Q: We all understand that without fans, there would be no stars — but how much power do fans really have? Discuss the power of a fan/consumer and what this could entail (how much impact do we have)?
As we all can tell, K-pop is well known for its fandom culture. This leads to a common belief that K-pop idols rely on their fans so much that most of their profit comes from their fans. However, I personally believe that the case might be different between domestic fans and transnational fans.
It is not hard to tell how domestic fans play a vital role when the idols are still not widely recognized. Their fans would try so hard to advertise for their idols on multiple digital media, attracting more domestic fans and some transnational fans. With enough fan bases, the agencies could see the potential of the idol. So instead of just let him/her run his/her own course or dismiss the group if it’s an idol group, the agencies would keep investing. And of course, the domestic fans make the biggest paying market for the fan goods, concerts tickets and albums etc. At this time, the idols are not famous enough to receive advertisement invitations or get their songs played everywhere in Korea. A huge part of profit comes from their fans. Fans are generally sustaining their idols. However, as the stars become successful enough, I doubt the power of fandom may not be as significant as before. I’m not saying that their power fades away. But comparing with the huge profit the idols can make from royalty and advertisement, domestic fan consumption could only be a small part of their income, and that’s the reasons why Kara still earned a lot last year although their fan base was definitely shrinking.
Considering that most transnational fans get to know their idols after their idol owning some fans at least, they are not helping their idols to become domestically successful but worldly recognized in most cases. Powered by digital technologies and online networks, transnational fans actively take part in intermediating and distributing popular cultural contents far beyond the country of origin (Lee 2016:204). There are fan base translation groups; the fans would do dance or song covers of their idol and post them on Youtube; the fans would ask their favorite youtuber to do reaction videos and even turn the youtuber into a transnational fan. However, it is not easy for K-pop companies to convert these markets into paying markets owing to the gaps between territory-based cultural business and the transnationalized desire of consumers (Lee 2016:204). So even though the idol became really successful, the overseas fandom power still dominants. As Oh and Park stated: most of the overseas profit still comes from overseas royalties which constituted 81% of total royalty income for SM in 2010 (Oh and Park 2012:384). And the consumer-led Youtube absolutely contributed the main part. Thus, we could draw a conclusion that the idols’ main oversea profit still relies on the consumers to a large extent. Also, this does not mean the power of transnational fans overweighs domestic fans, but the international market is basically fan-led no matter when.
In conclusion, from what I’ve seen, although owning a more significant power, domestic fandom’s impact reduces comparatively when the idol got recognized by Korean society, while transnational fandom keeps playing an important role as before in the market of their own regions.
References
Oh, Ingyu, and Park, Gil-Sung. “From B2C to B2B: Selling Korean Pop Music in the Age of New Social Media.” The Korea Observer 43, no. 3 (2012): 365-97.
Lee, Hye-Kyung. “Transnational Cultural Fandom.” In The Ashgate Research Companion to Fan Cultures, edited by Duits Linda, Zwaan Koos, Reijnders Stijn. 195-207. London: Routledge, 2016.
Zhou Lanqi
Asia327 Dean 
Hey Lanqi,
Great essay! I loved how you added your position in the beginning, while explaining/backing up your stance in this issue with scholarly articles; however, I just have one point that could improve your essay.
When you used Oh and Park’s article when proving your point, it was well integrated and I definitely see the connection you are trying to make but I think you could elaborate a little more than just stating what the article has mentioned. Don’t let me make the logical connection, let the writing do that. I do see that you make a connection with Lee’s article and your argument, but it isn’t too clear when you used Oh and Park’s. If you used an article as your supporting evidence, try to elaborate in more depth why that article/statement is relevant. Other than that, I think this essay is already heading in the right direction.
Oh, and for your Turnbull citation, you don’t have to put the DOI after the page numbers. That’s pretty much it for me!
LikeLike
Lanqi,
This is solid. It looks like you are only using 2 sources in the essay, though, so you only need two in the bibliography.
LikeLike
Totally agree, not sure what to add here, it’s hard to quantify just how important the fandom is and I think that a lot of companies severely underestimate just how powerful the fans can really be. From what I’ve seen, I’ve been really impressed with how the industry does a really good job at engaging the fandom and understands what an effective marketing tool it is. This makes sense in the context of your discussion as it is clear that the domestic fandom is the key ingredient in pushing a group or star into that international state of super popularity (and profitability). While the post points out the differences in how power is expressed by international and domestic fans, I think the important thing to draw from it is that together they are a necessary two step process to maximizing success. The fans are an important potential resource and marketing tool but as consumers they are also the life blood of any business and must be treated carefully as sometimes they might have too much power.
LikeLike
Hi Lanqi. I agree with you that it is not hard to tell that domestic fans play an important role for the Korean idols when they are just starting off their careers. It is very important that the domestic fans try to advertise and help promote these new idols to attract more fans. Without enough fans, these new Korean idols will have a hard time in succeeding in the industry. At the beginning of a Korean idol’s career, the domestic fans have quite some power in affecting the idol’s career success. But as these idols gain more and more popularity, and become more internationally recognised, the power that these domestic fans once held will diminish. Once the Korean idols reach a certain threshold in popularity, they will be getting income from other sources and not rely on their fans as heavily. Before the idols would rely on fans to buy their merchandise and concert tickets but once the idols reach that certain threshold in popularity, the idols will now be getting income from sponsors and advertisements and no longer rely on their fans as heavily. I also agree that transnational fans do not help the idols get domestically successful but instead help them become internationally more recognised. This would help the idols rapidly gain more fans through the amount of exposure from their transnational fans, from the usage of many online platforms like YouTube and Twitter. Through these extremely well known and popular online platforms, the Korean idols can easily gain more attention and attract more fans through the music and dance videos posted on YouTube. Other transnational fans alike can even come together and talk about these music and dance videos which removes any possible language barriers between fans. These popular online platforms is like a community for transnational fans to discuss about their idols and may attract many others to join in on the discussion thus attracting even more fans.
Fans are still important to Korean idols whether you are a domestic fan or transnational fan. Fans altogether is what helps drive and push Korean idols to success and this kind of power that fans have can undeniably affect the idol’s career. Even though the domestic fan’s power has diminished after the idol becomes internationally more popular, it does not mean that they do not matter. I believe that all fans matter, and altogether they can greatly influence a idol’s career through media and popular online platforms.
LikeLike