Summarizing Kpop Idol Fan Culture
After looking at the different scrapbook entries on Kpop Idol Fan Culture, here are my final thoughts on and conclusions drawn from the different aspects in the culture that contribute to keeping the culture afloat and continue to make it tick.
The first striking thing that makes the culture tick is the conflicting media ideologies that are primarily caused by a difference in cultural customs and nuances. Prior to my research, I always thought that it was only Westerners who would misinterpret the things said by the idols, but it turns out that idols also don’t quite understand every nuance that comes with the words they choose to use. This turned out to be unexpected to me because I always assumed that idols are very worldly and would understand the meaning behind the slang terms that I’m used to hearing every day. However, that isn’t the case. Unfortunately, many fans don’t understand that, and since many of idols aren’t from the West, they end up being a part of a big drama or controversy because of what they say. Sometimes, they have to be censored in what they say because even when they say something in Korean, the translation isn’t exact as it doesn’t capture the true meaning behind the words. What is considered a joking phrase laced with Korean nuances can turn into a homophobic statement interpreted by Western nuances. It’s hard to trust translations as 100% fact because it’s hard to translate the meanings that only native/fluent speakers would understand. Because of this, I understand that everyone, even idols, have a hard time understanding the meanings behind certain words/phrases and that the cultural language barrier causes much misunderstanding even when it’s being translated.
The second striking part that makes the culture tick is the vast system of economy that keeps everything afloat within the culture. I’m going to be very blunt and say that the music companies really know how to suck the money out of their fans. They’re smart and market really well. What struck me about the economy of the culture was the fact that the amount of variation that comes with the albums released is in fact justified. Prior to research, I was upset with how companies would make more than one version of the same album, thinking they were only doing that to capitalize and not give enough of the money earned to the idols. However, I realize now that it is necessary to make as much money as possible in order to keep producing high-quality products and music videos. It’s a really expensive process that takes millions to fund. In addition, fans aren’t required to buy the products. The companies just add incentive in buying more than one. It’s not like the fans can’t make money themselves or limit their losses. They can regain money lost by re-selling copies of the same album or photocards to fans who only want the album or photocard. In doing so, it all comes around to bringing in money to continue these grandiose projects and debut new groups within the culture. It also doesn’t hurt to have variety in products because it helps add to the incentive for fans to buy more than one album in order to help support their favorite groups by helping them win awards. This contributes to another part of the culture: the status.
The final part that makes my culture tick is the idea of achieving status. Fandoms are given incentive from the companies’ efforts to stir up the community’s economy to buy as many albums as possible in order to help their favorite groups win awards for their albums. It’s a fan’s way of saying “thank you” for all the hard work these idols do for their fans. In essence, since only one group can win an award, it stirs up a competition between fandoms to work hard and support these groups. What struck me about this was that in a way, the community’s hierarchy of fandoms is based solely on the fans and the hard work they do to make sure their idols win many awards. Social mobility is possible with hard work alone for a fandom to be at the top of the hierarchy and become the “Best Fandom”. It’s mind-boggling to think that many fans go to such lengths to help their idols win a lot and to support them. It’s to the extent that they would replay the same music videos over and over to hit 100 million or that they would spam Twitter voting (including me!) to make sure our groups topped everyone else’s. However, at the same time, it’s understandable considering many international fans can’t do as much to support their favorite groups as Korean fans, so buying albums and helping with online voting/streaming as much as we can is the only way to help. I was familiar with “fandom wars”, but I didn’t think that there would ever be a status system even when there was an award for the “best fandom”. There is some desire to be the best fandom, and the popularity of the idols sometimes may directly correlate with the status of the fandom. However, to me, it’s so interesting how status is primarily determined by the hard work of the individuals within a fandom.
There is more to the Korean Pop Idol fan culture than fans simply gushing over their favorite idols and groups. Upon looking at the culture from the outside, one may not be able to pinpoint all the little things that factor into making the genre such as big hit on the world front. I find that in researching this culture, there were things that I was not aware of when I was getting into this. People interpret things differently, even more so when there are cultural barriers in customs and language, which can lead to conflict, a conflict in media ideologies as well. The conflict can reach high magnitudes where it contributes to a rise in obsessive fans who resort to illegal (by American standards) practices to be remembered in infamy. This is just one of the aspects of the culture that is weird because no one can really explain why fans become as obsessed as they do to the point where they hurt others on purpose. It’s weird and scary among other things like the double standards fans have for music videos of boy groups and girl groups or the sexualization of idols. However, not all fans are like that (thankfully) as most feed their “obsessions” by simply buying the albums, watching variety shows, or investing in fansite products which may entail the need for masternims to start group orders, become translators, and communicate with the Korean fansites/suppliers to get products for cheap and fast. This contributes to the economy that keeps this culture afloat. Companies produce high quality product and videos that are bought by fans in bulk, only for the money to return to the companies to continue producing better content. In all this, the sales contribute to the competitions between different idol group fandoms to see who can do the most for their favorite groups by buying up as much albums as possible to help them win awards. The more awards, the higher the status of the group and the fandom. Everything I did research on seems to connect in some way to each other within the culture that I focused on which was surprising to me since I didn’t think that such different topics would be interconnected in some way.
