Zhangrui Weng

English 1158

Instructor Franklin

2nd March 2021

Project 1 Proposal: Bringing Changes to the K-Pop Communities and Subcultures

As Korean music group such as BTS and Twice gain international popularity because

their charismatic personalities and energetic stage presence, the K-pop communities are growing

at a rapidly rate. K-pop enthusiasts would form fandoms for their favorite idols or groups and

promoting the group to popularity to show loyalty. However, despite for doing “good deeds” for

the purpose for their idols, some fans take these actions to the extreme where the affection seems

to become unconditional, blind worship. Fans would go to any length to defend their bias or “a

fan's favorite member within a group” (Globe) from any sort or commentary or slight criticism.

Even worse, a certain group of obsessive fans known as sasaeng have even form traveling groups

on their own to stalk certain idols and invasion privacy without consent. Since the K-Pop

communities are becoming so vast, these types of feuds and fanatic behaviors and can happen

often. So, as a proposal to the vast K-pop community, I strongly feel the need to establishing

ground rules in these online communities. To solve this growing fanatic issues, there should be

certain limit and regulations in terms of promoting their musical groups on various social

platforms. There should also be established, secure protection to prevent invasion of the idol’s

privacy. This is necessary because the bad reputation should be cleared, and the K-pop

communities should be a welcoming place that let everyone to enjoy the same type of music

without feeling uncomfortable.

Severe levels of regulations and restrictions in terms of what contents Korean fans or fans
of different artists in general can post or express in the social platforms should be applied

through evaluations of their posted contents. This can be done by restricting any posts that

contained contents that can form discontents from other internet users. Aside from causing

dissatisfaction, social platforms should restrict the constant spamming of fancams which is “a

video closeup filmed by an audience member during a live performance by a K-pop idol group.”

(Romano, 2) It is no doubt that K-pop content such as fancams are widely resentful among most

social media users besides (similar emotions and attitudes appeared in K-pop fandoms) from

containing factors mentioned above. Although some K pop fans will think this is ridiculous that

the fans will need to act more civil, but it is important for maintaining their favorite idol group

and fandoms’ positive images. If not, the fans or the people who enjoys the music will also not

be open to show their affections. Instances can be found on post on Reddit and Quora where

stans are ashamed of claiming themselves as K-Pop since “there’s a big chunk of K-pop fans that

make a bad name for anything K-pop related, from extremely annoying twitter stans who post

fan cams literally anywhere to all those incredibly defensive K-pop stans who will write entire

paragraphs when someone writes anything that doesn’t compliment their precious groups or

idols.” (Reddit) Once more proving the point that the act of promoting to the extreme is not a

wise action to spread popularity but rather an undermining to the overall image of K-pop fans.

Or can even cause fans to be ashamed of their liking toward the groups. Therefore, it is necessary

to limit the amount of content or post like this to forge a smooth flowing, civilized internet, yet to

make sure to content like this are still available for fans to enjoy to elsewhere on places such as

YouTube.

One of the other solutions to forging a less toxic K-pop fandom is through the influence

of their own idols. Korean idols aside for being skillful at singing or dancing, they should need to
set a positive example to their fans about being civilized and not constantly needing validation of

how great their favorite groups. Encouraging them to be more friendly, a good example of

encouragement can be idols to be more open about their friendships with other popular idols.

This action can be helpful in breaking down the deceptions and illusions that most popular

groups such as BTS and EXO are bitter enemies. For example, EXO member Kai and BTS

member Jimin are showed their valuable friendship through social media platform. Whenever

they post their interactions, fans from these two different groups show love and envy. Implying

that there is no need to treat each other with hostility simply because we like the other popular

groups. Another good way to point out the issues with another fandom is through communication

with fans through live chat apps. Letting them understand that K-pop music should be enjoyed

by people without the need of constant useless promotion. Instead, fans should bring positivity to

the group image by doing good deed for the world while representing their likable groups. For

example, BTS and its strong fandom Army contribute 2 million dollars to the Black Lives Matter

Campaign under the purpose of ending racial discrimination. K pop fans help to end Trump’s

campaign got solute from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Thus, further showing the

importance of positivity rather than conducting actions that show fanaticism that sabotage the

reputation.

Another issue that should be considered when developing a fan community that are more

civilized is to stop the saesangs’ creepy behaviors. As there are fans who doubted whether if

some obsessive fans can threaten a person’s safety or privacy, they might seem to forget the

news consistently reporting the serious crimes saesangs are conducting. Extremely concerning

actions ranging from “installing closed-circuit television cameras near idols’ homes; attaching

tracking devices to idols’ cars, using a global positioning system (GPS) to track their
movements; stalking them around town in taxis; even engaging private investigators to seek out

highly personal information.” (William 2) Without a doubt, majority of the fans would hope this

type of fanatic would stop performing such actions for the sakes of their idols’ safety and

community’s reputations. After all, no one wants to be in a problematic fandom that can also

threaten their bias's personal safety. Therefore, it’s time for company to take serious legal action

towards the stalkers. Issuing restriction guides to those fans who are lurking around idols hotel,

dorms, and any personal properties. A good case that showed the effectiveness of taking legal

actions can be seen from JYP entertainment protecting its female artist Nayeon from her foreign

stalker josh1994. The company first initially put restraining order against the saesangs. As the

fan disregard the warning, company soon starts to strengthen the security whenever the female

artist is exposed to the public eyes or is staying inside the dorm and put the stalker to court to

stop all these types of stalker-ish behaviors. Eventually, the fan gives up the stalking and no

longer claim for wanting to break into the artist house or do her any harm. Thus, taking law

actions or strengthened security to prevent suspicious people to stealing personal information can

be a great action to lessen the toxicity of the fandom. Also acting as a warning or negative

example to protect the artists’ reputation or to prevent any fans to become fanatic over their

idols.
Possible Sources:

Dooley, Ben, and Su-Hyun Lee. “BTS’s Loyal Army of Fans Is the Secret Weapon Behind a $4
Billion Valuation.” The New York Times, 15 Oct. 2020,
www.nytimes.com/2020/10/14/business/bts-ipo.html.
“Kpop Fans Are the Worst.” Reddit, Reddit,
www.reddit.com/r/kpoprants/comments/khwlxs/kpop_fans_are_the_worst. Accessed 3
Mar. 2021.

Laffan, Derek A. “Positive Psychosocial Outcomes and Fanship in K-Pop Fans: A Social
Identity Theory Perspective.” Psychological Reports, 2020, p. 003329412096152.
Crossref, doi:10.1177/0033294120961524.

Stitch. “K-Pop Activism Makes Headlines but Black Fans’ Experience Is More Complex.” I-D,
i-D, 3 Mar. 2021, i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/y3z3by/k-pop-activism-black-lives-matter-
racism-fandom.

Romano, Aja. “K-Pop Fans Are Weaponizing Their Fancams for Black Lives Matter.” Vox, 22
June 2020, www.vox.com/2020/6/8/21279262/k-pop-fans-black-lives-matter-fancams-
youtubers-protest-support.
Williams, J. Patrick, and Samantha Xiang Xin Ho. “‘Sasaengpaen’ or K-Pop Fan? Singapore
Youths, Authentic Identities, and Asian Media Fandom.” Deviant Behavior, vol. 37, no.
1, 2015, pp. 81–94. Crossref, doi:10.1080/01639625.2014.983011.