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ICS17510.1177/1367877913505173<italic>International Journal of Cultural Studies</italic>Jung and Shim

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2014, Vol. 17(5) 485­–501
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Article
Social distribution: K-pop fan
practices in Indonesia and the
‘Gangnam Style’ phenomenon

Sun Jung
National University of Singapore, Singapore

Doobo Shim
Sungshin Women’s University, Korea

Abstract
Global consumers are increasingly enjoying popular cultural products such as music, film,
television and other audiovisual media content through online social media community networks.
Recently, Korean pop music, or K-pop, has become one of the most dynamically distributed
forms of pop culture in the global pop market through these ‘social distribution’ networks. This
article explores the ways that this new mode of social distribution is characterised by bottom-
up grassroots aspects as well as corporate-controlled top-down aspects by analysing the recent
dynamics and practices of K-pop consumption and circulation on social media, using a case study
of K-pop fandom in Indonesia and the ‘Gangnam Style’ phenomenon.

Keywords
Gangnam style, Indonesian fandom, K-pop, Korean Wave, social distribution, transnational
cultural flows

Global consumers are increasingly enjoying popular cultural products such as music,
film, television and other audiovisual media content through online community

Corresponding authors:
Sun Jung, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Email: sunjung0903@gmail.com

Doobo Shim, Sungshin Women’s University, Seoul, Korea.

Email: mediapoet@gmail.com

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486 International Journal of Cultural Studies 17(5)

networks. In particular, social media channels such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook
now play a central role in global cultural flows. These flows form the basis of a new
cultural distribution model that Jung (2013) calls ‘social distribution’. Jenkins and col-
leagues (2013) also use the notion of ‘spreadable media’ to describe the way cultural
content travels through social media. According to them, through the process of ‘circula-
tion’, which is understood as a hybrid of commercial and grassroots mechanisms, cul-
tural content acquires value and meaning. Thus, ‘social distribution’ refers to the spread
of content through combinations of formal and informal networks.
Indeed, informal networks have long functioned as part of global cultural distribu-
tion, as is evident from East Asian drama piracy networks (Hu, 2004, 2005; Li, 2009),
Japanese animation fan subbing networks (H-K Lee, 2011; Leonard, 2005) and
Bollywood movie piracy networks (Athique, 2006, 2008). While fully acknowledging
that informal distribution is not a new phenomenon, in this article we attempt to high-
light how social media technologies enhance its grassroots participation dynamics
and accelerate its speed. In addition, we explore how this new mode of cultural distri-
bution is conceptualised through a mixture of bottom-up grassroots-led approaches
and corporate-controlled top-down approaches, typified by Henry Jenkins’s notion of
media convergence (2006).
Recently, Korean pop music, or K-pop, has become one of the most dynamically dis-
tributed forms of pop culture in the global pop market through these social distribution
networks. Korean popular culture, commonly known as Hallyu or the Korean Wave, has
been broadly recognised and embraced since the early 2000s by Asian and, to some
extent, global audiences (Chua and Iwabuchi, 2008; Jung, 2011a; Shim, 2006). Most
recently, K-pop has become widely circulated through new media platforms such as fan
blogs, user-generated content (UGC) websites, peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing websites
and social networking services (SNS). The online circulation of K-pop is also evident in
that K-pop artists are often ranked as the number one worldwide trending topic on Twitter
and their music videos are frequently the most-viewed videos on YouTube. The phenom-
enon of Psy’s music video ‘Gangnam Style’ is currently the best example of the rapidity
and efficiency of these networks. Since its release on 15 July 2012, the song has gone
viral around the world; less than six months after its release, it became the first YouTube
video to surpass 1bn views (on 21 December 2012).
As a distribution platform for K-pop, social media have largely replaced traditional
print, aural and visual media. In 2011, the term ‘Hallyu 2.0’ emerged in reference to the
Korean Wave’s spread beyond Asian borders, thanks to online social media and its active
users (Shim and Noh, 2012). This new mode of cultural flow, however, has yet to be
understood within the corporate-controlled media environment, which is a highly rele-
vant condition because distribution networks such as YouTube and iTunes are owned by
global media conglomerates.
First, through a case study of K-pop fandom in Indonesia, this article offers insights
into the impact of social media technology-empowered online youth networks upon
cross-border cultural distribution. Indonesia, with its tech-savvy youth consumer groups,
has become the fastest-growing social distribution hub in the region (if not in the world)
since the late 2000s; moreover, K-pop has become one of the most heavily social-
distributed cultural products among young Indonesian pop consumers. Second, by

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Jung and Shim 487

examining the phenomenon of Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’, this article explicates how social
distribution, while still new, also operates within the existing corporate-led global media
environment. Specifically, we demonstrate how the ‘Gangnam Style’ phenomenon signi-
fies the newly emerging transnational cultural distribution paradigm whose global suc-
cess has been enabled through systematic, organic interactions between various industry
and audience groups such as online pop distribution companies, major record companies,
K-pop entertainment companies and youth networks on social media. This article
explores the ways that this new mode of cultural distribution is characterised by bottom-
up grassroots aspects as well as corporate-controlled top-down aspect by analysing the
recent dynamics and practices of K-pop consumption and circulation on social media, in
relation to audiences and the industry. We begin with a brief discussion of the develop-
ment of the K-pop production industry and its social-media-empowered overseas distri-
bution practices.

The K-pop production system and its use of social media

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, cash infusions by jaebeol (or chaebol)1 and major
global record labels began to modernise the music production system in Korea; previ-
ously, the system had been small in scope and modestly financed. In addition, against the
backdrop of pop music and youth culture growth, talent agencies that were sensitive to
global trends began to spring up. Of these, Lee Soo-Man and his venture, SM
Entertainment, have become a model case of successful Korean music production. Lee,
a popular singer-songwriter in the 1970s, after residing in the US for several years in the
1980s, attempted to systematise the Korean music business with his own record label
(Russell, 2009). After the failures of a few initial attempts, he launched SM Entertainment
in 1995.
When H.O.T., SM’s first boy band, achieved enormous success, Korean media
began to recognise the new planning and management methods in talent scouting
(Shim, 2013). Unlike pre-existing local record labels, SM employed a large number of
talent scouts to find potential stars and held many dance contests and singing auditions
across Korea and in Los Angeles. In its early stages, 16 of SM’s approximately 40
employees were working in talent scouting (Jang, 2011). The key characteristics of
K-pop traineeship were initially formed during this period. For example, before their
debut the five members of H.O.T. stayed in a training base for six months, taking les-
sons in singing, dancing and going though image-making processes. Since then, the
training of girl and boy groups has been conducted according to a similar formula
(Shim, 2013). By managing a range of music production tasks that comprise talent
scouting, vocal and dance training, record production and marketing, public relations
and overseas promotion, SM has become a multi-entertainment management company
and an exemplar for other K-pop producers.
The three major K-pop companies – SM, YG and JYP – and other small to medium-
sized companies all have strategic K-pop promotion programmes. First, these companies
require long training periods and provide only ‘finished goods’ to the market. For exam-
ple, BoA went through two years of training before releasing her 2000 debut album in
Korea.2 Second, they practice both localisation and globalisation to facilitate the entries

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488 International Journal of Cultural Studies 17(5)

of their products into overseas markets. For example, before her Japanese debut, BoA
learned standard Japanese while staying at an NHK announcer’s house in Tokyo (Hong,
2012). SM marketing director Kim Eun-Ah states that ‘one of the most important points
of SM’s marketing strategies in foreign markets is localisation’ (quoted in Jeong, 2009).
BoA, who became one of the most successful foreign artists in Japan, is the second
singer in history to have six consecutive number one studio albums on the Oricon charts
(Choi, 2008).3 K-pop producers often include foreign or foreign-born Korean members
in their idol groups to increase their appeal to particular overseas markets. For example,
Exo-M, SM’s Chinese-Korean boy band, includes four Chinese and two Korean mem-
bers and is meant to target the Chinese market.
In terms of globalisation strategy, SM maintains a list of more than 500 composers
located around the world. Its A&R (artist and repertoire) team and publishing team not
only travel the globe to discover talented composers but also organise biannual confer-
ences to develop new songs (Song, 2012). A representative example of this cross-border
approach to collaboration is the song ‘Genie’, by SM’s famous nine-member girl group
SNSD; the song and its presentation are the combined product of lyrics by a Korean
songwriter, music by the Norwegian songwriting and production company Dsign Music,
and choreography of its signature ‘leg dance’ by Japanese dancer Nakasone Rino (Yun,
2011).4
Third, leading K-pop companies place special emphasis on exporting their products
– in part because of sales within the domestic album (physical music) market have fallen
drastically (20% since early 2000s). Despite the euphoria created by the rise of the digital
music market, this situation has not visibly improved, mainly because of piracy and the
low prices charged per song by music streaming services (Shim, 2013). K-pop producers
are therefore seeking alternative revenue sources in the form of overseas markets. In
their efforts to enter the Japanese market, they have made strategic alliances with Avex
Group, Sony Music Entertainment Japan and EMI Music Japan that include the creation
of local distribution networks. In 2011, a partnership of the big three and other Korean
talent agencies (e.g. KeyEast, AMENT and Star J Entertainment) established United
Asia Management in order to promote K-pop internationally (H-J Lee, 2011).
As social media has become recognised as an important communication platform
that is easily accessible to anyone with an Internet connection, the K-pop industry has
begun to implement social media marketing by forming partnerships with major social
media companies such as Facebook and YouTube.5 In particular, YouTube has begun
to play a crucial role in live broadcasts of concerts and showcases for famous singers,
including Jason Mraz and Taylor Swift.6 The K-pop industry is assertively utilising the
live broadcast functions of social media to approach potential overseas consumers. For
example, Psy’s HAPPENING concert, held in Seoul’s Sangam World Cup Stadium on
13 April 2013, was streamed live through YouTube to an estimated ‘watching now’
audience of more than 120,000 (Jeong, 2013). YouTube, Google and Facebook are
some of the most-visited Internet sites (Alexa, 2012); accordingly, most K-pop compa-
nies have launched YouTube channels to globally promote their products and events.
Its provision of easy and free access to music content in both audio and video forms
has made YouTube an important platform for K-pop’s social distribution in the global
pop market.

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Jung and Shim 489

Table 1.  Gender of questionnaire respondents.

Gender Female Male

Number of respondents 99 1

Table 2.  Age of questionnaire respondents.

Age 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Number of respondents 9 15 33 32 7 1 3

Table 3.  Occupation of questionnaire respondents.

Occupation Student Journalist Finance supervisor Teacher

Number of respondents 97 1 1 1

Social distribution and online K-pop fan practices in

Indonesia
As a result of the rapid economic development it has undergone since the mid 1990s,
Southeast Asia has experienced strong Internet user growth and an increasing number of
its citizens are using social media to share daily news and circulate media cultural prod-
ucts. Within this cultural landscape, Indonesia currently ranks as the fourth-largest coun-
try for Facebook usage in the world, with more than 47 million users; Jakarta ranks as the
second largest Facebook-using city (behind Bangkok) (Socialbakers, 2013). In January
2012, Indonesia was also recognised as the fifth highest Twitter-using country, with
almost 20 million accounts out of nearly 390 million worldwide (Semiocast, 2012). The
nation’s obsession with Twitter is so strong that a popular romantic drama was titled
‘#republiktwitter’ (dir. Kuntz Angus, 2012) to draw young audiences’ attention (Vaswani,
2012).
However, even in Indonesia, a densely populated country of about 240 million people
with a variety of ethnic, language, class and religious backgrounds, it is obvious that not
every youth shares the same access to (or desire to access) the Internet and watches
K-pop music videos on YouTube. Therefore, we are not attempting to offer an exhaustive
analysis of the entire Indonesian consumer scene or even the country’s youth as a whole.
Rather, we use the example of K-pop circulation among Indonesian youth in an attempt
to identify one of the most notable cultural phenomena that has resulted from globalisa-
tion and digitisation dynamics in the global creative marketplace.
Between 2009 and 2012, the authors conducted online participant observations of fan
pages on social media websites, collected 100 questionnaires from K-pop fans in
Indonesia, and conducted email interviews with industry professionals in music and
social media industries.7 Tables 1 through 3 display the demographic details of the ques-
tionnaire respondents.

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490 International Journal of Cultural Studies 17(5)

Historically, the Indonesian pop industry and its consumers have embraced diverse
types and styles of foreign music. Since the 1960s, music styles from the US and UK
have gained enormous popularity, and local Indonesian music that resembles them is
categorised as ‘Pop Indonesia’ (Baulch, 2010; Wallach, 2002).8 This trend of cultural
content diversification was accelerated by the fall of President Suharto’s authoritarian
regime in the late 1990s (Ida, 2010; Kim, 2010; Wallach, 2002). Indonesian music con-
sumers predominantly embraced western pop until the early 2000s. According to Wallach
(2002: 95–6), among the top 40 best-selling albums at the Aquarius Music Store (one of
the largest record stores in Indonesia) for the week of 22 January 2000, 23 were western,
one was Malaysian, and the rest were local (Indonesian). Examining the notion of gengsi
(status consciousness, prestige) in categorising and consuming music genres, Wallach
(2002) discusses how a xenocentric view of musical value is widespread in Indonesia,
where consumers consider western music modern, elite and high-class while the local
pop genres (e.g. dangdut) are thought to be rather backward and inferior.
Recently, cultural flows from other Asian countries have also enriched the Indonesian
pop scene. Associated with what is ‘modern’ and ‘cool’, Japanese animated films
(anime), pop music (J-pop and J-rock) and food have attracted Indonesian teenagers and
youth (Surajaya, 2010: 217). Bands who value their Malay roots have also gained nation-
wide popularity in a phenomenon referred to as ‘Band Pop Melayu’ (Pop Malay Band)
(Baulch, 2010).9 Since the mid 2000s, K-pop has become a ‘cool’ and ‘modern’ sensation
in the local pop market, a phenomenon driven in large part by the power of youth fan
networks on social media (Jung, 2011b). Indonesia is the top country to generate world-
wide traffic of the term ‘K-pop’ on Google Trends, where Indonesian is the most-used
language, followed by Malaysian and Vietnamese (Google Trends, 2012). The explosion
of the K-pop phenomenon in Indonesia has significantly influenced the transformation of
the local pop industry; for example, dozens of ‘I-pop’ (Indonesian idol pop) companies
have appeared and produced K-pop-inspired local idol groups. The popularity of K-pop
in the local pop market is also evident from the K-pop-influenced dangdut singer Ayu
Ting Ting. Based on her music style, widely known as Korean-Dut, she became the most
famous dangdut singer in 2011 with her mega-hit single, ‘Alamat Palsu’. Her Korean-
Dut style largely consists of a combination of dangdut’s musical characteristics and
K-pop dance moves and visual aesthetics.
Within this vibrant musical diversity, Indonesia has produced a range of indie bands
that are popular internationally as well as domestically. For example, four-member indie
band Mocca, whose musical style is based on a mixture of swing, bossa nova, jazz, rock
and Swedish pop, has performed in many Asian countries including Singapore, Malaysia,
Thailand, Japan and Korea. Observing young Indonesian indie pop groups (including
Mocca) and youth fandom, Brent Luvaas states:

These are children of a globalized world, raised on MTV and the Internet, and they insist on
being taken seriously on the same terms as other international pop artists.… Their ‘local’ is not
the ‘local’ of a continuous indigenous tradition, a conception of space and place passed down
from one generation to the next. Instead, theirs is a conception of ‘local’ reinvented and
reimagined by contemporary Indonesian youth, a ‘local’ dissociated from the classificatory
schema of nation-state and colony, and built instead from the tropes and typologies of
transnational popular culture. (2009: 248)

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Jung and Shim 491

Table 4.  Indonesian K-pop media consumption by category (multiple selections were allowed).

Media Online DVD TV Print media Cable TV

Number of respondents 91 45 35 31 29

As they embrace sounds and images from a variety of global styles and genres, these
emerging indie musicians align themselves with international music trends. By doing so,
they fulfil the modern, global tastes of youthful consumers. This practice pertains directly
to the aforementioned economic and cultural transformations in Indonesia, which have
been driven by the nation’s post-Suharto globalisation processes and also parallel
Indonesian youth’s active embrace of K-pop and J-pop because they are ‘cool’ transna-
tional pop culture.
The nation’s globalisation and digitisation dynamics are also evident from its high pen-
etration of social media technologies. Forty-seven million Facebook users out of a total
population of 240m is a critical figure, given that a 2011 government report specified that
only 21% of Indonesians between the ages of 15 and 49 have access to the Internet (cited
in Vaswani, 2012). While many rural areas are unable to access the Internet, the social
media phenomenon is widespread among Indonesia’s urban elite demographic, particu-
larly the young generation. Indonesia is also famous for its high smartphone penetration
(BlackBerry in particular). In response to our questionnaire, 60% of respondents indicated
that they own smartphones. In terms of brands, 26% said that they use BlackBerry and 22%
specified Samsung. In Safitri’s (2011) BBC article, ‘Why is Indonesia so in love with the
BlackBerry?’, the author specifies that young Indonesians use smartphones because they
are ‘hip’ and ‘cool’. In the next three subsections, we will discuss three key features around
the social distribution practices of Indonesian youth.

Online media as the best way to consume and circulate pop

Indonesian youth access and consume K-pop predominantly online and particularly
through social media platforms. In response to the question, ‘Which media do you use
the most to consume K-pop?’, the most frequent answer was ‘online’ (Table 4).
The three main reasons offered for this preference were ‘easy access’, ‘fast update’ and
‘low cost’. Of the respondents who chose ‘online’, 54 mentioned ‘convenience’ and ‘easy
access’, and 23 noted ‘speed’; all indicated that they choose online access because they can
easily find the ‘most up-to-date’ K-pop content and resources.10 Lastly, 22 stated that online
use is cost-effective. The following are representative statements from the sample.

Because that’s an easiest way to get K-pop newest infos or issues, and it’s free. And there’s no
need to spend lots of money on them. (ID21)
Because I could get a real-time information about K-pop through online media. Plus, nowadays
there are so many idols are using Twitter and other social networking sites. So it is easier to
‘keep in touch’ with them. (ID62)
I use media online to consume K-pop because it gives me [much] information about K-pop
quickly. magazine publishers often use online media as the source of their news. (ID73)

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492 International Journal of Cultural Studies 17(5)

Because I always bring my notebook everywhere, so I can play them over and over again, as I
please. (ID82)
They’re so fast. Just 2 day from the drama airing in Korea, we can watch and download it with
English subtitle in Internet. A lot of websites that support it. (ID86)

As indicated by the frequent use of adjectives such as ‘easy’, ‘fast’ and ‘cheap’, Indonesian
K-pop fans consume K-pop content online for reasons that are primarily practical. Fans as
well as existing media channels often depend on online media for acquiring and dispersing
K-pop-related information and resources, as ID73 stated. Other fans expressed regret at not
having more choices, due to the lack of offline shops and television programmes through
which K-pop content could be acquired. A few respondents indicated that they like the way
online media allow them to connect with their stars and with other fans, expressed as an
ability to ‘keep in touch’ (e.g. ID62 and ID76). As is evident from ID82’s answer, the fact
that they can consume a product anytime and multiple times also causes them to prefer
online media over traditional media (e.g. ID32 and ID82).

Indonesian youth as a digital generation and their changed lifestyle

Digital technology has become an essential part of contemporary experience, particu-
larly for young people. New media forms, including text messaging, mobile Internet,
blogs, microblogs, social networking sites and video-sharing websites, have spawned a
digital culture that encompasses not only widespread production and consumption of
digital content but also the transformed attitudes and lifestyles of this digital generation
(Hwang, 2004: 32). The Indonesian digital generation’s new lifestyle accelerates the
transformation of the modes of cultural distribution, an effect that is clearly seen in the
significant amount of time this group spends on online activities.
As noted in Table 5, more than 80% of our respondents spend more than three hours
online every day. Of the 9 respondents who spend more than 8 hours, some indicated that
they are online about 12 hours per day; ID71 (a 20-year-old female university student)
spends more than 15 hours online every day. In terms of the online time devoted to
K-pop activities specifically (see Table 6), a majority of the respondents spend at least 1

Table 5.  Hours per day that respondents spend online.

Hours spent online/day 3–4 hrs 5–6 hrs 7–8 hrs 1–2 hrs >8 hrs < 1 hr
Number of 27 24 19 17 9 4
respondents

Table 6.  Number of hours respondents spend online, per day, on K-pop-related activities.

Hours spent on K-pop 3–4 hrs 1–2 hrs 5–6 hrs 7–8 hrs >8 hrs <1 hr N/A
activities online/day
Number of 33 25 14 10 9 8 1
respondents

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Jung and Shim 493

Table 7.  Respondents’ main online K-pop activities (multiple selections allowed).
Downloading Reading Downloading Posting Chat- Uploading Listening Writing Uploading
music or music articles images com- ting with images to Internet articles music or
videos ments other fans radio music videos

93 85 78 46 45 27 18 11 9

to 8 hours on them a day and 9 respondents spend more than 8 hours a day. As is evident
from Table 7, the top three online activities are downloading music and music videos
(93), reading articles (85) and downloading images (78). Only a few respondents upload
content: 9 stated that they upload K-pop music or music videos, compared to 93 who
stated that they download the same kind of content.
The changed lifestyle of Indonesian youth is also epitomised by the way these young
consumers use smartphones to consume and distribute K-pop products. The majority of
smartphone users among our respondents specified that they use social networking appli-
cations (44%), predominantly Twitter (43%). ID11 stated: ‘Actually I don’t really know
how many hours I use for K-pop activities. In my phone, my Twitter is online 24 hours.
So if I wanna know about my idol, I just open my phone and check it out’. Clearly, the
convergence between smartphones and social media (especially Twitter) has enabled
immediate, perpetual access to popular content consumption and distribution.

YouTube, the best platform for K-pop circulation

Of the various online social media channels, YouTube is considered the most desirable
platform to access K-pop, followed by Twitter (Table 8). Interestingly, fan forums and
Facebook are the two least-favoured platforms. A few respondents mentioned that it
would take time to participate in fan-forum activities and that they have no such time
to spend (ID18 and ID48). That these young Indonesian pop consumers prefer Twitter
to Facebook because the former offers more immediate or ‘real-time’ updates (ID6) is
also significant. As they did with previous questions, many respondents emphasised
‘quick and easy access’, ‘fast updates’ and ‘low/no cost’ to explain their preference for
social media. For YouTube in particular, they pointed out the merits of free access to
music videos (ID12), English-subbed videos (ID34) and the most up-to-date K-pop
videos (ID86). YouTube is indeed a crucial driving force behind social distribution of
K-pop.

Strategic collaborations between the K-pop industry and

global social media companies: YouTube and ‘Gangnam
Style’
Although futurologists and others have predicted that new technologies would fuse pro-
ducer and consumer to the point of enabling the advent of the ‘prosumer’ (Toffler, 1980),
acceptance of this radical idea did not begin until after the emergence of YouTube. When
ordinary citizens became able to post and share video-recorded information there in
2005, it was a revolutionary step forward from the traditional mass-mediated model of

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494 International Journal of Cultural Studies 17(5)

Table 8.  Respondents’ online platform preferences for K-pop activities (multiple selections
allowed).

Online platforms YouTube Twitter K-pop news K-pop blogs Facebook Fan forums
websites
Number of 90 77 71 68 47 42
respondents

consumption (Bruns, 2008). More than 1b users visit YouTube each month; more than 4b
hours of video are watched each month; 72 hours of video are uploaded every minute;
and 25% of global YouTube views occur via mobile devices (YouTube Statistics, 2013).
From the perspective of performers, grassroots participation in YouTube has helped
unknown artists around the world to achieve international superstardom. A video of gui-
tarist Lim Jeong-Hyun, uploaded onto YouTube in 2005, had become the site’s fourth-
most-watched video at its peak – a phenomenon covered by major media outlets such as
CNN and the New York Times. Another once-unknown artist, Tay Zonday, became an
online star when his ‘Chocolate Rain’ video gained enormous popularity on YouTube,
which eventually scored him a record deal with a major label.
Of the countless similar cases, one of the best and most recent is Psy’s ‘Gangnam
Style’. Since its release on YouTube on 15 July 2012, the video has gone viral to the point
of being most-liked video ever on YouTube (Pomerantz, 2012). Without any local pro-
motion, ‘Gangnam Style’ has also achieved the number one position on many Euro-
American countries’ iTunes charts. In the UK, ‘Gangnam Style’ became the number one
British single, marking the first time that a Korean singer has topped that chart (Park,
2012). In the US, the song remained at number two in the Billboard 100 for seven con-
secutive weeks (Trust, 2012). This rapid and phenomenal global success aptly demon-
strates how social distribution operates within the new creative industry paradigm.
Moreover, the new, dynamic and highly efficient relationship between social distribution
and traditional entertainment industry modes renders it crucial to explore how the new
paradigm operates within the Web 2.0-empowered media convergence environment, in
which social distribution is constructed through interactions and collaborations between
mainstream-distribution bodies and grassroots networks.
Many futurologists have predicted that a so-called ‘online revolution’ would bring
about the demise of traditional media companies. Research shows the opposite, however,
in that traditional media companies continue to thrive by acquiring new media compa-
nies or by adopting new technologies (Wu, 2010). For example, through an alliance with
Apple, in 2011, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation launched The Daily, a news appli-
cation available exclusively on the iPad. Google, which had already become a major
media company by the mid 2000s, launched its own video service in 2005. When this
video service proved to be unable to compete with YouTube, in 2006, Google simply
purchased YouTube for US$1.65b (Kim, 2012: 55).
Since its acquisition by Google, YouTube has gradually changed from the poster child
of user-generated video to a marketplace for professionally generated content (PGC).
According to Jin Kim, instead of continuing to function as a symbol of a revolutionary

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Jung and Shim 495

break from the traditional media, YouTube now ‘imitates the rules of old media’ (2012:
53). According to Kim, not only has YouTube’s content become similar to that of tradi-
tional media, the company’s business practices have also been heavily influenced by
network broadcasters. Once a fortress defending individuals from media corporations’
copyright infringement charges, YouTube now stringently enforces copyright laws
through its introduction of copyright policy tools such as Content ID and Video ID.
YouTube has even introduced a paid video-on-demand service, become advertisement-
friendly and strives to generate financial profits largely through delivering its audiences
directly to advertisers.
When YouTube started to be recognised as an important platform for creative content
consumption, media companies were eager to forge strategic alliances with it. For exam-
ple, many Hollywood studios have switched their official channels to YouTube, where
they post short clips and trailers of their television programmes and films. A similar situ-
ation exists in the K-pop sector; all of the major record companies run their own YouTube
channels to create synergies in production and distribution. Since opening in August
2006, SM’s official YouTube channel has recorded almost 1b music video views and had
more than 2.6m subscribers (as of 10 May 2013).11 In the case of YG, its music videos
have garnered more than 500m views and almost 1m subscribers were registered (as of
10 May 2013).12
YouTube is not only a new social distribution platform: it has also become a new
revenue model for these major entertainment companies. YouTube and leading K-pop
producers and broadcasting companies have entered into content partnerships. Revenues
from the advertising fees (from multinational enterprises) are shared by YouTube and the
other parties, a practice that allows more and more YouTube users to enjoy K-pop con-
tent online. For example, in October 2011, Google (the parent company of YouTube) and
Korea’s MBC television network signed an MOU (memorandum of understanding) that
specifies the network will provide its broadcasting content to Google through its YouTube
channel (Kim, 2011). On 21 May 2012 the ‘Korean Music Wave in Google’ concert was
held at Shoreline Amphitheatre (a 22,550-seat venue near Google headquarters in
Mountain View, California). The show, which featured leading K-pop stars including
Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, The Wonder Girls, KARA and MBLAQ, was co-
organised by MBC and Google. To mark the day, which was also the seventh anniversary
of YouTube, Alex Carlos, head of YouTube Entertainment, walked on to the stage and
commented: ‘K-pop became a phenomenon. It symbolises the meaning of YouTube as a
new entertainment platform’ (Lee, 2012).
Other strategic collaborations are also being forged between the social networking
practices of fans on social media and K-pop entertainment companies, multinational
enterprises, mainstream-distribution bodies such as iTunes, major record companies and
(sometimes) local entertainment management companies. These alliances constitute the
other axis of the newly emerging mode of social distribution of K-pop, and the best
example thus far is ‘Gangnam Style’. The music video was initially released through
Psy’s management company, YG Entertainment’s official YouTube channel, which is
based on the content partnership between YG and YouTube (as previously mentioned, ad
revenues are shared by the two entities). A crucial feature of this partnership appears on
every YouTube page in the form of advertisements for those multinational enterprises’

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496 International Journal of Cultural Studies 17(5)

products along with more obvious marketing tools such as banner ads, in-stream ads and
in-video ads. According to Google’s CBO, Nikesh Arora, ‘Gangnam Style’ has generated
US$8m in revenue on YouTube alone (cited in Mims, 2013).
Next, ‘Gangnam Style’ was initially circulated among existing K-pop fan networks on
YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, in particular among YG’s idol band fan networks. The
huge base of loyal subscribers on their social media channels served as an efficient plat-
form for the distribution of ‘Gangnam Style’. The video was of particular interest to this
audience because it features a top idol girl group member, Hyun-Ah. By creating large
traffic for certain words (in this case, ‘Gangnam Style’ and ‘Psy’) on social media, the
famously solid and loyal Asian fan base crucially aided the song’s exposure to a wider
audience group.13
As it became an extremely successful Internet meme, ‘Gangnam Style’ then leaked
from these areas into the mainstream through the rise of so-called ‘reaction’ and parody
videos on YouTube (some of which have become YouTube sensations in their own right).
In fact, the myriad of fan-made parody videos from all over the world have added further
meanings and values to the original ‘Gangnam Style’ and thus have made it more inter-
esting and fun to consume. This mode of cultural meaning-making is well described by
John Hartley’s notion of ‘redaction’, which is ‘the production of new material by the
process of editing existing content’ (2008: 112).
The last step in this sequence, coverage on popular US celebrity websites such as
Gawker.com and tweets by celebrities (e.g. Katy Perry, Tom Cruise, T-Pain and Britney
Spears), enabled ‘Gangnam Style’ to be circulated among a wider mainstream population
in the global pop market. If we consider these steps – traffic creation by existing K-pop
fandom, fan-made parody productions and celebrities’ comments on Twitter – as audi-
ence participation in cultural distribution, we may conclude that it is the ‘work’ of fans
and audiences that shapes and frames the circulation of content (Jenkins et al., 2013:
124–9). Within this newly emerging engagement model in the Web 2.0 environment,
fans and other categories of active audience develop expertise in the content and mastery
of distribution technologies that, in turn, generate economic and cultural values through
activities such as media sharing that are central to the social distribution paradigm.
Finally, the role of Psy’s management must not be underestimated. Thanks to his sign-
ing in August 2012 with the influential US talent agent Scooter Braun (who also manages
Justin Bieber), Psy gained exposure to a vast American audience (Shim, 2013). His
appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards on 6 September 2012 was followed by a
series of appearances on major television shows such as The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The
Today Show and Saturday Night Live. These appearances helped propel the ‘Gangnam
Style’ phenomenon to even greater success: the song was ranked at the top of the iTunes
charts in 31 countries as of 30 September 2012, only 10 weeks after its debut on YouTube.
As is normative to the cyclic nature of these driving forces, these rankings contributed to
the rise of positive coverage for both Psy and ‘Gangnam Style’ on social media.
YouTube’s tight connections to other major social media platforms such as Facebook
and Twitter allow this accelerated social distribution of pop content. For example, the
equivalent of 300 years of playing time is accessed on YouTube via Facebook every day
and 600 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter every minute (Woo, 2012). These three
major social media platforms are reciprocally and organically associated in their

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Jung and Shim 497

enhancement of the transnational flows of pop content through the global marketplace
– flows that, in turn, signify the emerging grassroots power of fans and audiences.
Nevertheless, these flows continue to operate within the existing media environment,
which still consists of major entertainment bodies such as YouTube, Scooter Braun, NBC
and iTunes.

Conclusion
In an age of volatile changes in global cultural industries, epitomised by technological
innovation and globalisation dynamics, online social distribution flows have become a
key aspect of transcultural distribution environments. Through case studies of online
K-pop fan practices in Indonesia and the global distribution of ‘Gangnam Style’, this
article has examined such dynamics and provided a conceptual framework for analysis
to enhance understanding of the new cultural industry environments. We first considered
online K-pop circulation among Indonesian youth, who prefer using social media because
of its ‘easy access’, ‘fast update’, ‘low cost’ and ‘modes of sharing [both goods and emo-
tions]’. Such social networking-empowered online youth practices represent emerging
bottom-up distribution channels. Second, using the example of ‘Gangnam Style’, we
explored how social distribution remains closely interrelated with the mainstream indus-
try paradigm that continues to be led by global media corporations.
Upon its debut, YouTube was lauded as a representation of a transformation of the
corporate media landscape. Yet Chris Atton’s warning that one should not ‘lionize the
Internet as wholly new’ is apposite here (Atton, 2004: x–xi). Eventually, YouTube has
shifted from a grassroots-driven alternative into a supplement to commercially driven
content production and distribution controlled by professionals and corporations (Shim,
2013). As Jin Kim notes, although ‘UGC will survive, the chances are that ubiquitous
PGC will overshadow UGC, marginalising individuals’ own creations’ (2012: 62). We
fully acknowledge that this kind of big-picture perspective allows a reasonably clear
understanding of industry process, but also note the need for a more flexible approach to
grasping the new cultural distribution paradigms. As is evident from the cases discussed
in this article, joint relationships between a diverse range of new and old media players
and consumers allow K-pop videos to rapidly migrate across global mediascapes.
Therefore, social distribution must be understood within the conceptual paradigm of an
intrinsic mixture of two models: the newly emerging, alternative, grassroots-driven, bot-
tom-up model, and the existing, corporate-led, top-down model.

Funding
This research received research funding from Asia Research Institute, National University of
Singapore. Also, this article is an outcome of an International Workshop funded and organised by
the Asia Research Institute (National University of Singapore) ‘Social Media and Cross-border
Cultural Transmissions’, 21–22 June 2012.

Notes
 1. Jaebeol or chaebol refers to family-owned conglomerates such as Samsung, Hyundai and
LG.

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498 International Journal of Cultural Studies 17(5)

  2. Jo Kwon, leader of boy band 2AM, is known as the longest-serving male trainee in JYP, hav-
ing been schooled for eight years. Although their long training periods could be considered
by some as another controversial violation of human rights abuse, the system has given K-pop
stars a competitive edge in the market (Korea Herald, 2011).
  3. Oricon charts are equivalent to Billboard charts in the US.
  4. As K-pop’s international profile has risen, many foreign composers have voluntarily pro-
posed collaborations with K-pop producers and artists. For example, American rapper, song-
writer and music producer will.i.am made such an offer to YG’s girl band 2NE1 (Song, 2012).
  5. It is known that SM instructed members of its boy band Super Junior to communicate directly
with their fans using Twitter and Facebook. Super Junior was awarded a 2011 Mashable
Award in the category of Must-Follow Musician or Band on Social Media. Mashable is a
notable news website and blog that primarily focuses on social media, technology and gadg-
ets. Its annual awards for the best online communities, services, users and activists were
established in 2007 (Mashable.com, 2011).
  6. YouTube is good not only for facilitating consumer access but also for generating profits.
Because commercials are synced with and embedded in the music videos, YouTube has
become a popular site for advertisers (Kincy, 2011).
  7. ‘K-pop, Indonesian Fandom, and Social Media’ (Jung, 2011b) considers research data for the
year 2010.
 8. Pop Indonesia encompasses several subgenres, including ‘sophisticated, jazz and R&B-
influenced pop kelas atas (upper-class pop) and youth-oriented pop alternatif, which draws
inspiration from recent western rock styles’ (Wallach, 2002: 81).
  9. Since the mid 2000s:
all the major, Jakarta-based recording companies have developed pop Melayu repertoires.
The genre is known for its lyrical explorations of sexual infidelities and love relationships,
and for its use of the cengkok vocal style reminiscent of the dangdut style. In contrast to
dangdut though, pop Melayu compositions generally make use of western instrumenta-
tion, not a bamboo suling (flute) or a gendang (paired hand drums). Pop Melayu’s nods
to dangdut can be very slight and barely noticeable. In recent years, in terms of sales, pop
Melayu has emerged as an enormously successful genre. (Baulch, 2010: 117)
10. Many respondents provided more than one reason.
11. See www.youtube.com/sment
12. See www.youtube.com/user/ygentertainment?feature=results_main
13. Indonesian fandom is often a driving force behind social distribution of K-pop beyond Asia,
where fans create a huge amount of traffic on Twitter (e.g. making Super Junior a Twitter
Trend) to help K-pop and its artists achieve recognition by wider audiences (Jung, 2011b).

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Author biographies
Sun Jung is a research fellow in the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore.
She has published broadly on South Korean popular cultures, lifestyles and transnational media
flows, including the monograph Korean Masculinities and Transcultural Consumption: Yonsama,
Rain, Oldboy and K-pop Idols (Hong Kong University Press, 2011). Her current projects include
social media and cross-border cultural transmissions; K-pop: art of cultural capital; neoliberal
capitalism, sustainable lifestyles and media representations; participatory public space: a right to
the networked city; and sexuality and gender in Asian pop cultures.
Doobo Shim is a professor in the Department of Media and Communication at Sungshin Women’s
University, Seoul, Korea. He co-edited Pop Culture Formations across East Asia (2010), and has
published essays in Media, Culture & Society, Asian Journal of Women’s Studies, Korea Journal
and other journals. He is currently Research Director at the Korean Institute of Southeast Asian
Studies (KISEAS), and an editorial board member of East Asian Journal of Popular Culture,
Journal of Fandom Studies and Journalism and Mass Communication.

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