As Kent Ono and Jungmin Kwon discuss in ‘Re-Worlding Culture? YouTube as a K-Pop Interlocuter’, one of YouTube’s biggest strengths is its interactive capability. K-Pop fans, referred to as “prosumers” (Ono, 208) in the paper, can upload their own videos such as “their own self-filmed dance or musical covers” (Ono 208-209) and reaction videos.

Music video reactions are just one of the many popular forms of fan-produced content. Reaction videos involve an individual or group of people recording themselves as they watch a music video/dance practice video for the first time, giving their commentary and first impressions throughout. Music video reactions gather hundreds of thousands of views, especially for videos containing popular groups such as BTS, EXO, and BLACKPINK. The music video reaction community has produced countless famous YouTube personalities that are ubiquitous in the K-Pop community, such as JREKML, KSpazzing, and DKDKTV. Fans enjoy watching these reactions so that they can share the same excitement when a new video is released. Michelle Cho explores, in “Pop Cosmopolitics and K-Pop Video Culture”, the idea that reaction videos “emphasize commonality” and the “universality of human nature” (245).

“… purpose and function of K-Pop reaction videos by revealing the genre’s over-determined heritage of colonial visual politics, linking it to Freud’s phylogenetic European imaginary and the project of decoding primitive behavior, particularly for those who identify the spectacle of K-pop as a foreign object that requires the mediation of others’ responses to understand or to collectively neutralize, or both” (Cho 249).

I argue in this post that in addition to emphasizing commonality, the fact that reaction videos allow viewers to feel a heightened sense of pride in their artists (especially when their favorite group’s videos receive positive reactions) is an even more prominent cause for the explosion of the reaction video phenomenon.

“Watching others moved by watching both presents and enacts the erotics of identification and projection, rather than unfamiliarity and unassimilability” (Cho 249).

One stream of music video reactions that I noticed started getting popular a few years ago is ‘non-Kpop fan reactions’. These videos involved music video reactions filmed by someone who has never been exposed to or is extremely new to Kpop (enough to classify themselves as a ‘non-fan’). I believe the reason these non-kpop fan reactions gained so much popularity is that they build on the fact that actual K-pop fans feel a sense of pride when someone else enjoys their favorite group’s music, especially someone who doesn’t know much about K-Pop. For example, many BTS fans enjoy watching ‘non-Kpop fan reactions’ of BTS music videos, dance practices, and variety show appearances. The process of witnessing a new ‘fan-in-the-making’ is exciting to someone who already devotes so much of their time to the group.

Yet another spinoff of these non-Kpop fan reactions is that of industry professional reactions. A few categories of these types of videos include ‘Classical Musicians react to…’, ‘Dancer reacts to…’, ‘Vocal coach reacts to…’, ‘Grammy Award Winning Grammy Engineer reacts to…’, etc. These professionals utilize technical terms when watching and describing the music videos and/or dance practices, often praising the quality, creativity, and uniqueness of the content. This gives an even higher emphasis on the recognition and validation K-Pop fans so desire to have from those considered knowledgeable and experienced in their fields. The thought process goes something like this…

• Reactor uses specific music theory/dance/vocalization terms while watching the video, establishing them in the fans’ eyes as an accomplished and knowledgeable individual
• Reactor expresses a liking for the video they are watching
• Fan feels validated because things they like are also liked by and deemed worthy of a professional’s time

Works Cited

Cho, Michelle. “Pop Cosmopolitics and K-Pop Video Culture.” Asian Video Cultures : In the Penumbra of the Global, Duke University Press, 2017.

Ono, Kent A, and Jungmin Kwon. “Re-Worlding Culture? YouTube as a K-Pop Interlocuter.” The Korean Wave: Korean Media Go Global, Routledge, 2013, pp. 208–209.

Korean Commercial Films, CFs for short, have long targeted consumers through consumer-centered marketing. They focus on creating a cultural experience for the viewer, as opposed to simply trying to sell the commodity that it is trying to advertise. These CFs go beyond the product and, instead, attempt to engage with the consumer through the experienced realities and everyday lives of the consumer themselves.

As discussed in previous classes, the phenomenon of hallyu-hwa has led to the integration of hallyu into seemingly unrelated industries, whether that be water heaters, cars, or even banks. But there is no industry more reliant on Korean celebrities and idols than the Korean advertising industry. As Olgo Fedorenko puts it in the chapter “South Korean Advertising as Popular Culture” in the book The Korean Popular Culture Reader, advertising has “morphed into entertainment” (357).

One of the three main aspects Fedorenko discusses is the use of sex appeal and commodity aesthetics in advertising. On my first trip to South Korea in high school, I distinctly remember sitting in the hotel room, flipping through the TV channels at night. On one channel came a commercial for the soft-drink Sprite, featuring Korean model and actress Clara Lee.

In the advertisement, Lee walks onto a beach party in a bright green bikini swimsuit, presses a lever on a giant soda fountain system, and proceeds to take a shower in Sprite. The viewer is shown multiple shots of Lee’s body glistening in Sprite. Male party goers and the lifeguard look onto Lee in amazement, one man even spitting out the Sprite from his mouth at Lee’s beauty. Lee proceeds to turn to the crowd of men and ask, ‘Will you shower with me?’. The beach party is a huge hit and the crowd has a good time dancing and showering in Sprite.

This advertisement was so jarring to me because, prior to coming to Korea, I had developed the impression that Korea was very conservative and not as reliant on sex appeal in their advertising as Western countries. What I hadn’t realized at the time, was that “media liberalization [had] created a more permissive climate for media expression” (Fedorenko 354) in Korea. Seeing a CF that was so vividly painting a picture of Lee as the token attractive woman with a great body, asking men to shower with her in Sprite, was very surprising. This CF, in addition to selling Sprite, was meant to be consumed as a cultural product. While the commodity itself (Sprite) “remained in the background” (Fedorenko 348), the focus was more on the liberalization of the “social norms about sexuality” Fedorenko 355).

Another CF that I came across recently stars Sohye of girl-group IOI.

In ASMR style, Sohye talks to the viewer by breaking the fourth wall. She whispers:

“Hey Oppa, this summer, I’m making you samgyetang [Korean chicken and ginseng soup] so that you don’t get exhausted and grow rapidly. Eat this and you have to grow. A summer package that will help coach-nim to grow rapidly”.

In a similar fashion, two other versions of the CF feature Sohye preparing a watermelon and ssam [wraps] for ‘coach-nim’, aka the viewer. The commodity the CF is trying to sell? FIFA Online, an E-Sports online gaming platform. This is one of the most typical examples of the commodity remaining in the background and sex-appeal being at the forefront of a CF. Through the CF, Sohye talks in a very cutesy tone, referring to herself in 3^rd person and using very timid gestures and expressions. She repeatedly refers to the viewer as ‘Oppa’, a term of endearment used by females to refer to older men, whether that be older brothers or a boyfriend, etc. The CF resonates with the idea that Korean girls are very cute, submissive, and take care of their Oppas. The CF has seemingly very little to do with FIFA  Online itself, but it targets the Korean male viewer’s reality of the desire to have a cute girlfriend or little sister just like Sohye.

It is evident that Korea has moved far beyond the state of advertising it had in the early 1990s when CFs still portrayed the conservative societal views and media censorship. With the emergence of hallyu-hwa and the Westernization of Korean society, we see a greater reliance on Korean celebrities and liberal modes of expression such as sex appeal in the marketing tactics used by agencies. I firmly believe that as Hallyu continues to spread throughout the rest of the world and Korean CFs, like K-Pop music and K-dramas, increase their reach, these advertisements will become increasingly Westernized so that even more international fans of K-Pop start to consume Korean products such as samgyetang and E-sports platforms such as FIFA Online.

Works Cited:

Olga Fedorenko, 2014, “South Korean Advertising as Popular Culture,” The Korean Pop Culture Reader, 341 – 62.