Devoted fans of K-pop define a cultural phenomenon

Crossing Rain is not a K-pop band — they’re from Hawaii, and they don’t sing in Korean — but if they’re going to have much success, it’s likely going to be due in part to the rising popularity of Asian pop music around the world, K-pop in particular.

Bands like Blackpink, Exo and Girls’ Generation have become household names, with supergroup BTS topping them all with multiple gold- and platinum-selling albums and No. 1 hit singles on the Billboard charts in the U.S. and overseas. And with the digital age providing new opportunities for connection, the bands have found ingenious ways to build bridges with loyal fans.

Andy Pratt, a former teacher at a local private school, admits to being “deep in the rabbit hole” in her love for K-pop. “Once you slip into this, it becomes another extension of your identity,” she said.

Pratt grew up in an Army family, married into one and served in the Army herself. The 40-year-old became a K-pop fan around 2017 after growing up listening to rap and R&B. Although she moved to Hawaii just two years ago, she has already formed close ties with local K-pop fans, taking dance classes where she learns K-pop moves, celebrating the birthdays of K-pop stars (or “idols,” as they referred to in K-pop culture) at local bubble tea shops and starting Korean cultural clubs at schools where she’s worked.

A fan-base manager for the group GOT7, she goes online to help organize voting drives when a favorite K-pop band releases a new song, which helps boost its “likes.” She spends about 1 to 2 hours a day on the internet researching the latest K-pop news and to stay in touch with other fans and fan groups.

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All of this activity is encouraged and supported by the K-pop industry, which streams a constant flow of information about bands and individual singers online to keep fans interested and passionate, she said.

“A lot of (K-pop) stars are triple threats. They’re actors, or they’re brand ambassadors for shoes or makeup, so it’s kind of ingenious the way it’s marketed,” Pratt said. “You can constantly consume different things.”

Jayson Chun is a professor of Asian history and Asian popular culture at the University of Hawaii’s West Oahu and Manoa campuses. Some of his most popular courses are those that include K-pop.

He sees K-pop as part of a larger cultural movement encompassing food, cosmetics, fashion, music and entertainment. “You want to think about it as a very hip Pan-Pacific culture that is built in Korea,” he said.

He noticed his students gravitating toward K-pop about 12 years ago while teaching a course on Japanese anime. “People wanted to know about the music, and I started doing a course on Japanese music,” he said, “and then I noticed around the year 2010-11 that my students knew less about Japanese music and more about Korean music.”

While K-pop fans are mostly young adults and teenagers, it cuts across all age groups and nationalities, with large fan bases in Europe and Latin America, he said. It’s found particular resonance here in Hawaii, with its large population of people of Asian ancestry.

Chun said K-pop has carved out a space among people who find other genres too explicit or otherwise distasteful.

“It’s music that’s cutting edge, but it’s not too offensive,” he said. “It doesn’t sing about drugs. It doesn’t swear. It doesn’t demean people. And yet the people are stylish. They’re obviously not kids. They can be a little sexy at times, so it’s right in that sweet spot for many students who are alienated by American pop.”

K-pop also promotes a wholesome image, valuing modesty and hard work, which appeals to its fans, Chun said. “They don’t brag, and that’s something that many young people like,” he said, adding that any indication of arrogance usually brings sharp reprisals from fans.

In Hawaii, the love for K-pop has been building like waves hitting the reef. At Ala Moana Center, three stores selling K-pop-related merchandise — Pink Box, KPop Friends Hawaii and BTS Pop-up: Map of the Soul — have sprung up in just the last four months. They’re just a few steps apart, allowing fans to go from one to the other, checking out the latest albums, light sticks, photo cards, pillows and gift packs, said Easton Cummings, a manager at Pink Box.

He attributes the recent popularity of K-pop to it being “something completely different from the usual American music.”

“In K-pop, they actually make it kind of like a story to tell with their music,” said Cummings, a fan of the girl group Itzy. “I guess a lot of people like that now. It’s more interesting.”

While the “pop” in K-pop implies a modern, trendy fad, it has found a dedicated fan in classical musician Katy Luo, a pianist who teaches at the University of Hawaii at West Oahu and plays with the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra. She grew up hearing Taiwanese pop music before moving to the U.S. at age 11, but eventually studied Western classical music, earning a doctorate in music.

She first learned about BTS from a student at Waianae High School, where she was teaching a music course, and was later reminded of the band after hearing that it donated $1 million to the Black Lives Matter movement as a statement against prejudice. She was also impressed when BTS fans, known as the Army, disrupted a rally for then-President Donald Trump by reserving a lot of tickets but not showing up.

Last year, Luo, 47, was diagnosed with colon cancer, and during her treatment and recovery, she found herself drawn to the band’s music. Eventually, she bought a songbook of BTS songs.

“A lot of the times piano plays a primary role in some of their slower songs,” she said. “I would just play them on (music streaming service) Spotify, out of my speakers, and play the piano part like I’m playing with them.

“They really provided a lot of joy and comfort and peace of mind. It helped me through my treatment.”