K-pop Sensation: How K-pop Uses Social Media to Break into the U.S. Market
On last year’s Grammy Awards, the K-Pop boy group BTS performed alongside artists such as Lil Nas X, Billy Ray Cyrus and more, making them the first Korean act to perform at the Grammys. Before then, they have also performed at the American Music Awards and won “top social artist” at the Billboards Music Awards for three consecutive years. Many people have been asking, who are they and what is K-pop? What makes them so special to blow up in the states?
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K-pop in a nutshell
K-Pop” stands for Korean Pop music. While some consider it a music genre, others argue that it is much more than just a music style, but an entire aesthetic experience. No matter what definition people stand by, the fact that a music from Korea, which is geographically far away from the United States, can break into the U.S. music market is undoubtedly remarkable. The seemingly “sudden” rise of K-pop has left many people wondering: How do they do this?
One of the many reasons why K-pop can become a worldwide sensation and break into the U.S. music industry is due to their extraordinary marketing strategies. Different from those in other countries, Korean Entertainment Companies don’t just drop a music video out of nowhere. Typically, if a group is making a comeback, they will first release “teaser photos” on their social media platforms. These teaser photos set an aesthetic background by showing how the artists will be styled and give the audiences a hint of what their concept of this song will be. Then, a “trailer video” showcasing highlights of their song and choreography will be uploaded on online video sharing platforms such as YouTube, giving audiences a taste of what their music video might look like. Audiences will be constantly getting content from the group until the music video is finally uploaded, and the excitement continues throughout the artist’s performance on several music broadcasts, followed by “dance practice videos” being released after their shows. All of these strategies are only possible because of the rapid development of social media platforms, which provided a place where information can be shared for free and can get to their targeted audiences immediately.
The first K-pop success abroad can be traced back to BoA, a South Korean female singer, and her success in Japan since the 2000s. While her agency, SM Entertainment, had already targeted the Japanese music market before her debut, her success abroad seems to have more to do with her constant appearance in Japanese music shows and her albums tailored for the Japanese audience than the usage of social media. However, a more recent example — PSY and his hit-song “Gangnam Style”, seems to really manifest by what extent social media assists K-pop music to blow up in other countries. PSY is a perfect example of “Hallyu 2.0 (Korean Wave 2.0)”, where the Korean music industry “takes advantage of 21st century digital technologies and social media” [1]. The concept of Hallyu 2.0 “rose in tandem with Web 2.0, which emphasizes user generated content and usability” [2], said Dal Young Jin, a media studies scholar. PSY’s Gangnam Style was uploaded on his official YouTube channel on July 15, 2012 and since then, it has over 3.6 billion views (until in June 5, 2020). PSY’s “Gangnam Style” enjoyed an instant success since the start: it had ranked first on YouTube’s “Most Viewed Videos” monthly chart On August 14 [3], and on August 21, 2012, “Gangnam Style” officially charted №1 on the iTunes Music Video Charts (overtaking Justine Bieber’s “As Long As You Love Me” and Katy Perry’s “Wide Awake”), only one month after its release. The brainwashing melodies, hilarious dance routines as well as the comedic performance of PSY in his music video had attracted audience from all around the world through the Internet, and PSY’s music had become a trend that is simply unneglectable due to billions of people sharing its music video onto personal social media platforms. For the first time, various countries, including the U.S., had its encounter with K-pop music thanks to the rapid development of the Internet and the power of social media.
Social media and K-pop: A powerful duo
Few of the social media platforms that K-pop artists often use include Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. Though slightly differing in their functions, they all provide a platform for artists to share their daily lives without delay, very much in anywhere and at any time. When looking into the content of K-pop artists’ accounts, especially those of idols’, its easy to see that the image they are trying to hold is one which is not too lofty for normal people to relate to but also not too ordinary. Their image is a perfect balance between a flashy celebrity and an average Joe.
Aspects which K-pop artists value while maintaining their social media account can be seen in a monthly evaluation called “Individual Brand Reputation (개인 브랜드평판)”, executed by the Korean Business Research Institute(한국기업평판연구소)[4]. In this research, they’ll look into the big data and evaluate each celebrity according to their participation index (참여지수), media index (미디어지수), communication index (소통지수) and community index (커뮤니티지수).
Among them, K-pop artists usually pay the most attention to communication (소통). For them, the most important goal they want to achieve by communicating with their audience is “공감”, which can be roughly translated into “a sense of emotional resonance”. Instead of simply sharing slices of their daily lives, they also want their audiences to feel connected to them in order to create a community, turning audiences into a fandom of their own. Through the far-reaching impact of social media and Internet algorisms, K-pop is able to establish a steady and large fanbase overseas.
These international fans contribute to K-pop overseas success by integrating K-pop contents with their local online culture. In the U.S., the main social media platform which youngsters use is Twitter. An excellent example of combining K-pop contents with their habits of Internet usage is how they make clips of K-pop performances into gifs or edit photos into memes. They use these fan-made contents everywhere — even under tweets that have nothing to do with K-pop. By doing so, they are increasing exposure of these K-pop artists and are making these “foreign contents from a different culture” into one that is easier for U.S. netizens to digest and approach. Sometimes, they even spark interests into the K-pop world from strangers by leaving hilarious or stunningly beautiful gifs on the comment section (the 7-second clip of Jimin from BTS that want viral on the Internet is an excellent example). In addition, the convenient sharing and reposting function of Twitter called “retweet” also helped K-pop contents spread throughout the online community. With merely two clicks, users are able to “retweet” the desired content on their accounts for their followers to see.
Aside from simply using memes or gifs, the real chance for K-pop artists to showcase their talent and appeal to new audiences lies in YouTube. “Reactors” who posts video contents of them reacting to and commenting on videos are a huge audience that K-pop artists want to appeal to, since they are usually more open to learning about new contents and accept them. Many K-pop fans leave requests under those videos, asking the reactors to react to K-pop videos, and in the end, not only does K-pop attract a lot of new fans into their community, the reactors also get numerous likes and new subscribers. This win-win situation created an ideal environment for K-pop artists to be introduced to new audiences as well as break through stereotypes that people used have towards K-pop as a whole.
K-pop has greatly benefitted from these social media platforms and transcended geographical and cultural barriers due to the fast transmission of contents on the Internet and its wide-spread impact in the modern society. After years of maintenance and endeavors, it is not surprising that K-pop music broke through the high walls that the U.S. music market has built around themselves and created a “K-pop sensation” that sparked the interests of many.
Case Study: BTS and BLACKPINK
The biggest K-pop male group right now is, without doubt, BTS. As for female groups, BLACKPINK has been well received domestically and internationally. By taking a look of their social media accounts, we are able to gain more insight into how K-pop artists utilizes these platforms to interact with their fans as well as attract new audiences.
- BTS
In Korea, there are three big entertainment companies: SM Entertainment founded by Soo-Man Lee, JYP Entertainment founded by Jin-Young Park and YG Entertainment founded by Hyung-Suk Yang (which is BLACKPINK’s company). They dominated the K-pop music industry, and artists under these labels are usually guaranteed with success while other artists will have to strive hard in order to survive in the already saturated music industry. Therefore, the rise of BTS, a seven-member boy group from a small company named BigHit Entertainment founded by Si-Hyuk Bang, is truly like a miracle. The fact that they became the first K-pop group to enjoy such large success domestically and overseas suggests that they are indeed very special. While a big part of their success is due to fan labor, what makes them special is how they used their limited resources to spread their messages, which touched the hearts of thousands. Coming from a small and once nearly bankrupt company, using the social media is a free and effective way for BTS to connect with their fans as well as promote themselves.
While there are two Twitter accounts under BTS, the most active one is the one managed by the BTS members themselves (the other one is managed by the company). One feature that makes their content different from others is that they don’t hesitate to share their daily lives. While many other artists, due to control from the company, usually only share photos from public appearances or schedules, BTS strives to be as real as possible: They post photos of their dinner menu, of bare-faced selfies from behind the scenes, or even simply of a beautiful flower on the side of the road they spotted during their way home. They are also not hesitant to share what they are doing when there’s no public schedule. From paying a visit to a strawberry farm, spending a day in an art museum to simply playing computer games, BTS is able to strike resonance with ordinary people.
Looking at their social media account, people won’t feel distant from them. They are like a friend whom you can approach and start a friendly conversation, and instead of behaving like a god for worship, there’s a sense of realness and humanity within them. This sense of humanity is a universal feature that connects them with people from all around the globe, and thus they have built a steady fanbase who doesn’t hesitate to help them get in all the major categories of any music awards and vote for them. This is how the BTS sensation started: They got invited to the 2017 Billboard Music Awards and won their first “top social artist” award there. Their performance at the American Music Awards also attracted TV viewers who are also desperate to ask who these seven boys from South Korea are, and the rest, is history.
- BLACKPINK
For BLACKPINK, things are quite different from BTS. The four-member girl group debuted in 2016 under YG Entertainment, one of the big three entertainment companies in South Korea. While it is indeed their ability, determination and talents that enabled them to survive the intense competition between their fellow trainees and be chosen as the debut member, it is true to say that they are born with a silver spoon compared to other K-pop groups. They attracted fans even before their official debut and received instant success as soon as their debut music video, “Boombayah”, was out. Due to their immense popularity, many high-end brands have chosen them as their ambassador early on BLACKPINK’s career.
While their official account on Twitter and Instagram majorly consists of only announcements of their schedules and achievements, the members’ individual Instagram manifests their own styles. With them being the ambassador of famous brands such as Jennie for Chanel, Lisa for Celine, Rose for Yves Saint Laurant and Jisoo for Dior Beauty, BLACKPINK member’s social media account looks more glamorous compared to others. With their photos of their goddess-like visuals and fashionable outfits, they attract fans not by presenting a friendly or everyday image like BTS, but by showing a lifestyle and fashion sense that people admire to follow. They are not showy but instead tend to leave people in awe of them, and by cooperating with well-known brands, they spread their names worldwide by giving people the impression that they are indeed, stars.
BLACKPINK image as well as their talents are what lead to their chance to perform at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival held in California in 2019. Their charismatic performance and stunning visuals captured the hearts of many festival-goers, and they successfully showcased their talents in front of the U.S. audience. Since then, BLACKPINK has continued to work with famous musicians and even featured in some songs, such as “Sour Candy” with Lady Gaga, and will definitely continue to attracts new fans in the years to come.
Interview: Getting into the fandom
Jessica (pseudonym) is a 22-year old girl from the U.S whom I got to know via a mutual friend. Before she got into K-pop, she had no idea what K-pop is nor had she ever heard of it. “I had no interest in music from other countries then,” she said, “although some of my friends were into K-pop, I didn’t have the urge to listen to their music.”
However, all of this changed three years ago when she came across a hilarious gif on a comment under her tweet. She asked her friend who the person inside the tweet is, and it turned out to be Hyungwon from Monsta X. “I searched for their videos online, and I was so amazed by their incredibly good looks and sharp choreography. They are nothing like what I used to listen to, and I just kept on watching their content.” She smiled shyly and said, “Then, YouTube started to recommend me videos from other K-pop groups, and I just can’t seem to stop.”
Jessica revealed that the fan-made videos on YouTube that introduces K-pop groups helped her a lot when she was still new to the fandom. These videos, she said, contains basic introduction to each member’s name, appearance, special talents and also the group’s history. In addition, she also said that the fansites on Twitter gave her a sense of belonging. “I never really had many friends and I’m not the outgoing type of person, so I never really felt I belong to any group. However, I got a sense of belonging whenever I interact with other fans on Twitter. We get excited over the same things and have the same goal. No matter where I am from or what I’m like, as long as we root for the same idol, we are able to connect with each other.”
Now, Jessica is learning Korean since K-pop has sparked her interest in Korean culture. She also shared how K-pop had inspired her to work harder in life and even made her more outgoing. “The trainees in the Korean Music Industry work their tails off every day for their dreams,” she says. “Although there is no guarantee that they will succeed as long as they train so hard, they still endeavored to perfect their skills and put out great performances. Seeing them give their all one stage made me want to try my best in the things I do, too.” Now, Jessica is an active member in a local dance group that covers K-pop dances as well as a university student who will soon graduate. She believes that no matter where she will go or what she will do in the future, K-pop will keep on inspiring her throughout her journey in life.
K-pop: Looking into the future
In recent years, K-pop has definitely left a strong impression on the U.S. music market and has raised interest among listeners in the nation. While it is true that K-pop artists and companies have grasped the hearts of many through their wise usage of social media accounts, the most important aspect that decides whether they will be accepted or even respected as a true musician still lies in the quality of their music and performances. Thus, though it is not enough to only have an interesting and appealing content on social media, it is obvious that combining one’s amazing skills and promotion through social media, K-pop artists have proved to the world how their music truly has the power to “transcend language, countries and races”[5], as said by RM, the leader of BTS. Whether K-pop will be able to continue conquering the U.S. market is still a mystery, but one thing is for sure: As long as music still touches people’s hearts, the universal language of music will continue to deliver messages from the artists to their listeners, who, thanks to the development of social media, will have access to more amazing music around the world.
References:
[1] Jin, Dal Yong. “The Rise of the New Korean Wave”. New Korean Wave: Transnational Cultural Power in the Age of Social Media,University of Illinois Press, 2016, pp. 3–19. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/j.ctt18j8wkv.4. Accessed 6 June 2020.
[2] Jin, Dal Yong. “Hallyu 2.0: The New Korean Wave in the Creative Industry”. International Institute Journal, 2012. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/i/iij/11645653.0002.102?view=text;rgn=main. Accessed June 5 2020.
[3] Allkpop. http://www.allkpop.com/2012/08/psys-gangnam-style-ranks-1-on-youtubes-monthly-chart. Accessed June 5, 2020.
[4] 한국기업평판연구소 official page: http://rekorea.net
[5] Words spoken by RM, the leader of BTS, on April 24, 2017 during the second show of their Wings Tour in Newark, New Jersey.
