Singer Jung Kook of BTS performs on NBC’s “Right this moment” present at Rockefeller Middle in New York Metropolis, Nov. 8, 2023. Reuters-Yonhap
When a relationship rumor linking BTS’ Jung Kook and aespa’s Winter — arguably two of the highest-profile stars within the present Okay-pop panorama — started circulating on-line, the response adopted an all-too-familiar script.
Neither artist nor their businesses confirmed or denied the reviews, however silence did little to gradual the dialog. As a substitute, the rumor reopened one of many style’s hottest debates: how a lot of an idol’s private life really belongs to their followers?
Inside days, fan communities break up alongside predictable strains. Some urged respect for privateness, whereas others expressed concern {that a} relationship may have an effect on group actions or public picture. A smaller however louder faction even despatched protest vehicles to the artists’ businesses, turning hypothesis right into a public dispute.
The episode echoed occasions from final yr, when aespa member Karina was linked to actor Lee Jae-wook. That controversy culminated in Karina issuing a public apology to followers, drawing worldwide consideration not as a result of idols relationship was uncommon, however as a result of the expectation of regret felt more and more misaligned with how pop stars are handled in world markets.
Such reactions are hardly new to longtime Okay-pop observers, however because the style’s viewers has expanded worldwide, the fault strains have change into extra seen.
Worldwide followers, specifically, have grown extra vocal in criticizing what they see as “extreme” or “poisonous” fan conduct, pointing to an trade construction that has lengthy blurred the boundary between help and entitlement.
From left, aespa members Ningning, Giselle, Winter and Karina carry out onstage throughout Amazon Music Reside Season 4 at East Finish Studios in Glendale, Calif., Nov. 13. Courtesy of SM Leisure
Enterprise of closeness
To know why relationship rumors proceed to impress such intense reactions, it helps to look past particular person fandoms and study how the Okay-pop idol system itself is designed.
Not like Western pop industries, Okay-pop has constructed a lot of its success on sustained proximity between artists and followers, with music serving as just one a part of the connection. Right here, followers are inspired to have interaction every day via agency-run platforms designed to simulate private closeness, a dynamic that progressively transforms into a serious income.
Few areas illustrate this dynamic extra clearly than fan signing occasions and subscription-based messaging platforms.
In-person fan signings, widespread in Korean and Japanese music markets, supply transient one-on-one interactions via album buy lotteries. Followers are in a position to converse instantly with artists and alternate small items, however with restricted slots and purchase-based odds, heavy spending doesn’t assure entry.
A boy group fan in her 20s surnamed Kim instructed The Korea Instances that inside fandoms it’s “extensively understood” that even newly debuted idols from main businesses can require followers to spend “a whole bunch of hundreds of received” for an opportunity to attend a fan signing occasion. Whereas official figures are hardly ever disclosed, native followers estimate that gaining entry to in‑particular person occasions for top-tier acts — usually by buying a number of albums — can price greater than 3 million received ($2,052), with abroad occasions demanding much more spending.
That emotional financial system extends into on a regular basis life via paid messaging platforms, primarily subscription providers designed to simulate private communication between idols and followers.
Via apps like DearU Bubble, Weverse and Fromm, followers usually pay a month-to-month payment per artist to obtain messages, photographs, voice notes or posts delivered in a chat-style interface that resembles a non-public dialog. Now commonplace throughout the trade, these platforms package deal intimacy as a subscription, usually blurring the road between efficiency and private interplay.
A BTS fan holds a banner exhibiting a picture of V, a member of the group, throughout an occasion to rejoice the tenth debut anniversary of Okay-pop band BTS at a public park close to the Han River in Seoul, June 17, 2023. AP-Yonhap
Business observers say that over time, this construction reshapes how Okay-pop followers perceive their position. After years of shopping for albums, sustaining subscriptions and supporting releases, idols could come to really feel much less like distant entertainers and extra like shared investments.
Music critic Lim Hee-yoon famous via a neighborhood media outlet that one of many key drivers behind Okay-pop’s progress has been its “means to transform fandom loyalty and fervour into monetary movement.”
As platforms developed and the trade expanded, she mentioned, these mechanisms turned “more and more refined and commercialized.”
On the similar time, critics argue that intimacy ought to have clear limits.
“If artists themselves select to not disclose private particulars, the small print shouldn’t be actively sought out or consumed,” mentioned Jang Min-gi, a professor of media communications at Kyungnam College.
“The general public notion that undesirable publicity is inevitable fairly than one thing that must be questioned may additionally be a part of the larger drawback.”
As Okay-pop continues to increase past its early fandom-driven markets, the programs that helped propel the style’s world rise at the moment are being scrutinized by audiences who anticipate artists to be handled much less as non-public property and extra as people.
But, so long as Okay-pop continues to revenue from rigorously engineered emotional closeness, relationship controversies are unlikely to vanish.
The Jung Kook and Winter rumor will finally fade. The system that turned hypothesis into backlash could also be way more sturdy.
