Notes on K-pop, or, can we all just admit that NewJeans outsold your fave?
by Tiger Dingsun
I want to propose that being a K-pop stan is not about enjoying the music. Or at least, not primarily about the music. The image and identity of the idol themself is the main form of this media, which is designed to be holistically consumed. The music is simply a convenient point of market entry, the frame for all other promotional content—behind the scenes footage, performance videos, TikTok challenges, variety shows appearances, live streams, and in recent years, self-produced variety shows, which are often on YouTube (this move has essentially become the status quo because it takes out the middleman of broadcasting companies. Basically every single K-pop idol has a fully produced YouTube show now). All of this content fuels fandom, and then fandom generates desire, and then that desire is assuaged by capital. Suddenly you find yourself actually buying the album. But even the album, as a physical product, is not really about the music. It’s about the elaborate photobooks, collecting photocards, and other inclusions. It’s more of a steam valve to release excess fannish fervor, rather than wanting to physically own music, which is why K-pop album sales are on a completely different scale from western CD sales.
In the past year I’ve gotten really deep into Seventeen fandom (the fanbase is called Carats). But I’m not even super into their music (although I do love a couple of songs), and it’s not really about how they look or their sexual appeal (in general, K-pop’s brand of sexual appeal often comes across to me as corny). No, I’m a Carat because I love meticulously analyzing every member’s personalities, boiling them down to their essences, and then constructing elaborate predictive models of how they would interact with each other in certain scenarios. I have this group chat with two other friends who are also into K-pop in which I spew any and all Seventeen thoughts that occupy my brain. We’re basically just constantly writing fanfic outlines in the group chat. And because there are thirteen (!) members, there’s so much juice to work with. I’ve been able to get to know them so well by watching Going Seventeen, their long-running, frequently updating, self-produced YouTube variety show. Going Seventeen is pretty self aware—they often cop to the fact that the content itself is kind of arbitrary. They’re producing this for the fans, they exaggerate their reactions for the fans, etc. But the core of their friendships feels so genuine, and that is what I love consuming the most. That is what is most delicious to me, thinking about all of them being friends with each other. This is what’s actually being sold to me—not the music, not the brand deals—but the feeling that I can know them so deeply.
K-pop variety content, like most reality TV, occupies this strange space where it’s both real and constructed. Even moments that seem private or somewhat transgressive are constructed, perhaps even more so, because companies have figured out that there is a perfect amount of rebellion to be allowed just to make sure that fans don’t think the idols are totally prisoners. With Going Seventeen, sometimes it does feel like they’re consciously developing their camaraderie with each other for the benefit of the fans voyeuristically consuming those friendships. But the friendship is nevertheless there. And despite the heavily produced aspects of their lives, sometimes the cracks can begin to show, and there are suddenly moments where I’m confronted with the reality that these people are overworked and hyper-managed. It must be hard to live a life where every hour is spent being the symbolic figurehead for a project that’s essentially an interface for brand integrations. And for what in exchange—fame? What use is fame? In those moments I can’t help but see K-pop idols all as wounded pigeons forced to be doves, and I can’t help but stare in morbid curiosity. How could I look away? Despite the artifice, there is real love I have for my biases. Despite the sometimes braindead and ethically naive nature of K-pop stans, I have a huge amount of respect for the emotional depth and intensity that comes from stanning your fave. I’m one of them. In particularly anhedonic moments of my life I find myself returning to K-pop because it reminds me of the capacity I have to feel. I’m reminded of how close the sublime actually is, how easy it is to feel the intense devotion, the frisson, the jouissance.
For a taste of Seventeen, I recommend this episode:
Going Seventeen Ep. 32: Best Friends, part 1 and part 2.
Further Reading:
- The Figure of the Idol: Cultural and Aesthetic Critiques
- Nymphet Alumni’s podcast episode about K-pop is a great place to start and is essentially a syllabus unto itself—well worth the paywall!
- Multiple Exposures: Korean Bodies and the Transnational Imagination | The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus
- Blackpink, Girl Boss Feminism, & K-pop Girl Crush Concepts | K-pop Video Essay & Analysis
- Meet NewJeans’ Secret Weapon: R&B Songwriter Erika de Casier | GQ
- BTS: Westernization, Korean Culture, & Cultural Authenticity | BTS Video Essay & Analysis
- K-pop Idol Enlistment Scandals & South Korean Military Conscription | K-pop Video Essay & Analysis
- Alice Sparkly Kat’s aesthetic and cultural analysis (especially about BTS)
- K-pop Fan Communities:
- On Hallyu & Halimos; The Evolution of Somali K-pop Fandom
- What Shinee Taught Me About Grief, Friendship, and Joy | Teen Vogue
- Also see: Key (Shinee) talking to Taeyeon (Girls’ Generation) about Jonghyun’s passing
- More Context about Korea, celebrity culture, and suicide
- The Unpaid Labor Of K-Pop Fan Translation Twitter
- The Fan Translators Behind K-pop’s Worldwide Success
A note about Real Person Fics (RPF):
I’m really interested in RPF, but not so much in terms of its supposed ethical (or unethical) dimension. I’m interested in RPF because it’s the most obvious example of how fans not only read, but also write K-pop idols as a text. As fans consume more and more content of their favorite idols, they get so good at writing their personalities. When I get to know idols through their content, their personas begin to crystallize into archetypes in my mind. So reading fanfiction, written by fans that know the archetypes as well as I do, is in a sense a way of continuing the story. Immoral? Idk…maybe one day we’ll decide collectively that it is immoral to turn anyone into any content. Maybe fame itself is immoral because it leads to the consumption of people’s images. - On RPF and Why People Love to Write Stories About Public Figures | Teen Vogue
- Has K-Pop Fan Fiction Crossed a Line?
- Parasociality
- Esther Yi’s feverish novel Y/N, about a woman who becomes obsessed with a K-pop idol
- Why Can’t We Be Friends—Real Life
- Newer international K-pop fans are not crazier than 2nd gen international K-pop fans, the companies have just learned how to create parasocial relationships with i-fans over the internet : r/kpoprants
- View of Revisiting parasocial theory in fan studies: Pathological or (path)illogical? | Transformative Works and Cultures
- View of Reflecting on Japan-Korea relations through the Korean wave: Fan desires, nationalist fears, and transcultural fandom | Transformative Works and Cultures
- From a UI/UX perspective:
- K-pop Contracts and Corporate Intrigue
- LOONA’s predatory contract situation:
- K-pop contracts in general:
- Big Hit’s rebrand to Hybe
- Hybe’s attempted corporate takeover of SM in March 2023
- Megathread: SM Entertainment Shares Acquisition (Kakao Entertainment, Lee Sung Soo & Tak Young Joon vs. HYBE, Bang Si Hyuk & Lee Soo Man) : r/kpop
- Megathread Part 2: SM Entertainment Shares Acquisition (Kakao Entertainment, Lee Sung Soo & Tak Young Joon vs. HYBE, Bang Si Hyuk & Lee Soo Man) : r/kpop
- Megathread Part 3: SM Entertainment Shares Acquisition (Kakao vs. HYBE) : r/kpop
- Packaging, Photocards, and Collecting:
- K-pop merchandising is one of the only graphic design contexts in which aesthetics *is* function, in direct opposition to the commonly cited heuristic that “form follows function.” There’s a sort of Garden of Eden-esque quality, where because the production value is so high, the disillusionment of design limitations/specifications almost doesn’t exist. K-pop albums are like graphic design objects you see on are.na or Pinterest but not actually anywhere in real life. One example I really like is Alive by BigBang, which was housed in a metal casing that rusted over time, indicating the “aliveness” of the metal, I suppose. Something about it, and I mean this in the best way possible, feels like something that could only ever exist as a student concept or a proof of concept. Interestingly enough, there are so many online tutorials by fans about how to clean the rust off. Maybe K-pop packaging designers have a little more leeway because the fandom already has a built-in loyalty. Like, they’re probably gonna buy the album no matter what it looks like.
The most common critique heard in graphic design school is that every design decision needs to have a clear justification. K-pop graphics feel like an arena in which concepts and graphic elements and typographic styles don’t need a “reason” to be there except to capture the eye. K-pop albums aren’t really a music product at all. They’re design products, layers and layers of paper and ephemera and inclusions meant to effectively capture disposable income. It highlights a very bare-faced and pure connection between graphic design and capital.
NewJeans takes this to its logical conclusion. They’re the first group (at least of recent note) that actually seems like they have a coherent vision, thanks to art director anti-hero Min Hee- jin. They’ve managed to rise above the glitzy, unfocused, design-by-commitee, straight-from-the-moodboard-and-onto-the-illustrator-file haze of K-pop aesthetics. To be clear, it still has that moodboarded quality, but they wear it better. The typographic identity is still based on pastiche and imitation, but somehow it’s way more effective than anything else I’ve seen? It’s done in a way that sets up NewJeans to have perfectly seamless brand integrations, because their visual identity for previous releases already has this tongue-in-cheek protean quality. With the recent Powerpuff Girls collab for their second EP, Get Up, it’s not just imitation anymore, it’s just straight up brand synergy in a way that feels weirdly unquestionable, which is kind of significant in a marketing landscape that’s peppered with random brand collaborations that are basically just placing two logos next to each other on a T-shirt. Other brand deals they have: Apple, YouTube, Coca-Cola, McDonalds. K-pop is a brand activation experience and NewJeans is here to say, yeah and so what? You’re gonna enjoy it, and it’s gonna be the best music you’re ever gonna hear (even if the songs are only like a minute long). The K-pop group, as a cultural form, is a product that is constantly undergoing further and further profit optimization. Why make 12 or even 10 songs, when you could make 6 songs, and give all of them full music videos and promotional cycles to optimize capturing the most engagement? And I don’t say any of this in a disparaging way, or in a “K-pop fake and bad dur dur” way. But I do think that we have to engage with the reality that art and media are becoming indistinguishable from marketing, and that K-pop is at the cultural forefront of this transformation. - the loona database and trashgram: weapons of interest
- CD Sales Are Booming in the K-Pop World, Where Album Design Takes Center Stage
- SEVENTEEN’s Fans Buy Albums in Bulk & Leave Them on Streets After ‘Use’
- Why K-Pop Fans Are Buying, Trading, and Selling Photos of Their Idols
- K-Pop Inc.: The World of K-Pop Merchandise | Billboard
- A look into K-pop album production
- K-pop merchandising is one of the only graphic design contexts in which aesthetics *is* function, in direct opposition to the commonly cited heuristic that “form follows function.” There’s a sort of Garden of Eden-esque quality, where because the production value is so high, the disillusionment of design limitations/specifications almost doesn’t exist. K-pop albums are like graphic design objects you see on are.na or Pinterest but not actually anywhere in real life. One example I really like is Alive by BigBang, which was housed in a metal casing that rusted over time, indicating the “aliveness” of the metal, I suppose. Something about it, and I mean this in the best way possible, feels like something that could only ever exist as a student concept or a proof of concept. Interestingly enough, there are so many online tutorials by fans about how to clean the rust off. Maybe K-pop packaging designers have a little more leeway because the fandom already has a built-in loyalty. Like, they’re probably gonna buy the album no matter what it looks like.
MUSIC
I’m gonna preface this list by saying that I admittedly have huge gaps in my K-pop knowledge. For example, I haven’t really followed any of the idol competition shows or the groups that come out of those, and I don’t really know anything about Twice or Girls’ Generation or BTS (but I hear they’re worth checking out?).
This list consists of music videos that hopefully show the range of what K-pop can look and sound like, as well as reveal some moments when polish, high production value, and aesthetic and sonic pastiche give way to some genuinely avant-garde moments.
I stuck to groups whose fandoms I’ve engaged with more. As a gesture towards completeness I’ll enumerate other artists and groups that are worth checking out for the K-pop novice:
Girls’ Generation (duh), 2NE1, (G)I-dle, NMIXX, Fifty Fifty, BB Girls, 2PM, Aespa, Astro (rest in peace Moonbin), Dreamcatcher, TXT, Twice, Exo, Enhypen, GFriend, Girl’s Day, Iz*One (to a certain extent, the current K-pop girl group landscape is Iz*One’s diaspora), Sunmi, Chungha, STAYC, Hyuna, Yena, Kep1er, Monsta X, Mamamoo, OnlyOneOf, Super Junior, Stray Kids, Wanna One, Winner, Wonder Girls, XG, Zerobaseone
Okay also—it’s really worth watching Lee Young-ji’s show “Nothing Much Prepared” in which she invites celebrities over to her house and gets really drunk with them. It’s so funny and often revealing in a way that feels rare. Ex. this episode with Twice is so good (and again, I’m not even a Twice fan like that). Young-ji is just someone who’s just really good at making idols feel comfortable enough to spill whatever’s on their mind.
- Aespa, “Savage”
- BIGBANG, “FXXK IT”
- BIGBANG, “Zutter”
- BLACKPINK, “DDU-DU DDU-DU”
- DAWN, “DAWNDIDIDAWN”
- I mostly like this video because he’s serving death note
- f(x), “4 Walls”
- Itzy, “24HRS”
- Produced by SOPHIE
- Itzy, “Not Shy”
- IU, “Palette”
- IU, “Through the night”
- IU, “Celebrity”
- Also worth watching: NewJeans cover of “Celebrity,” performed on IU’s YouTube show
- IVE, “Eleven”
- IVE, “After Like”
- IVE, “Love Dive”
- Le Sserafim, “Antifragile”
- Le Sserafim, “Eve, Psyche, and the Bluebeard’s Wife”
- Le Sserafim, “Unforgiven”
- LOONA, “love4eva”
- NCT dream, “Glitch Mode”
- NCT DREAM, “Chewing Gum”
- I remember being really disturbed when this song came out because they were CHILDREN that seemed like they were a) being exploited, and b) clearly styled to look even younger than they are in a classic fetishization of youth and innocence. Very similar to what people said about Min Hee-jin and NewJeans upon their debut but weirdly, I think there’s much more moral panic around NewJeans than there was around NCT dream.
- NCT 127, “Sticker”
- Possibly the most annoying K-pop song to exist, and yet something about it…
- NewJeans
- Ahhh…what else can I say about NewJeans…only that they outsold your fave. There aren’t that many songs so it’s honestly worth familiarizing yourself with their entire catalog (including the Coke Zero song). You’re gonna be seeing a lot more of them in the future.
- “NewJeans”
- The shots of the actual animators working on the music video is genius, and indicative of Min Hee-jin’s willingness to break the fourth wall and to lampshade the (usually invisible) infrastructure of the K-pop machine.
- “OMG”
- Performance Video 3
- Another reason why NewJeans feels so fresh is that their choreography is precise yet deliberately unsynchronized. It’s performed with a casualness that’s extremely endearing, like they’re five really nice really cool really “alt-popular” girls that are best friends in a coming of age movie.
- Performance Video 3
- “Ditto”
- Version A
- Version B
- “Ditto” features a character named Ban Hee Soo who always carries around a camcorder and who essentially hallucinates NewJeans and five imaginary friends in order to cope with her loneliness and social ostracization. “OMG” and “Ditto” are accompanied by a cryptic YouTube channel meant to be uploaded by Hee Soo, consisting of the camcorder videos that Hee Soo is seen filming in the official music video. What was genius is that ADOR never officially acknowledged this channel, and just let Hee Soo’s videos organically find their way to fans as part of YouTube’s recommendation algorithm. Ban Hee Soo (meant to sound like “bunnies,” the name of NewJeans’ fanbase) is meant to represent us—only able to conjure up the image of NewJeans mediated through the screen of Hee Soo’s camcorder. She’s friends with NewJeans but can only observe them. And in fact what’s being observed is this image of friendship between the members.This sort of explicit illustration of fans using K-pop as a crutch for loneliness is perhaps felt but ultimately glossed over. In the reaction video the NewJeans members cry but aren’t totally able to articulate why.
- “Super Shy”
- “Cool with You”
- OnlyOneOf, “Libido”
- Significant for being extremely gay. From the former creative director responsible for LOONA’s extremely intricate lore and worldbuilding.
- Mad Monster, “Mine Rudolph”
- These two comedians created a K-pop song as a parody and a send up of K-pop culture but then the song blew up. See: Ashley O, “On A Roll”, Lily Rose Depp, “World Class Sinner / I’m a Freak”
- Interview with them
- Red Velvet, “Dumb Dumb”
- Red Velvet, “Red Flavor”
- Red Velvet, “Russian Roulette”
- Seventeen, “Gam3 Bo1”
- Seventeen, “HOT”
- Seventeen, “Left and Right”
- Seventeen, “Fuck My Life”
- Seventeen, “Super”
- BSS (From Seventeen), “Fighting”
- Vernon (From Seventeen), “Black Eye”
- Shinee, “View”
- Shinee, “1 of 1”
- This song is really representative of the trend in K-pop where the theme and concept for a song/video/album is just “retro.”
- Shinee, “Selene 6.23”
- This performance of Selene 6.23 (which imo is THE Shinee ballad) makes me cry. Especially with the context that this song was written by Jonghyun.
- Longer clip of the show that this performance is from
- Jonghyun (of Shinee), “She is”
- I remember being intrigued by this video just because I was really confused by the color grading.
- Jonghyun, “Lonely”
- Taeyeon, “INVU”
- Taeyong, “Shalala”