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Shukrana Shukrullah

Professor Jungwon Kim

Understanding K-Pop

June 16th, 2022

Understanding K-Pop: The Fan Experience

People often ask, “What makes K-Pop stand out from other music genres?” or “Why has

it become a global phenomenon when other international music genres have not?” Besides the

carefully crafted catchy melodies and challenging choreography, the fan experience for K-Pop

listeners has catalyzed the wide success of K-Pop. By comparing my personal experiences and

observations of K-Pop events and American music events, I will describe the key similarities and

differences between the music genres that has enabled K-Pop to become a leading international

genre and capture the heart of millions of fans around the world.

I attended my first K-Pop event for the idol boy group ASTRO’s Fan Meeting at the SK

Olympic Handball Stadium in Seoul, South Korea. First off, it’s important to note that fan

meetings are a common event for K-Pop artists in comparison to the shorter but more common

“meet and greets” in western countries. It is not unusual to see K-Pop artists host entire fan

meetings soon before their Seoul concerts. ASTRO like many other K-Pop groups held a fan

meeting weeks before their 2022 concerts in Seoul. The main difference between fan meetings

and concerts is that, at fan meetings, the artists typically only perform a handful of songs

throughout the show and instead spend most of the time on stage doing activities and hosting

interactive games with their fans. Though the fans are seated in a venue similar to a concert

layout and do not usually meet the artists one-on-one, a “fan meeting” is a great way for fans to

see their favorite artists enjoy themselves and have fun with their fans.
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I purchased my tickets for the ASTRO fan meeting three weeks before the show through

an online site called “Global Interpark.” It is the international version of the Korean website

“Interpark,” which sells concert tickets, merch, and a variety of other Korean products. Global

Interpark provides the same website in English, Mandarin, and Japanese languages, offering

international payment methods and delivery, which gives more accessibility for foreigners trying

to make purchases in or from Korea. In contrast to the popular American ticket-selling website

“Ticketmaster” that only offers their website in English and French, other ticket vendors in

Korea such as “Melon” and “YES24” offer more international webpages, further facilitating and

encouraging the consumption of Korean arts and culture by foreign audiences.

While accessibility is highly emphasized, K-Pop music companies do not shy away from

the concept of making “exclusive” products and “Fanclub memberships.” Certain products such

as merch are either sold in special pop-ups, official stores, or strictly in limited supply to instill

excitement and desire by fans to buy their products. Fanclub memberships, in particular, are a

prominent component of K-Pop fandoms. Compared to a lot of western artists, where fan

membership is made through inputting an email address, K-Pop “Fanclub memberships” are

highly exclusive to enter. Besides having to pay annual membership fees, the biggest struggle is

that memberships are not always open for taking applications. Sometimes, memberships are

closed for years at a time or only open for short periods of time, making fans who are already

members feel extra special while non-members are even more desperate to join. Personally, I

was disappointed that I could not buy a ticket to the boy-group EXO’s fan meeting in Seoul

because I did not hold Fanclub membership, and they have not opened membership for years.

Fans join Fanclub memberships to gain access to exclusive merch, participate in fan meet

and concert presales, and have a chance to attend other special events. Since most K-Pop
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concerts have ticket presales, sometimes in multiple rounds, it can be very advantageous to hold

membership when trying to buy good seats or any tickets at all. Previously, Fanclub

memberships only enabled presales for Korean venues, but now as K-Pop tracks more global

fanbases, it looks like K-Pop music companies are working on expanding benefits for

international fans. Just recently, I noticed some Fanclub memberships announce verified Fanclub

ticket-presales for shows outside of Korea such as the upcoming SEVENTEEN world tour, with

U.S tickets sold through Ticketmaster (Ticketmaster, 2022). Buying tickets for both

SEVENTEEN’s Korean and U.S. tour dates have been equally challenging with the competition

of multiple rounds of Fanclub presales that I could not participate in without a membership. I

have bought tickets to several shows in Seoul with nosebleed seats, almost not even getting a

ticket, while my other friends with Fanclub memberships have been able to score floor tickets in

the third or second row during presale. However, it can be even harder to get tickets for special

K-Pop events that are based on lottery systems with small availability.

The most exclusive fan event is a “fansign” that is typically limited to 100-200 fans,

making it extremely competitive. The only way to get a ticket to a fansign is normally through

lottery drawings that fans can earn entries for only through buying idols’ albums. For each album

purchase, fans earn a ticket for the drawing, which ends up with fans buying dozens of the same

albums just for the chance to win a single ticket. Although I have not personally participated in

these drawings, by living at a dorm with other international students interested in K-Pop, I have

seen many fans give away over 30-50 albums in our lobby after collecting other album perks and

accumulating their drawing entries. Like the popular “meet and greets” in the west, fansigns are

a chance for fans to personally meet their favorite idols.. However, compared to “meet and

greets” where fans say hello and take a picture, fans have slightly more time with their idols at
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fansigns. They normally have a minute or two to share a light conversation and get an autograph

on their album. A lot of times, K-Pop idols will remember fans from their fansigns and even

wear gifts from fans, which makes fansigns even more exciting and appealing to fans.

My friend and I arrived at the ASTRO fan meeting a few hours before the start of the

show, and we were surprised to see the number of people outside. Though there was barely a line

for tickets, clusters of fans were lounging on picnic blankets near the venue. The atmosphere

instantly felt inviting and relaxing. We were also able to buy an ASTRO light stick outside the

venue; it was my first light stick purchase. Light sticks are unique to K-Pop as they were

designed by K-Pop groups and artists to be used at live events. Light sticks not only make the

live experience more enjoyable as these Bluetooth-controlled lights flash in different colors in-

sync with the show, but they also symbolize a sense of community and shared love by fans for

K-Pop idols. Lightsticks are a sign of unity as a fandom, which is extremely important to the K-

Pop fan experience.

In K-Pop, lightsticks are the most popular merchandise in contrast to western concerts

where t-shirts are the top-selling merch, When I attend concerts in the U.S., most of the merch

lines are for buying t-shirts. But in K-Pop, the highest revenue in merch comes from lightsticks,

which usually cost about the same as t-shirts or sometimes even more. Besides lightsticks,

“photocards” or “PCs” are incredibly popular among K-Pop fans. K-Pop photocards are typically

differentiated between “official” and “fan-made.” Official photocards are cards produced by

artists’ companies which feature rare pictures of idols from photoshoots that have never been

released elsewhere. Fans may want to put their photocards in scrapbooks, for display, or simply

collect them in a binder.

Photocards are typically sold in sets. Often, exclusive photocards can only be obtained
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through album inclusions where PC sets are randomized, causing fans to put massive orders for

albums so they can collect all the cards they want. Like I mentioned, students at my dorm have

left out stacks of albums to giveaway, but the photocards have always been removed from the

albums. If not through large albums orders, fans will trade with one another to get cards of their

favorite idols, or sometimes called “biases,” and complete their collections. Photocard trading

happens both at in-person events and online. Users will create accounts and group chats on social

media platforms like Instagram and Twitter to trade cards with each other. Other times, fans will

create their own “fan-made” photocards and sell them online or even pass them out to other fans

for free. At K-Pop events, it is very common to see fans trading PCs with one another or passing

out fan-made PCs of their biases to other fans for free. Given out by fans in the form of PCs,

posters, banners, or even goodie bags, these are called “fan freebies.”

At the ASTRO fan meeting, a handful of fans passed me and my friend banners and fan-

made PCs. As the event was held in Seoul, most of the population was local Koreans with the

occasional foreigners, but I was touched by their openness and kindness towards strangers. I

have never received “freebies” or anything similar at any of the concerts I have attended in the

U.S. no matter how passionate the fans were. Built off inclusivity and global connections, the K-

Pop fan community is very welcoming and friendly.

The ASTRO fan meeting ran for about two hours, and, in between the games, the idols

performed around 6-7 of their popular songs. Although my friend and I struggled to understand

some of their conversations as they were speaking in Korean, we still had a lot of fun and

enjoyed watching the members have fun with the crowd and one another. There were several

audience-based games including the popular “Red light, green light” game that went viral from

the Korean Netflix Show, “Squid Game.” It was eye-opening to watch a K-Pop event entirely
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spoken in Korean, with a primarily native Korean population. From waving our light sticks

together to laughing at jokes I was not sure I completely understood, I realized what it meant to

experience K-Pop solely based off how it makes you feel. You stop focusing so much on the

spoken words and become more aware of your surroundings, noticing people’s body language

and emotions more vividly. However, it is hard to call it a language barrier because hearing K-

Pop artists and fans converse in their native language opens doors to exciting, new mindsets and

perspectives for international audiences, including myself.

In contrast to the event I attended for ASTRO, there is another type of fan meeting that is

usually free for everyone and organized on the day of the artists’ pre-recordings for a music

show. Comparable to “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” in the U.S., music programs in

Korea feature different artists on their show to promote them and their music. Music shows are

frequently streamed by popular broadcast programs in South Korea and highlight both big and

smaller names in K-Pop. Some of my friends in Seoul were lucky enough to purchase one of few

tickets to music shows in Seoul. However, as the audience-size inside is very limited, large

crowds will wait outside the station to meet their idols. Sometimes, idols may even order a coffee

truck to thank their fans. During these fan meets, fan will sit on the ground and gather around

their idols as the artists share stories and interact with their fans.

The K-Pop community is home to fans around the world. Though challenging, it gives K-

Pop many opportunities to become more successful. Challenges like language barriers can be

surpassed through closed captions and translation systems while differences in location and

limited touring opportunities can make it hard for international fans to participate in live events.

Nonetheless, after COVID-19, there was a massive shift to online events. At an unprecedented

time where people could not share the same physical space, live music did not disappear but
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rather flourished in new ways, breaking through barriers that were not given as much attention

before. Just a couple months after the world “shut down,” in April of 2020, the famous K-Pop

company, SMTOWN announced a series of virtual concerts, through the new “Beyond LIVE”

platform featuring some of the biggest names in K-Pop including NCT DREAM, SuperM, and

SUPERJUNIOR. The virtual concerts were livestreamed in very high quality with advanced

equipment and AR technology (SM Entertainment, 2020).

Over 75,000 paid viewers watched the two-hour livestream concert by SuperM through

Beyond LIVE from 109 countries. In a press release, SM highlighted that the typical in-person

concerts held in Seoul, with an average of 10,000 audience members each show, was

significantly surpassed by just one day of this virtual concert series attended by more than 75,000

people from around the world at the same time (SM Entertainment, 2020). That summer, on June

14th, BTS also gave a virtual performance at “BangBangCon: The Live,” a live streaming paid

concert. Following their concert, BTS earned a new Guinness World Records title for the “Most

Viewers for a Music Concert Live Stream.” More than 750,000 fans from over 100 countries

attended the 90-minute online concert, broadcast live from Seoul (Punt, 2020).

Even after in-person events resumed, virtual concerts have not disappeared from K-Pop.

The ASTRO fan meeting I went to this past spring of 2022 also offered live streaming tickets

(Global Interpark, 2022). Several events have been and continue to schedule simultaneous offline

and online tickets for fans around the world. Even the concert I later attended for the famous idol

boy-group, Stray Kids, offered both offline and online tickets for all three of their performances

through the same Beyond LIVE platform (YES24 Ticket, 2022). During the concert, I was

amazed by how much the Stray Kids group members would interact with the online viewers and

acknowledge their international fans throughout the show. It looked like the online streaming
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option was created to truly immerse international fans in the concert experience rather than

making it like a pre-recorded video. Despite the sold-out concert venue in Seoul, Stray Kids is

known for being more popular in the United States than in Korea, so it makes sense that they

focus so much on giving their international viewers the best possible experience.

The first difference I noticed between K-Pop and western shows I have attended was that

K-Pop concerts are typically one-act shows unlike American concerts that generally have at least

one “opening act” before the “headlining act.” A lot of K-Pop fans, including myself, enjoy and

appreciate having the main performers as the only act of the whole show. It gives fans more time

to see their artists as they are the ones they paid to see. In the U.S., it is more welcomed to have

opening acts as it helps smaller artists gain attention and boost their careers, but K-Pop has a

different view on the fan experience, emphasizing quality time between the artist and their fans.

A special fan activity for live K-Pop shows is a “fanchant.” K-Pop idols and their music

companies produce “fanchants” for fans to memorize and sing along to their songs. In fanchants,

fans usually sing or shout during the chorus or other background vocals of the songs to cheer

along with the singer(s). Simple movements with the lightstick are also performed during the

“fanchants.” Fanchants were developed to make concerts more interactive and fun for fans, while

also creating a mutually energizing atmosphere for the performers.

Even when the performers go offstage for one of their many outfit changes, “VCRs,”

which are exclusive footage of the artists, play on the big screens. The videos vary from being

diary entries or emotional clips to playful skits that keep the audience engaged and ensure the

fans never feel disconnected from the idols even when they are not onstage. And, when they are

onstage, high-tech lights are flashing as the performers move around the extravagant sets in their

synchronized choreography. K-Pop is associated with having lots of synchronized dancing as K-

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Pop idols are not only singers but also, just as equally, dancers. Based off the shows I attended,

including Stray Kids’ performance, I could sometimes hear their heavy breathing into the mic

and even occasional vocal hiccups, but this only proved that their vocals were indeed live despite

how hard it is to sing and dance at the same time. In addition to all the lyrics and harmonies they

must memorize, they also have to practice a lot of choreography, and then combine it all together

as they change through different costumes during the concert.

My favorite aspect of K-Pop concerts is “Encore.” Encore is an additional setlist, usually

a medley or a handful of songs already performed that are performed again or “encore” at the

end of the concert. After the idols finish singing their “planned show,” they pretend to leave the

stage for good, waving goodbye. Like the Stray Kids concert I went to and every other concert I

have attended in Seoul, the flashy lights in the venue will then dim and the crowd erupts,

shouting, “Encore! Encore! Encore!” Fans scream “Encore!” repeatedly until the artists come

back to the stage (usually in a new costume), and the concert resumes as they perform fan

favorite songs, goof around on stage with less set choreography, and ultimately end the night

with an exhilarating crowd dance break and upbeat music. I usually dread the end of concerts,

but “Encore” makes it so much fun that I look forward to the whole show from start to end. From

the countless non-K-Pop concerts I have been to in the United States, I have never experienced

“Encore.” Although “Encore” is not exclusive to K-Pop, compared to most pop concerts, it is a

unique component of live events that is almost always present in K-Pop shows.

One thing that is almost exclusive only to Korea is an idol “birthday cafe.” Seoul has a

massive café culture, but before coming to Korea, I have never visited a café decorated for a

celebrity’s birthday and so extravagantly. As K-Pop fans feel very connected to their idols, they

strongly value and cherish special events in their idols’ lives including career anniversaries and
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birthdays. Whether it is for a big K-Pop group like BTS or a smaller idol group like “Golden

Child,” cafés host pop-up birthday parties for idols so fans can gather and celebrate. At birthday

cafés, the cafés sell limited-edition drinks and cakes decorated with the names and pictures of the

idols. Cup sleeves with the idol’s “birthday pictures,” stickers, among other small freebies are

given out to customers who buy a drink at the café on those special events. Most fans will visit

several birthday cafes in a day to collect different cup sleeves. I’ve only visited a handful since it

can be quite hefty to buy so many drinks, but I have friends who visited 30 cafes around Seoul in

a single day. It’s a fun and unique experience for K-Pop fans to feel more engaged in idols’ lives,

celebrating their birthdays and collecting special-edition souvenirs.

From attending my first K-Pop fan meeting to visiting my first birthday cafe in Seoul and

everything in between, considering my background in American pop music culture, I have been

able to understand the heavy importance of fan-artist relationships and experiences in K-Pop. K-

Pop has become more than just a musical genre, but a community built up of open-minded and

passionate individuals who rejoice together over their shared love for music that transcends

language and geographical borders. Memorizing fanchants, waving lightsticks, trading

photocards, and celebrating idols’ birthdays are just a glimpse of what it means to be a K-Pop

fan. Seeing how K-Pop music companies have been evolving to offer more accessibility and

opportunities for fans inside and outside Korea, it is exciting to wonder how K-Pop will continue

to leave its mark around the globe.

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Works Cited

Global Interpark. “2022 ASTRO AROHA FESTIVAL ‘GATE 6’ - 온라인.” Global Interpark,

https://www.globalinterpark.com/detail/edetail?prdNo=22001918.

Punt, Dominic. “K-Pop Sensations BTS Set Concert Live Stream Record with Bang Bang Con:

The Live.” Guinness World Records, 22 July 2020,

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2020/7/k-pop-sensations-bts-set-concert-

live-stream-record-with-bang-bang-con-the-live-624548.

SM Entertainment. “SuperM Starts off the Future of Concerts with World-1st Online-Only

Concert!” SM Entertainment Press Release, 27 Apr. 2020,

https://www.smentertainment.com/PressCenter/Details/4367#. Accessed 15 June 2022.

Ticketmaster. “How to Get Tickets to SEVENTEEN WORLD TOUR [BE THE

SUN].” Ticketmaster, 18 May 2022, https://blog.ticketmaster.com/seventeen/.

YES24 Ticket. “Beyond LIVE - Stray Kids 2nd World Tour ‘MANIAC’ in SEOUL.” YES24

티켓, http://ticket.yes24.com/Pages/English/Perf/FnPerfDeail.aspx?IdPerf=41907.