K-Pop Fandom and Culture - Lecture Notes

K-Pop Fandom

• Fan merchandise and fan-created content

• Toxic K-pop fandom, including sasaeng (stalker fans)

• In-class discussion: K-pop fandom and activism

Official K-Pop Merchandise vs. Fan Merchandise

• Official K-pop merchandise: Goods manufactured and sold by K-pop labels, both online and offline, during events such as concerts, album releases, fan meets, seasonal greetings, etc.

  • Examples: Lightsticks, photo cards, photo-printed items (including banners), wallets, keyrings, clothes, dolls, mugs, and so on.

• Fan merchandise (unofficial K-pop products): Various items produced and consumed by fans at both company-dominated official events and fan-driven events (i.e., birthday cafes).

  • Examples: Products utilizing photos or videos taken by fans and employing adorable, comic images of K-pop stars through fans’ reinterpretations of the stars’ actual appearances and concepts.

Creativity in K-Pop Fandom

• Creators of artworks inspired by their favorite K-pop stars’ images

  • Fans, whether amateur or professional artists

  • Sharing their work through social media

  • Showcasing fan artwork exhibitions

  • Selling the artwork to other fans or general art collectors, both formally and informally

• Presenting their work as gifts to K-pop stars

• K-pop stars acknowledging fan-created artwork on their social media profiles by mentioning or tagging the creators, as well as sharing photos of the artwork

• Some fan art creators communicating and even meet with K-pop stars in person

• Some fan art creators recognized as stars within the fandom

Photographer Fans

• Photography and videography: the most common practices among fans

  • To capture their favorite stars and commemorate their participation in events (e.g., concerts, fan signings, fan meetings, etc.)

• Photographer fans (jjikdeok, ‘찍덕’ in Korean):

  • Capture nearly all instances when K-pop stars are present by utilizing high-tech cameras (e.g., during their arrival and departure at broadcasting stations or airports)

  • Potentially be misconceived as, or become hommas or stalker fans (sasaeng)

• Fan videos (a.k.a. ‘fancam’) circulated on social media, going viral and serving as a means to promote unknown K-pop idols and their music

• Video footage from TV programs emulating the videography style found in fancams

Hommas

• Originating from the term ‘homepage masters’ (Konglish for web admins)

• Fans who own and manage ‘fansites’ (also known as ‘homes’) on social media to share photos and videos of their favorite K-pop stars that they have taken and edited themselves:

  • Produce and sell merchandise using their pictures or videos to other fans

  • Present gifts to their favs.

  • Host events to promote their fav. and celebrate their birthdays or debut anniversaries (e.g., birthday café, exhibitions, billboard ads, etc.)

  • Contribute funds or supplies to charity

• Hommas as photographers, editors, creators, sellers, promoters, and donators

• Homes (fansites) as an ‘underground’ (or black) market

Sasaeng

• Sasaeng (사생)

  • Stalkers within K-pop fandom

  • Sasaeng, the abbreviation of sasaenghwal (사생활 私生活), which means ‘private life’ in Korean

  • Illegally obtaining K-pop idols’ contact information, home addresses, and flight details.

    • Continuing to call the idols, observing their private lives (even within their homes), boarding the same flights, staying at the same hotel, etc.

  • K-pop idols’ plea to/warning against sasaengs

Sasaeng, Paparazzo, or Whoever

• Paparazzo (pl. paparazzi): a freelance photographer who chases celebrities to capture their images

• Korean slang term for those who gather, track, and closely shoot K-pop idols – ‘붙순이’ (girls or women who stick).

Sasaeng or/and Homma

• Sasaeng homma: Homma, who invades K-pop idols’ privacy to capture closer and more intimate photos and then becomes a sasaeng

In-Class Discussion Topics

• What do you think about the pictures taken by hommas at live music venues or airports and the processes that result in hommas’ photos in the previous slides?

• How do you distinguish between hommas, stickers, photographer fans, and sasaengs in K-pop fandom?

K-Pop Fandom and Activism

• Cases from South Korea, the United States, Thailand, and the Philippines

• Emerging trends in K-pop fans’ activism

K-Pop, Fandom, and Youth/Young Women’s Activism in South Korea

• K-pop fans’ involvement in political rallies

  • “Candlelight Movement” (2016-2017)

  • (tentatively titled) “The Lightstick Revolution” (2024-2025)

• K-pop songs sung by protesters or played in protests

  • Intramural protest by Ewha Woman’s University students (2016)

  • 2019 Seoul Queer Parade

  • Dongduck Women’s University students’ on-campus protest (2024)

K-Pop Fandom and U.S. Politics

• K-pop fans protecting BLM movement protesters from police monitoring in 2020

  • Uploading fancams to the iWatch Dallas app to deactivate it

  • App malfunction

• K-pop fans as hecklers at the Trump event rally

  • Ordering tickets for the Donald Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June 2020

  • No-show

  • Raining on his parade, with empty seats at the venue

K-Pop Fandom and Thai New Protest Culture

• The culture of young K-pop fans as a component of political activities in Thailand's pro-democratic movement in 2020

K-Pop Fandom and the Filipino Election Campaign

• 'K-pop stans 4 Leni'

  • Filipino youth as K-pop fans who supported Leni Robredo's presidency in May 2022

  • Integrating K-pop fandom into the presidential election campaign

Emerging Trends in K-Pop Fan Activism

• Protests, both online and offline, to voice objections to K-pop companies' decisions or promotions

• Protests, both online and offline, aiming to convey ideological points and urge K-pop idols and companies to acknowledge these issues and engage in activism

  • Sending trucks or wreaths to the company headquarters

  • Engaging in boycott through social media posts

  • Critical comments on K-pop idols’ social media profiles