• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.20 no.5
• /
• pp.69-78
• /
• 2020

K/DA is a K-pop virtual idol based on the game character. This study analyzed the creation process, characteristics and existential meaning of virtual idols from the perspective of Pataphysics. K/DA is a character with both characteristics of game character and K-pop girl group. Also, virtual character and real idol share the body through motion capture and augmented reality(AR). As a result, K/DA crosses virtual and reality, and at the same time becomes a pataphysical subject that does not belong to either virtual or reality. K/DA is suggested a third zone where digital subjects will be located in the future.

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

• Journal of Platform Technology
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.55-66
• /
• 2024

The K-POP market has become influential not only in culture but also in society as a whole, including diplomacy and environmental movements. As a result, various papers have been conducted based on machine learning to identify the success factors of idols by utilizing traditional data such as music and recordings. However, there is a limitation that previous studies have not reflected the influence of new media platforms such as Instagram releases, YouTube shorts, TikTok, Twitter, etc. on the popularity of idols. Therefore, it is difficult to clarify the causal relationship of recent idol success factors because the existing studies do not consider the daily changing media trends. To solve these problems, this paper proposes a data collection system and analysis methodology for idol-related data. By developing a container-based real-time data collection automation system that reflects the specificity of idol data, we secure the stability and scalability of idol data collection and compare and analyze the clusters of successful idols through a K-Means clustering-based outlier detection model. As a result, we were able to identify commonalities among successful idols such as gender, time of success after album release, and association with new media. Through this, it is expected that we can finally plan optimal comeback promotions for each idol, album type, and comeback period to improve the chances of idol success.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
• /
• v.15 no.8
• /
• pp.1-18
• /
• 2021

Idol music, which began to gain huge popularity in the domestic music market in the mid-1990s, has become one of the major global contents thanks to the global popularity of K-POP. As a result, the Korean music market continues to grow, forming the world's sixth-largest music market, and domestic music agencies are focusing more on fostering idol groups and producing idol music. The global success of idol music is surprising, but this has resulted in the domestic music market being biased toward idol music. As a result of the study, it was confirmed that there are several problems with the phenomenon of being biased toward similar types of musicians and music content. First, just as trend-oriented cultural contents face the problem of life expectancy all the time, the "Korean Wave" is also forced to think in terms of identity and sustainability. Second, it was observed that only consumers of a certain age may cause cultural alienation of other age groups, and thirdly, various problems such as shrinking creative paths due to the size of the cost required for idol group production and the lifespan of idol musicians' art activities. This paper derives the reality of the domestic idol bias phenomenon through comparative analysis of the English-American music market and the domestic music market, which have had a profound influence on the global music market in popular music history, and verified the theory and results through an expert survey using the Likert scale. In addition, the problems caused by the idol bias phenomenon were considered based on the theory of cultural diversity, and improvement directions were also suggested to solve this problem.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.20 no.5
• /
• pp.291-302
• /
• 2020

Korean popular music industry, which is lead by "Idol group", has forsaken their fandom all over the world. Therefore, idol groups has become not only an artist but also the most influential people in the Korean economy. A global idol group with a strong fandom can earn more than a trillion-dollar by attracting their global fan's interest in Korea. In other words, it is considerably important to carry the idol to a successful conclusion. This study tries to expect whether the idols can be survived or not at a certain point after their debut by ANN, Decision Tree, Random Forest. We decide that certain point as the three-year and eight-year after their debut, because it is their break-even point year and the year after their average renewal of the contract. In addition, this study also explains which feature is the most important to their survival by feature importance and Logistic regression. In conclusion, features like the number of idol competitors, the number of debut members and the number of the genre are significant. These results shed light on the efficient management of K-Pop idol to improve industrial competitiveness.

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

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.16 no.7
• /
• pp.740-749
• /
• 2016

Hologram technology is widely applied in entertainment contents for public, no more remained in specific technological area for minority experts. Expecially, K-POP entertainment contents increasingly adopt hologram images. These contents use hologram technology as a part to arouse spectacles or represent idols as hologram characters. In this study, spectacles and aura of K-POP hologram concerts of SM Entertainment which runs stably in certain period were analyzed, so that it could recognized the differentiation strategy distinguished only in hologram concerts. Thus, the setting of hologram concerts alienates seats from the stage so that maximize distance, and the aura of idol characters strengthens through fantasy of escape from reality. Hologram concerts maximize fantasy through exposing tricks rather than concealing it. Hologram concerts enhance image of Korea as ICT leader, overcome physical and geological limitation of 'Korean Wave' to globalize, and propose examples of popularization of convergence contents.

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

• Korean journal of communication and information
• /
• v.81
• /
• pp.272-298
• /
• 2017

This study aims at understanding Korean fans who are also one of the most inquisitive consumers of the Korean pop products. For this purpose, it examines how Korean fandom perceives the procedures of the K-pop's globalization and constructs different perspectives of foreign fans. Firstly, it examines Korean fandom's the national pride as the K-pop expands to the global markets. Secondly, it explores how the Korean fandom rationalizes its possessive instinct while the global fans and markets becomes increasingly important. Finally, it explores how the Korean fandom constructs the different perceptions on foreign fans. In order to observe korean fans' thoughts and activities, it participates in the interactions in the tweeters and an online community. The Korean fans' perspective reflects both on individual tastes and the social dimensions in which fans live through. Through the lens of the Korean fandom, this study attempts to explicate the Korean fans' perception on foreign fans, which reflects another dimension of the K-pop's globalization.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.373-379
• /
• 2019

This study examines the process and scope of visual directing through the case of SM Entertainment, and explores the role of visual directors. As a result of the case study, SM created the visual directing team composed of art director and visual designers within the creative headquarters and was actively introducing visual directing for the development of idol. The visual directing process of SM, which is being developed as a part of the star marketing, consists of analyzing the environment in marketing strategy, establishing marketing strategy related to idol, setting up target image per artist, and finally planning and managing the visual directing project. The visual director in SM is required to have creative talent, logical persuasion, information analytical ability, visual expression ability, and field application ability. SM also applies visual directing accumulated from idol singers to SM business areas such as MD product design and production, product composition and designer collaboration, and SM town COEX artium. This paper have significance in attracting visual directing to the academic field.