Term Paper

BTS and Its Fandom Author’s Name The Institutional Affiliation Course Number and Name Instructor Name Assignment Due Date Introduction K-pop is the short form of Korean pop music, a prevalent music genre. The music is produced in Korean, and it contains different music genres. K-pop became extremely popular in 1992 and the previous decade (Cho, 2023). The number of K-pop groups is estimated to be more than 300. Different bands in K-Pop have massive fandoms. These fandoms have become highly popular due to their affection for the band through art, social media trends, and philanthropic work. Fandoms are doing a lot of work. BTS is a K-pop band with a massive fandom called BTS Army. In this essay, the demographics of the fandom, along with their expression of affection and love in the form of art and extremist tendencies, will be discussed. Although fandoms continue to play a vital role in the band’s success and through their various endeavors in society, they sometimes become highly toxic and harm people. Discussion Beginning of K-Pop The cultural phenomenon involving the intentional diffusion of Korean popular music from Korea to the global audience is regarded as Hallyu. Since 2000, the Hallyu wave has been dominated by K-pop artists such as Big Bang, SHINee, BoA, and SNSD (Girls Generation) and has had fandoms worldwide (Jin & Yoon, 2016). At the end of 2012, a song and a music video, ‘Gangnam Style’ was released by PSY, a K-Pop icon. It has gathered more than three billion views on YouTube. Recently, the global musical domain has been dominated by Bangtan Boys, BTS, who released Wings, their second album, which turned out to be the best-selling album of K-Pop (Billboard, 2017). Various K-pop artists such as Red Velvet, BTS, and PSY are internationally renowned and have utilized digital media to demonstrate K-pop’s popularity among the public in Western countries. The surge of digital media has resulted in Hallyu 2.0, a new phrase. The wave has been defined because of the more significant influence of K-pop fandoms on Western countries’ public and their crucial role in increasing the consumption of K-pop content on social media (Jin & Yoon, 2016). It isn’t easy to estimate the fans of K-pop globally accurately because of the ever-increasing quantity of content released by K-pop bands using Internet technologies. According to Kelley (2019), it is estimated that only BTS has more than ninety million fans globally. The presence of such huge fans has led to the creation of fandoms who continue to support the band, promote their work, reaffirm their identity, and engage in different activities. BTS BTS is a Korean pop music band that was established in 2010. It is the acronym of the Korean phrase Bangtan Sonyeondan or ‘Beyond the Scene.’ It consists of seven members, including Jin (Kim Seok-Jin), RM (Kim Nam-Joon), Jung Kook (Jeon Jeong-Guk), Suga (Min Yoon-Gi), J-Hope (Jung Ho-Seok), V and Jimin (Park Ji-Min). The group has received massive popularity since its debut in 2013 (Lee et al., 2021). It has broken multiple records on YouTube, particularly for becoming the most-watched video within 24 hours of release for singles such as Butter (2021), Dynamite (2020), and Boy with Luv (2019) (Ruskykh, 2023). They have made their mark as the Pop Icons of the 21st century by breaking several records in the music world. The band has a massive fan following and is extremely popular on social media. The fandom of BTS refers to itself as ARMY (Adorable Representative MC for Youth) (Kim & Hutt, 2021). One of the critical reasons for BTS’s popularity among audiences is its highly relatable lyrics. The group composes its lyrics and comments on social issues while focusing on themes such as individuality, empowerment, and self-love (Donabedian, 2021). It has created a positive influence because of its campaign, ‘Love Myself,’ and the speech in the UN ‘Speak Yourself.’ The group’s achievements have been recognized as it has received several prestigious awards, such as American Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, and the Billboard Music Awards. The Presence Of Diversity in the BTS ARMY Although the band might appear non-inclusive, as all the members hail from the same nation and country, the group’s diversity is evident through the subject matter it selects for its song and the issues it raises its voice (The Korean Times, 2022). The group’s inclusive approach is evident through its choreography and highlighting social issues and discriminatory actions. BTS is highly acclaimed for its meaningful choreography. One of the band’s songs, Permission to Dance, incorporated moves from international sign language for words such as peace, joy, and dance (Minji, 2021). The production company, Big Hit Music, explained that the choreography in the song was inspired by sign language and was aligned with the support of the deaf community. Apart from incorporating s...