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| Members of K-pop juggernaut BTS speak at the virtually held 75th United Nations General Assembly, Sept. 23, 2020, delivering a message of hope amid the COVID-19 pandemic. / Courtesy of UNICEF |
By Park Han-sol
The expanded role of K-pop artists from providers of entertainment content to voices of sociopolitical activism has come under the spotlight as the genre becomes more mainstream each day, most recently evidenced by megastar group BTS' first-ever Grammy nomination last November.
The idols' discussion topics have extended to various areas including climate change, public health, racial discrimination and animal rights.
The presence of K-pop artists in socially relevant matters became more apparent in the summer of 2020 when BTS posted "We stand against racial discrimination" on its official Twitter account with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter and donated 1.2 billion won ($1 million) to the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc.
Each of the group's members has been associated with different forms of activism. In the Jan. 12 episode of "Run BTS" on V Live, J-Hope stressed the importance of social distancing and suggested each member film themselves individually on their own instead of gathering as a group to do something together. The clip was then shared by the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Twitter who stated it was a "great idea" to promote solo activities while people remain physically distanced from each other, Jan. 14.
Other notable activities by the ARMY fandom include RM fans creating a forest in the Han River Park in 2019 named after the member, who has continually shown interest in environmental protection. V fans in the U.S. donated to more than 90 charities dedicated to causes such as supporting underprivileged children, the protection of marine animals, and suicide prevention among others, for the member's recent birthday.
BTS is not the only K-pop group whose members and fans are publicly declaring their support for sociopolitical causes.
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| Members of BLACKPINK call for climate action in a video posted on the group's official YouTube channel, Dec. 9, 2020. / Captured from YouTube |
Last month, BLACKPINK posted an official YouTube video calling for climate action ahead of this year's UN Climate Summit that will be held in November in the U.K. The video has had more than two million views as of Jan. 18. The six-member group Monsta X was appointed as honorary ambassadors for the 19th International Anti-Corruption Conference.
Lee Gyu-tag, assistant professor of cultural anthropology at George Mason University Korea, stated that such actions taken by K-pop artists reflect the passions of the genre's main consumers: global millennials and Gen Z, which includes those who are born from 1997 through 2012.
"This isn't technically the first time that idols have spoken on social issues ― first generation idol H.O.T. criticized school bullying in the 90s in their songs and such. But that angle of social criticism has been largely absent for a while within the industry until the players began to recognize and reflect the socially conscious opinions held by young global fans. These voices span across multiple areas including climate change, social minority issues and racial discrimination."
Although the commercial appeal could partially be a reason for the K-pop industry to keep up with international fans' demands, the artists, who are in their teens and 20s themselves, are part of the young generation and so are also likely to share an interest in such issues, he added.
Even when the stars themselves don't publicly declare their stance on a social issue, K-pop has seemingly been employed as a popular cultural tool for political activism. In the U.S., the noticeably low attendance of the Trump re-election campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma last year was attributed in part to K-pop fans who apparently reserved a massive number of tickets with no intention to attend. Fans also disrupted the operation of an app launched by the Dallas police force which sought intelligence on BLM protesters by sending in footage of K-pop stars instead of protesters, and took over hashtags used by white supremacists, rendering them useless by using them to promote K-pop content.
"K-pop's inherent characteristics as a non-Western, non-English and therefore non-mainstream music plays a huge role here. To the global millennial and Gen Z audiences, even if K-pop songs don't explicitly mention sociopolitical issues in their lyrics, K-pop itself is taken as a form of subculture and even counterculture, which can then be used as a tool to criticize mainstream culture and customs upheld by the older generation," Lee said.
He listed the group TWICE's "Feel Special" being used as an anti-Trump anthem and Girls' Generation's "Into the New World" being played during the pro-democracy movement in Thailand, both of which have nothing to do with the causes themselves, as examples.
Some highlighted the genre's strong online presence and fans' proactive content consumption, which includes their demands for certain voices to be heard and reflected, as the catalyst for K-pop stars becoming figures representing their fans' social interests.
"I think both idols and fans have done some really good projects especially because they have very strong online presences and reach a lot of people easily," Juliana White, a graduate student in Florida and a BTS fan since the group's debut, told The Korea Times.
"And I think the influence goes both ways: fans see the idols being socio-politically active and take up causes that might not have been important to them before. But also there have been plenty of instances where fans made their own projects and fundraisers first."
Kang Woo-sung, author of "The K-pop Dictionary" and "Korean Culture Dictionary" echoed the sentiment.
"Previously, it was a unilateral process where pop culture content was created by the entertainment agencies, and fans passively consumed it. But it then became a multilateral process where fans can interact with the agency and the artists through new media channels, providing input and feedback during the production phase. Therefore, the role of fans has evolved from passive consumption to pro-active participation," Kang said.
Lee added that K-pop as a result of agency-centered production has for a long time created a controlled environment for "safe" music that has discouraged artists from speaking too freely. But recently, things are beginning to change with the popularity of singer-songwriters and artists who are interested in social causes.
"Instead of taking extreme sides, as in 'K-pop must either address or be forbidden from speaking on social issues,' I think it's better in the long term to create an environment in the industry that encourages individual artists to freely express their thoughts regarding the issues that interest them."
