Resources

Recently, a seven-member boy band from Korea called BTS has captivated the globe, forming the most massive and powerful fandom in history. The BTS phenomenon reaches far beyond the typical achievements of pop stars: as Jiyoung Lee illustrates, the changes that have been shown by BTS and their fandom ARMY are not confined to the music industry, but symptomatically shows significant sociocultural changes and revolutionary mutations in art, as well as a Zeitgeist or the political unconscious of the present age.

ARMY is a community of taste, and BTS is their common denominator. This book started from the wish to apply the perspective of a cultural studies scholar in order to investigate the fandom ARMY as a most ardent outcome to arise from a “community of taste.”

This collection explores the new meaning of the Korean Wave and the process of media production, representation, distribution and consumption in a global context as a distinctive and complex form of soft power.

It examines the roles and features of English used by BTS to add new knowledge to the existing literature. Talented and fashionable pop idol singers and dancers in K-pop groups have become the global icons of the latest teenage consumer trends in the music industry.

One author's love letter to Korean pop sensation BTS and an ode to fandom.