• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.221-232
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• 2019

The uniqueness of the K-Pop 'idol' culture, which is a key area of its success, can be found not only through the acceptance of diverse cultures and the strengthening of the performance capacity, but also by the effective utilization of new technological environment. As a result, the Korean idol system, which is distinguished from the Japanese idol system, is established. And these systems are evolving with new technological environments. This paper examines the process of evolution of the Korean idol system that adapts to the technical environment through the case of the idol girl group 'IZ*ONE'. 'IZ*ONE' not only achieved rapid success by actively utilizing SNS and new media and producing interactive narratives, but also establishing stable expansion and homogeneity of fandom through interactive rituals. By comparing the evolution and achievement of such a system with the Japanese idol system, we will be able to present the factors of K-Pop success more clearly.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2022

K-pop stars are an important influence in the era of digital culture based on emotions. The purpose of this study is to visually express the identity and worldview of their music in the virtual and real world, and to promote Korea's current and past culture. The study also intends to appeal to the emotions of the global fans by designing original textile in their music video 'IDOL' on Tiny TAN - a symbol of world pop star BTS. For design development, traditional Korean images shown in the 'IDOL' video were collected, patterns for each member were selected, and a motif was designed on Adobe Illustrator. We selected the dragon as the motif for V, cloud for Suga, chrysanthemums for Jin, mask for Jung Kook, hanok pavilion for RM, fan for Jimin, and Sam Taegeuk for J-Hope. The selected motifs were designed as per the four textile design arrangement methods: square pattern, 1/2 half drop pattern, turn-around pattern, and panel pattern. The design was presented by mapping Kwaeja to Tiny TAN character. The developed textile design can be used not only for character costumes in virtual space, but also for various products such as clothes, accessories, bedding, cosmetics, stationery, and food. By using it to produce goods inspired by K-pop stars, it can be used as basic data for the development of high value-added competitive products in the global market and create synergy effects of K-Design, which would lead a new trend in the design world.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.605-616
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• 2022

Given that the current Idol fandom has been enormously affected by the development of digital technology such as the Internet, mobile or social media, this study explored how generational fandom culture has been shifted depending on the fandom's use of differential online platforms and services, i.e., online community vs. social network services. The survey results indicate that 3^rd generation fandom showed significantly greater intimacy, greater attachment/worship, greater similarity toward Idol stars as well as greater fandom loyalty and greater fandom identity than 1^st and 2^nd generation fandom. Similarly, compared to online community centered fandom, social network centered fandom showed greater intimacy, greater attachment/worship, greater similarity as well as greater fandom loyalty and identity than community-centered fandom.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.28-38
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• 2022

Virtual idols have aroused wide attention as a novel product of the idol industry in the digital era over the past few years. The population of China determines that virtual idols have a huge fan market. As a digital cultural product closely connected with fans, virtual idols are im-portant to gain insights into the correlation between fan satisfaction and virtual idol functions. In accordance with the KANO demand model, this study first classifies and explains the specific functions of virtual idols into four quadrants, including attractive, must-be, 1D (One-Dimensional), and indifferent. Subsequently, the satisfaction of fans of virtual idols with specific functions in each quadrant are analyzed using a questionnaire. This study suggests that virtual idols have one at-tractive quality, three 1D quality, two must-be quality, and five indifferent quality functional elements. This study qualitatively analyzes the functional elements of virtual idols through fan satisfaction based on the KANO model, which provides valuable help for future research in the field of virtual idols and producers in this field.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.189-198
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• 2019

This study aims to make meaning of the reactions of the Korean people through the text mining of comments on videos of the December 2018 MMA performance of intro on YouTube. For this, comments on 15 YouTube videos were collected over the past 10 months. With the collected data, a total of 5,135 comments were analyzed through crawling using the Python and BeautifulSoup programs, data was refined over a total of 3 sessions, and a final total of 5,080 comments were used as analysis material. A mining technique was used for data analysis and the process of refinement, analysis, and visualization was achieved using the Textom program. Research results showed that keyword analysis showed the keywords of 'performance', 'Korea', 'video', 'top', 'cool', 'dance', 'idol', 'legend', 'love', and 'gratitude' in that order and keywords such as 'patriotism' and 'Olympics' also appeared frequently. N-gram analysis showed that comments with contexts such as 'a top performance that will remain a legend among Korean idol performances', and 'an idol performance that displayed the traditional culture of Korea' were in higher ranks. Based on such keyword analysis results, topic modeling was applied and 5 top keywords were extracted from a total of 5 topics. Analysis results of topic contents and distribution showed that topics in the comments of this performance's videos largely consisted of the 3 reactions of 'high praise regarding the stage performance', 'affection towards the fusion and artistic sublimation of Korean traditional dance', and 'gratitude towards the uploading of cool dance videos'

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.71-82
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• 2021

The main purpose of this study was to investigate K-pop stars' images in photos presented by social networks in China. In this study photos of K-pop stars were collected from a community site of Baidu as one of the biggest portal sites and were five idol groups (EXO, IKON, T-ara, Wonder Girls, and Girls' Generation) which have beeb getting famous in China. For this musical styles and backgrounds of the K-pop idol stars were scrutinized in brief and explored in respect with its images. The results of the study were follows: First, the overall pictorial images of K-pop boys' groups were characterized in masculine and stylish images emphasizing the western appearance. In case of K-pop girl groups, sexy, gorgeous, feminine and youthful images were identified. In conclusion, K-pop idol stars is contributing to expand Korean pop arts into Chinese public culture as Chinese people produced and circulated the pictorial images of K-pop stars and facilitated consumption activities of K-pop contents.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.823-831
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• 2021

In the Internet age, the digital cultural industry is booming, start-up companies want to win a place in the fiercely competitive red sea market of the Internet, innovative business models have become an important challenge and opportunity for countless companies. Taking the virtual idol "Hatsune Miku" as the example, the analysis is carried out at the levels of technological innovation, value proposition, resource combination, operation process and marketing model. By comparing the differences between the first-generation software Meiko of Crypton and the second-generation software "Hatsune Miku", we will study the components of the business model to explore the characteristics and advantages of this business model, and in-depth operation models and innovations. The analysis is expected to provide a substantial reference for other electronic product and software development companies in their business models.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.47-54
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• 2014

Although the Korean Wave originated in China, its presence in this country had been faltering for some time. Recently, however, Korean Wave star centered K-drama via online video websites, Korean Wave TV programs with high ratings, and idol group centered K-pop with glocalization strategies are all popular in China once again. The purpose of this paper is to explore Chinese teens and twenty year olds as the main consumers of Korean popular culture and the how preferred genres, motives, and behaviors of Korean pop culture use and Korean image affect one another. According to the study results, media use via online video service was most common, and among the preferred genres, K-drama has the highest usage rates. In addition, it was discovered that motives and behaviors associated with the use of Korean pop culture had a considerable influence on a positive Korean image.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.34
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• pp.129-165
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• 2014

K-pop performances are in the center of the contemporary popular arts and cultural industry, and implicitly reveal the way that our society views the body and the time-space. This paper explores the motif of automaton in the K-pop idol group ShiNee's stage performance of 'Everybody' and the song's music video. At the same time, the paper relates the motif with the automaton of the digital era-that is, the sense of time-space in digital animations. The motif of the automaton has its origins in the mythical forms related to the animation, and is related to the human desire to create humanlike forms. Also, this motif is closely linked to the aesthetical meaning of the animation, being played in different variations since the beginning of the animation. This paper explores the tradition of automaton motif in culture and the arts, and look into the cases in which the history of the relationship between the media and body performance harboring the automaton motif has been displayed in 19th century ballet or modern body expressional arts. In addition, this paper will compare and analyze representative contemporary works that reveal digital viewpoint and the choreography of 'Everybody', and compare other works that stand in similar aesthetic tradition, investigating the influence of digital animation reflected in the K-pop idol and its aesthetic and social undertones.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.45-54
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• 2023

The digital age start in earnest with the widespread use of the Internet. As a digital product, virtual idols bring new value to the design and dissemination of commercial brand images. "Luo Tianyi" is the world's first avatar and VOCALOID voice bank of Chinese. It has a large number of fans in China and is widely used in brand promotion. Therefore, "Luo Tianyi" is taken as the research object. Initially, we investigated the virtual idols through books, literature on the internet and other materials. Then we discussed semiotics and theories related to culture code brand design methodology (CCBD). After that, putting the above theories into practice, combined with brand design cases, we analyzed the strategy of virtual idols in brand promotion and dissemination, at last, we have the conclusion as followed. The results show that the virtual idols, visual symbol of "Luo Tianyi" can express the Index and Symbol corresponding to the brand information according to the characteristics of the brand. As an image of cultural code, "Luo Tianyi" can present three visual images at the same time, which are contemporary, traditional and future. In addition, these three visual images are presented in a strong and weak combination, which has a positive impact on the visual communication of the brand.