Korean wave : transnational cultural power in the age of social media . Urbana, Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Kim, S. (2018). K-pop live : fans, idols, and multimedia performance . Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.

Solbach, A. (2009). The aesthetics of ritual: pollution, magic, and sentimentality in Hesse's Demian (1919). In I. Cornils (Ed.), A companion to the works of Hermann Hesse (pp. 81-116). Rochester, N.Y.: Camden House.

Yoon, T., Kang, B. (2017). Emergence, evolution, and extension of "Hallyu studies". In T. Yoon & D. Jin (Eds.), The Korean Wave: evolution, fandom, and transnationality (pp. 3-21). Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books.

Whitehead, M. (2017). What the hell is a 'stan' and where does the name come from? Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2017/11/09/what-the-hell-is-a-stan-and-where-does-the-name-come-from_a_23264113/