Transitioning from the Stage to the Barracks: Exploring the Impact of Military Service on BTS Army’s Consumer Behavior
Franchesca Nicole Collantes, Paula Sharmaine M. Delos Santos,
Guanlun Hu, Kristine Joy Ramos, and Isabelle B. Santiago
De La Salle University Manila, Philippines
Korean Pop (K-Pop) Music continuously grows around the globe and Filipinos are no exception despite the geographic disparity and language barrier. Many K-pop groups have debuted from different K-pop companies, such as BTS from HYBE Entertainment, EXO from SM Entertainment, and Big Bang from YG Entertainment. This phenomenon allowed Filipino K-pop fans to idolize and develop fanaticism towards different K-pop groups. This fanatical attitude is shown by activity, extreme enthusiasm, emotional attachment, and a feeling of love and excessive interest that lasts for a long time (Eliani et al., 2018). In South Korea, all "able-bodied" men are obligated to complete about two years of national military duty. Although athletes and some classical musicians occasionally gain exceptions, it is still debatable who qualifies for them and how the decision is made (McIntyre, 2023). For years, there have been persistent doubts about whether BTS would be required by South Korean law to enlist. These doubts have sparked spirited discussions about everything from whether the requirement should only apply to men to whether the band's significant cultural impact and financial success — both domestically and as South Korea's representatives on the international stage — should exempt them from it (Kwon, 2022). Both HYBE and BTS members are looking forward to 2025 as they will finish their military service commitment and BTS will be complete again (BBC News, 2022).
The purpose of this study is to determine the factors that affect the fanaticism of Filipino Bangtan Sonyeondan (BTS) fans towards the group which is currently on a break due to the military enlistment of members. The researchers will examine the effect of the inactivity of BTS on its fans, collectively known as the “BTS Army”, who are known to be fiercely loyal but due to the break, might resort to switching to other K-pop groups to idolize. The study will be anchored in Expectation Confirmation Theory (Bhattacherjee, 2001) and will use a quantitative survey to gather data via Google Forms by applying the 5-point Likert Scale. A total of 200 valid questionnaires from respondents aged 20 to 30 years old from Metro Manila and the Greater Manila area will be collected and used in the data analysis.
The findings of this study will help understand why Filipino K-pop fans might switch to other groups aside from being loyal to the first group they idolized. It will also benefit marketers as the results can give insights on how to sustain brand loyalty. This research aims to answer the call of United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals on Decent Work and Economic Growth as tourism and selling of merchandise help create job opportunities for all. The data indicates BTS is contributing an estimated $3.9 billion in economic value to the South Korean economy annually, and the impact of BTS's military service is expected to have an influence on the economy (Sammer, 2022). In Philippine settings, resellers and group order (GO) managers have emerged due to the increasing market of K-pop merchandise. They have used various social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter (Abad, 2021) and E-commerce applications, like Shopee and Lazada to promote the K-pop merchandise services they offer.
Masculinity as Vulnerability: Resisting militarization
Collette Balmain
Kingston University, United Kingdom
On the 13th December 2022, the oldest member of BTS, Seokin Jin, enlisted in the military. Like all South Korean men, Jin and the other members of BTS, must fulfil societal expectations through mandatory military service, and leave their lives as globally loved members of one of South Korea’s finest exports, in this rite of passage marking a transition from youth to adulthood. On the 18th April 2023, Jung Hoseok, better known as J-hope, enlisted, and the other members are expected to follow this and next year. In their 2019 study, Lee et al, drawing on Bourdeiu’s 1977 concept of habitus, and the experiences of 20 Korean men, show that “through the military training and life in barracks, [men] gradually internalize […] militaristic compliance as their central value in building military masculinity” (p. 1477). Military service is seen not just as a duty in South Korea but as a sacred rite of passage to manhood as Kim points out (2013): “It’s an unusual part of “becoming a man” that requires men to put quite literally every aspect of their lives — their education, their careers — on hold for nearly two years”.
While BTS are noted for their gender performativity and emotional masculinity, the military requires them to put away the childish things of youth and instead to conform to hypermasculine ideals which promote gender and class inequalities. In this paper, I explore the manner in which BTS have, through their individual and group projects since their temporary hiatus in 2022, resisted militarisation through the staging and restaging of masculinity as vulnerability.
The BTS’s new path and roles on “Take Two”
Jung Eun Song
Independent Researcher, Korea
Since COVID-19, K-pop has been consumed mainly online, and online concerts, self-variety production, and live communication by large Korean entertainment groups such as BTS. BTS’s album topped Billboard charts even during COVID-19. K-pop has activated content production and distribution based on Korea's IT technology even during a limited period of time from 2020. BTS sent online concerts to 107 countries around the world, setting a Guinness record for most live streaming with more than 750,000 people simultaneously, and released four consecutive songs ('Dynamite', 'Butter', 'Permission to Dance', and 'Old to Come' to K-pop audiences around the world. Three of these songs were released in English and topped the Billboard singles chart, which is the first attempt by BTS. In case of BTS’s achievements, the prefix "K-" can be more emphasized in terms of global universality and of K-pop's competitiveness being accepted on a global scale.
As K-pop has been gradually developed to the international level, the meaning of the prefix K- is also being discussed in terms of global acceptance trends and attitudes. As such, K-pop is undergoing major changes in the member composition of K-pop idol group, production system, and localization strategy due to political, economic, and social changes such as the use of new technologies due to COVID-19 and the increase of international cooperation in the field of popular culture. At this point, the management and production system of large entertainment companies should avoid the trend that K-pop is becoming a planned product and changing into the brand power of entertainment companies. Still, the value of K-pop given by K-pop fans at home and abroad is a comprehensive cultural content that delivers elements that cannot be found in other artists and groups, balancing various components beyond a specific music style.
The generational change of K-pop and Hallyu cultural content audiences suggests a reconsideration of the scope and influence of the meaning of 'K-' in the future. This study analyzes the meaning of prefix "K-" according to changes caused by BTS’s achievement and in acceptance patterns of Generation Z. Also, this study discusses BTS’s roles and strategies based on the lyrics of the new release, “Take Two”. IT is expected that BTS will actively attempt storytelling to empathize with global fans through music.
Exploring the Themes of Mental Health and Wellbeing Messages: A Content Analysis of BTS Music
Brahmmakumari Balaraman
University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia
Music and its impact on mental health wellbeing has been a prominent area of study in the field of psychology, however, there are still limited exploration on the specific themes within the facets of music of an artist. Each artist may employ various musical technicalities and messages within their artistic production, and how each of these facets influences the message behind the music is an area of research that is ever growing. Musical influence, specifically the genres and lyrical meanings is widely known to be influential in the impact it creates in its listeners, however, the specific message of the music is often interpreted in combination of multiple aspects of the music such as its content and deliverance. BTS as a musical group has constantly embedded mental health messages in their musicality. The positive influence of their music on the listeners had been widely explored and recorded through musical and cultural studies.
This article examines mental health and wellbeing messages present in the BTS discography from 2013 to 2022 through a content analysis. The findings revealed three major themes of musical style, lyrical meanings, and storytelling to be present in their discography. Narration of lived experiences, personal struggles, difficulties, support and comfort, coping, hope and self-growth are found to be prevalent themes in BTS discography. BTS’s infusion of the artist’s personal journey and positive mental health and wellbeing messages within their musicality had also normalized the content of mental health stigma and support through their music.
“BTS Finds You at Your Lowest” - A Study on How BTS Facilitates Mental Health Conversations in the Indian Fandom
Varsha Narayanan
Christ - Deemed to be University, India
India provides staggering statistics when it comes to mental health. According to WHO, mental health in India as of 2022 has caused 2443 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) per 10,000 population. One DALY represents the loss equivalent of one year of healthy life. Economic Times reports that the scale of mental health in India accounts for 15% of the global mental health burden. A study by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) reported that 80% of the Indian population failed to receive treatment due to the stigma surrounding the topic.
These statistics provide the researcher with a significant reason to explore how the South Korean boy band BTS has facilitated productive conversations around mental health in India. Despite research conducted about the boy band’s influence on people’s mental health in general, very little is known about its effect on Indian fandom.
Considering the huge fanbase in India and the stigma around mental health, the immediate objective of the research project is to understand how the boy band has helped Indian fans to cope with mental health, and how it has brought significant changes to their lifestyle. The secondary objective is to understand how fans have handled conversations with parents, family, and friends before and after following BTS. The final objective is to understand how fans have inculcated the boy band’s message into society. Through these objectives, the researcher also aims to understand how more literacy and awareness around the boy band’s message amongst parents and guardians might help their children cope with mental health.
Using a mixed methodology approach of a questionnaire, content analysis, and personal
interviews, the researcher aims to understand how BTS has proved to be a significant force in the Indian fandom in this and the generations to come.
BTS and the Self: Understanding Psychological Concepts Through the BTS Members’ Songs
Maria Bernadett Carandang
La Consolacion University, Philippines
Julianna Maria Garcia
Boston College, United States
Jenny Lind Rubio
Independent Researcher, Philippines
Fandoms are a non-traditional medium for mental wellness. The psychological investment in the parasocial relationships between fandoms and their fandom object is part of the coping
resources and support systems of many participants. This is exemplified by the relationship
between BTS and ARMY. There are numerous anecdotal accounts from ARMY regarding the mental health benefits of BTS media. Hallyu Wednesdays (HW), a mental wellness group, created group psychoeducation sessions using BTS’ discography and related media to promote a cognitive and emotional understanding of psychological concepts. For “The Self” series, the sessions were designed with the aim of promoting mental wellness through a series of seven group online sessions. Each session centered on an individual BTS member’s songs and a psychological concept for discussion.
Iconic songs either performed or written by each member were selected and a psychological theory fitting the theme was discussed in relation to the songs. To illustrate, Freud’s Ego Psychology and Kohut’s Self-Psychology were discussed in terms of BTS Jin’s songs (Awake, Epiphany, Abyss, and Super Tuna). Discussions for the other members were as follows: RM - society and the self; SUGA - the integrated self; j-hope - existential anxiety; Jimin - anxiety and perception; V - shame and guilt; and Jungkook - the development of identity.
Sessions were conducted over Zoom in a moderated space. Rules for confidentiality and respect were implemented through consent forms and were enforced by trained group moderators. The sessions lasted approximately 2 hours each, employing a general format of input, group discussions, synthesis, and opening and closing bonding activities.
As shown by the HW Self series, the concept of a fandom-based approach to mental health has endless potential in its applications. With further research and development, its capacity to explore more pathological states and other forms may be investigated. Hallyu Wednesdays is a mental health safe space that creates programs for mental health, community, and sustainable development using a fandom-based approach.
BTS A.C.H.E. Initiative: The Act of BE:COMING
Charmaine G. Salido
Hues_by_Cha, Philippines
Jefferson J. Acala
De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, Philippines
Anna Marie H. Bautista
University of Santo Tomas, Philippines
This panel presentation melds the two conference themes – “BTS in Southeast Asia” and “BTS
and the Future” in a heritage management convergence framework (Bautista, 2019) that addresses 4 elements representing A.C.H.E. (Arts, Culture, Heritage, Education). The global impact of BTS has paved the way for aca-ARMYs to explore new ways of thinking and seeing beyond textbooks. The “At-The-Moment,” fast-paced stance of BTS contents categorically puts them within the modern heritage framework.
Salido shares her personal journey as a professional turned visual artist propelled by her mental condition during the pandemic, rediscovering her talent in painting through Synesthesia, a neuropsychological condition that causes the brain to do multi-sensory experiences through music, and in her case, through BTS music. Her works were exhibited at the UST Museum as part of the “Trivia: Constellation” project organized by the University of Santo Tomas Publishing House to celebrate World Poetry Day with Art, Music, and Poetry.
Acala focuses on traditional Filipino art, “Pabalat”, a delicacy paper wrapper that is slowly vanishing, and merging the traditional into contemporary art through BTS themes to re-introduce “Pabalat” to the public and highlight how traditional and contemporary art and culture can be intertwined to be relevant to the times.
Bautista discusses the exhibit narrative she curated for the UST Museum to welcome its students back to campus. Entitled “UST Goes Namjooning: Capturing Moments on Campus”, this was a successful exhibition picked up by local and international media as it is uncommon for a university museum steeped in tradition and history to use BTS as a prompt for a comeback exhibition. Originally mounted for the academic community, Filo ARMYs clamored for its public viewing, thus leading to heritage education through “Namjooning.”
A Comparative Study on the Subjectivity of Speakers by Gender in K-Pop Idol Songs: Focusing on the Mission Songs of the Idol Survival Audition Program from 2016 to 2022
Sinhye Nam and Soong-beum Ahn
Kyung Hee University, South Korea
The purpose of this study is to examine how the aspects of female and male subjectivity are revealed in the lyrics through a pragmatic analysis of the lyrics of K-pop girl groups and boy groups. In particular, the mission songs of idol survival audition TV programs that appeared after 2016 and became a hot topic are the subjects of this study.
The programs to be studied are the <Produce> series aired from 2016 to 2019, <Queendom> and <Kingdom> series aired from 2019 to 2022, and <Girls Planet> and <Boys Planet> aired from 2021 to 2023>. These programs shared the same format of idol survival audition, but were produced separately as programs for girl groups and programs for boy groups. Therefore, it is necessary to compare and analyze the lyrics of the mission songs produced in the girl group program and the boy group program respectively. In addition, the lyrics of the mission song of the audition targeting idol candidate members can be said to reflect the image that the public prefers differently to girl groups and boy groups.
On the other hand, from a linguistic point of view, the words of a song can be set as a specific type of discourse in which a lyricist or a singer who sings the song is set as the speaker and the public listening to the song is set as the listener. Therefore, song discourse can be a subject of linguistic analysis, and is especially suitable to be discussed from a pragmatic point of view that encompasses the context and environment in which language was performed as a subject of study. Accordingly, this study will compare the aspects of expressing subjectivity in the lyrics of female idols and those of male idols based on the speech act theory, one of the sub-theories of the theory of pragmatics.
BTS's Empowering Influence on Overcoming Adversity and Embracing the Future
Khairunnisa Rahmaditia Adita
Independent Researcher, Indonesia
In a world grappling with the uncertainties of the post-COVID landscape, an intriguing connection emerges between the enigmatic workings of the amygdala, Agust D's introspective masterpiece "Amygdala," and BTS's uplifting anthem "Permission to Dance." This abstract explores how the amygdala's role in storing unpleasant memories intertwines with the empowering message conveyed by BTS's lyrics, particularly in navigating the uncertainties and challenges of a world recovering from the pandemic. By recognizing that the amygdala retains past failures and unpleasant experiences, BTS encourages listeners to approach the future with confidence and resilience, utilizing the wisdom embedded within their amygdala to embrace new possibilities.
Agust D's song "Amygdala" delves into personal struggles, acknowledging the presence of the darkest memories within the amygdala itself. The lyrics poignantly express, "This place, my amygdala, where the darkest memories reside" (Agust D, 2020). It serves as a reflective exploration of the amygdala's function as a repository for these memories, influencing our present emotions and behaviors.
Contrasting the introspective tone of "Amygdala," BTS's song "Permission to Dance" offers a powerful message of hope and resilience. The lyrics remind listeners that they need not worry because they possess the ability to overcome setbacks: "We don't need to worry, 'cause when we fall, we know how to land" (BTS, 2021). This sentiment holds particular relevance in the post-COVID era, where individuals have faced unprecedented hardships and uncertainties.
The connection between Agust D's exploration of the amygdala and BTS's empowering
message in "Permission to Dance" provides a unique lens to view the post-pandemic landscape. These songs emphasize the significance of acknowledging the amygdala's role in storing unpleasant memories while harnessing the knowledge gained for personal growth and resilience. Research has highlighted the importance of drawing strength from past failures and
navigating uncertainty, particularly in the context of recovering from a global crisis.
As we move forward into the post-COVID future, BTS's music offers solace and inspiration, reminding individuals that the amygdala, with its storage of unpleasant memories, can be a source of strength. By embracing the resilience ingrained within us, we can face the uncertainties of the post-pandemic world with confidence and determination. Through their music, BTS encourages listeners to tap into the wisdom and fortitude stored in their amygdala, paving the way for personal growth, collective healing, and a brighter future beyond the trials of COVID-19.
Love Yourself: A successful trending BTS campaign in encouraging future generation self-acceptance values
Nurul Hamizah Mohamed and Nurul Hazwani Mohamed
Independent Researchers, Malaysia
A person can experience a lot of exchange in feelings, emotions, relationships, love, and many more throughout growth. Some of us face failures, traumatic experiences, and downtime that create anxious minds of feeling unworthy and hopeless. Having a role model has been agreed to be helpful in the character development of human beings. In other words, the idols affect the admirer's choices in life matters. Bangtan Sonyeondan (BTS), a seven-member boy band from South Korea, stood up at United Nations in 2018 and spoke about their support for self-love to increase child esteem. However, this campaign successfully delivers to children, youngsters, and adults. This effort has significantly impacted their 90 million worldwide fans to be aware of their worth, proud of their own, accept their flaws, and respect differences. In a survey on BTS ARMY, 90% of the participating fans agreed to support the artist until today because they can feel the positive energy from BTS. Even though most of the songs in the albums are made in the Korean language, ARMY understands and can handle the message of the songs. They can react and relate the themes easily to their situation. 75% of these ARMY feel like they are being heard and comfortable. Fans also gain motivation from speeches, advice, or even idols' characters. The slogan of Love Yourself is very straightforward and adaptable to be a value in human lives. Implementation of values campaigns with the collaboration of idols is expected to give bombastic effects on upgrading self-values and emotions in future generations.
I’m Feeling Lonely, so Save Me: BTS and the Future of Music Marketing
Jennicka Rhea Leorag
Taipei National University of the Arts, Republic of China
What does it take to be a global music sensation? For K-pop supergroup 방탄소년단 (BTS), it’s years of hard work, a well-organized team, and arguably a stroke of luck – ultimately building an international dedicated fanbase supporting the group and members’ activities within and outside music. Founded on mutual trust and admiration for each other, the relationship between BTS and their fandom ARMY has repeatedly proven itself – from taking BTS’ songs to the biggest music charts, to matching donations toward valuable causes.
In today’s music landscape, however, virality seems to be the key to success. Musicians need songs that inspire people to create User-Generated Content (UGC) in short video platforms such as TikTok– to reach many people and hopefully convert them to fans. Newbie K-pop girl group Fifty Fifty’s breakout hit “Cupid” is the best example. As of writing, different versions of the song has >450M combined Spotify streams and >15M UGC videos on Tiktok; not even five months after its release.
Without seeking to suggest that one is better than the other, this paper seeks to examine the music marketing journey of two contemporary global sensations: BTS and Fifty Fifty. With UGC at the forefront – TikTok users creating personal videos to Fifty Fifty’s song vs ARMYs creating videos directly related to the fandom, we delve into how these two seemingly different approaches to UGC popularity can lead to increased music streaming and ideally, fandom sustainability.
While ultimately, a bespoke marketing strategy for every artist is preferred, UGC is clearly one of the definitive factors for today’s generation of music listeners. Learning, harnessing, and continuously discussing the relationship between music marketing and UGC is important for the academic community; since in the bigger picture, pop stars and music consumption have the power to suggest or define a generation’s beliefs and principles.
A Study on the Characteristics of K-pop Documentary on OTT Platform: Focusing on the BTS Documentary
Tae-hyun Baek
Kyung Hee University, South Korea
The purpose of this study is to examine the possibility of expanding the Hallyu through the analysis of k-pop documentaries released through the OTT platform. The subject of the study is a BTS documentary released on YouTube and Disney Plus. Among them, Burn the Stage released on YouTube in 2018 and SUGA: Road to D-Day and j-hope IN THE BOX released on Disney Plus in 2023 are the main analysis targets. Burn the Stage is a documentary that records BTS Wings Tour(2017) produced by YouTube Premium, which has since been re-edited and theatrical release. It is possible to estimate the difference between the OTT platform and the film industry. j-hope IN THE BOX and SUGA: Road to D-Day, which were released in February and April 2023, respectively through Disney Plus, are Solo documentaries of BTS members and have a different appearance from previous documentaries that were centered on live performances. Furthermore, Disney Plus plans to release BTS Monuments: Beyond the Star, a chronological documentary commemorating the BTS 10th anniversary in the second half of 2023. Based on this, this study aims to analyze the relationship and scalability of the OTT platform and the Hallyu.
Bring The (Synthetic) Sound: The Ethical Future of BTS and Artificial Intelligence
Karlina Octaviany
Indonesia Voice of Women (INVOW), Indonesia
From Jungkook and Ariana Grande duet for Indonesian song to V and Jungkook singing in traditional Javanese language and campursari ethnical music title “Sugeng Dalu”, fan-made BTS Artificial Intelligence (AI)- generated cover on Tiktok went viral across social media. The creator, @volix.media used Singing Voice Conversation (SVC) and online voice editing. The fans ARMY raises a love and hate relationship with AI cover for its beautiful sound in Indonesian language. The AI technology raise concern on privacy, need for consent, and copyright issues.
In 2021, the company that responsible for BTS, Big Hit Entertainment has invested $4
million KRW around $3.6 million USD into the AI startup Supertone's voice synthetic tools. Super tone claimed the technology can reach “a hyper-realistic and expressive voice”. Choi Hee-doo from Supertone promotes that BTS can use the technology for making games or audiobooks or dubbing an animation to work with BTS’s busy schedule. Learning from revenue on Covid-19 pandemic, Big Hit grow “Artist Indirect-Involvement” business through Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio, like TinyTAN. Supertone assures on ethical use by “never monetize any synthetic voice without the permission of the right(s) holder”.
This paper will explore the challenging notion of ARMY discourse in setting the boundaries of fan creativity, HYBE business expansion, and ethical AI. With the future of Natural Language Processing (NLP), the AI voice will deliver more promising potentials in speaking with Indonesian language and dialects. Lee Hyun alterego project Midnatt used the Supertone to release new single, “Masquerade,” in Korean, English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese. ARMY also aware with the risk of ethics in the time of BTS absence or to further exploration of target market through a breaking language barrier.
It Does Not Reflect on Me: The Pseudo Happiness as Song Strategy’s Simulacra versus Panoptic Arena
Fitria Angeliqa
Universitas Pancasila, Indonesia
Fizzy Andriani
Universitas Prof. Dr. Moestopo, Indonesia
The reflections of joy in the lyrics are part of the singer's message tactic in his songs. Even so, with the overall packaging of the singer's appearance. The problem is when world-class singers sing self-motivating songs for their listeners, at the same time, life's troubles become familiar to the singer. Many articles also reported how severe depression, mental health, and suicide occurred in the lives of these artists. Demi Lovato, Shia, and Ariana Grande are some Western artists claiming to have experienced mental health problems. In the ranks of Korean artists, names such as Twice Jeongyeon, AOA Kwon Mina, HyunA, Red Velvet Wendy, and Super Junior Heechul are artists who have also experienced mental health problems to severe depression. The same thing happened to the BTS members. RM and Suga are two members who have admitted to experiencing depression and seeing life as an uphill struggle.
This study aims to describe how BTS songs with the theme 'Love yourself' do not reflect the lives of BTS members under strict agency rules and fans' supervision. Ultimately, the theme of 'love yourself' is just a simulation strategy that generates 'false joy' for the members but has a substantial economic impact on the agency. This study uses the concepts of simulacra, panopticon, and duality reflection. At the same time, the research method is qualitative, with document study as a data collection technique. The unit of analysis is the text, namely the BTS song lyrics with the theme 'love yourself' and media reports about the members' lives. These two data are then compared and produce a simulacra picture because there is no reflection on what is being sung and what the members are experiencing. A life full of surveillance from fans and companies removes the privacy boundaries of the members who are – in the end – just a commodity for business turnover. It is where the ironization occurs. The pseudo-happiness experienced by these members generated many economic benefits for the agency. Increasing the number of listeners, purchasing merchandise, selling concert tickets, traffic on social media, and brand endorsements are essential aspects that can be monetized by the agency, which accompanies the fame of the songs sung by BTS. While living without romantic relationships, solitude, and loneliness, the prohibition of direct interaction via social media with fans are some things that fence off the members' lives and make them even more alienated from social life.
K-pop as a History of Audience: Origins and Motives of Active Characteristics Shown by BTS Fandom
Tae-ryong Kim
Kyung Hee University, South Korea
Many researchers consider ‘fandom’ as one of the key factors that contributed to the global success of BTS. ARMY stands out as a group with strong subjectivity, productivity, and community-oriented characteristics, even among K-pop idol fans who are very active. Due to the influence of ARMY, most K-pop fandoms today have turned into a group that best represents the traits of an active audience. The objective of this paper is to examine the trigger and process that formed the distinctiveness of K-pop fandoms represented by ARMY. While analyzing the success factor of Hallyu, this paper also aims to explore the historical distinctiveness of Korean popular culture.
This paper attempts to examine the active characteristics of K-pop fandoms based on the ‘structure of feeling’ proposed by a British cultural theorist named Raymond Williams. From this perspective, the personal emotions, consciousness, and social experiences shared among the general public who enjoy K-pop nowadays are manifested through fandoms. In this sense, their structure of feeling should have become ‘emergent’ through the overlapping of various factors in a particular period and been refracted at multiple points to become what it is now. Accordingly, this paper focuses on the 1990s, when the audience began to be recognized as subjective beings in the history of Korean popular culture. Examining this period allows for exploring the origins and motives of the distinctiveness of K-pop fandoms from the perspectives of continuity and succession.
Post-group Hiatus Announcement: Optimisation of Translanguaging and Multimodal Communication by BTS
Nik Soffiya Nik Mat
University of Malaya, Malaysia
BTS has become a household name worldwide and they are known for their groundbreaking successes in the music industry. In fact, their impact transcends the realm of music and extends to the different spheres of politics, economics, and culture even beyond the expectations of BTS themselves. Apart from that, they have successfully captured the loyalty of fans from diverse backgrounds, establishing a solid global fan base that keeps on growing. As they enter their tenth-year anniversary, BTS has shifted their direction towards a more individual approach to accommodate the members’ enlistment into the mandatory military service. The group’s primary use of a singular account across all social media platforms has placed an emphasis on their group identity and collective creativity (Kim, 2021). I argue that the gradual departure from group identity towards an extension of themselves through separate individual identities is a strategic manoeuvre that foreshadow the transition from group to solo activities.
Since the announcement of their group hiatus during BTS Festa 2022, BTS has embarked on their individual pursuits and has gone on individual promotional activities. This includes solo albums, talk shows, world tour, single tracks, and reality series to name a few. This study explores the ways in which BTS has utilised translanguaging and multimodal communication to sustain their relevance in the music industry despite the group hiatus that they are taking. Using multimodal analysis, the use of multimodal resources in selected social media posts and interviews is identified to see the ways BTS members constructed their individual work, and entextualised their identities into these works.
ARMY: The Community
Gulsen D. Akbas
Istanbul Topkapi University, Türkiye
This essay explores the possibility of a community by Jean-Luc Nancy's ontological rethinking of political space as community. Therefore, in the name of BTS & BEYOND, this essay investigates what’s beyond BTS: ARMY. The sad part is that BTS can never experience the beyond like their fanbase ARMY, because they are the art itself that creates the kind of community Nancy talks about. Are they outside of this community? Not at all. The image of the 21st centry, unlike the 20th century’s image, which we call art object such as painting, sculpture, photography, graphics or film, is much different. The separation is dramatically seen in the temporal being of such image. Today’s image that is consumed by viewers, has a fluid existence. It continues to exist without any viewer. Therefore, the image, the art itself is always on the coast of becoming like a simple subject. This new kind of images are the artists, and they are the art themselves. In such fluid formation, the image cannot stand as a simple object but its quality as agency proves them as the subject. They are subjected to themselves, to their own image, to their own art. On the other hand, the viewer, in this case the ARMY becomes the constituitive element of the image, the art. Image does not simply reflect the art object, but rather, in a homogenous constellation, it also reflects the one who is subjected to it, the viewer. However, this essay will not investigate the kind of image but the community it proposes. I will propose that, in this consteallation Nancy’s definition of community, with the novel image of 21st century, is embodied in BTS & ARMY, and the real the post-modern era began.
The Roots of Expression of Self-consciousness in BTS Songs: Relationship with Poetics of Korean Writers in the 18th and 19th Centuries
Ji-young Joo
Kyung Hee University, South Korea
Questions about the factors of BTS's global popularity and success have been repeatedly raised in many countries, including Korea. Questions about the factors of BTS's global popularity and success have been repeatedly raised in many countries, including Korea. Experts in various fields have come up with many analyses, but the first factor that BTS members and production company CEO Sihyuk Bang picked was always the same. They said that BTS was able to appeal to many people around the world because they expressed their own stories. Starting with the "Love yourself" series, BTS began to focus on the theme of "self". The songs released through the series topped the Billboard charts and put BTS on the global star list. They used traditional Korean music, dance, and costumes, which were linked to the exploration of their identity. The tendency of expression of self-consciousness found in BTS's songs didn’t suddenly appear. Poets in literary circles of Joseon in the 18th and 19th centuries strongly expressed the idea of telling their stories. This paper attempts to find the roots of expression of self-consciousness in BTS songs in the poetry of Joseon writers. This paper attempts to find the roots of expression of self-consciousness in BTS songs in the poetry of Joseon writers.
Correlation Study between US Media Industry and BTS
Jean (Jang Hyuk) Park
EUMAKSEKYE, South Korea
To reinforce our insight into the flow of the global music market, which was relatively lacking in the research of the existing pop music industry, and our view of the next business plan in terms of art management. With the case of BTS, a group that presented growth value that transcends the limits and encompasses overseas markets among Korean music products as of 2019, this research aims to prove its fundamental cause by setting up the U.S. music industry as a medium as a supplement to the existing similar research that consumers have received messages and strategies disseminated by artists in a passive way.
Therefore, in order to prove the above proposition, the media and timing that played a more significant role in the performance figures are further studied, as well as the dissemination effect through social media such as YouTube and Twitter, which were pointed out as success stories in previous research, and the management environment and necessary strategies of the media are investigated. It also proves the correlation between the media's management performance after BTS' appearance, revealing why they are shifting their strategy toward opening doors to K-pop artists.
Whenever a new trend emerges in the music market, attempts to imitate the strategic assets and musical qualities of artists and their management agencies as their strategies are a chronic disease of all industries aimed at profit-seeking, not just the music industry, but the resulting flood of failures is a tragic reality. This research will serve as an opportunity to present a method of planning cultural products that make a timely appeal with a pioneering idea of first understanding the situation of markets and media, not the product maker’s unilateral pitching, and discovering the process of generating consensus.
The Power of “Welcome Generation” and BTS as Referent Power; Case Study of ARMY’s Movement as a Virtual-Imagined Community
Ismayanti and Reni Oktari
Independent Researchers, Indonesia
ARMY, the fandom of BTS (a famous K-Pop boyband), has secured a special place in cyberspace due to its vast followers and worldwide trending topics, especially on the Twitter platform. ARMY's existence is globally recognized as having the power to not only lead and produce opinions on social media but also to manifest them into real actions and social movements. ARMY's movements are mainly sparked and encouraged by BTS' messages through speeches and lyrics of their songs. This pattern shows that ARMY has power as a virtual-imagined community, and at the same time, it shows BTS as a referent power that stems from BTS' ability to inspire and influence others (according to French and Raven's Five Forms of Power). Following Benedict Anderson's idea about imagined communities, this research tries to explain the power of ARMY in the context of social media. We argue that when virtual communities are often characterized by distance, anonymity and weak bonds, Anderson's idea has strengthened the function and meaning of virtual communities. Using a case study method, this research analyses BTS' "Welcome Generation" speech as one of the main prompts for ARMY's movement in the field of environmental, human rights, and mental health. "Welcome Generation" is the term stated by Jin (member of BTS) during the UN General Assembly (UNGA), on September 20, 2021, in New York, United States. This statement is widely known to have a global impact, especially in ARMY community.
Mapping the Untold Truths of BTS ARMY's Narrative — r/bangtan and American Awards Shows
Luisa do Amaral, Jaehong Kim, and Wonjae Lee
KAIST, South Korea
This study builds upon existing literature which highlights the ability of neural word embeddings to capture the diverse dimensions of cultural meanings associated with specific words. Our research focuses on the dynamic development of discourse within the Anglophone BTS fandom surrounding American Awards Shows. Specifically, we examine a pivotal moment in BTS's narrative, the period of late 2016 and early 2017, marked by their recognition as "Artist of the Year" at the Korean Awards Show MAMA and their first-ever invitation to the American awards show, the Billboard Music Awards (BBMAs), where they secured the Top Social Award. Drawing upon fan-generated data extracted from r/bangtan, the largest English-language subreddit dedicated to BTS, our research aims to capture the rich meanings and attitudes expressed by fans during this critical period. Rather than relying on dominant media narratives, we turn our attention to the intricate dynamics within the fandom itself, recognizing the indispensable role of dedicated fans in BTS's success. Our primary objective is to reconstruct and document fragments of BTS's extraordinary journey from the perspective of the fan community. At the core of our investigation lies the ultimate goal of illuminating the deep structure of the seemingly fragmented, often overlooked narratives". By delving into the internal mechanisms of the fandom and analysing the digital footprints they have left, we seek to illuminate the often overlooked narratives and perspectives that have shaped BTS's ascent to stardom. In doing so, our research aims to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of BTS's journey, highlighting the influence and significance of passionate fan communities in their remarkable success, and making sure these stories will be recorded for the future, too.
TAKE TWO: A Second Helping of BTS-inspired Pedagogical and Advocacy Projects
Anna Marie H. Bautista
University of Santo Tomas, Philippines
The announcement made by BTS of their break from group activities during the 2022 Festa Dinner and pursuing solo projects hit the fandom hard. Believing that it would be a slower pace for BTS and ARMY after the Festa Dinner, ARMYs started preparing for activities to fill the gap once BTS members venture on their own.
The 9th year (2022-2023) of BTS is a significant moment for BTS and ARMY. As an aca-ARMY who has been using BTS in the teaching and learning episodes at the tertiary level, the “hiatus” led to conducting more BTS-related activities, focusing not on BTS per se but more on the layers of lessons and meanings behind their songs and personal stories. Serendipitously, twelve BTS inspired and BTS-related projects and activities were implemented within this period; two activities per project were conducted covering pedagogy and advocacy. Two activities on advocacy workshops; two paper presentations on teaching strategies and reflective learning; two alternative assessments on the design process and theories; two curator’s talks; and four exhibitions were done on various platforms and audiences.
This presentation highlights the twelve activities under five projects. The incidental number two makes it significant as BTS released their 10th anniversary single, “Take Two”, which aptly conveys the concept behind the series of activities conducted in two’s. In the context of this presentation, “Take Two” also refers to a second helping of BTS-laden activities, satisfying the insatiable thirst to teach and learn inspired by BTS.
Fantrepreneur: Unraveling Entrepreneurial Intentions among the BTS ARMY
Jessica Jaye S. Ranieses, Noel Sajid Murad, and Bruno Lovric
De La Salle University, Philippines
This study delves into the transformative power of fandom culture, with a specific focus on the BTS ARMY, a dedicated group of supporters for the globally-renowned South Korean music group, BTS. Rooted in the Theory of Planned Behavior, this research investigates the role of social capital in stimulating entrepreneurial intentions among K-pop fandoms. This endeavor emerges from the recognition of the unique fan culture surrounding K-pop, which, in recent years, has been marked by an increase in entrepreneurial activities. These developments have transformed the dynamics of fan participation and consumption, capturing academic interest. The BTS ARMY, known for their unparalleled loyalty and unity, exemplifies this shift, and this study aims to shed light on the factors driving it.
The study explores how the fandom's shared interest in BTS - their music, personalities, and impact - fosters robust and diverse social networks that extend beyond conventional fan activities. From attending concerts to organizing events and creating content, these activities solidify bonds within the fandom, thereby accumulating social capital. In this context, we examine how this social capital can potentially translate into entrepreneurial behavior, providing new insights into the interface between fandom culture and entrepreneurship. Conducted among 94 senior high school and college students in a school in Bulacan, Philippines, this study can aid in comprehending how the youthful energy of fandom can be channeled into entrepreneurial initiatives, contributing to a dynamic, fan-driven economy.
Findings reveal that all three factors – social capital, attitudes towards entrepreneurial behavior, and perceived behavioral control – have significant positive relationships with entrepreneurial intentions, supporting all proposed hypotheses. Interestingly, students enrolled in a business course exhibited lower entrepreneurial intentions, which could reflect a more realistic understanding of the challenges associated with entrepreneurship. This study contributes to our understanding of entrepreneurial intentions within fandom communities, with practical implications for fostering entrepreneurship among the youth.
The Influence of KPOP Artists on the Purchasing Intention of Generation Z Consumers in Ho Chi Minh City in a Celebrity-Endorsed Advertising Campaign
Van Minh Thu
Independent Researcher, Vietnam
Using celebrities to endorse brands is a popular and effective marketing method. In the strong global development trend of KPOP as it is today, KPOP artists appear commonly and frequently in many communication campaigns of large brands in various fields: luxury fashion, home appliances, smartphones, cars... Vietnam is one of the countries that received the Korean wave (Hallyu) very early and has been closely associated with KPOP for a long time. Therefore, it is not surprising to see Vietnamese brands quickly catching up with this trend of using KPOP artists, such as Gojek with BTS, Tiger with CL and G-Dragon. This topic was conducted by combining qualitative research and quantitative methods with 400 respondents as Generation Z consumers in Ho Chi Minh City. With the aim of understanding more deeply the effectiveness of implementing communication campaigns using KPOP artists to endorse brand for businesses in the Vietnamese market to have more grounds to consider this deployment method. The author studies which factors of KPOP artists affect purchase intention and the level of impact of each factor so that the author can provide advice for management for businesses in using KPOP artists in communication campaigns carried out in Vietnam. The results show that there are 5 factors of KPOP artists that have a positive impact on the purchasing intention of the surveyed subjects, including credibility, attractiveness, expertise, fan community of the artist, and compatibility between the artist's image and the brand. Especially among them, the fan community of KPOP artists is a factor that needs to be carefully considered when businesses consider using KPOP artists to authenticate their brand.
Exploring the Impact of BTS on Indonesian Mothers: The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Uswatun Hasanah
Independent Researcher, Indonesia
This research paper examines the influence of BTS, a prominent K-pop group, on Indonesian mothers within the cultural context of Indonesia. The study focuses on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the influence of Asian family sentiment on the experiences of Indonesian mothers. The aim is to understand how BTS's music, narratives, and fan interactions contribute to the well-being and support of Indonesian mothers during challenging times.
Indonesian mothers face various challenges, including traditional gender roles, societal expectations, and the demanding nature of motherhood. This research investigates how BTS's music and fandom culture provide a source of solace, inspiration, and emotional support for Indonesian mothers, helping them navigate these difficulties. The study explores the shared experiences, emotional connections, and sense of community within the BTS fandom, shedding light on the ways in which BTS's music resonates with and uplifts Indonesian mothers.
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted individuals and families worldwide, including Indonesian mothers. This research delves into how the pandemic has influenced the relationship between Indonesian mothers and BTS, considering factors such as increased online engagement, virtual concerts, and the role of online support networks which ultimately help the mother in carrying out the role of caring for her children. By analyzing qualitative data, including interviews and narratives, the study seeks to understand the specific ways in which BTS has become a source of comfort and strength for Indonesian mothers during the pandemic.
The research adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative interviews, content analysis, and thematic analysis to gain comprehensive insights into the impact of BTS on Indonesian mothers. This study aims to contribute to the growing body of knowledge on the role of popular culture in supporting and empowering mothers while acknowledging the influence of cultural context and the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Fan-Mom's Dream: The Hyper-reality of Ideal Spouse Based on Symbolic Capital Commodification
Fitria Angeliqa and Martriana P. Said
Pancasila University, Indonesia
BTS fans' dreams about the members are high-level dreams filled with hyper-reality. The great desire to interact, get attention, and become a life partner for the members is recognized by female fans and even fans who are already mothers. Not without reason, handsome faces, polite behavior in public, and wealth owned, are the symbolic capital of the BTS members which are always shown in the media. This study aims to describe the hyper-reality built by fan mothers (fan-mom) for BTS members as ideal life companions. The symbolic capital of the members continuously commodified via appearances on social media is the primary key to building this hyper-realism.
This study uses the concepts of hyper-reality, symbolic capital, and commodification. At the same time, the research method is qualitative, with in-depth interviews and document studies as data collection techniques. The paradigm n this research is critical constructionism. The unit of analysis is individual BTS fan-mom in Indonesia and texts on social media relating to BTS as the 'ideal spouse.' These two data result in a hyper-reality pattern that describes the insights about the ideal coupler of the fans-mom who are converging on the figures of the members. The results also show that the symbolic capital of the BTS members is an essential aspect of the fan's mother's worship of the artist. They forget that the artist's symbolic capital is actually a 'polished' form that makes capital flows circulate due to the high traffic of conversations and views on social media, purchases of albums, concert tickets, to merchandise. It is undeniable that fan mothers who are already at a productive age can undoubtedly make significant purchases of goods and brand activation related to BTS members. The brands that collaborate with the members are 'splashed with fortune' as an implication of the love of mother fans for the artist. Ultimately, the fan-mom and the members were in a commodification vortex they were unaware of. This commodification is not only exchange value of money, but also convert daily expectation of their partner.
Brightly They Shine: Exploring the Fandom Phenomenon Among Filipino BTS Army
Carol Geraldine Pablo and Marc Eric Reyes
University of Santo Tomas, Philippines
Lorraine Bagas
Stary Writing, Stary PTE. LTD, Singapore
Bangtan Sonyeondan, or Bulletproof Boy Scouts (BTS), is a South Korean boy group called the “21st century Pop Icons,” with the most musical accolades in South Korea, breaking countless world records. Their impactful messages on their music, active social media presence, various distinguishing activities from UN and White House speakers to brand deals of luxury products, and numerous achievements have endeared them to passionate and supportive fans worldwide. “ARMY” is the BTS Fandom name which stands for Adorable Representative MC for Youth; it is one of the largest in the world and has shown support from purchasing CDs to streaming, doing charitable works, and attending full-packed concerts when the artists are on World Tour, to name a few of their activities.
According to Twitter data, the Filo ARMY, BTS fans based in the Philippines, is the fourth largest fandom in the world as of 2022 and the second biggest listening audience after the US, according to Spotify. They have been involved in various local and international activities, from those with fanbases or none, thru significant BTS musical eras. This study will explore the Filipino Army fandom phenomenon through a convergent parallel mixed method. Purposive sampling will be employed in the Cross-sectional Descriptive quantitative phase, and convenience sampling will be used for the Hermeneutic phenomenology that will document the lived experiences of the Filo Army. The Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS), and the Public Figure Preoccupation Inventory (PFPI), scale will be adopted (n=300). Five focus group (FGD) discussions who joined the fandom during various BTS eras will be interviewed. Data collection will be done throughout the Filo Army’s BTS Festa activities. A secured online form will be deployed, while a video conferencing FGDs will be conducted. This study will document and explain the fandom phenomenon among the Filipino BTS army.
Interaction and Interpersonality in BTS fandom: A Case of Vietnamese ARMYs on Facebook
Tran Hong Lien
Intertu Education, Vietnam
This study examines the interaction and interpersonality within a study group formed by Vietnamese ARMYs, dedicated fans of the globally acclaimed group BTS, on Facebook. During the crucial May to June 2023 period, coinciding with the preparation for national examinations, the study group served as a virtual space for knowledge exchange and academic support. Using qualitative analysis, the paper examined the group posts within a two-month period and identified ten categories of interaction and interpersonality. The study shows how different dimensions of internet-mediated communication (IMC) among Vietnamese ARMYs on Facebook fostered knowledge building within the study group. This paper contributes to the understanding of fandom cultures and online communities. By exploring the dynamics of a BTS fan study group, it provides insights into the nature of IMC on fandom-based platforms. These insights enhance comprehension of BTS's broader impact and its fandom in Southeast Asia.
Going Beyond Geo-Cultural Proximities: Discovery of Culture Patterns and Malaysian BTS’s Fandom Via @BTSMY_ARMY TWEETS
Yuslinda Mat Yassin, Baby Anusha Nur Mohamed Thaheer, Abdul Aziz Azizam, and Melina Mahpuz
Universii Teknologi MARA, Malaysia
The recent global success of K-pop can be attributed to the innovative communication strategies in reaching out to its potential audiences. Strategies here, can be characterized as fan-based, new media-driven, transnational flow approaches reaching out not only to youth but various age groups expanding beyond geo-cultural proximities. It is evident that the daily lives of Malaysians have incorporated Korean culture in various social aspects. This study seeks to explore the cultural pattern of BTS fans and communication strategies embedded in their fandom activities. Twitter was found to be a primary tool carrying out cultural-specific strategies in communicating about BTS, other K-pop bands, and musicians. The method of virtual ethnography and quantitative content analysis is used to explore field sites on the Twitter account handle @BTSMY_ARMY. Analysis done over 40 days involving 401 related tweets. Results showed that K- Pop culture patterns in fandom activities can be categorised into five attributes. They are: 1) Fan Account and Fandom Culture discussing BTS- display names, related usernames, and profile photos, fan-specific language and inside jokes; 2) Streaming Parties and Charting activities involving Malaysian BTS fans watching BTS music videos or listening to their songs simultaneously; 3) Creation of Fanart and Edits of graphics featuring BTS members to express admiration for the group; 4) Bilingual Communication where Malaysian BTS fans often communicate in a mixture of English and Malay. This multilingual approach connects them with local and international fans, fostering a sense of unity; and 5) Fan Projects and Supportive Initiatives such as sharing positive messages, providing mental health support, and encouraging social activism. It can be concluded that this culture patterns are used as a basis for online interaction, engagement and knowledge sharing among Malaysian BTS fandom going beyond geo-cultural proximities.
Let’s Talk K-pop: BTS Effect on Selected Filipino Fans
Michelle Rose M. Juadiong
Ateneo de Davao University, Philippines
Hallyu Wave has increased in worldwide popularity for years and this includes the growth of Korean pop music. BTS is considered as the biggest music group today. This is evident by their massive and diverse devoted fandom, known as BTS ARMY.
Reports show that Filipinos are the biggest audience listening to BTS on Spotify and that they are the 4th worldwide who Tweet most about K-content in 2022 (Galang, 2022). In the Philippines, the emerging trends for fans amidst the pandemic are buy-and-sell (BNS) culture and K-pop merchandise collection, which was aided with various social media (Lopina, et.al, 2022).
Parasocial interaction is the connection between mass media personas and their audience. Entertainment companies capitalize heavily on the parasocial relationship through developing a sense of loyalty in fans to grow the fanbase, while ensuring engagement between the idols and their fans. (Espinal, 2021)
Purchase intention is the attitude of a consumer towards a product or service and the degree of willingness to pay. Southeast Asian e-commerce aggregator iPrice conducted a study that explored on the buying behavior of K-pop fans. Data generated from this study identified that BTS and their fandom ARMY, can spend on average higher than Php68,000 ($1,422) on merchandise, music albums and concerts.
This paper focuses on parasocial interaction and its link to purchase intention of K-pop merchandise. Survey questionnaire was sent through online, from which quantitative data analysis was made. This involves 200 selected Filipino fans, who are working professionals and are considered BTS fans. This study is descriptive and correlational in design. It determines the significant effect of parasocial interaction to the consumption decisions of fans. Results show that majority of the respondents have very strong perceived level of parasocial interaction and purchase intention.
Fangirling @ 14 and 40: A Witnessing of the Lived Experience of Filipino Teenagers and Middle Age Women ARMY
Zarah Gagatiga
The Beacon Academy, Philippines
Teenage fangirls have long been stereotyped as shallow and irrelevant. On worse occasions, they are stigmatized as hysterical fans trapped in their own bubble of delusion. With the advent of K-pop, the screaming fangirl trope has resurfaced as well as the mature women who fangirl over K-pop idols, bands, girl groups and boy groups alike. Teenagers or middle-aged women fangirls, both experience prejudice and indifference from families, friends and the larger society.
This academic essay explores the narratives and lived experiences of Filipino teenagers and middle-aged women ARMY who, in one way or another, have survived and thrived in their own ways through interacting and engaging with co-ARMYs and their chosen fanbase. Using phenomenology as research design, the thematic analysis shows that Filipino teenage girls gravitate to the self-awareness, and identity formation present in the art and music of BTS. On the one hand, middle-aged women are drawn to BTS’ songs and aesthetics that engage them to introspect, leading them to reclaim their lost selves and rediscover new talents and rekindle friendships with co-ARMYs in their age group. The essay highlights the unifying power of BTS in bridging age gaps and fostering camaraderie among female fans of diverse backgrounds.
The Poisoned Chalice of Freedom to Swallow Knowingly: BTS' Magic Spell in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Kwangsik Kim
Seoul National University, Korea
What is the magic spell of the age of artificial intelligence that can be found in BTS' songs? Above all, it is the “poisoned chalice of freedom” that can be found in BTS’ song <Blood, Sweat & Tears>. In his book <Homo Deus>, which depicts the history of the future, Yuval Harari, a big historian, predicts that the future will be an era of artificial intelligence that knows me better than I do. He predicts that artificial intelligence will initially act as a recommender of choice, but over time it will act as a proxy for choice, and later as a sovereign exercising the right to choose. He demonstrates the process through the example of navigation. At first, navigation acted as a recommender, recommending route selection and leaving the choice to us, but over time, we entrusted route selection to the navigation, and the navigation acted as an agent for us in choosing the route. It is said that navigation has already begun to play the role of a sovereign who exercises his right to choose for an efficient transportation system, not us with the right to choose. Perhaps in the future, artificial intelligence will take all of our ‘blood, sweat and tears’, namely our ‘soul’, and we may become so-called ‘useless beings’ with only a shell remaining. BTS sings that we should not sell our 'blood, sweat and tears', namely our 'soul' to the future Mephisto, artificial intelligence, but to dedicate it to our 'freedom'. Even if our 'freedom' is a poisoned chalice.
Through this announcement, I reveal that the magic spell of the future artificial intelligence era found in BTS' song is the 'Poisoned chalice of Freedom' found in BTS' song <Blood, Sweat & Tears>, and I want to back it up with Nietzsche's superhuman philosophy, which says, "To give birth to a dancing star, we must have chaos!"
Intermediality in Fandom Culture: The Impact of BTS on Reading Habits, Focusing on Indonesian ARMY
Nining Setyaningsih
University of Indonesia, Indonesia
Fandom is a formation of cultural spaces, consisting of audiences that come together both online and offline. Fan activities within fandom are usually discussed and shared within affinity spaces. In this research, I give an insightful finding about fandom culture in the case of BTS and their fandom, ARMY. Focusing on Indonesian ARMY, this research exposes the impact of BTS on constructing reading activity as fandom culture. By using intermediality as theory framework and drawing data from insider experiences, this study stresses that these domains have much to offer to the study of narratives and formation of cultural space.
This time, paying particular attention to BTS and fandom’s reading habits on literature and texts, I found a practice of intermediality and persistence of 'literature everywhere' reflected in BTS' works for their 10 years of career. This model highlights characteristics of literature references within BTS works that are becoming more crucial in the analysis of fandom culture in the future. This research also found that BTS has a contribution in encouraging reading habits through fandom-based online reading communities that are active in Indonesia. I support these findings with methods of ethnography and narrative inquiry to generate further insights into the themes and structures of fandom culture. Moreover, through this research, I give a vision of positive influence within fandom culture and conceptualizes a model of productive fandom by reflecting at BTS legacies towards their fandom, ARMY.
Smooth Like Butter: BTS and Challenging the Western Globalization Agenda
Allison Anne Gray Atis
University of the Philippines Diliman, Philippines
BTS has been offering alternative narratives about the global music industry as evidenced by
numerous conferences, articles, and studies focused on the band and their contributions. In
relation to this, the band’s consistency (either in their messaging or their fandom) have been the locus of discussions about the changing landscape of popular culture with globalization.
Together with talks on the digital sphere and the network society, BTS has been and continues to be a constant focus of dialogues on these important topics, most especially during and after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, while the world was generally still in such perilous conditions, BTS released Butter – an album with just two English songs, yet it further changed the course of how BTS is further received by more and more fans from the West. Language is one catalyst for this reception, and the visual spectacle brought about by the music videos is another.
Sharing several points from Ju Oak Kim’s key insights on “BTS as a counter-hegemonic cultural formation from the periphery within the network society,” this paper seeks to explore the Western tropes (e.g., of development and masculinity) embedded or reflected in Butter and Permission to Dance's lyrics and music videos through critical discourse analysis, and how these have been challenged, subverted, and/or appropriated in the said texts to re-represent more possibilities of diversity and inclusivity in the post-COVID world.
Guided by the tenets of mythmaking, postcolonialism, and queer theory, this paper also seeks to further unravel prevalent myths ingrained in the dominant discourse and narratives of globalization from the West, and its severe tendencies to move along the lines of cisheteropatriarchal white supremacy. This critical analysis envisions further cognizance of
Hallyu’s role - through the case of BTS - in consistently offering counter-hegemonic narratives in a globalized world still defined by Western standards.
BTS between Bandung’s Spirit and Postcolonial Landscape: Indonesian Teenagers' Engagement with the South Korean Band
Hajar Hanfa Azzahra Saefullah
University of Malaya
Vina Adriany
Universitas Pendidikan, Indonesia
BTS is a worldwide phenomenon that has an impact on numerous young people, including those in Indonesia. According to earlier research, BTS and other K-pop groups are examples of cultural hybridity where local values—in this case, Korean—are juxtaposed with American influences on music and culture (Cho, 2022; Naree, 2019; Song, 2020). According to Yoon (2017) BTS contributes to the postcolonial process in the Korean music industry, where American music is exported from South Korea and then imported everywhere else after being infused with Korean features. On the other hand, Indonesia is a colonized nation in the Global South with a long history. Researchers like Arwinda, Bertha, Ayu, Yessica, and Halik (2022) have been sceptical about the extent to which the K-pop wave becomes a new tool of cultural colonization when brought to nations like Indonesia despite both countries' histories of colonialization. This paper is based on on-going research conducted in Bandung, Indonesia. Bandung is selected as a site for this research because the first anti-colonial conference Asia Africa conference was held in 1955 in this city. The event can be considered as a first decolonial project that attempted to detach countries in Asia and Afrika from colonial dependency. However, despite its significance, the conference is rarely discussed in postcolonial analysis of countries in Global South, with few exceptions of studies in International relations (see for instance Chakrabarty, 2005; Lee, 2009; Phạm & Shilliam, 2016). Using Bandung not as a physical space but a framework of analysis, this study seeks to explore how young people in Bandung aged between 12 to 18 years old perceive BTS. This paper seeks to explore whether young people's engagement with BTS in postcolonial countries such as Indonesia can be understood as a postcolonial process or whether it is, in fact, a perpetuation of cultural colonialism from developed to developing nations. This study also attempts to determine whether the enjoyment of BTS music by young people in Bandung, Indonesia transcends the binary of colonized versus colonizer. It is anticipated that the findings will challenge the dominant discourse on global south studies and the need to use a transnational framework to transcend the binary between colonized and colonizer.
Adoption of Special Milestone Celebrations among Malaysian ARMYs
Andrea Chan
Swinburne University of Technology, Malaysia
As part of the 2023 BTS Festa, BTS decided to gift ARMY their ‘reverse ads’ on planes, billboards, buses and more, in addition to a large-scale festival at Yeouido, Seoul as a way of repaying the various advertisements, projects and events the ARMY has carried out over the years in their name. Ads, projects and events celebrating special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries of debuts, song releases, and even the artist’s 10,000th day have been a norm in k-pop culture over the years and have also become fairly commonplace in South East Asian countries such as Thailand and the Philippines. While cupsleeve events are now regularly organized by the various fandoms in Malaysia, ads and charity projects are still somewhat rarer among local fans. However, in recent years, there have been ads placed across parts of Malaysia by both overseas and local BTS fanbases, along with a variety of projects such as the adoption of animals in honour of a member’s birthday, contribution to charities and causes, and even towards disaster relief efforts, usually through crowdfunding.
As the culture of celebrating milestones of their stars or biases in such ways does not appear to be a regular part of Malaysian fandom previously, this paper proposes to examine the perceived motivations of local ARMYs to carry out such activities or projects, as well as their choices and methods. Additionally, it seeks to observe how these could intersect with Malaysian culture and identity from the ARMYs’ point of view, as well as the non-fans’ perspectives. It may be a given for ARMYs to face judgement from others, but Malaysian ARMYs may possibly bear an additional layer of scrutiny due to local religious and cultural beliefs.
List of authors (in order of presentations)
Franchesca Nicole Collantes, Paula Sharmaine M. Delos Santos, Guanlun Hu, Kristine Joy Ramos, and Isabelle B. Santiago/ De La Salle University Manila, Philippines
Franchesca Nicole R. Collantes is a graduate of Far Eastern University - Manila with a degree in Communications. She graduated as an Academic Scholar in 2017. She is currently studying Marketing Communications at De La Salle University - Manila. She has work experience in marketing, writing, and photography. Her research interests include social media, e-commerce, dating apps, and pop culture.
Paula Sharmaine M. Delos Santos is a graduate of University of Santo Tomas with a degree in Marketing Management. Her group’s undergraduate thesis for a marketing plan for a pre-need company was granted the Best Thesis Award during the commencement exercises. She is currently pursuing a masteral degree in Marketing Communications at De La Salle University - Manila. She has work experience in Sales and Marketing and won several awards during her employment. Her research interests include social media, e-commerce, and pop culture.
Guanlun Hu is a graduate of Nanjing Normal University Taizhou College with a degree in English Translation. He graduated as an Academic Scholar in 2014. He is currently studying MS Marketing at De La Salle University - Manila. He has work experience in business management, procurement, overall operations in the construction industry. His research interests include pop culture and marketing.
Kristine Joy Ramos is a graduate student of Marketing Communications at the De La Salle University - Manila. She has a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication with a minor in Print Journalism from St. Scholastica’s College - Manila. Her work experience is mostly in publishing, having held both editorial and marketing positions. Her research interests include media, communications, and consumer behavior.
Isabelle B. Santiago is a graduate of University of Santo Tomas with a degree in Food Technology. She was one of the scholars of the Department of Science and Technology- Science and Technology Institute during her junior and senior year. She is currently working as a category manager in one of the largest convenience store chains and a graduate student at De La Salle University- Manila taking up Masters in Marketing. Her research interests include pop culture, e-commerce, and food marketing.
Collette Balmain/ Kingston University, United Kingdom
Colette Balmain is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications at Kingston University, London. She is an expert in East Asian Cinemas and Cultures and is currently working on a number of projects on East Asian Gothic Cinema and BTS including an edited collection and a monograph.
Jung Eun Song/ Independent Researcher, Korea
Jung Eun Song is an independent researcher. She received her doctoral degree at The Ohio State University and has been worked as a research professor at the University of Seoul. She had also taught classes in the field of cultural content, Hallyu, cultural policy, local culture studies, etc. at many universities. The subjects of her research interests are Hallyu studies, cultural content industry, webtoon, fandom, and cultural policy.
Brahmmakumari Balaraman/ University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia
Ms.Brahmmakumari Balaraman is a registered clinical psychologist and academician . She divides her time between clinical practice, training and consulting, teaching, and scholarly writing and research. Ms.Brahmmakumari Balaraman is currently in pursuit of her Ph.D in Clinical Psychology from University Putra Malaysia. She is also an academician at University Teknologi MARA, where she teachers, provides supervision and training and conducts research in the field of Clinical Psychology. With a deep passion for understanding the human mind and behavior, Ms.Brahmmakumari Balaraman has dedicated her career in practicing and conducting research with a specialization in trauma and psychological wellbeing of young adults and youths. She is also an active member in the Malaysian Society of Clinical Psychologist (MSCP) where they actively contribute to the advancement of psychology through conferences, workshops and collaborations with fellow experts. With an unwavering commitment to advancing the understanding of human behavior, Ms.Brahmmakumari Balaraman intends to advance the discipline of psychology with valuable research and exploration of the fascinating complexities of the human mind.
Varsha Narayanan/ Christ - Deemed to be University, India
My name is Varsha Narayanan and I hail from Vadodara, Gujarat, India. I completed my Master’s Degree (MA) in Media and Communication Studies from Christ (Deemed to be) University, Bengaluru. Currently, I work as a Pop Culture Writer/Journalist at Sportskeeda. I am an avid reader, a research enthusiast, and a Hallyu embracer.
I have had the privilege of having BTS in my life since 2016. The research comes from not only a personal experience but also from my conversations with thousands of ARMY in India. During and after my MA Degree, I have presented various research papers around themes of popular culture, celebrity journalism, and women in sports. In 2020, I presented my research paper, titled “Meet the ARMY: An Exploration of the Fandom of Popular South Korean Band BTS” at St Joseph’s College, Bengaluru in their conference Mediacon 2020. I am currently also learning the Korean language at King Sejong Institute, Patna.
In my spare time, I love to binge on my watch list on Netflix, spend time with my parents, family, and friends, and also enjoy some good food. While I feel 24 hours are never enough to do the things I want to do, I believe in making the most of my time and creating memorable experiences.
Maria Bernadett Carandang/ La Consolacion University, Philippines
Julianna Maria Garcia/ Boston College, United States
Jenny Lind Rubio/ Independent Researcher, Philippines
Maria Bernadett Carandang, MD, DSBPP is a Philippine-based psychiatrist who teaches at theLa Consolacion University of the Philippines, is the Assistant Residency Training Officer at the Batangas Medical Center, and the co-chair of the World Association of Social Psychiatry
(WASP) Early Career Section. In January 2023, she presented “A Fandom-based Approach to Mental Health” at the Joint WASP and RCPsych World Congress in London.
Julianna Maria Garcia graduated from Santa Clara University in 2020 with a BS in Psychology
and Sociology. She is completing her Master’s in Mental Health Counseling at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education and Human Development and is the graduate assistant for the Bystander Intervention Education Program of the Women’s Center. In 2021, she co-published Big Deal – an anthology of Filipina women’s stories and art.
Jenny Lind Rubio is part of a Fortune 500 global professional services firm. She is primarily involved in corporate risk management and has been based in Singapore for the last 7 years. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from the University of the Philippines.
Charmaine G. Salido/ Hues_by_Cha, Philippines
Jefferson J. Acala/ De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, Philippines
Anna Marie H. Bautista/ University of Santo Tomas, Philippines
Charmaine Salido, a highly skilled and creative individual, graduated from the University of Santo Tomas in 1998 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Interior Design. Her artistic talent goes beyond her professional career, fueled by a deep passion for the arts and music. Amidst the pandemic's peak in 2021, Cha turned to painting as a therapeutic outlet, helping her cope with anxiety and depression. Painting became a means to express emotions, process experiences, and find purpose during challenging times. Her artistic process is uniquely shaped by synesthesia—a blending of senses that connects sound, color, and emotion. Inspired by BTS and their music, her paintings transform their songs and lyrics into a vibrant symphony of shapes and colors on canvas. Her art reflects the journey through the pandemic and personal struggles with mental health, captivating viewers with its emotional and visual depth. She seeks to forge deep connections, fostering unity and understanding through her artistic expression. Cha's talent and passion exemplify the healing and self-expressive power of art. Her work celebrates the beauty of the human experience and the eternal quest for meaning. With God as the ultimate source of inspiration, she aims to inspire others to embrace their individuality, connect with the Divine, and express themselves uniquely.
Jefferson Acala, a licensed professional teacher, is currently undertaking Doctor of Education in Language and Literature Studies at Far Eastern University. He holds a Master of Arts in Communication Major in Applied Media Studies degree from De La Salle University and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Arts from the University of Santo Tomas where he graduated Cum Laude. Presently, Jeff teaches at De La Salle University and De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde in both college and senior high school. He continues to work on his research interests such as oral communication, educational technology, and art appreciation.
Anna Marie Bautista is a professional interior designer, licensed professional teacher, museum and exhibition designer, curator, trainer and facilitator, museum and cultural worker, and advocate of heritage and environmental education and preservation. She is an Associate Professor at the College of Fine Arts and Design-University of Santo Tomas Manila. Anna has presented papers and posters at various local and international conferences and continuously facilitates training workshops on Museum, Interior Design, Heritage, and Traditional Filipino Arts. As an aca-ARMY, Anna curated 4 exhibitions, gave 2 Curator’s Talks, conducted 2 advocacy workshops, delivered 2 paper presentations, and 2 course works in her Theories of Design course, all BTS-related topics, from September 2022 to May 2023.
Sinhye Nam and Soong-beum Ahn/ Kyung Hee University, South Korea
Sinhye Nam received her B.S. degree in Korean linguistics from Yonsei University in 2007, M.S. degree in Korean linguistics from Yonsei University in 2012, and Ph.D. degree in Korean linguistics from Yonsei University in 2018. She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Korean Language and Literature, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea. Her research interests include applied linguistics and corpus linguistics
Soong-beum Ahn has been a professor at the Department of Korean Language and Literature at Kyunghee University in Seoul, South Korea since 2018. He is currently the director of the K-culture story contents institute at Kyung Hee University. His research fields are Hallyu (Korean wave), storytelling, and cultural contents.
Khairunnisa Rahmaditia Adita/ Independent Researcher, Indonesia
Khairunnisa Rahmaditia Adita, a 2021 graduate from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, found BTS entering her life in 2019 during one of her overnight architectural designing sessions. As she labored away, driven by her passion for design, the music of BTS became a serendipitous companion, infusing her late-night creative endeavors with renewed energy and inspiration.
Graduating amidst the challenges of the pandemic, Khairunnisa discovered solace and connection in the music of BTS, transcending the physical distance from her loved ones in Indonesia. Their songs served as a constant reminder to look beyond the hardships and remain focused on a future brimming with potential.
With each architectural project, BTS's music accompanied Khairunnisa, instilling her work with motivation and optimism. Their presence in her playlist during those late-night sessions became a source of comfort and empowerment, fueling her artistic process.
As she proudly graduated from QUT, Khairunnisa transitioned from an aspiring architecture student to a full-scope designer. The influence of BTS's music on her personal and professional growth cannot be overstated, as their presence became an enduring source of confidence, pushing her to embrace new design projects and seize the opportunities that lay ahead.
Khairunnisa Rahmaditia Adita's journey exemplifies the transformative power of music, and the unexpected ways in which BTS can enter one's life, leaving an indelible mark on personal and professional endeavors. With the echoes of their music in her heart, Khairunnisa embarks on her post-graduation path, drawing strength and inspiration from BTS as she shapes her future as a full-scope designer.
Nurul Hamizah Mohamed and Nurul Hazwani Mohamed/ Independent Researchers, Malaysia
Nurul Hamizah Mohamed is a researcher from the United Kingdom who is also in her second-year Ph.D. in Manufacturing Engineering. With a background in Mechanical and Manufacturing Systems, she is interested in the digitalization areas in achieving the goals of Sustainability 2030. Despite her busy life schedule, she is an ARMY and fully supports her idols. She claims a lot of motivation as a big supporter and maintains positivity through BTS.
Nurul Hazwani Mohamed is currently working at a university in Malaysia. She experienced developing a new bioinsecticide to control insect pests and maintain environmental quality. Supporting her idols gives her the opportunity to have a work-life balance, allowing her to maintain 10 out of 10 of her tasks and activities. She gained a lot of positive energy from time to time throughout her journey with her idols.
Jennicka Rhea Leorag/ Taipei National University of the Arts, Republic of China
Rhea is a music marketer and event producer from the Philippines, currently pursuing her masters in Cultural and Creative Industries at Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan. She got her bachelors in Management Engineering from Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines.
She has been a music business professional for 10 years - working with various record labels and independent artists. She was also part of the pioneering team for social media platform TikTok in the Philippines. Her primary research interest is music marketing and global crossover - as manifested in her university research work and other activities. She is working on research about Taiwanese pop artists crossing over to the English-speaking market, as well as various projects to promote Filipino musicians in Taiwan. In addition, she serves as Digital Marketing Manager for a global music distribution company, working with a focus on developing the APAC roster for possible global export.
She officially became ARMY shortly after BTS' global hit "Dynamite" in 2020. While initially intrigued and fascinated by their marketing strategies that led to global success, she has grown to love the members' personalities, bond, and what BTS stands for as a group and as a phenomenon.
Tae-hyun Baek/ Kyung Hee University, South Korea
n/a
Karlina Octaviany/ Indonesia Voice of Women (INVOW), Indonesia
Karlina Octaviany is a digital anthropologist and digital communication strategist with experience in the areas of journalism, digital media, knowledge management, and community-driven development. She works as a digital development advisor in Indonesia to support inclusive technology, ethical Artificial Intelligence, and safe digital access for marginalized communities. Octaviany holds an MSc. in Digital Anthropology from University College London and is the founder of Indonesia Voice of Women (Invow) which empowers women by providing training in digital literacy to low-income women, also hyung line biases with ultimate SUGA stan.
Fitria Angeliqa/ Universitas Pancasila, Indonesia
Fizzy Andriani/ Universitas Prof. Dr. Moestopo, Indonesia
Fitria Angeliqa is a senior lecturer in the Communication Science Faculty, Universitas Pancasila, Indonesia. She is a philosophical doctor who graduated from Universitas Indonesia. Before that, she obtained bachelor's and master's degrees from the same university. She is interested in postmodern philosophy, cultural and media studies, gender research, and digital network analysis. She has 12 years of experience in the advertising industry. Recently, her activities include teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students, academic research, community services, and communication consulting for the Ministries in the Republic of Indonesia and many private institutions that need contribution from the scholars.
Fizzy is a lecturer and researcher at the Faculty of Communication, University Prof. Dr. Moestopo (Beragama) Jakarta since 2003. Fizzy graduated with a master's degree from the University of Indonesia in 2001 and is a youth and social media observer, as well as a digital literacy activist in Indonesia, both in the form of research and social activities.
Tae-ryong Kim/ Kyung Hee University, South Korea
n/a
Nik Soffiya Nik Mat/ University of Malaya, Malaysia
Nik Soffiya Nik Mat is an early career researcher, currently attached to the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, University of Malaya. Her doctoral research revolves around the discourses of female circumcision in Malaysia, studied from the lens of Critical Discourse Studies (CDS). Her areas of research interest include sexual and reproductive health discourses, and critical discourse studies. She was introduced to BTS in 2016 and has been an ARMY ever since.
Gulsen D. Akbas/ Istanbul Topkapi University, Türkiye
Gulsen D. Akbas graduated from N.Y. School of Visual Arts in 2008 and get her MA degree in 2012 with her thesis “Cinema: Aesthetics of Time.” After working in various films as an assistant director and artist assistant, she started to work as a lecturer at Istanbul Topkapi University, Visual Audio Techniques, and Media Production Department. She continues to her position in the same university, while getting her PhD from European Graduate School in the division of Philosophy Art and Critical Thought. Her PhD thesis will be on the aesthetics of the novel image of 21st century and the ethical constellation such aesthetic brings forth.
Ji-young Joo/ Kyung Hee University, South Korea
n/a
Jean (Jang Hyuk) Park/ EUMAKSEKYE, South Korea
n/a
Ismayanti and Reni Oktari/ Independent Researchers, Indonesia
Ismayanti - a student at Paramadina Graduate School of Communication (PGSC), majoring in Political Communication. She is currently finishing her master’s thesis and working as a Senior Media and Policy Analyst at DKI Jakarta Provincial Government.
Reni Oktari - Master of Communication Science, majoring in Political Communication. She is working as a Project Manager at The Centre for Child Rights and Business.
Luisa do Amaral, Jaehong Kim, and Wonjae Lee/ KAIST, South Korea
Luisa do Amaral is a 28-year-old Brazilian researcher based in Daejeon, South Korea, and a Master's Student at the Graduate School of Culture Technology, KAIST. Currently, she is a member of the Social Computing Lab, supervised by Professor Wonjae Lee. Her research interests revolve around employing Natural Language Processing and dynamic network models to uncover and tell the untold stories of BTS's rise to fame through the digital traces left by ARMY. She has been studying about BTS since 2019, and she has been involved in multiple BTS academic activities. She is one of the cofounders of BAA - Brazilian Academic ARMY, and she was a panellist at the first BTS Conference held at Kingston University in 2020.
Jaehong Kim is a Master's student at the Graduate School of Culture Technology, KAIST. He conducts research at the Social Computing Lab under the guidance of Professor Wonjae Lee. With a keen interest in computational social science, Jaehong specialises in utilising diverse Natural Language Processing methods in this field. His main objective is to develop innovative techniques for measuring moral emotion and examining its correlation with civic engagement. Through his work, Jaehong aims to enhance our understanding of the intricate dynamics between moral emotion and social behaviour.
Wonjae Lee is Associate Professor at GSCT, KAIST. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago. His research interests include social exchange theory, social network analysis, computational social science, and economic sociology. His research focuses on the social mechanisms behind human action, which he has used to analyse Formula 1, Fluxus, EDM, public transportation, QAnon, and the Metaverse, among others.
Anna Marie H. Bautista/ University of Santo Tomas, Philippines
Anna Marie Bautista is a professional interior designer, licensed professional teacher, museum and exhibition designer, curator, trainer and facilitator, museum and cultural worker, and advocate of heritage and environmental education and preservation. She is an Associate Professor at the College of Fine Arts and Design-University of Santo Tomas Manila. Anna has presented papers and posters at various local and international conferences and continuously facilitates training workshops on Museum, Interior Design, Heritage, and Traditional Filipino Arts. As an aca-ARMY, Anna curated 4 exhibitions, gave 2 Curator’s Talks, conducted 2 advocacy workshops, delivered 2 paper presentations, and 2 course works in her Theories of Design course, all BTS-related topics, from September 2022 to May 2023.
Jessica Jaye S. Ranieses, Noel Sajid Murad, and Bruno Lovric/ De La Salle University, Philippines
Jessica Jaye Ranieses, a passionate ARMY and Assistant Professor from De La Salle University, merges her love for K-pop and academia in her current research. She holds a Master's degree in Business Administration and is currently pursuing her Doctorate from the same institution. With over six years of experience teaching business and research subjects at the Senior High School and College levels, she has effectively guided students in presenting their research projects and delivering pitch presentations. Her research focuses on women empowerment and well-being, with an emphasis on recognizing women's unpaid work and promoting their health at the workplace.
Being part of the vibrant and diverse BTS ARMY, Jessica has been embraced by a supportive and enthusiastic community, where she recognized its potential to inspire youth to strive for excellence in various fields, including business and entrepreneurship. This intriguing intersection of fandom culture and business potential led her to explore how social capital within K-pop fandoms can foster entrepreneurial intentions, thus marrying her passion for BTS and academic curiosity. Jessica continues to strive for a deeper understanding of this complex and evolving landscape, looking to harness its potential to empower and inspire the youth of today.
Noel Sajid Murad is a Certified Digital Marketer and full-time Assistant Professor at De La Salle University (DLSU). He is a Holder of the J. Romero and Associates Academic Chair in Advertising and the Undergraduate OJT & Thesis Coordinator of the DLSU Department of Marketing and Advertising (DMA). Since 2021, he has been part of the core group organizing the annual National Business and Management Conference (NBMC) and the Philippine Academy of Management (PAoM) e-Journal, where he sits as the Managing Editor and Secretary of the PAoM Board.
Currently, he is taking up PhD in Communication at the University of the Philippines Diliman. He earned his master’s degree in Marketing Communications from DLSU and his bachelor’s degree in Communication Arts from the University of Santo Tomas. Prior to joining the academe, he held several roles in advertising agencies, where he handled a roster of regional and local brands for Coca-Cola Philippines, Mondelez, Unilever, and Nestle among others.
His research interests include popular culture, queer studies, consumer behavior, digital media and advertising, fandom-based activism, political communications, media representations for marginalized identities and communities, as well as audience studies.
Dr Bruno Lovric is an Associate Professor at De La Salle Manila’s Department of Communications where he teaches courses in Visual Communication, Media Sociology and Film. The central questions of his scholarly work are how popular products like films, television, and video games, affect construction of collective and individual identities and what is their relationship to dominant ideologies. Generally, his research engages with creative industries and global screen media, but recurring topics of his work include Mediatisation of Cultural Identity, Film Studies, and Critical Race Theory. He has (co)authored / peer-reviewed articles involving the issues of soft power, transnational pop culture and entertainment.
However, the bulk of Dr. Lovric’s research examines World cinema and emerging screen media, investigating how such productions advance soft power while perpetuating historical Orientalist tropes. His publications predominantly delve into Asian film and national soft power within the contexts of Japan, China, and South Korea. Furthermore, his diverse research projects explore cultural policies in global media industries, Pokémon gaming and consumption in Hong Kong, and Orientalism in popular American TV Drama. These endeavors collectively challenge established notions of race, gender, and nationality, unraveling the intricate relationship between consumption, popularity, and market logic. His work also strives to expand the horizons of media studies, enriching academic discourse and advancing understanding of the dynamic interplay between media, identity, and ideology.
Van Minh Thu/ Independent Researcher, Vietnam
I’m a communication – major senior student in HCMC, Vietnam and I have 2 years working in Advertising industry, 6 month on PR side and the rest working in Media side. Due to the profession, I care a lot about touchpoints, how people translate communication things into messages delivering through channels. I started working on this major and this profession due to the passion on BTS branding as I want to build a brand that much comprehensive and concise.
Uswatun Hasanah/ Independent Researcher, Indonesia
Uswatun Hasanah is a mother with a background in Computer Science, holding a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Systems from Universitas Bina Nusantara. With a passion for parenting and early childhood development, Uswatun Hasanah has actively engaged with parents through her platform, Gaia Parenting, which she co-founded with friends. Gaia Parenting aims to support parents during the early stages of their children's lives by providing resources and information.
Fitria Angeliqa and Martriana P. Said/ Pancasila University, Indonesia
Fitria Angeliqa is a senior lecturer in the Communication Science Faculty, Universitas Pancasila, Indonesia. She is a philosophical doctor who graduated from Universitas Indonesia. She is interested in postmodern philosophy, cultural and media studies, gender research, and digital network analysis. She has 12 years of experience in the advertising industry. Recently, her activities include teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students, academic research, community services, and communication consulting for public and private institutions that need contribution from the scholars.
Martriana Ponimin Said is a senior lecturer and researcher in FIKOM (Faculty of Communication Science), Universitas Pancasila, Jakarta – Indonesia. Her research is on media and communications, political communications and consumer behavior.
Carol Geraldine Pablo and Marc Eric Reyes/ University of Santo Tomas, Philippines
Lorraine Bagas/ Stary Writing, Stary PTE. LTD, Singapore
Carol Geraldine C. Pablo, RPh, MSc, is a pharmacist, and an assistant professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Santo Tomas. She is a certified trainer of MAXQDA (a computer-assisted Qualitative data analysis software), was an editorial board member of a social health journal, and a business officer of the National Research Council of the Philippines, Division IV.
Marc Eric S. Reyes, Ph.D., RPm, RPsy, is a highly accomplished and dedicated Professor at the UST-Psychology Department with extensive experience as an academic clinician and practicing psychologist. His research interests and advocacy span a wide range of important topics, including Suicidology, LGBT Psychology, Positive Psychology, and Children with Special Needs.
Lorraine V. Bagas, LPT, is a certified teacher who volunteered for Hope Worldwide, a non-profit organization. She is a Wattpad writer, a popular e-book program with thousands of fans. Bookware Corp., a local publisher, approached her about publishing her novels. A few years later, an agency from Stary PTE. LTD. asked her to be their exclusive writer.
Tran Hong Lien/ Intertu Education, Vietnam
Lien Tran is an applied linguistics professional with a Bachelor's degree in TEFL from Ho Chi Minh University of Education in Vietnam. Further pursuing her passion for language studies, she obtained a Master's degree in Applied Linguistics from Curtin University, specializing in English as an international language and translanguaging in multicultural learning contexts. With a focus on English as an international language, her research explores its impact on intercultural communication and language learning. She also investigates the phenomenon of translanguaging and its implications for language education in diverse settings. Currently serving as the Deputy Academic Manager at Intertu Education in Vietnam, she contributes to curriculum development, teacher training, and educational leadership in providing accessible English mediated education to learners of other languages.
Yuslinda Mat Yassin, Baby Anusha Nur Mohamed Thaheer, Abdul Aziz Azizam, and Melina Mahpuz/ Universii Teknologi MARA, Malaysia
Dr. Yuslinda Mat Yassin is from the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. She has been working as a lecturer of UiTM since 2004. Her area of interest or expertise are persuasive communication, framing, branding analysis, negotiation, organizational communication.
Baby Anusha Nur Mohamed Thaheer is a Senior Lecturer from the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. She has been working as a lecturer of UiTM since 2008. Her area of interest or expertise are Public Relations, International Public Relations and Digital Public Relations.
Dr. Abdul Aziz Azizam obtained his PhD from Durham University, specializing in the field of government and international affairs, specifically focusing on politics. His research interests revolve around three main areas: protest and social movements, political communication, and social network analysis. He is currently serves as a senior lecturer in Liberal communication, Faculty of Mass Communication and Media Studies, UiTM.
*Melina Mahpuz, joined UiTM in 2008 and is currently a Senior Lecturer and the Public Relations Coordinator at the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). Her research interests include Corporate Public Relations, Digital Media, Strategic & Risk Communication and Crisis Communication.
Michelle Rose M. Juadiong/ Ateneo de Davao University, Philippines
Michelle Rose M. Juadiong is a teaching professor, who has been part of the School of Business and Governance in Ateneo de Davao University for twelve years. She was the Chairperson of the Business Management Department from academic year 2015-2016. She also became the Chairperson of the Human Resource Management and Development Department from academic year 2016-2020. As the Chairperson she took responsibility of the academic program including implementation of the University policies and operational plans, curriculum improvement, management of Department budget, taking care of faculty and student concerns. As College Administrator, the Chair coordinates departmental activities and have collaboration with other Units in the School of Business and Governance (SBG).
Before entering the teaching profession, she helped in managing their family business which was a small Agricultural enterprise. She graduated from the Ateneo de Davao University with a degree of Doctor of Management in Human Resource Management (DM-HRM) in April 2016.
Zarah Gagatiga/ The Beacon Academy, Philippines
Zarah Gagatiga is a teacher-librarian, author, literacy coach and reading interventionist. She knew about BTS from her daughter who is ARMY since 2016. During the pandemic, Zarah became an ARMY and has, since then, been fascinated at the diversity of ARMYs from all walks of life and the positive influences BTS have on the fandom in big and small ways.
This research is inspired by her ARMY daughter and the Filipino ARMY fanbase, Titas of BTS who strive for community building between and among Pearl ARMYs.
Kwangsik Kim/ Seoul National University, Korea
A cognitive philosopher who philosophically interprets the achievements of cognitive science, and a cultural philosopher who seeks practical alternatives to various cultural phenomena. He is currently a professor at Faculty of Liberal Education at Seoul National University. He received a bachelor's and master's degree in philosophy from Seoul National University and a doctorate in philosophy from Technical University Berlin, Germany, and worked as a researcher at Seoul National University's Institute of Philosophy and Thought.
Nining Setyaningsih/ University of Indonesia, Indonesia
Nining Setyaningsih is currently a graduate student in University of Indonesia. She spent the last 7 years learning about Korean language and culture. She is a BTS ARMY herself and has a high enthusiasm towards Korean culture and its phenomena, especially on formation of cultural space and intertextuality. She was an assistant professor in the Department of Korean Language at the University of Gadjah Mada, where she helped on some Korean literature research and participate in the work of "Between Zainichi and Pachinko: Representation of Korean Zainichi in Novel Pachinko by Min Jin Lee". She has been actively involved at regional, national, and international levels promoting the inclusion of Korean culture. Some of her works including of literature contents promotes through ‘K-Lit UGM’. She has worked under one of Korean culture institution in Indonesia, where she observed Korean culture fans’ characteristic in local area. Despite public attention to Korea is all about K-Pop these days, it is her dream to introduce and bring more Korean culture elements beyond K-pop to her community. In her recent travel to Korea, she found a tendency of cultural hybridity and inclusivity in contemporary Korean culture, a study that she is being working on currently.
Allison Anne Gray Atis/ University of the Philippines Diliman, Philippines
Allison Anne Gray Atis (she/her) is a graduate student in the MA in Media Studies (Broadcast) program of the University of the Philippines Diliman, specializing in media and gender studies, media culture and practice, postmodernism, and popular culture. Her current research projects are on myths about women in the Filipino female superhero Darna texts (MA thesis), ‘queering’ Darna, and critical analyses of BTS and ARMY texts and contexts. She works with coaches and consultants in the United States on queer leadership and justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion – leading the efforts on media & communications, creatives, research, and project management – while pursuing scholarly works.
Hajar Hanfa Azzahra Saefullah/ University of Malaya
Hajar Hanfa Azzahra Saefullah is an undergraduate student at the Department of Anthropology Sociology at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya. She is a recipient of the Faculty’s Dean’s List Awards for the Semester 1, Session 2019/2020, and Semester 2, Session 2021/2022. Her undergraduate thesis explores dominant gender constructs as a product of colonialism and how it operates and intervenes with transwomen’s experiences in contemporary Indonesia. She has worked as an intern at Pertamina Foundation under the Community Development department by which she has assisted in creating programs and conducting research on sustainable growth in the social, economic, and environmental sectors of Indonesian society. She is currently in her final year of the program and working as an independent researcher.
Vina Adriany/ Universitas Pendidikan, Indonesia
Vina Adriany is a Professor at the Department of Early Childhood Education, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia. She is currently a Director of Southeast Asian Minister of Education Organization, Centre for Early Childhood Care Education and Parenting (SEAMEO CECCEP). Her scholarship focuses on the issues of gender and social justice in early childhood education (ECE), the construction of children and childhood in marginal communities, and the impact of neoliberalism in ECE. Her research mainly adopts theories that include feminist poststructuralism and postcolonialism. She has published numbers of peer-review article and book chapters on the issues. She is currently a co-editor at Pedagogy, Culture, and Society journal, Routledge. She is also an editorial board member of Policy Futures in Education, SAGE; International Journal of Early Years Education, Routledge; Global Childhood Studies, SAGE; and Children and Society, Wiley. She was a guest editor for Policy Futures in Education for “Neoliberal policies and practices of early childhood education in Asia”. She was also a guest editor for the Journal of Pedagogy for “Decolonialization of Early Childhood Education”. She is currently editing a special issue of “Indonesian Perspectives of Early Childhood Education” for Policy Futures in Education Journal. She was also visiting scholars at several universities that include National Dong Hwa University in Taiwan; Sutan Qaboos University, Oman; Gothenburg University, Sweden; Ankara University, Turkey; and University of Malaya, Malaysia.
Andrea Chan/ University of Technology, Malaysia
Andrea Chan (MA TESOL, Swinburne) is a Lecturer at Swinburne University of Technology (Sarawak). Her experience in teaching across various levels has led her to be interested in the use of pop culture in education, K-pop, Asian representation, superheroes, and more. She is currently teaching Academic Reading and Writing for Foundation studies. Besides teaching and listening to BTS, she is also an active Rotarian who has championed various projects on literacy and period poverty for beneficiaries from lower-income families in Sarawak, Malaysia.