SuperM perform on stage at Rogers Arena on Feb. 6, 2020 in Vancouver, Canada. Andrew Chin/Getty Images The products spur fan loyalty and, in the process, feed a multibillion-dollar industry, but for K-pop enthusiasts with limited incomes, the cost of keeping current with the latest in fan gear can be e…
// EXCERPT //
In the early 2010s, it became the norm for K-pop groups to release multiple versions of an album — each of which features different exclusive photos of the acts. SuperM’s The 1st Mini Album EP arrived last October with seven variants — each featuring a single member of the group — in addition to the standard cover which blended the individual cover variants. Other major artists, notably Taylor Swift, have employed a similar multiple-version strategy, but the practice is far less common in the traditional, U.S.-driven pop world.
Variant album covers don’t just cater to fans’ individual loyalties — they can also boost sales and chart position. SuperM’s EP debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and of the 290,000 copies (physical and digital) that it has sold as of Feb. 4, 102,000 of those CDs were variants, according to Nielsen Music/MRC data (see chart). https://www.billboard.com/pro By Tamar Herman Featured Commentator : Bernie Cho [DFSB Kollective]
BTS Courtesy of Big Hit Entertainment In one of the last markets where physical sales of music remain strong, K-pop album packaging relies on sumptuous photography, elaborate graphic design and variant covers to sell CDs.
// EXCERPT 1 //
But U.S. artists offering special physical editions of their albums is not nearly as widespread a practice as it is in the K-pop world. And fans of these American acts are more apt to stream the music than buy a CD or vinyl album, let alone hundreds of them.
Though the use of concert ticket/album bundles to boost an album’s chart performance is rare in the Asian market, it does occasionally happen when K-pop albums are marketed stateside. (Billboard requires that the price of an album be at least $3.49 for it to be counted toward chart position.) Last year, SuperM released eight variants of its debut EP, The 1st Mini Album, and offered more than 60 merchandise/album bundles and a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer for the group’s North American tour. In 2018, BTS released four editions of Love Yourself: Answer and marketed a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer for the group’s sold-out October show at Citi Field in Flushing, N.Y. Both albums debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
// EXCERPT 2 //
Lee predicts that the CD itself may one day entirely disappear as streaming makes further inroads. If that happens, she sees K-pop albums giving way to what she calls a “concept book” that forgoes a CD for other promotional and collectible content.
In one photo for their album Map of the Soul: 7, the seven members of the South Korean supergroup BTS, or the Bangtan Boys, are cloaked in feathers, obscured by an ominous cloud of darkness. Other photos show them dressed in all white and in neutral tones, posing in the midst of a sumptuous feast in a shadowy room.
These images are a sharp detour from the colorful, Wes Anderson-esque aesthetic of their previous album, Map of the Soul:Persona, but that wasn’t a shock to fans: The Bangtan Boys’ public image, one that doesn’t rely on traditional forms of Western masculinity, is constantly evolving, as is their music. Fans will tell you that the Korean supergroup’s discography, once heavily inspired by hip-hop, belongs to no genre. What defines BTS — what sets them apart in the eyes of fans — is their emotional honesty, expressed through their lyrics, press interviews, and personal vlogs. Theirs is an underdog story, where they managed to surpass the odds to become one of the highest-earning K-pop acts and the unofficial face of Korean music worldwide.
In “Home,” a sentimental track that reflects on BTS’s material success, there’s a verse that translates to “the world thinks we own the whole world.” It sure seems like it. BTS’s new album, which was released February 21, had garnered more than 3.42 million preorders within the first week of its announcement. The boys have drawn comparisons to legendary music acts like the Beatles and the Jackson 5 for their ability to sell out massive arenas worldwide. They’ve sold out at least seven shows for the North American leg of their 2020 tour from fans in all 50 states, surpassing ticket sale records of top US pop stars Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift.
BTS’s path to superstardom was paved, in part, by South Korea’s wave of cultural exports to the West — from music to television dramas to elaborate skin care routines. Before BTS, a series of top K-pop acts (Big Bang, Girls’ Generation, EXO) have made US debuts, yet none really stuck, making the boys’ success even more unprecedented and unexpected.
In 2019, BTS reportedly brought in $4.65 billion for the South Korean economy through physical album sales, concert tickets, and branded merchandise. The band is currently worth 0.3 percent of the country’s gross domestic product and is projected to contribute $48 billion for South Korea by 2023, according to a report from the Hyundai Research Institute. These staggering numbers highlight how BTS’s influence is a 21st-century tour de force, something few Western pop artists are capable of achieving today.
At its heart, the music industry is driven by fan activity — the money poured into live shows, album sales, and official merchandise to bolster an emerging artist onto musical charts, whether that’s the US’s Billboard Hot 100 or South Korea’s Gaon Music Chart. To understand the scale of BTS’s success among other K-pop acts and Western artists, you have to delve into the Korean entertainment industry and understand how it’s a wholly different beast than its American counterpart, down to how its biggest stars are cultivated and marketed.
Fans in all 50 US states have bought tickets to BTS’s 2020 world tour. Jeff Kravitz/iHeartMedia/Getty Images This is best reflected through K-pop’s intense trainee system, where potential stars are recruited through auditions and cultivated over years of rigorous performance training. Music studios are typically responsible for a group’s formation, their marketing and music, and even their personal lives. While BTS members were recruited through this system, their management label, Big Hit Entertainment, took a different approach, placing fewer restrictions on them. BigHit CEO Bang Si-hyuk envisioned the boys as relatable, down-to-earth figures that fans could connect with. (BigHit did not respond to an emailed request for comment from Vox.)
Compared to other idols, BTS members have more creative and personal freedom, like the ability to write their own songs and lyrics and manage their own social media — aspects that BigHit aggressively marketed to audiences. The result is a massive international fan base nicknamed ARMY (an acronym for Adorable Representative MC for Youth), consisting of millions of people that span various ages and cultures.These fans are well-organized and single-mindedly devoted to the Bangtan Boys. They constantly flood Twitter with hashtags to promote the band’s activities, organize to stream new music, and even create merch for other fans. Perhaps most importantly, fans see BTS as original, authentic, and socially conscious public figures who aren’t afraid to talk openly about the struggles and anxieties of their career path.
I think about this a lot, but I believe a big part of @BTS_twt’s success and what has won people over, especially a lot of older fans, is their intelligence. Emotionally and cognitively, they are all extremely smart and thoughtful. They’re much more than just pretty faces. — Annie ⁷ ✨ (@AnnieLuvsBTS1) September 24, 2019
This core notion of authenticity — something that influencers, celebrities, and politicians alike aspire to embody — is a key factor in BTS’s astounding success overseas. It is a large part of the group’s appeal to companies seeking their endorsements. From 2013 to 2018, BTS sold more than $1.1 billion worth of branded items, and they’re expected to have an even greater economic impact than the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics within 10 years, according to the Hyundai Research Institute.
“When I talk to American BTS fans for my research, they say that they’re drawn to how genuine BTS is and how they’re saying something about themselves, rather than just talk about money, sex, and drugs [like American artists],” Ju Oak Kim, an assistant professor at Texas A&M International University who researches Korean pop culture and media, told me. “BTS blurs the line between [being a pop idol] and a person, and that’s a big difference for fans.”
While product sponsorships are common in the Korean entertainment industry, BTS has broken into the US market by the sheer force of its fandom, who have rallied stores like Hot Topic, Target, and Walmart to carry band merchandise and albums. That’s why you can find virtually every type of BTS-branded product imaginable on the internet. There’s BTS cold brew coffee, hand cream, Mattel dolls, and Funko Pop figurines. You can also buy BTS-inspired colored contacts, streetwear, Reebok shoes, and bank checks.
Granted, this is only a short list of BTS’s brand collaborations and official merchandise. There are thousands of other unofficial products on the market, and the Bangtan Boys are also ambassadors for Fila, the city of Seoul (for three consecutive years), the Hyundai Palisade, and an electric street racing championship hosted by Formula E.
BTS partnered with Mattel to create two lines of fashion dolls, which have boosted the company’s sales by 10 percent. Alastair Pike/AFP/Getty Images In short, BTS is everywhere — in Korea and abroad. Their branding prowess is undeniable, and even products that are unintentionally promoted through a BTS member’s “golden touch” can quickly sell out, whether that’s a sweater, fabric softener, or a bottle of wine. As careful as a member might be to not name-drop a brand, it’s only a matter of time before sleuthing fans and BTS product accounts identify whatever they’re wearing or alluding to.
“The fandom is very focused on buying official merch from concerts, BigHit, or the BTS Line store because it directly supports BTS,” said Liv, a 24-year-old BTS fan from England who didn’t want to disclose her last name for privacy reasons. Liv has stopped purchasing BTS merch for herself, but she sometimes gives away items on Twitter for other fans to have a chance at owning some BTS goodies.
Money is an inextricable aspect of any music fandom culture, not just BTS’s: Fans want to support their favorite artists, and that devotion is usually expressed through purchasing concert tickets, albums, and merchandise collections — all things that help the artist succeed. Still, not everyone can afford that or live where merch is easily accessible, Liv told me, which is why she and her fellow ARMYs are so passionate about hosting social media giveaways. K-pop fan culture is especially consumerist because, as Caitlin Kelley wrote for MTV, fans understand “many Korean acts do not make much money if they haven’t attained the rarified stature of a top-selling group like BTS.”
Therefore, fans can feel like they have a responsibility to “support their faves” by buying branded items every time a new collaboration or album is released. The relationship is “like a parent giving unconditional love and support to their child, the band,” David Kim, a YouTuber who analyzes Korean culture and K-pop, told the Washington Post.
As a BTS fan, keeping up with the latest products can be overwhelming. At concerts alone, a person can buy anything from T-shirts and pins to posters and light sticks. Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images There’s a downside to this focus on consumerism: Some fans spend thousands of dollars on merchandise or travel to attend concerts and meet-and-greets. It’s normal to spend extra on multiple versions of collectibles. “Merch-shaming” also exists within some corners of K-pop fandom — the idea that having a more extensive merch collection or attending a lot of performances is the marker of a “good fan.” Fan culture is complicated, and not everyone buys into the consumerist (and classist) ideology that owning merch makes someone a more dedicated fan. Most fans buy merchandise and concert tickets simply because they love the artist.
Within online fan circles, ARMY members like Liv have found ways to make the BTS community more inclusive, especially for younger fans and those who live in places where it’s prohibitively expensive to get items shipped. US BTS ARMY, a not-for-profit organization and fan news site for BTS, occasionally hosts worldwide merch giveaways for global fans, and Album for Every ARMY is a charity project for fans who are unable to buy their own BTS albums.
“There’s a wide spectrum of ARMY fans, including those who are teenagers or are in school, that don’t have the extra income for merch,” Jackie, the chief financial officer at US BTS ARMY, told me. (Jackie, who volunteers to work on the site, asked to only be identified by her first name.)
“We like to partner with a company and host these giveaways so that anyone can have access to some of this official merchandise,” she said. As with most popular artists, there’s a vast black market for unofficial products created and sold by companies and independent artists alike. Big Hit Entertainment has previously sought to curb the use of the Bangtan Boys’ image and crack down on unauthorized merch outside of concerts, but online, small businesses by fans proliferate.
To their credit, fans are wary of off-brand merchandise that appears to be exploiting BTS’s image for purely monetary gain. However, ARMYs are generally supportive of small artists who create original trinkets and drawings, said Stephanie Le, a 21-year-old college student who runs the Happi Peach pin shop on Instagram.
Le has turned several of her original designs of BTS members into enamel pins, a hobby she’s managed to monetize in the past year. “Fans tend to purchase official merchandise, but they also see the value we bring to things that aren’t normally produced,” Le told me. “I consider myself a multi-fandom pin maker, but BTS has lately been a big inspiration for me so I’ve been drawing them more often.”
Her operation is relatively small (she needs at least 20 to 50 preorders before she can manufacture a pin design), but some apparel and merchandise makers operate full-time businesses that solely cater to K-pop fans and even carry official products. There’s a constant stream of demand for novel items or T-shirt designs, especially when a band like BTS releases a new album.
Demand for branded merchandise is huge, but most devoted fans know that physical album sales carry weight in official music rankings. ARMYs have been savvily setting goals online for the boys’ comeback in late February, according to Jackie. “When a new album comes out, we as a fan base try and encourage the purchase of the album in the country where you reside in so it counts towards a chart in that country,” she said. “Since we’re a US base, most of our goals are directed towards the US.”
The purchase of some of these extra items, like concert tickets or T-shirts, when paired with an album or single is considered “bundling,” something many top US artists do to boost album sales. (BTS’s upcoming album is not bundled with any merchandise, and the band is one of the few acts that have reached No. 1 on the charts without bundles.)
More details of @BTS_twt's 'Map Of The Soul: 7' have been unveiled.
US & PR ARMY, remember to only purchase from stores that count for Billboard Charts!
For those who have already ordered on Weply, you can cancel your order & order again at recommended US retailers! pic.twitter.com/58se143Coq
For ARMYs (and other K-pop fans), it doesn’t really make a difference whatthe album comes with or what it looks like; they’ve planned to purchase it from the start. This level of sincere devotion to an artist — and even mass mobilization on said artist’s behalf — is what helped propel BTS into the international limelight.
In other words, BTS fans take it upon themselves to actively promote the band’s work. They’ve already figured out the number of iTunes and Spotify streams, YouTube views, and Shazam song requests it would take for BTS to reach the No. 1 spot once Map of the Soul: 7 is released. If achieved, these goals would once again prove BTS’s ability to top the Billboard charts. This energy is something that even well-known stars like Justin Bieber struggle to capture: animating legions of fans to stream or buy music that will benefit the artist.
When journalists and music critics speculate about the future of BTS, the narrative inevitably turns to South Korea’s two-year military service requirement, which all BTS members will be subject to by the time they’re 28. For fans, it’s a fraught and bittersweet reality given that Jin, BTS’s oldest member, will turn 28 in December. With this latest record, however, 2020 will likely be another big year for the young men in both music and commercial spaces.
In a corporate briefing in early February, BigHit announced its plans to invest in a more immersive BTS concert experience, introducing “tour villages” in select cities with attractions like a BTS-themed hotel, an exclusive pop-up store, and other themed exhibits. The label is placing its focus on what fans want, a crucial part of its formula for success, according to executives. BTS’s trajectory in the past three years has been unstoppable; they’ve smashed records, sold out stadiums, cemented their international presence, and signed another seven-year contract, which means they’ll likely keep performing into their 30s.
“As long as our bodies hold up, we’ll be doing the same thing in 10 years,” Suga, one of the group’s three rappers, told the Hollywood Reporter in a cover story last year (a story that was thoroughly criticized by fans for its inaccuracies, culturally insensitive sentiments, and lack of prior research).
And, likely, as long as BTS’s bodies hold up, it’s not a question whether their fan base will continue supporting them, financially and artistically, individually or as a group. Whatever they do and wherever they go, the ARMY will be behind them.
Matthew Brazier for The Washington Post What boy band BTS lacks in Grammys, they make up for with billions of dollars in sponsorships
It is one of South Korea’s biggest exports — with ticket sales, music downloads and merchandise racking up a reported $4.65 billion last year, accounting for a sizable 0.3 percent slice of their country’s GDP.
BTS, or Beyond the Scene, a seven-member South Korean boy band, in 2019 became the first group since the Beatles to earn three No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 chart in less than a year. But once again, the band didn’t get a single Grammy nomination, though it attended last week’s show and took the stage with Lil Nas X
Still, BTS has left its mark on the global music industry. “People will buy anything they touch,” said Paul Han, co-founder of the Korean pop news site Allkpop.com, which has 10 million monthly readers worldwide.
The band has built a merchandising and endorsement empire on a scale not seen in Western pop music — drawing on a commanding social media presence to reach millions of young, global consumers.
A new album, “Map of the Soul: 7,” is set to drop Feb. 21 and is predicted by Billboard to be one of the best-selling albums of the year. Preorders already exceed 4 million.
BTS performs during Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest on Dec. 31, 2019, in New York City. (Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images/Dick Clark Productions) With BTS at the height of its popularity, the band could be at a turning point.
Its members — who range from 22 to 27 years old — must enlist for compulsory military service before they turn 28, in accordance with South Korean law, which could put their careers on hold for around two years, essentially taking them out in their prime.
“As a Korean, it’s natural, and someday, when duty calls, we’ll be ready to respond and do our best,” Kim Seok-jin, known as Jin, the oldest member at 27, said on CBS’s “Sunday Morning.”
For now, they are “enjoying the ride,” BTS leader Kim Nam-joon, or RM, said in the same interview.
With a mix of pop, hip-hop, R&B and electronica, BTS’s drawing power for its tours ranks with Taylor Swift, One Direction and Beyoncé. Like them, BTS was able to sell out London’s 90,000-capacity Wembley Stadium, except they did it in 90 minutes.
Fans arrive for the final show of the band’s world tour on Oct. 29 at Olympic Stadium in Seoul. (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images) Last year, the group’s tour crashed TicketMaster’s website, selling out 300,000 tickets in minutes, at an average price of $452.
BTS has arguably been even more successful in building a merchandising and endorsement empire that extends far beyond typical tour T-shirts.
“They kind of reached the point where everything about them simply works, whether that’s merchandise, concerts, album singles or streaming,” said Youngdae Kim, a Korean Music Awards committee member and author of the book, “BTS The Review.” “I think it’s one of those rare moments for an artist’s career, where everything surrounding the artist simply works and makes money and more money.”
When BTS stepped out in a Hyundai Palisade last year, the SUV was on back-order for months. The band also launched lucrative partnerships with sportswear manufacturer Puma for track suits and sneakers; global character brand Line Friends for collectibles such as cellphone cases and plush dolls; South Korean beauty brands VT Cosmetics and Mediheal for makeup, perfume and face masks; and toy maker Mattel for figurines and an Uno card deck. Other collaborators, such as Starbucks and UNICEF, have said they plan to harness the band’s popularity to promote their humanitarian efforts.
Visitors to a pop-up store in Paris take pictures of BTS merchandise last summer. (Aurore Mesenge/AFP/Getty Images) “What we love about BTS is that they are a pop culture music phenomenon that transcends age, culture and language,” said Lisa McKnight, the global head of Mattel’s Barbie brand. “We get a lot of input studying culture, looking at social media, looking at public response, media and earned media coverage, and then evaluate what would be a good collaboration … and we are fortunate to bring one of the most popular bands right now to life.”
Behind BTS’s success is its record label, Big Hit Entertainment, a privately held company with an estimated worth between $1.08 billion and $2.07 billion, according to the Hyundai Research Institute.
Composer Bang Si-hyuk, known as the “Hitman,” started Big Hit in 2005 after working at another top label, JYP. Way before Psy’s “Gangnam Style” was a worldwide hit in 2012, breaking 2 billion YouTube views, JYP was pushing K-pop to a crossover Western audience with Wonder Girls. The girl group was the first Korean act to chart, reaching 76 on the Billboard Hot 100 for “Nobody” in 2008 and opening for the Jonas Brothers in 2009.
“At the time that I started my company, physical album sales were abruptly going down and digital sales were not coming up to compensate,” Bang told Time magazine. “But K-pop idol groups had an advantage, in that they had many opportunities to diversify revenue streams and their fans were extremely passionate, allowing concerts to compensate for the dropped album sales.”
BTS and Lenzo Yoon, the chief executive of Big Hit Entertainment, third from right, attend the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday in Los Angeles. (Rich Fury/Getty Images for the Recording Academy) Big Hit soon surpassed other major players in the industry, overtaking SM Entertainment, worth $1.3 billion, JYP at $788 million and YG at $492 million, according to Hyundai Research Institute.
Bang assembled BTS through auditions: a boy band built like One Direction, the Backstreet Boys and ’N Sync. Many started as teens, hailing from all over South Korea. Underground rapper RM was signed first in 2010 and became the group’s leader. Then came another underground rapper, Min Yoon-gi (Suga), that same year; and later dancers Jung Ho-seok (J-Hope), Jeon Jung-kook (Jungkook), Park Ji-min (Jimin); plus singer Kim Tae-hyung (V) and actor Jin.
Jin is a graduate of Konkuk University’s Department of Film and Animation, where he majored in acting, and he is pursuing graduate studies at Hanyang Cyber University. The rest of the band attended Global Cyber University.
“We really started at the bottom. When we first started, no one paid attention to us,” RM said on CNN, adding that the group lived in the same house and learned to deal with each other like “brothers.” “We sometimes argue from time to time. We know how to deal with it and how to learn from each other. We have a very special bond.”
Other Korean labels have been known to impose strict control over their artists’ lives, going so far as to include no-dating clauses in their contracts. While this could prevent artists from acting out, it also puts pressure on them to strive for perfection, potentially exacerbating mental-health issues. The industry has come under scrutiny after the deaths of two K-pop stars last year. But for BTS, there seems to be more openness regarding music creation and social media, possibly from what Bang described as a “relatively liberal trainee system.”
Big Hit Entertainment said it sees its business that way, too.
“It is as important to be partners in philosophy as it is to create hit products and generate sales,” said Steve Sejung Ha, general manager of Big Hit IP. “Our most important customers are the ‘fans’ who love the artist, so it is very important to work with an open-minded partner who can actively understand and communicate with our fans. I believe this aspect has a huge impact on our performance.”
Fans arrive for the final show of the band’s world tour on Oct. 29 in Seoul. (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)Some projects involve BTS directly, such as the collaboration with Line Friends, in which band members contributed drawings that inspired emoji that look like various things, such as a koala and a heart.
Others are inspired by BTS, including two lines of Mattel fashion dolls, one that is more realistic and one in a more animated style.
“We focus on offering new experiences rather than just products,” said Ha. “Essentially, BTS participates as the ‘muse,’ but the method of involvement varies by product.”
These products have been especially popular among fans; many are limited edition and tour-only merchandise. And with mandatory military service looming, BTS may have a limited timeline, which creates a “feeding frenzy,” said Steven Ekstract, brand director of the Global Licensing Group at Informa Markets, a worldwide licensing industry trade show organizer.
Their branding savvy is comparable to Kiss, the glam metal band considered a pioneer in music merchandising, said Ekstract. At its peak, Kiss sold more than 1,000 different products, racking up $2 million a year in the 1970s.
“They’re both very into the branding, much more so than I’d say 95 percent of what other groups and bands have done,” Ekstract said. “I think every band now today wants to do that … but I just think there are a few that really break out and separate themselves from the pack, and BTS certainly is at their height.”
Unlike earlier titans of the boy band craze, ’N Sync and the Backstreet Boys, BTS began in the era of social media. BTS’s fan base, known as its ARMY — which stands for Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth — has helped expand the band’s reach at a speed a 2000s tween would envy.
“Everything that happens to BTS comes down to the fan base and how dedicated we are,” said Roma Barade, an 18-year-old high school senior and administrator for the New Jersey fan group. “A lot of us look at them as serious role models. We look up to everything they do and buy products that they use.
This was certainly the case for the founder of BTS’s U.S. fan group, U.S. BTS ARMY, Imelda Ibarra, who has spent thousands of dollars on face masks, makeup, Uno cards and Puma shoes. She even broke her 10-year practice of vegetarianism for BTS-endorsed fried chicken when she was in South Korea in 2016 for one of their concerts.
With K-pop, fans are more than consumers: They are like a parent giving unconditional love and support to their child, the band, said David Kim, who runs the YouTube channel DKDKTV, which analyzes K-pop’s influence. And these “parents” have viral commercial power.
“Thousands of reviews on the product are uploaded via social media, which more consumers and brands can easily see,” said Kim, whose YouTube channel has more than 566,000 subscribers. “It’s a free second promotion and also a convenient way to keep track of marketing impact in terms of data tracking. ARMY is one of the biggest and most supportive communities in the world, so when you have ARMY backing you up, it’s really hard to lose.”
The band’s mobile game, “BTS World,” reached No. 1 in downloads in 33 countries within 14 hours of its launch last June, said Simon Sim, president of Netmarble U.S., the company that released the game.
It was the same for the Hyundai Palisade, which launched in South Korea in December 2018 and globally in 2019. The “SUV had basically no brand awareness,” said Sungwon Jee, vice president and head of the Creative Works group at Hyundai Motor Co.
BTS changed that, with a marketing and social media campaign that collected 800 million likes, comments and shares. Hyundai’s “Buy Palisade” tweet was mentioned 40 times more than for any of its previously launched models.
Beyond using social media power to sell products, BTS is promoting causes, too. The group campaigned for UNICEF to end violence against children and spoke at the U.N. General Assembly in 2018 about being true to oneself.
Their campaign raised $2.3 million and “helped young people open up about their own experiences of violence and bullying and encouraged love and kindness, online and offline,” said Gmin Seo, assistant manager for the corporate partnership and philanthropy team at UNICEF Korea.
As the band prepares to go on tour, and eventually into the military, members are unveiling a global art project promoting diversity, love and care, called Connect BTS, in London, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Seoul and New York. One installation is a hot-air balloon made of recycled plastic bags.
For fans like Ibarra, that message is more important than merchandise.
“It sucks, and I will absolutely miss them,” Ibarra said of their required military service. “It’s something they have to do and I’m ready for it, but what I always tell people, what is the amazing thing about BTS, that even if they’re not here, they left us with an amazing message that can continue on. … It’s timeless, to love yourself, speak for yourself and be true to who you are.”
Reporter : Marian Chia-Ming Liu Featured Commentator : Bernie Cho [DFSB Kollective]
It is 1992, and three young men in a boy band are performing in a live television talent contest. The sound is new: Korean lyrics, Euro pop, African American hip-hop and rap. They dance in sync. The studio audience goes wild. The judges in their prim suits are less impressed. They reveal their scorecards. The band gets the lowest mark of the night, and is voted off the show
The judges couldn't have got it more wrong.
In the next few days the song I Know climbs to the top of the charts, and stays there for a record-smashing 17 weeks. That night the group, Seo Taeji and Boys, ignites a revolution. Korean pop or K-pop was born.
K-pop is now a multi-billion-dollar industry. Bands like BTS and Blackpink are selling out in the US, UK and international stadiums within minutes. BTS is second only to Drake in international music sales. How did K-pop conquer the world? It’s a story with several parts.
BTS have become a global sensation (Credit: Getty Images)THE REVOLUTION WILL BE TELEVISED
In the late 1990s, major artists like Clone also made it in China and Taiwan. The prize at that time was the Japanese music market, and breakthrough happened in 2002 when Korea and Japan both hosted the soccer World Cup.
From 2008, bigger forces meant that K-pop's reach extended well beyond an Asian fan base. Unlike in China and Japan, where they use home grown social media, Korean companies embraced international ones – Facebook, Twitter and YouTube – and K-pop began to become available on international music platforms.
It showed that you could be big and not sing entirely in English or be in vogue. The power of the music video transcended language. Just one of the official videos of Gangnam Style on YouTube had well over three billion views, the largest number of hits of any video at that time.
If K-pop is like a popular selling product, then how is it put together? Hannah Waite was at college in America looking for a subject to research. In the early hours of that morning, she stumbled across it.
“I came across a K-pop video that someone else posted and was blown away by the production value of it, the colours, the sounds. Everything was just so overwhelming,” says Waite. “I remember when I first started researching this whole phenomenon, people were like, ‘This is a flash in the pan. It's going to be like the Macarena’, you know where it's like a one hit and then it's done, and it just sort of goes away and remains regional.”
This was nothing like the Macarena. When Waite started looking, she couldn't find anything in English online. So, she started her own website called Moon-ROK, giving information on K-pop news and entertainment. The first day the site went live in 2014, it crashed.
“We weren't prepared for 15,000 people to come to the site overnight,” says Waite. “We didn't even have the server capacity to actually host that many people.”
Waite started delving deep into the origins of the bands. As in the West, the pop groups were manufactured. But in South Korea, it was taken to extremes. It was far more targeted. Children were spotted and recruited. “They start these kids out at a very young age,” she says. “You could be anywhere from age 10 to 14 and you could get recruited simply because a rep from the agency saw you at the mall and thought that you look gorgeous.”
Blackpink became the first female K-pop group to play at Coachella (Credit: Getty Images)There is, says Waite, a specific formula and a set of conditions for creating a K-pop star. There are three main agencies with up to 200 trainees each. There are other smaller ones out there too. All K-pop bands come through this system. The recruits either stay at home or live in dorms. They live by a tight regime.
“You wake up, probably 5am. You train for a bit, whether that's choreography classes, vocal lessons. You sort of have a personalised schedule based on what your role in the group is,” says Waite. “Then they go to school until about 3pm, head back to the entertainment company where they do more lessons until about 11pm. In Seoul, the trains shut down at midnight, so they get on that last train, they go home, sleep for five hours and do it again.”
Bear in mind, these budding stars haven't even debuted yet. And when they do, they can have even earlier starts. Waits says sometimes the trainees are existing on up to two hours' sleep a night. Once you drop that first single and have your first performance, the clock is then ticking down again, she says, to when you become irrelevant. “Right behind you, there is a group of hungrier, more ambitious, younger kids that's looking to dethrone you as the next big thing,” says Waite. “So, you run yourself ragged to make sure that you're getting every penny out of it.”
Over the past few years, there's been an increase in K-pop stars admitting to having mental health issues. There was a high-profile suicide in 2017: Jonghyun, lead singer of one of the biggest groups SHINee, took his own life at the age of 27, and a note believed to have been sent by him to a friend spoke of his struggles with depression and fame. Another well-known star T.O.P. overdosed on anxiety medications.
Tributes to Kim Jong-Hyun, the 27-year-old lead singer of SHINee (Credit: Getty Images)K-pop stars used to be bound by 13-year contracts. This term has been legally reduced to seven years. “That was actually the result of a couple of K-pop stars stepping out and saying these contracts are ridiculous: ‘I sleep two hours a night. I don't want to go to these shows. But if I don't show up, I get fined and I'm trapped until I'm essentially 30-years old, because these contracts are so long’,” says Waite. “They coined the term ‘slave contract’.”
KOREAN WAVE
But, the more K-pop has become more successful, the more the establishment has become interested.
“South Korean business leaders and political leaders were figuring out that they needed to expand into other areas,” says Yung Lee, Professor of Sociology at University of California, Berkeley, who has written about K-pop. “The only thing young people especially were talking about was either South Korean drama or South Korean popular music.”
The government started to back the music industry, giving it tax breaks. They gave money to academics to enhance the popularity of the genre, and foreign embassies were promoting the groups. It worked and brought in big business. But, as Lee points out, that wasn't all.
“The impact, of course, it not in terms of money, but in terms of its popularity and expanding the South Korean influence or soft power abroad.”
There's even a word to describe this wave of Korean culture: Hallyu. And K-pop became central to lots of other profitable industries like the beauty business.
BTS mania hits the US (Credit: Getty Images)“For example, cosmetics and plastic surgery and other elements of the beauty industry really rely on K-pop, especially to promote this image that if you use these South Korean products and service that you will become attractive, cool, great looking just like these K-pop stars,” says Lee. “The vast majority, I think, of young South Koreans get some form of intervention either in your face or your body. So, it’s something that's really changing South Korea, and not always for better, I'm afraid.”
It's resulted, he believes, in a cultural amnesia to traditional Korean society. “It's really accelerated in the last couple of decades, and K-pop is part of the process of the massive change in South Korean society,” says Lee.
With that change and the emergence of some serious scandals, the worry is that it could tarnish brand Korea. And that could post a dilemma for the government.
“What can they do? They began to ride this horse, and so they're almost stuck with it now, and they invested so much prestige about South Korean in K-pop,” says Lee. “So, they had no choice at this point but to keep on investing, to keep on trying to flog this horse that they've ridden on.”
So, how did K-pop conquer the world? Clever design and brilliant marketing. But there's more to a K-pop band. It's an expression of Korean culture, and the government has been more than happy to capitalise on its success.
However, the constituent parts to the K-pop product are people, some as young as 10. They may have to endure so-called ‘slave contracts’ and arduous daily regimes. At its darkest, K-pop culture stands accused of scandals. Not a side of South Korea the government wants to advertise. All this may not be affecting music sales. But it's a heavy price of conquering the world.
Monday, March 16, 2020 at 10:06PM | 
SuperM perform on stage at Rogers Arena on Feb. 6, 2020 in Vancouver, Canada. Andrew Chin/Getty Images The products spur fan loyalty and, in the process, feed a multibillion-dollar industry, but for K-pop enthusiasts with limited incomes, the cost of keeping current with the latest in fan gear can be e…
