Media's Representation of Korean Pop Culture in The West

Abstract

This dissertation examines how Western media depicts the K-Pop group BTS and how such depictions reinforce Western-centric, racist, and hegemonic masculinity ideologies. Despite initial dismissal of the Korean Wave as a trend, BTS has gained unprecedented success and recognition in the West. This dissertation begins with a literature review that explores the K-Pop industry, the representations of K-Pop by Western media, and the ideologies of Western-centrism, racism, and hegemonic masculinity. The research uses Discourse Analysis as its method to analyze the media's depictions of BTS and their effects. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the findings, highlighting the perpetuation of the stated ideologies in Western media coverage of BTS and their positive and negative effects. The dissertation also addresses gaps in the existing literature. This study highlights the importance of understanding the role of media in shaping perceptions and reproducing harmful ideologies.

Introduction

In the 1990s, South Korea’s cultural products like dramas and songs started to emerge and become tremendously prevalent in Asia. The Korean Wave (‘Hallyu’ in Korean) was coined to symbolize the global popularity of Korean popular culture in Asia (Jin, 2018). Hallyu’s rapid success led to some critics and scholars dismissing it as an unsustainable trend because, Korea was deemed as a periphery in the global cultural markets (Ono and Kwon, 2013; Parc and Kim, 2020). Moreover, many regarded that the coverages on Korea’s cultural products are limited to Asia where Confucian values or other cultural characteristics are shared (Ha, 2017). However, in the past few years, the advancements of Hallyu, especially Korean popular songs or K-Pop, have been in stark disparity to such notions. K-Pop has expanded outside of Asia and become increasingly popular in the West, which earned attention among Western media outlets. In 2012, Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ went viral, especially in the West. After which, many people in the world came to know about K-Pop and associated it to Psy. Now, Hallyu has entered another stage with the emergence and spectacular success of BTS, a seven-member K-Pop boy group. Scholars and critics often mentioned that BTS’s music, social media and robust fandom known as ARMY, help propel them to unprecedented success. Indeed, BTS’s messages of self-love and mental health in their songs appeal and relate to many fans worldwide, regardless of their race, gender, and age. ARMY’s fervent support led BTS to win the Top Social Artist (TSA) from the 2017 and 2018 Billboard Music Awards (BBMAs), beating out popular artistes like Justin Bieber and more. They went on to conquer global music charts, be invited to perform at American music shows and talk shows and was nominated for the 2021 Grammys Awards (GA). BTS gained much coverage from Western media outlets as they are the first K-Pop group to successfully gain a foothold in the Western music industry. They have appeared on magazines covers with headlines like ‘TIME’s Entertainer of the Year 2020’ (Bruner, 2020). As much as BTS is receiving star treatment, they also received resistance to their success in the forms of racist and Western-centric comments and coverages that deemed them as the ‘Others’ who are effeminate and irrelevant. As media can shapes one’s perceptions and reproduce racism, hegemonic masculinity, and Western-centric ideologies, it is important to understand the roots of such perceptions and re-evaluate the texts in media coverages and their role in reproducing those ideologies (Van Dijk, 1993).

This dissertation aims to analyse Western media depictions of BTS to know how Western media portrays BTS to the mainstream audience and how Western-centrism, racism, and hegemonic masculinity ideologies are reinforced in those coverages. It also aims to know the effects of the media’s depictions on BTS. This dissertation begins with the literature review that explores existing literature regarding the K-Pop industry, the representations of K-Pop by Western media, and the ideologies of Western-centrism, racism, and hegemonic masculinity. Next, I will justify the use of Discourse Analysis as my research method. This dissertation then concludes with a discussion on the findings which will reveal how BTS is depicted by the Western media and that the stated ideologies are present and perpetuated in those coverages. It will also reveal the positive and negative effects of those coverages.

Literature Review

In this literature review, I will first dissect existing literature to unpack the origin and characteristics of the K-Pop industry and explore how K-Pop become global internationally, particularly in the West. This is done so to provide a background of K-Pop which can help readers to understand the analysis better. Secondly, current literature that analysed the representations of K-Pop by the Western media was examined. As the literature shows that the coverages of K-Pop have underlying Western-centric and racist undertones, I will next explore the ideologies of Western-centrism, racism, and hegemonic masculinity to better understand why K-Pop is portrayed in a certain way by the West. Lastly, this section will conclude by addressing the research gaps in the literature.

History of Korean Popular Music

To understand the origin of K-Pop and how it became a successful Korean cultural export, Lie (2014) and Cho (2017) first examined the history of Korean popular music. Traditional Korean music is known as ‘Kugak’ before cultural and musical adaption from Japan and the West began to emerge when Korea was occupied by Japan in 1910 and continued until Korea regained independence after the Second World War (Lie, 2014; Cho, 2017, p. 14). Korea established Korean popular music known as ‘taejung kayo’ under Japan’s occupation (Cho 2017). Under Japan’s rule, Japan purged things Korean and planted things Japanese, from language to music (Lie, 2014, p. 21). However, Japan was already westernized in the 1880s before annexing Korea. Hence, Japan institutionalized modern Japan that was predominantly Western in form and content instead of traditional Japanese content in Korea (Lie, 2014, p. 21). Japan deemed Western music as a symbol of modernization and a way to shape loyal subjects and catch up with the West (Lie, 2014). Thus, control over music was one way for Japan to attain a modern, westernized, and loyal Japanese dependent state (Cho, 2017, p. 16). After the end of Japanese colonization, America led the ‘free world’ and widely promoted American academic and pop culture throughout the world (Chua and Cho, 2012, p. 485). America became the benchmark for Korean cultural legitimacy as Christian missionaries in Korea portrayed America to be the symbol of modernity and freedom to the Koreans (Cho, 2017; Chua and Cho, 2012; Yoshimi and Buist, 2003). Therefore, the modern-day K-Pop underwent Westernization and cultural hybridization as an outcome of the colonization and Christianity movement and completed through globalization.

Modern K-Pop Industry

K-Pop Music

The 1990s was a defining moment for modern Korean popular music with the birth of the first K-Pop idol group known as H.O.T. or ‘High Five of Teenagers’ (Lee, 2019, p. 23). According to many scholars, K-Pop has little association with traditional Korean culture as K-Pop is a cultural hybridization between Western universalism and Asian exoticism (Shim, 2006; Oh and Park, 2012, p. 368). The hybridity and multinational elements of K-Pop complicated the definition of K-Pop because not all K-Pop music is entirely made by Koreans or performed by Korean artists as there are rising numbers of global producers, composers and artists that produce and perform K-Pop music (Lee, 2019, p. 24; Do, 2012). Many K-Pop corporations outsourced Western melodies, lyrics, beats, and percussions from countries like Sweden, America, or England (Oh, 2013, p. 396). The corporations also hired producers and composers from the West to produce K-Pop songs. For example, American artists Bebe Rexha composed the song ‘Lucifer’ for SHINee. These collaborations developed appealing and unique sounds that differentiate K-Pop from other pop songs and helped increase K-Pop groups’ international popularity.

According to Korean Culture and Information Service (KOCIS, 2011a, p. 33), one of the appealing characteristics of K-Pop is using strong dance beats with repetitive and addictive chorus known as ‘hooks’ that are effective in getting songs stuck in the listeners’ heads. Songs like ‘Nobody’ by Wonder Girls and ‘Sorry Sorry’ by Super Junior have ear-catching hooks. K-Pop songs also usually have rap, dance elements, and singing mixed together (Leung, 2012). The most attractive feature of K-Pop is that it incorporates music with dance and fashion (KOCIS, 2011a). K-Pop idols will perform synchronized dance moves with ample facial expressions that illustrate the lyrics and concept of the song (Do, 2012, p. 33; Oh, 2013). K-Pop companies also work with foreign choreographers. For instance, Keone Madrid, an American choreographer who developed some choreographies for the boy group, GOT7. Usually, K-Pop groups will have a different concept for each comeback song or album in which the stage outfits, make-up and hairstyle are tools to match the concept.

K-Pop Idol Groups and Training

Idol groups are the reason why K-Pop is popular. K-Pop producers and companies like SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment and more are concerned with their artists’ abilities to grow into global celebrities and ultimately generating high profits (Oh, 2013, p. 401). These companies will scout and train teenager from local and global auditions to debut in idol groups than as solo artists (Cho, 2017, p. 20; Oh, 2013). Groups are preferred over solo artists because each member is assigned a role either as a singer, dancer, or rapper to attract more fans. Trainees will undergo vocal, dancing, language, acting, and physical fitness lessons for at least 2 to 10 years before their debut (Oh, 2013, p. 402; Cho, 2017). Visual elements like fashion, attractive looks, and physiques play a huge part in K-Pop to attract fans. Compared to Japanese-Pop idols, K-Pop idols are much sexier and have more sophisticated appearances and figures (Oh, 2013, p. 401). This is because Western beauty standards are idealised in Korea. K-Pop idols especially female idols are usually emphasized to possess American beauty features that include being tall, fair, having double eyelids and a skinny, yet curvy, hourglass figure known as the ‘S-line’ (Genovese, n.d., p. 2). Hence, plastic surgeries to achieve a more American-looking face and figure and strict dietary management to maintain the desired weight are part of the training (Oh and Park, 2012, p. 382; Genovese, n.d., p 1). The training programmes are strict and paternalistic as trainees are barred from using cell phones, dating and more (Ho, 2012). Idols are expected to behave well and innocent by refraining from dating or smoking scandals (Leung, 2012; Cho, 2017). Once embroiled in such scandals, they will withdraw from the group. Most idol members and groups have English names so that international fans can remember them easily.

The emergence of K-Pop in Asia and in the West

The success of K-Pop in the global market may seem sudden, however, it had its roots in the popularity of Korean TV shows in East Asia countries (Lee, 2019, p. 16). In the 1980s to 1990s, the major cultural imports came from Japan (Lee, 2019, p. 17). Japan’s huge domestic market and rich resources meant that they did not need the foreign market to produce significant revenues and that the costs to import their contents were high. The costs factor and small Korean domestic market played in Korean cultural industries’ favour. Korea opened up their economy by exporting pop-culture contents to Asian nations like China, Singapore and more (Parc and Kim, 2020). People started to be interested in Korean songs with the rising popularity of Korean dramas like ‘Winter Sonata’ in the 1990s. Hence, K-Pop began to captivate listeners in Asia. In the late 1990s, Hong Kong-based Channel V began to showcase K-Pop music videos (MVs) and K-Pop groups like Shinhwa and Sechs Kies regularly hold concerts in Hong Kong and Taiwan (KOCIS, 2011b, p. 30; Shim, 2006). The achievements of these groups opened up doors for more K-Pop artists to thrive over the border. Female solo singer BoA was regarded as one of the first Korean singers to have a successful career in America and Japan (KOCIS, 2011b, p. 31). Some critics initially believed that Hallyu will not last long or make tremendous headway into other global regions as it had in Asia because they viewed Hallyu’s accomplishments as both unforeseen and coincidental, rather than being intentional (Ono and Kwon, 2013, p. 204). Their notion is that in the future, another cultural fad will occur and replace Hallyu, just as Hallyu had replaced Japan’s popular culture in the 1990s (Ono and Kwon, 2013, p. 204). Nonetheless, their forecast was not accurate as K-Pop did not fizzle out. Instead, it became more popular than ever not only in Asia but also in the West due to social media.

The penetration of K-Pop in the West led to a new phase of the Korean wave referred to as Hallyu 2.0 in the 2010s in which it is ‘more intensive in its popularity and extensive in its dissemination’ (Jin and Yoon, 2016, p. 1278). Hallyu 2.0 is distinguished from the earlier wave by its global outreach through the notable role of social media in K-Pop content production, consumption, and circulation (Jin and Yoon, 2016, p. 1278). Social media platforms like Twitter and YouTube can cause the international pop culture market scene to be very changeable and help increase the visibility of K-Pop through social media outlets (Jung, 2014, p. 114). These digital media technologies cause the international pop culture market scene to be very changeable and help increase the visibility of K-Pop through social media outlets (Jung, 2014, p. 114). Initially known as an ‘inter-Asian cultural flow’, K-Pop was not well-known in the West, especially in the United States (U.S.) as evident in the failed attempts of some K-Pop groups like the Wonder Girls, who spent three years trying to penetrate the U.S. pop market by releasing English singles (Jung, 2014, p. 126; Jin, 2018, p. 412). Most people outside of Asia were oblivious to K-Pop, but thanks to social media, K-Pop gained some recognition in the West after Psy’s Gangnam Style MV in 2012 became a viral hit on YouTube and in the global music markets, which has over 3 billion views to date (Jin, 2018, p. 405). The MV was disseminated ‘among K-Pop fan networks on Twitter and Facebook’ and became an Internet meme through the rising trend of reaction and parody videos on YouTube which attracted the mainstream audience and was acknowledged on Twitter by renowned superstars like Britney Spears and Tom Cruise (Jung, 2014, p. 125). After being an Internet sensation, Psy appeared on U.S. television shows like Saturday Night Live and more, which helped propel K-Pop to greater success (Jung, 2014, p. 125). Since Psy’s successful debut in North America, many K-Pop groups like BTS gained more recognition and popularity in the West. As such, several studies agreed that K-Pop’s recognition in the West is due to social media (Do, 2012; Jin and Yoon, 2016; Lee, 2019).

Representations of K-Pop by the Western Media

As K-Pop is gaining interest in the West, there are increasing numbers of Western media coverage on them. Kwon (2017) and Gibson (2019) analysed the portrayals of K-Pop by the Western media. Kwon (2017) examined articles published after 2011 by the U.S. and United Kingdom (U.K.) news media outlets portrayals of K-Pop. Both the U.S. and U.K. media reported similar representations of K-Pop. Firstly, they portrayed K-Pop artists as Korea’s national heroes because they are viewed as national image-makers that promote and represent Korea to the world. Secondly, both reported on the workings of the K-Pop industry (harsh training and strict rules) and described that K-Pop performances include perfectly synchronized choreographies, catchy songs, and fashionable outfits. They also depicted K-Pop idols as hard-working and humble people who possess multifaceted talents and appealing features achieved through plastic surgeries. However, the U.S. media portrayed K-Pop much more negatively than the U.K. media. The U.S. media provided a narrative that K-Pop is a mass-produced product and idols are machines that lack uniqueness because entertainment companies often produce cookie-cutter performances and idols with forgettable features (Kwon, 2017, p. 27). Meanwhile, the U.K. media portrayed a different narrative than the U.S. media by highlighting idols as unique because their fashion and hairstyles are different from the daily looks of Westerners (Kwon, 2017, p. 65). They also highlighted idols as innovative because artists like G-Dragon writes, produces and performs his songs instead of performing songs created by other producers. Thirdly, they claimed that K-Pop is used as political propaganda by South Korea to incite the interests of North Koreans. This is because K-Pop songs are a symbol of democratization and liberty linked to the U.S.’s ideologies which threaten North Korea, such that the Korean government deliberately blasts K-Pop towards the North to rouse their interests (Cho, 2017, p. 17). It is observed throughout Kwon’s analysis that the Western media coverage on K-Pop has underlying Western-centric connotations (description below). The U.S. media depicted K-Pop as an exported cultural product from the U.S. because they believed that K-Pop imitated and adopted American music genres and concepts of boy group. Both U.S. and U.K. media perceived that K-Pop requires assistance from the West to attain global success. For instance, they believed that K-Pop songs should be sung mostly in English for their songs to be globally disseminated. Kwon (2017, p. 56) stated that U.K. media imagined the U.K. as the centre of cultural exchanges by stressing the importance of English lyrics for K-Pop to succeed, which reinforced the Western-centric ideology that the West is the centre of the world (Shohat and Stam, 2014). As Kwon’s (2017) study demonstrated the Western discourses on K-Pop after 2011, there is a need to have a comprehensive study on Western articles published before 2011 to show the changes in perspectives on K-Pop over time.

In this aspect, Gibson (2019) analysed Western media coverage on K-Pop from 2009 to 2019 and examined the overall trends in K-Pop framing by the media over time in four distinct stages: Introductory Stage (2009-2011), Gangnam Style Stage (2012-2013), Korean Wave Stage (2014-2017) and Mainstreaming Stage (2018-2019). In the Introductory Stage, there was sporadic coverage on K-Pop and Western media was curious, yet sceptical about K-Pop. They often asked variants of ‘What is K-Pop’ and covered many stereotypes of K-Pop (manufactured idols) that still exists in K-Pop coverage today (Gibson, 2019, p. 30). A 2012 New Yorker article labelled the girl group, Girls Generation as ‘Factory Girls’. The Gangnam Style Stage saw a broader coverage on K-Pop and Psy. Most of the coverage on Gangnam Style was positive, but there were some negative remarks and problematic stereotypes reported. Articles often exoticized and emasculate Psy by treating him as a caricature which reinforced the negative stereotypes of Asian men (see below). Despite these issues, Psy’s popularity fuelled a deeper interest in the K-Pop industry and idols which led to the next stage of coverage. The Korean Wave stage observed a rising number of media coverage and a diverse range of news angle (for instance, K-Pop as a political tool) on K-Pop, which corresponded with a substantial increase in the exposure of K-Pop in the West. As idols and K-Pop usually have clean images, many news outlets were determined to expose the dark side of K-Pop by focusing on the hyper-competitive and high-pressure industry narrative. In the Mainstreaming Stage, K-Pop began to be included in the mainstream conversation in the West as Western television shows and news outlets have introduced K-Pop to a wide-ranging demographic audience who would never typically consume information on culture and music from other countries (Gibson, 2019, p. 34). This stage saw a rise in critical and in-depth coverage. For examples, the media will analyse K-Pop albums and songs in detail and scandals of K-Pop artists that are usually not reported in the West. Although there is a broader coverage on K-Pop, the media has not moved on from past tropes as there are articles that provided inaccurate information and racists coverage on K-Pop. However, unlike the earlier stages, fans are now more active in calling out and demanding accountability for racists and misleading coverage, which greatly influence how the West discusses K-Pop, especially on social media. Accountability for such coverage is needed because information from media outlets is considered to be somewhat objective and credible. A survey done by Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange (KOFICE) discovered that non-K-Pop fans rely on news media to develop their perceptions about Korea and K-Pop (KOFICE, 2016 cited in Kwon, 2017). This means that individuals may formulate stereotypes of K-Pop and Korea developed and reinforced by the news media. From these two studies, I have identified the general representations of K-Pop which mostly include prejudicial and stereotypical images of K-Pop and that the Western media tend to view K-Pop through the Western lens, thus, evoking a sense of Western superiority and ‘Otherness’ in their coverage. I believe that the reason is because of Western-centrism as explained below.

Western-centrism

Western-centrism is a discursive rationale for, and a residue of, colonialism, for it normalizes the imbalance of power produced by colonialism (Shohat and Stam, 2014, p. 2). Colonialism is a process by which Europeans vied for control and conquered colonial territories and resources, and they attained cultural and political hegemony in much of the world (Shohat and Stam, 2014, p. 2). Although the colonial rule has ended, much of the world retains Western-centric views. Western-centrism is a perspective in which Europe is deemed as the unique source of meaning, as the centre of the world, and as ‘ontological reality to the rest of the world’s shadow’ (Shohat and Stam, 2014, p. 2). Western-centrism divides the world into the West and the Rest. Europeans are perceived as history makers because there are beliefs that the West had a special advantage in terms of race, culture and more which makes Europeans superior and that their civilizations naturally progress, modernize, and innovate while other civilisations stagnate and are considered as backwards and have no real contribution to the world (Blaut, 1993, p. 1; Bruckmann, 2010). These beliefs were formed because Europeans were alluded to be the ones who invented the modern state, capitalism and more (Blaut, 1993, p. 8). However, Blaut (1993) argued that some of those suggestions might not be true. This is because Western-centrism established itself as inventive and superior by ‘appropriating the cultural and material creation of non-Westerns’ while not acknowledging non-Westerns’ accomplishments and its appropriation (Shohat and Stam, 2014, p. 3). With this establishment, Western-centrism portrays the West as leaders that were tasked to lead and modernize non-Western civilizations while they emulate the West through colonialism and assimilation (Amin, 1989; Blaut, 1993). As Western-centrism is an ideology that forms modern-day practices and representations, many non-Western territories like Japan and Korea underwent Westernization as they institutionalized Western’s practices, institutions and more (Shohat and Stam, 2014, p. 2; Kang, 2015). For instance, the Westernization of K-Pop symbolizes modernity and freedom in Korea (see above). Another example is the U.S. media imagined America as the leader of the global music market while K-Pop is depicted as a cultural inheritor and follower of American music (Kwon, 2017, p. 18). Western-centrism not only influences the Westernization of K-Pop idols and songs, but it also causes internalized western-centrism and reinforces racism which I will explain below.

Internalized Western-centrism and the ‘Others’

As Western-centrism enables the West to project their achievements as ‘representative of humanity’ and widely disseminates Western values, practices and more, their cultural expressions become the norm or universal (Young, 1990, p. 59). Since the West’s identity and cultural expressions are being normalized, the West constructed the non-West as negative in comparison (Young, 1990; Blaut, 1993). Therefore, the non-West are segregated and constructed as the ‘Others’. The process of ‘Othering’ includes the non-Western to be stigmatized and stereotyped as threats or inferior (Kang, 2015). Given that Western-centrism worldview of history is normalized through education, media, and more, the consequence is that Western-centric views are widely internalized among non-Western and Western people, either consciously or subconsciously (Shohat and Stam, 1994, p. 298; Kang, 2015, p. 25). Most non-Westerners have internalized Western-centric views as they feel that they cannot represent the world without depending on a ‘Western-centric epistemological framework’ because they are faced with the imposed notion that they are less superior than Western counterparts (Kang, 2015, p. 30). For example, K-Pop idols adhering to Western beauty standards reinforced the notion of the West as the centre of the world and Korean’s desires to be like the Westerners. As the West is continuously perceived as the best, there will be racist views held against the non-West or the K-Pop industry as a consequence.

Racism Discourse

Racism discourse is similar and closely intertwined to the Western-centrism ideology (Shohat and Stam, 1994; Kang, 2015). D’Souza (1995, p. 518) defined racism as a belief that intellectual or moral superiority is based on certain characteristics of race and that any racial discrimination acts are due to such beliefs. White people are constructed to be more superior than the non-Whites, which caused the latter to be subjected to racism. Such prejudices and subjugation are reproduced in everyday life through the media, education, and in politics which contribute to the reproduction of racism (Van Dijk, 1993). When Girls Generation won the 2013 YouTube’s Video of the Year Award in America, racists comments like ‘Can you believe One Direction lost to some weird Chinese girl’ were common (Gibson, 2019, p. 38). By thinking that it is unbelievable for a K-Pop group to win an award over a Western group and calling them weird shows that they subscribed to the Western-centric and racist views of the non-West as mediocre and negative in comparison to the West. By labelling Girls Generation (all Korean members-group) as ‘Chinese girls’ is racist because the commentors generalised Asian-looking people as Chinese which invalidates other ethnicities within the Asian communities. One can be Western-centric while rejecting racism at a conscious level because Western-centrism is not a genetic inheritance, but a historically-situated discourse (Shohat and Stam, 1994, p. 298). But because Western-centric and racist views are similar in the sense that they believe in Western and White superiority, people tend to internalize racial stereotypes too. One example is the racial stereotypes of K-Pop male idols as ‘gay’ and ‘effeminate’ due to the different ideas of masculinity in Western and Korean cultures as shown below.

K-Pop Male Idols’ Soft Masculinity vs. Western Hegemonic Masculinity

K-Pop male idols are known for their soft masculinity embodying masculinity features with feminine aesthetics in which they do not commit to a particular version of masculine expression instead, they adopt different versions of masculinity according to their music concept (Almqvist-Ingersoll, 2019; Lee et al., 2020, p. 5904; Song and Velding, 2020, p 5). Song and Velding (2020, p. 5) stated that the different types of masculinities include ‘KKot mi nam’ (flower boys in Korean) and ‘Jim seung dol’ (male idols portraying wild masculinity like that of a beast). Kkot mi nam masculinity refers to men who are slim and have pretty and/or androgynous features which are highly popular among female fans as it presents a more ‘female-friendly masculinity’ that emphasizes more on beauty and less on physical strength (Oh, 2015, p. 63; Almqvist-Ingersoll, 2019, p. 7). For a sweet concept, male idols will perform Kkot mi nam masculinity in pastel-coloured clothes, dance to cute choreography while making cute gestures like winking to emphasise their youthful innocence (Song and Velding, 2020, p. 5). Simultaneously, the same idols will perform Jim seung dol masculinity to display a sexy and tough concept that typically involves heavy eye makeup, muscular shirtless bodies, and tough or sexy choreography that includes pelvic thrusting (Oh, 2015; Song and Velding, 2020). Scholars have conceptualized the flexibility of K-Pop male idols to alternate from soft to macho male expressions in terms of ‘manufactured versatile masculinity’ (Jung, 2011) and ‘alternative masculinity’ (Oh, 2015). Oh (2015, p. 63) regarded the boundary between Kkot mi nam and Jim seung dol as slight because although idols portraying Jim seung dol are required to look manly, they are also required to have pretty-looking faces and flawless skin. This is because lookism is prevalent in Korea in which the application of make-up is common among Korean men because self-grooming and having a good appearance reflects one’s competency and help set one apart from the others (Oh, 2015, p. 63; Sharma, 2018). Hence, male idols will undergo plastic surgeries, diets, apply full face of make-up and wear accessories and androgynous outfits to stand out from other idols and meet the visual expectations demanded by Korean society. Such ‘feminine’ expressions of male gender evoked by effeminate appearance is not associated to queer practices or homosexuality in Korea, but it could be perceived as such in the West due to Western hegemonic masculinity (Oh, 2015; Almqvist-Ingersoll, 2019).

Western hegemonic masculinity is defined by the absence of any feminine characteristics and the superiority to femininity (Hong et al., 2011; Song and Velding, 2020). For example, a man who focuses too much on his appearance is considered as feminine which will risk his masculine label (Song and Velding, 2020, p. 6). The ideal hegemonic masculinity includes a ‘Western, White, able-bodied, heterosexual and middle/upper class male’ (Connell, 2005 cited in Song and Velding, 2020, p. 6). Males become ‘real men’ through reinforcement of heterosexuality, homophobia, physical aggression and having a muscular and tough-looking appearance (Hong et al., 2011, p. 863). Hegemonic masculinity is presented as the benchmark that all men should aspire, but men who are non-white, homosexual or from the lower class are excluded from being deemed as masculine (Kim and Pyke, 2015, p. 510). Therefore, it is inevitable that the sexuality of Asian men, especially K-Pop male idols is deemphasized as the West constructs other masculinities as inferior which explains the dominance of Western hegemonic masculinity (Kim and Pyke, 2015, p. 512; Song and Velding, 2020, p. 6). Asian men are emasculated because they embody traits like intelligence, introvert, soft-spoken, and sexually inadequate, and they are generally short and not muscular, all of which fail to fit into the ideal Western masculinity traits and are regarded as effeminate traits in the West (Lee, 2016, pp. 10 and 20; Song and Velding, 2020). Hence, Americans usually perceived Asian men as less masculine and attractive than White and Black American men (Wilkins et al., 2011; Lee, 2016). The explosive popularity of K-Pop in the West had led the media and popular culture critics to scrutinize the appearances of K-Pop male idols other than their music and performance. Some Western media criticized them for being gay or feminine because of their fashion and make-up (Lee et al., 2020). They also reinforced problematic stereotypes of emasculated Asian men by highlighting Psy’s appearance as plump, unappealing, and eccentric (Gibson, 2019, p. 32). However, Oh (2015) and Lee et al. (2020, p. 5901) deemed that the soft masculinity and popularity of K-Pop male idols could perhaps challenge the negative stereotypes of Asian men’s masculinity and redefine traditional male beauty standards and masculinity by diverting from the normative attributes of hegemonic masculinity as they are now commonly acknowledged as attractive and sexy.

Existing Literature Gaps

The above literature review has provided few crucial insights. Firstly, the West became the benchmark for Korean cultural legitimacy due to colonization, which greatly influenced K-Pop to incorporate both Western and Asian elements, making it a cultural hybrid. K-Pop emerged in Asia due to the massive popularity of Korean dramas and eventually is recognized in the West thanks to Gangnam Style and social media. Secondly, Kwon’s (2017) and Gibson’s (2019) studies show that the overall portrayals of K-Pop have underlying Western-centric and racist undertones in which K-Pop and idols are depicted as the ‘Others’ and cultural inheritors from the West. It also shows that the media has a role in perpetuating Western-centric and racist views which might cause mainstream audience to develop the same perceptions about K-Pop and Korea. Since I have identified that there are Western-centric and racist connotations in the coverage, the literature review also discussed the relevant literature on the ideologies of Western-centrism and racism. It demonstrated how Western-centrism and racism is widely internalized by both the West and the non-West because the former is imagined as the centre of the world due to their superiority. This explains why the Western media will portray K-Pop through the Western lens and evokes a sense of Western superiority. Because of Western-centrism, male K-Pop idols’ soft masculinity is also deemed as negative as compared to the Western hegemonic masculinity. This gives rise to comments that depicted male idols as effeminate. Such representations and views have dire consequences for reasons that will be discussed below.

Throughout my research, I discovered several literatures on the K-Pop industry and how social media contributed to its rising popularity in the West. While these studies offer meaningful findings and implications, there are inadequate studies on K-Pop representations by the Western media. Especially on using theories of Western-centrism, racism, and hegemonic masculinity to decipher the reasons and repercussions for such representations and reactions. As BTS is regarded as the most popular K-Pop boy group in the world, I am interested to know how the West views and portrays them. I discovered that the Western media coverage of BTS has not been analysed as much given the amount of hype BTS generated in the West. BTS gain a foothold in the West only in 2017, which indicates how relatively new this topic is in academia and explains why there are insufficient literatures on the reactions of Western public and representations by the media towards them. Most literatures on BTS focus on their fandom and how digitization contributed to their popularity (Lee and Nguyen, 2020; Parc and Kim, 2020). Thus, this dissertation seeks to bridge the literature gap by using BTS as a case study to understand how they are being portrayed by the Western media and whether the ideologies of Western-centrism, racism, and hegemonic masculinity are perpetuated. It also seeks to know the effects of those portrayals.

Methodology

This section will first discuss and explain the data selection and collection process. Based on my aforementioned research aims, I will be conducting a qualitative study on BTS and Western media. Among many research methods, discourse analysis (DA) is helpful for analysing qualitative studies as it critically shows the depicted social phenomena. I will describe and justify the utilization of DA and address the limitations of the methodology.

Data Selection and Collection

As this study focuses on BTS’s reception in the West, online newspapers and magazines articles were selected from Western media outlets in the U.S. and the U.K. I selected the U.S., and the U.K. media articles because BTS has been actively promoting in America and achieved a lot of achievements in the U.S. music market while the U.K. has streamed more K-Pop music than any other country in Europe from 2019 to 2020 (Kim, 2020). The articles were selected from various publications so that there are enough variations and information of the media coverage on BTS.

As BTS attained global popularity and received massive attention from the Western media after winning the TSA award from the 2017 BBMAs, my study focused on the day they first attended the 2017 BBMAs and were introduced to the Western general public to two days after they attended the 2021 GA. The selected timeframe was between 21st May 2017 to 17th March 2021. This timeframe was selected because I am interested in the news coverage of BTS throughout the time they are actively promoting in America after the 2017 BBMAs and since the most recent event was the 2021 GA, I expected to find plenty of news articles two days after the event ended. Data were collected from Google News using these search terms: ‘Who is BTS’, ‘BTS’ AND ‘BBMAs’, ‘BTS’ AND ‘Award Shows’, ‘BTS’ AND ‘Grammys’, ‘BTS’ AND ‘Racism’, ‘BTS’ AND ‘Masculinity’, and ‘BTS interviews’. To prevent duplicated articles and overlooking relevant information which might possibly influence the research results, I examined all articles from the first five pages of Google search and selected 50 articles which are attached in the Appendix 1 below. All selected articles were analysed and coded for me to generate themes from the data relevant to my research (Bryman, 2012). Coding was done by grouping the events, actions and more that I interpreted as similar together according to themes like reasons for BTS’s success and more as shown in Appendix 2. These themes facilitated my analysis of how BTS are represented.

Discourse Analysis

This research employed DA as a tool to analyse the texts within each chosen article. DA refers to the studying of the uses of language and investigates how ideas and structures of power are socially constructed in discourses (Crawford, 2004; Hodges et al., 2008). DA can analyse data sources like news and magazine articles and more. Inequalities are justified through positive depictions of one’s group, and adverse depictions of ‘Others’ in discourses, for instance, through certain usage of words that have negative or positive connotations (Van Dijik, 1993). This means that ideologies are conveyed and (re-)produced in a discourse. As I aim to know how BTS is represented and whether Western-centrism, racism and hegemonic masculinity discourses were reproduced by the Western media, I find DA to be the most appropriate method for my data analysis. This is because methods like content analysis examines the content and/or gather meaningful information, while DA studies the ways in which language is utilized in texts which better allows me to better understand how language can construct and reinforce ideologies (Hasa, 2016). Also, DA use strategies like the lexical style and argumentation expressed in discourse which can help me to analyse how media texts are constructed and decipher the underlying meanings backed by and produced through discourse and uncover the potential effects that media representations may have on the audience and society (Van Dijik, 1993; Crawford, 2004, p. 23). Hence, much concern was given to the words and sentence structures used to deliver certain ideas in the articles.

Limitations of Methodology

This research has several methodological limitations. Firstly, the search for my articles is not comprehensive which means it is probable that I have missed out on some news and magazine articles, especially from smaller publications, because of Google’s algorithm which prioritizes more high trafficked websites. Secondly, I did not collect media sources like YouTube videos which might provide more information and the number of articles collected might be insufficient to generalize findings on a larger scale. Lastly, most of my selected articles come from the U.S. Hence, I might overlook U.K. coverage of BTS given the different perspectives they might offer.

Findings

This section will examine and discuss the findings from the analysis conducted. Firstly, I will demonstrate the overall general coverage of BTS to understand how the Western media commonly portray them. Secondly, I will show how BTS is depicted as the ‘Others’ by the Western media and the music industry due to Western-centrism and racism. Lastly, I will demonstrate how BTS are simultaneously viewed as effeminate and as positive Asian representatives that can redefine hegemonic masculinity in the West. Ultimately, my findings will reveal that the overall coverages of BTS are similar to the coverage of K-Pop found in Kwon’s (2017) and Gibson’s (2019) studies and that Western-centrism, racism and hegemonic masculinity ideologies are evident in the Western media’s representations of BTS.

General Coverage of BTS

Based on the analysis, this section will demonstrate the two distinct stages of BTS coverage in the West- Introductory Stage: BBMAs (2017-2018) and Mainstreaming Stage (2018-Present).

Introductory Stage: BBMAs (2017-2018)

The Introductory Stage was characterized by coverage on introducing BTS and their win and performance at both the BBMAs and American Music Awards (AMAs), respectively. This is because BTS was the first K-Pop group to win the TSA award and perform at the AMAs despite being unknown among the Western general public. Yet, they managed to win the award against Western artists like Justin Bieber, who are famous in America. As fan votes on social media platforms determine the winner for the award, most articles reported that social media and the BTS’s fans known as ARMYs are the main contributors to their win. Some media outlets had a positive outlook on what the win meant for BTS and K-Pop in the West, but some thought otherwise. Billboard News was hopeful that BTS (and/or other K-Pop acts) can enter the Western music market as the author deemed that BTS’s win proves that K-Pop can compete and flourish on a global scale thanks to social media (Benjamin, 2017). However, Howe (2017) of Varsity deemed that the win meant nothing much for K-Pop in the West because the TSA award is based on fan votes. Howe (2017) explained that the award would be more significant and legitimate if it was a music award rather than a fan-vote award. He may feel that BTS’s win was not important but articles like Buzzfeed News (BFN) countered that argument by claiming that BTS helped to spark conversations about Asian representation in the West (Chen, 2017). This is because there were many racists comments like ‘Who are these Asians?’ and ‘BTS go back to Korea’ on social media after BTS’s win (Chen, 2017). BFN portrayed BTS as an inspiration to many Asian-Americans and encouraged the West to be more inclusive by giving more recognition to Asian artists. BTS began to appear on U.S. talk shows and proceeded to perform at the AMAs. Media reported headlines like ‘All anyone cared about at the AMAs was BTS’ (Connellan, 2017). Overall, this stage gave an illusion that BTS is very popular in America and is a symbol of K-Pop breaking into the Western market.

Mainstreaming Stage (2018-Present)

This stage witnessed an increasing number of media coverage on them and their achievements as BTS proceeded to break many records like having their songs rank first on the Billboard music charts and sold-out stadiums in the U.S. and in Europe for their concerts. The media termed them as a global phenomenon and scrambled to unpack the reasons for their breakthrough in the West. There were serious coverages from Vulture and Rolling Stone (RS) that investigate the factors of BTS’s success. They concluded that BTS’s strong social media presence, ARMYs fandom, immaculate performance and looks, meaningful messages and authenticity of their music are the main contributors to their worldwide success (Dorof, 2018; Kim, 2018). They portrayed BTS as a group that defies the manufactured stereotype of K-Pop by highlighting that they write and produce most of their music with lyrics that talk about mental illness, self-love, and critiquing society (Liu, 2019; Holmes, 2020). The media meant well in presenting that BTS’s unique point is their authenticity, however, they reinforced the manufactured puppets troupe as they failed to mention that there are other K-Pop artists that produce their own songs too. This stereotype was perpetuated in Hollywood Reporter interview by Abramovitch (2019), when members were questioned about politics. Abramovitch (2019) painted them as fake and robot-like by commenting that a ‘switch seems to flip’ in their brains and they answered like a ‘Disney animatronic figure’. His words drew upon the racist sentiment about Asians as robots which are associated with the model minority myth in America that stereotyped Asians as hard-working and rigid like robots (Lee and Kumashiro, 2018). Abramovitch (2019) also mentioned that the members were under a leash and underwent tough training that ‘bordered on human rights violations’ and used the suicide of singer Kim Jonghyun (KJH) to support the narrative that K-Pop industry is toxic. By echoing these stereotypes, Abramovitch dehumanizes BTS and paint K-Pop as inauthentic and the artists’ mistreatment as a distinctly Korean problem which is Western-centric and racist of him. K-Pop industry does have issues in their treatments towards the idols and idols have to monitor their image, however, he disregarded that Western music companies also mistreat their artists (example, Kesha) and Western artists would probably answer political questions similarly to BTS. His article is one example of the problematic coverage on BTS, because throughout the article, Abramovitch was more concerned about putting BTS within the context of a Korean industry that he perceives as problematic which constructed an agenda to the readers that may not favour BTS or K-Pop as a whole. Another problematic coverage is when NBC Chicago Station reported KJH’s death by using pictures of BTS instead of KJH in their coverage (Yam, 2017). Fans criticised the outlet and demanded apologies for perpetuating the racist stereotype that all Asians look the same. The misidentification might not be borne out of prejudice but occur due to ‘other-race effect’ theory which suggested that it is harder to identify faces of a different race than own-race faces (Ferguson et al., 2001, p. 567). Nonetheless, it is still problematic for Western media to assume all boy groups are BTS and report inaccurate information without fact-checking. Despite these problematic articles, there are good coverages by publications like The Guardian, Esquire and RS that were responsible for reporting in-depth and legitimate coverage on BTS’s music, fashion, their personalities, and their artistic journey. Their coverages allow the audience to better understand BTS and their creations which can help to dispel stereotypes of K-Pop and Asians and deliver positive Asian representation in the West.

The ‘Others’ Narrative

The above general coverage shows the different types of reactions and reports on BTS by the media. Throughout the analysis, I discovered that most coverages have Western-centric and racist undertones. Most media concentrates on the ‘foreign-ness’ of BTS and conveyed a narrative in which they are the ‘Others’. For instance, BTS was introduced as:

The first group since The Beatles to score three No. 1 albums on Billboard Charts in less than a year, a feat that is all the more astounding considering their songs are mostly in Korean.

Him implying that it is astounding for Korean songs to achieve such accomplishments is a common sentiment among Western media, which often tends to regard BTS’s popularity as shocking or surprising. Those tendencies reflect the underlying assumptions that it is only natural for Western or English-speaking artists to be acknowledged globally. People will not question why singers like Adele and Ed Sheeran, both British, are famous in non-English-speaking countries or non-Western countries and are taken seriously as musicians by the general public and the media. Also, the media will not dissect the reasons behind their success, but this was done to BTS. Doing so implies that BTS’s music might not be the main success factor. In Metro’s article, U.K. radio host Roman Kemp doubted BTS’s musical abilities by questioning whether fans are ‘there for the music or for what the kids look like’ because ‘bands like that create fandomania’ (Kelly, 2018). However, Kemp has fed into the ‘fandomania’ before, when he invited One Direction and Jonas Brothers who have ‘similar musical sounds and fan demographics’ as BTS to his show (Khan, 2019). In addition, Kemp commented that he will not play BTS’s music on the radio unless their songs go viral in the U.K (Kelly, 2018). Kemp did not elaborate on the reasons why he refused to play BTS, but Murphy (2020) of Showbiz Cheat Sheet claimed that it is because their songs are in Korean. American radio stations also rarely play BTS’s songs. Murphy (2020) reported that BTS’s Korean song, ‘Life Goes On’ received little radio play in the U.S. (less than 10 spins on the release day) as compared to their full-English song, ‘Dynamite’ which got over 900 spins on the release day. The Gateway explained that playing Korean songs will drive listeners away as radio listeners are used to English songs (He, 2020). The aforementioned comments and sentiments reflected the Western-centric ideology that the non-West is inferior and placed the West as the centre of the world. It is ridiculous to think that Korean songs cannot be popular and be broadcasted on radios in the West just because they are not in English.