WONSEOK LEE

School of Music, 1900 College Road, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210,
Email: lee.8586@osu.edu
GRACE KAO
Department of Sociology, Yale University, 493 College Street, New Haven, CT 06511,
Email: g.kao@yale.edu

“I Need U”
Audience Participation in BTS’s Online Concerts During COVID-19

Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article-pdf/35/1/46/773804/jpms.2023.35.1.46.pdf by University Of Washington user on 03 July 2024

ABSTRACT We analyze four online concerts by K-pop group BTS (Bangtan Sonyeondan) during the
COVID-19 pandemic (2020 to the present) from the view of participant observation. The pandemic
served as a catalyst for the evolution of these concerts. BTS set new records for revenue generated by
a single online concert in June 2020, only to beat their own record in October 2020, and again in June
2021. While BTS delivered high-quality online concerts to its fans, known as ARMY, these concerts
highlighted the challenges to both audience members and performers despite the use of “virtual reality”
technologies. We argue that BTS’s online concerts represent a new type of concert production and
consumption that expands the accessibility of performances to fans all over the world, and also enabled
new forms of interactions between artists and audience members. However, these concerts inadvertently
highlighted the importance of in-person interaction between fans and performers as K-pop relies heavily
not only on cheering and banners that support artists, but also on light sticks, fan chants, and other
activities.
KEYWORDS K-pop, BTS, ARMY, COVID, pandemic, online concerts, musical interaction, fandom

INTRODUCTION

When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out at the beginning of 2020, it would have been
difficult to imagine how dramatically it would change our lives. As social distancing was
mandated, individuals had to adapt to social changes, which included working from
home, remote learning, and online meetings. For musicians, the transition was harsher
as the pandemic deprived them of opportunities to perform in front of live audiences.
Thanks to technological innovations, however, some musicians were able to find a new
way of interacting with their fans. For example, we have witnessed drive-in concerts,1
livestream concert series,2 regular video uploads on social media,3 and online meetings

1. Billboard Staff, “Drive-In Concerts.”; Knopper, “How Drive-In Concerts.”

2. Carnegie Hall, “Live With Carnegie Hall.”
3. Andy McKee, “McKee Monday.”

Journal of Popular Music Studies, Volume 35, Number 1, pp. 46–66, Electronic ISSN: 1533-1598 © 2023 by the
International Association for the Study of Popular Music, U.S. Branch (IASPM-US). All rights reserved. Please direct
all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press's
Reprints and Permissions web page, https://www.ucpress.edu/journals/reprints-permissions. DOI: https://doi.org/
10.1525/jpms.2023.35.1.1

46
with fans.4 Though COVID-19 has drastically hurt the music industry, which depends on
ticket sales for a large share of total revenue,5 musicians have found alternative ways not
only to communicate with their fans, but also to replace some of their lost earnings.
Specifically, the Korean popular music (hereafter K-pop) industry has quickly adapted
to this new environment. Due to both the global reach of K-pop, as well as the availability
of advanced technologies used by the entertainment industry in South Korea, K-pop
artists have been more successful than other pop music acts in generating viewers and
revenue by using online concerts during the COVID-19 pandemic. A number of K-pop
artists have produced successful online concerts, including SuperM’s Beyond the Future,

Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article-pdf/35/1/46/773804/jpms.2023.35.1.46.pdf by University Of Washington user on 03 July 2024

Super Junior’s Beyond the Super Show, TWICE’s World in A Day, BLACKPINK’s The
Show, SEVENTEEN’s In-Complete, and so forth.6 In this paper, we focus on the online
concerts of the K-pop group BTS (Bangtan Sonyeondan, 방탄소년단) to examine how
the shift to online concerts has brought new challenges to the interaction between artists
and fans, while offering improvements in accessibility and prompting a novel style
of musicking.
The online concerts of BTS are especially important when reviewing the successful
adaptation of musicians to online performances during the pandemic. First, their online
concerts, as we will examine, have shown how quickly they have addressed issues that
emerged in previous online concerts. Second, BTS’s online concerts represent a new form
of music production and consumption in the pandemic era. In online concerts, both
performers and fans are not confined by spatial and temporal restrictions. Even in online
concerts, fans are not simply passive viewers. BTS’s online concerts provide an example of
Peter Manuel’s argument that new media “offer greater potential for consumer input and
interaction, and heightened the user’s control over the form of consumption and over the
relation to the media sender.”7 Third, BTS’s immense and growing popularity during the
pandemic also translated into financial success. Their online concerts are the top three
earning performances in music history, with each one subsequently breaking BTS’s own
record. Lastly, BTS’s online concerts witnessed a new type of interaction between fans

4. For example, Tim’s Listening Party on Twitter. See David Chiu, “How Tim Burgess’ Twitter Listening Party
Lifted Music Fans During Lockdown,” Forbes, 12 April 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidchiu/2021/04/
12/how-tim-burgess-twitter-listening-party-lifted-music-fans-during-lockdown/?sh=457ec1ea7aaf.
5. According to a Variety article, loss revenue in North America alone in 2020 was about $30 Billion. See Jem
Aswad, “Concert Industry Lost $30 Billion in 2020,” Variety, 11 December 2020, https://variety.com/2020/
music/news/concert-industry-lost-30-billion-2020-1234851679/.
6. Beyond Live is an online concert series launched by a South Korean internet conglomerate NAVER Cor-
poration, in conjunction with SM Entertainment and JYP Entertainment. SM artists including SuperM, WayV,
NCT Dream, NCT 127, TVXQ!, Super Junior, Super Junior K.R.Y., and Baekhyun of EXO all held concerts under
the Beyond Live banner. In addition, JYP artists TWICE and Stray Kids also held online concerts. The Beyond Live
series took place on a specific platform, called VLive. BLACKPINK’s online concert was broadcast by YouTube.
BTS used different platforms for their concerts. All of the tickets for BTS’s concerts were sold on WeVerse, HYBE’s
own platform for artist-fan interactions. BTS’s first two online concerts were streamed by Kiswe, an online video
streaming company. However, MUSTER SOWOOZOO 2021 was broadcast by VenewLive.” See Universal Music,
“Big Hit, YG, UMG and Kiswe,” and the Jakarta Post, “SM, JYP establish joint concert company with Naver’s
Beyond Live.”
7. Peter Manuel, Cassette Culture: Popular Music and Technology in North India (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1993), 2.

Lee and Kao | “I Need U” 47

and artists (as well as among fans). Despite the difficulties that emerged from the online
format, fans and BTS simultaneously constructed the meaning of music through what
Alfred Schütz called a “mutual tuning-in relationship.” According Schütz, the mutual
tuning-in relationship is a way of finding how “‘I’ and the ‘Thou’ are experienced by both
participants as a ‘We’ in vivid presence.”8 In finding meanings of musical activities,
Schütz argues that both musicians and listeners are important. This is because, as
Schütz states,

…two series of events in inner time, one belonging to the stream of consciousness of the

Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article-pdf/35/1/46/773804/jpms.2023.35.1.46.pdf by University Of Washington user on 03 July 2024

composer, the other to the stream of consciousness of the beholder, are lived through in
simultaneity, which simultaneity is created by the ongoing flux of the musical process
[…] this sharing of the other’s flux of experiences in inner time, this living through
a vivid present in common, constitutes […] the mutual tuning-in relationship, the
experience of the “We.”9

Indeed, online concerts provide BTS and their fans with a novel opportunity not only to
communicate with music, but also to build their solidarity with each other and among
fans.
Nevertheless, their successful online concerts accentuated the importance of the in-
person interaction between the audience and the musician during any concert. As Ben-
nett pointed out, digital technology in fact creates “a new significance for face-to-face
participation in a music event.”10 Zubernis and Larsen also emphasized that intimacy
between fans and performers is enhanced in offline events. According to these scholars,
“fans perceive themselves as moving from the mediated world of the mass audience to the
more intimate relationship afforded audiences in close proximity to performers.”11 We
argue that K-pop online concerts specifically revealed the importance of the participation
of fans to K-pop performances because fans contribute to making the unique sonic and
visual environment of K-pop concerts with participatory fan culture. For example, fan
chants and light sticks are significant aspects of this type of fan participatory culture.
Many K-pop fans also bring gifts, goodie bags, and/or signage to distribute to other fans at
in-person concerts. In addition, we claim that online concerts not only offer a new way of
musicking where “music is linked […] with the participants’ relation to one another,”12
but also stress the fact that K-pop musicians depend very much on the audience members.
This is even more so the case for a group like BTS, who are accustomed to performing in
large stadiums. In the K-pop world, BTS’s fans (known as ARMY) are perhaps the most
intense of all fanbases.

8. Alfred Schütz, “Making Music Together: A Study in Social Relationship,” Social Research 18, no. 1 (1951): 79.
9. Ibid., 92.
10. R. Bennett, “Live Concert and Fan identity in the Age of the Internet,” In The Digital Evolution of Live
Music (Waltham, MA: Chandos Publishing an imprint of El, 2015), 12.
11. Lynn Zubernis and Katherine Larsen, Fandom at the Crossroads: Celebration, Shame and Fan/Producer
Relationships (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2012), 21.
12. Christopher Small, Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening (Hanover: University Press of
New England, 1998), 48.

48 JOURNAL OF POPULAR MUSIC STUDIES MARCH 2023

 We focus on the three sets of online concerts during the COVID-19 pandemic by
BTS; (1) Bang Bang Con: The Live in June 2020; (2) two concerts of the Map of the Soul
ON:E in October 2020; and (3) two concerts of BTS MUSTER SOWOOZOO 2021 in
June 2021. These were concerts that were only held online, with no in-person audience
members. We will begin by documenting the success of BTS, especially during the
COVID-19 pandemic. Then, we will explore distinct facets of the participatory fan
culture to emphasize why fan participation is crucial to constituting K-pop performances.
Next, by describing our participant observation of BTS online concerts, we claim that
K-pop online concerts could not fully replicate the in-person format due not only to the

Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article-pdf/35/1/46/773804/jpms.2023.35.1.46.pdf by University Of Washington user on 03 July 2024

physical absence of fans, but to the absence of the in-person performance of fan culture.
Longstanding discussions exist of what constitutes a “live” performance given the use
of modern technologies in music. Scholars have primarily focused on three general areas
of inquiry.13 These are: (1) the differences between live music and recorded music; (2) the
development of technologies in music and its effects on the concept of live music; and (3)
the question of authenticity raised by holographic artists and their performances (such as
Hatsune Miku and 2.0Pac). When it comes to live and liveness in the context of K-pop,
Suk-Young Kim focuses on fans’ “live” participation as an important element of what
makes K-pop “live.” According to Kim,

eighty to ninety percent of “live” performances on music chart shows are actually
prerecorded as far as the vocal part is concerned […] the meaning of live comes under
pressure when we scrutinize how the charts are completed by fan voting, which must
take place during the hour of the show’s live broadcasting time […] liveness in this case
is realized around the axis of time, as the live broadcasting time creates an imagined
community in the audience, a tribe both online and offline, who are watching and
voting at the same time but are not necessarily in the same space.14

Kim also assesses that “the result is a uniquely hybrid performance that depolarizes what
are often understood as the opposites of liveness and mediatization.”15 For our concerts,
none of the audience members are in a shared space, so the construction of community is
even more difficult.
In the same vein, Michelle Cho focuses on fan participation in the discourse of liveness
in K-pop. Cho argues that the concept of liveness is not confined to a certain moment,

13. See Philip Auslander, Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture (London: New York: Routledge, 1999);
Thomas Conner, “Hatsune Miku, 2.0Pac, and Beyond Rewinding and Fast-Forwarding the Virtual Pop Star,” In
The Oxford Handbook of Music and Virtuality (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016); Paul Sanden, Liveness in
Modern Music: Musicians, Technology, and the Perception of Performance (New York: Routledge, 2013); Fabian Holt,
Everyone Loves Live Music: A Theory of Performance Institutions (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2020);
Kimi Kaürki, “Vocaloid Liveness? Hatsune Miku and the live production of Japanese virtual idol concerts,” In
Researching Live Music: Gigs, Tours, Concerts and Festivals, Edited by Christ Anderton and Sergio Pisfil (Focal Press,
2021); Anderton and Pisfil, “Live Music Studies in Perspective,” In Researching Live Music: Gigs, Tours, Concerts and
Festivals, Edited by Christ Anderton and Sergio Pisfil (Focal Press, 2021); among others.
14. Suk-Young Kim, K-pop Live: Fans, Idols, and Multimedia Performance (Stanford, California: Stanford
University Press, 2018), 70.
15. Ibid., 72.

Lee and Kao | “I Need U” 49

rather “liveness extends beyond instantaneous transmission and reception to the currency
of sharing viewer experiences across platforms, apps, and networks.”16 In online concerts
during the pandemic, we also observed that fans and BTS remediate and redefine the
concept of liveness beyond the conventional sense of live. From our participatory obser-
vation, we noted how crucial the distinct K-pop fan culture is to the soundscape and
visual landscape of K-pop concerts. K-pop online concerts clearly demonstrate how fans
and artists mutually inspire one another and are equally important in a “live”
performance.

Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article-pdf/35/1/46/773804/jpms.2023.35.1.46.pdf by University Of Washington user on 03 July 2024

THE UNPRECEDENTED RISE OF BTS

One of the inadvertent consequences of the pandemic was that people spent more time
online, which provided an environment ripe for the rise in popularity of K-pop more
generally, but BTS in particular. Many of BTS’s unprecedented achievements occurred
during the pandemic. They not only became the first K-pop group to reach number one
on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 with “Dynamite” on September 5, 2020, but from
September 5, 2020, to October 9, 2021, they had six number one songs on the U.S.
Billboard Hot 100 Chart (“Dynamite,” “Savage Love,” “Life Goes On,” “Butter,” “Per-
mission to Dance,” and “My Universe”). They are the fastest group to achieve this feat
since The Beatles in 1964-65.17 We believe that all of these achievements could not have
happened without ARMY. As Courtney McLaren and Dal Yong Jin state, “ARMY
provides a powerful foundation for BTS’ worldwide popularity.”18 Gyu Tag Lee also
focuses on the fact that the global popularity of BTS has been built in online spaces as the
group provides diverse content that shows their lives outside of musical activities.19 For
BTS and their fans, online spaces are important venues in which “fans are able to extend
their interactions with BTS”20 and strengthen their solidarity with one another.
Indeed, the group’s fanbase increased substantially during the pandemic. According to
Tim Chan of Rolling Stone, BTS was the most tweeted-about musical ensemble in the
U.S. for the fourth year in a row since 2017.21 Hugh McIntyre of Forbes also focuses on
the fact that BTS was the sixth most tweeted-about person of 2020 globally.22 At the
time of the writing of this paper, Jeon Jungkook of BTS is the most searched pop star on

16. Michelle Cho, “3 Ways that BTS and its Fans are Redefining Liveness,” Flow, May 29, 2018.
17. Gary Trust, “Coldplay & BTS’ ‘My Universe’ Blasts Off at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100,” Billboard, 4
October 2021, https://www.billboard.com/pro/coldplay-bts-my-universe-tops-billboard-hot-100/.
18. Courtney McLaren and Dal Yong Jin, “‘You Can’t Help But Love Them’: BTS, Transcultural Fandom, and
Affective Identities,” Korea Journal 60, no. 1 (2020): 110.
19. Gyu Tag Lee, “방탄소년단: 새로운 세대의 새로운 소통방식, 그리고 감정노동 (BTS: New
Generation’s new communication skills, and emotional labor)” Culture and Science 93 (2018): 288-9.
20. Ibid., 115.
21. Tim Chan, “BTS Tops Twitter’s List of Most Popular Artists for Fourth Year in a Row,” Rolling Stone, 18
February 2021, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bts-twitter-account-mentions-fans-1128480/.
22. Hugh McIntyre, “BTS was the Sixth Most Tweeted About ‘Person’ of 2020 Globally, Beating Elon Musk
and Kamala Harris,” Forbes, 19 February 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2021/02/19/bts-was-
the-sixth-most-tweeted-about-person-of-2020-globally-beating-elon-musk-and-kamala-harris/?sh=72707a131ec9.

50 JOURNAL OF POPULAR MUSIC STUDIES MARCH 2023

Google—even compared with superstars like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift.23 On Twitter,
BTS had 31.52 million followers in December 2020; by December 2022, the number had
reached 47.8 million.24
The success of BTS’s online concerts also benefitted from the unprecedented situation
brought on by the pandemic. While BTS’s management company Big Hit Entertainment
(now a subsidiary of HYBE Entertainment) lost virtually all of its revenue from live in-
person shows due to the pandemic, its total earnings in 2020 were actually higher than in
2019.25 BTS’s first online concert during the pandemic was Bang Bang Con: The Live,
which earned about $20 million via 756,000 viewers who paid approximately $45 each.

Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article-pdf/35/1/46/773804/jpms.2023.35.1.46.pdf by University Of Washington user on 03 July 2024

Their next online concert, Map of the Soul ON:E, took place over a single weekend in
October 2020, and earned more than $40 million by attracting 993,000 viewers from
191 countries.26 In June 2021, BTS, in their two MUSTER SOWOOZOO 2021 online
concerts, sold 1.33 million tickets and generated $71 million in revenue.27 It is remarkable
that the three sets of online concerts held from Seoul during the pandemic earned more
than the $113.6 million from 31 stadium performances in 2019.28 Nevertheless, as we will
examine, the artists often mentioned how much they missed in-person audiences at
a concert venue. Indeed, online concerts demonstrate that K-pop performances depend
heavily on the distinct fan culture of K-pop.

23. AllKpop, “Jungkook is the Most Searched on Google Compared to 32 Other Famous Celebrities, Including
Beyonce, Zendaya, Bruno Mars, and More,” AllKpop, 11 July 2021, https://www.allkpop.com/article/2021/07/
jungkook-is-the-most-searched-on-google-compared-to-32-other-famous-celebrities-including-beyonc-zendaya-
bruno-mars-and-more.
24. Tamar Herman, “BTS members make Twitter history as most-followed band in the world, taking over from
British boy band One Direction,” South China Morning Post, 22 December 2020. https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/
k-pop/news/article/3114945/bts-members-make-twitter-history-most-followed-band-world. The number of BTS’s
twitter followers come from their Twitter page, https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/k-pop/news/article/3114945/bts-
members-make-twitter-history-most-followed-band-world. The number of BTS’s twitter followers come from their
Twitter page, https://twitter.com/bts_twt.
25. Sandy Lyons, “Big Hit Entertainment’s (HYBE’s) Profits From 2018 to 2021,” Koreaboo, 17 May 2021,
https://www.koreaboo.com/lists/hybe-big-hit-entertainment-profits-2021-increased/. Ji-won Choi, “[Herald
Review] BTS and ARMYs Virtually Yet Strongly Connected in ‘Map of the Soul: ON: E,’” The Korea Herald, 12
October 2020, http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20201012000750&np=1&mp=1.
26. Ha-yeon Lee, “Big Hit Stock Gains 18% to A Historic High on Expected Partnership with NAVER,” MK
News, 25 January 2021, https://pulsenews.co.kr/view.php?year=2021&no=79093.
27. Franchesca Judine Basbas, “BTS’ Break Own World Record with 1.33 Million Paid Viewers for Online
Concert MUSTER SOWOOZOO 2021, Earn over $71 Million in Tickets and Merch,” Bandwagon, 15 June 2021,
https://www.bandwagon.asia/articles/bts-break-own-world-record-1-33-million-paid-viewers-online-concert-2021-
earnings-sales-tickets-merch-muster-sowoozoo-virtual-livestream-venewlive-kiswe-8th-anniversary-watch-hybe-big-
hit-music-june-2021. While these were the first solely online paid concerts, BTS had held a hybrid concert before the
pandemic. Specifically, BTS’s concert at Wembley Stadium in London in 2019 was live-streamed and 140,000
online audience members paid ¼ W33,000 (about $28) per ticket, generating a total of approximately $3.9 million.
They not only performed in front of an audience of about 120,000, but also met 140,000 fans across the world via
live stream. See Jon Chapple, “BTS Fans Spend €3.5 M on Livestreaming Historic Wembley Shows,” IQ Magazine:
Live Music Business News, 03 June 2019, https://www.iq-mag.net/2019/06/3-5m-livestream-historymaking-bts-
wembley-stadium/#.X25J5JNKiu5.
28. Annie Barmaine, “‘#PTD_ON_STAGE_LA’: How Music Did BTS Earn from the 4-Day Concert?”
KpopStarz, 6 December 2021, https://www.kpopstarz.com/articles/303164/20211206/ptd-stage-la-much-bts-earn-
4-day-concert.htm.

Lee and Kao | “I Need U” 51

UNIQUE FEATURES OF K-POP PERFORMANCES: FAN CHANTS AND LIGHT STICKS

There are unique features of interactions between artists and fans at K-pop concerts. One
of these is formal fan chant (either ttechang 떼창 or “organized fan chant” or eung
wonbeob 응원법 or “how to cheer the artist”). These are standardized responses from
the audience that are attached to each song.29 The literal meaning of ttechang is a group of
people (tte) singing (chang) together. It is important to note that fan chants are not
equivalent to random cheers or singalongs by fans. Fan chants are highly organized sets of
audience responses that fans are expected to memorize and shout at predetermined times
during a song.30 Fan chants are written down and give very specific directions for

Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article-pdf/35/1/46/773804/jpms.2023.35.1.46.pdf by University Of Washington user on 03 July 2024

audience contributions during specific sections of each song. You can hear them in
recorded concerts from all over the world, even when the songs and parts of the fan
chants are in Korean. For example, in a BTS concert in Sao Paulo, Brazil, fan chants in
Korean can be clearly heard in recordings found on YouTube.31 The most important
element of fan chants is that they are designed to encourage the artist while not inter-
rupting or overshadowing their singing. This is designed for the audience to enthusias-
tically, but respectively, participate as one entity, while still allowing all fans to enjoy the
song as performed by the artist.
For both fans and musicians, it has become increasingly important to have official fan
chants. Most of the time, they are provided by the management company. For example,
BTS’s first Billboard Hot 100 Number 1 hit “Dynamite” had an official fan chant soon
after it was released and before it was performed in front of an in-person audience. This is
an excerpt, with the lyrics sung by the group in regular font, and accompanying fan chant
(which follows or is identical to the lyrics) in bold and italic font:32

‘Cos ah ah I’m in the stars tonight (BTS)

So watch me bring the fire and set the night alight (BTS)

Shoes on get up in the morn

Cup of milk let’s rock and roll
King Kong kick the drum, rolling on like a rolling stone
Sing song when I’m walking home
Jump up to the top Lebron
Ding dong call me on my phone
Iced tea and a game of ping pong

This is getting heavy

Can you hear the bass boom, I’m ready (whoo-hoo)
Life is sweet as honey
Yeah this beat cha ching like money

29. Perhaps the most similar example of this is during some performances of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
30. For examples, see the US BTS ARMY website for a list of fanchants, “Want to Learn the Fanchants to BTS
Songs?” https://www.usbtsarmy.com/fanchants.
31. See Rs Mk, “BTS in Brazil,” https://youtu.be/6gmRzXOMtLw. You can clearly hear fan chants in Korean,
such as “jihwaja jota, 지화자 좋다.”
32. US BTS ARMY, “‘Dynamite’ Fanchant,” https://www.usbtsarmy.com/fanchants/dynamite.

52 JOURNAL OF POPULAR MUSIC STUDIES MARCH 2023

 Disco overload I’m into that I’m good to go
I’m diamond you know I glow up
Hey, so let’s go

There are numerous recordings of BTS and many other K-pop groups performing in
front of live audiences, and one can clearly hear the fan chants.
Inspired by Christopher Small’s concept of musicking, Jungwon Kim specifies several
forms of musicking in the K-pop context. Kim not only argues that ttechang is a form of
musicking but also labels ttechang in a concert venue as “concert musicking.”33 Kim states:

Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article-pdf/35/1/46/773804/jpms.2023.35.1.46.pdf by University Of Washington user on 03 July 2024

…fans participate in the concerts as music performers and producers, as opposed to
solely listeners. They do this through ttechang, meaning singing together or collective
singing, which is demonstrated through fan chanting and singing at concerts…ttechang
not only characterizes the participatory culture of K-pop fandom, but also incorporates
listenership into musicianship.34

Fan chants can be heard in every K-pop performance, not only in concerts, but also
during music festivals, music award ceremonies, and music variety shows. Variety music
shows in South Korea, until the pandemic, included a live studio audience, which meant
that performers on the show could enjoy the fan chants and cheers from their fans. Of
course, the more popular the group, the louder the fan chants. Artists also expect to hear
the fan chants when they perform. For example, in early performances of BTS on TV
programs such as KBS’s Music Bank or MBC’s Show! Music Core, one can clearly hear the
fan chants for BTS. On their TV performances, you can usually hear the group members’
full names shouted by their fans. For BTS, the list of names begins with the leader,
followed by the remaining six members by age. The exact chant would be, “Kim Nam-
joon, Kim Seokjin, Min Yoongi, Jung Hoseok, Park Jimin, Kim Taehyung, Jeon Jung-
kook, BTS.” For their song “Spring Day,” for example, you can hear multiple “Bogo
shipda” (I want to see you) refrains in the song as well as the fan chant. As such, fan
chants function to ensure that, as Alfred Schütz states, “(the) performer and listener are
‘tuned-in’ to one another, are living together through the same flux, are growing older
together while the musical process lasts.”35 In the K-pop context, fan chants are one of the
prominent ways in which fans feel solidarity with the artists, as well as with other fans.
Fan chants are also an important metric for measuring the love of the performance and
the artist. As Thomas Turino states, “Participatory values are distinctive in that the
success of a performance is more importantly judged by the degree and intensity of
participation than by some abstracted assessment of the musical sound quality.”36
Through fan chants, K-pop fans and musicians not only build solidarity but also together
construct the distinct soundscape of K-pop.

33. Jungwon Kim, “K-Popping: Korean Women, K-Pop, and Fandom,” Ph.D. diss., University of California
Riverside, 2017, 116.
34. Ibid, 100 -1.
35. Schütz, “Making music together,” 93.
36. Thomas Turino, Music as Social Life: The Politics of Participation (Chicago, Ill.; London: University of
Chicago Press. 2008), 33.

Lee and Kao | “I Need U” 53

 Another unique feature of K-pop groups and their fandoms is the light stick. Light
sticks are a modern version of colored balloons that were used to support first-generation
K-pop idol groups such as H.O.T. and Sechs Kies. BIGBANG was the first K-pop group
to have its own light stick. Each group has its own official light stick, although they all
serve the same purpose. For instance, because BTS’s fandom is known as ARMY, BTS’s
light stick is called the “ARMY BOMB.” The light stick is able to display a wide array of
colors. It also has multiple settings, so that it can project a single beam of light or flashing
lights. When paired with the phone app, its use becomes more apparent. Figure 1 shows
photos of an ARMY BOMB, as well as some of the phone app settings.

Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article-pdf/35/1/46/773804/jpms.2023.35.1.46.pdf by University Of Washington user on 03 July 2024

FIGURE 1. BTS ARMY Light Stick and iPhone App Views

The ARMY BOMB is lightweight, easy to hold, and about 8 inches in height. Because
it is Bluetooth-enabled, the phone app can control the light stick. In the “self-mode,” you
can create a continuous array of different colored lights using a color wheel control. At an
in-person concert, when the app is set to “concert mode,” one’s light stick is synchronized
to the app and controlled by the concert venue via a QR code assigned to one’s seat.
Hence, the concert staff can use it to project different colors, patterns, or spell out words
across the audience seating throughout the concert. For example, figure 2 clearly shows
how BTS fans help create a distinct visual environment during a concert via their ARMY
BOMBs. In this example, the ARMY BOMBs together spelled out the song title “APAN-
MAN” as well as “BTS” during the concert.
As Mark Katz claims, the development of technology has changed the way people listen to,
perform, and compose music.37 K-pop is no exception. Light sticks not only enhance the way
fans enjoy K-pop music during a concert, but also enable them to contribute to the visual

37. For example, according to Mark Katz, “Magnetic tape, originally developed for military purposes in World
War II, was embraced by the musical avant-garde and became the basis for a wholly new compositional practice […]
MP3 was initially intended as a compression standard for the film industry, but its embrace by hundreds of millions
of listeners globally has made it a hugely influential sound-recording medium.” Mark Katz, Capturing Sound: How
Technology Has Changed Music (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010), 220–21.

54 JOURNAL OF POPULAR MUSIC STUDIES MARCH 2023

 Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article-pdf/35/1/46/773804/jpms.2023.35.1.46.pdf by University Of Washington user on 03 July 2024
FIGURE 2. “ANPAN MAN” and “BTS” made by BTS fans during the concert. (screengrab by
author; https://youtu.be/vkRKZLUwWkc?t=39)

environment of a performance. It is assumed that all audience members will bring their light
sticks (and they are usually sold at the concert venue). Light sticks add to the communal
feelings shared by the audience at a concert. Together, light sticks and fan chants further
accentuate the bonding between BTS and ARMY as well as among ARMY members.
The use of light sticks is not confined to K-pop performances. It has also become
a symbolic tool representing K-pop fandoms at non-K-pop events. For example, Kim
focuses on how different K-pop fandoms in Korea organized the Democratic Fandoms’
Union (DFU), and how light sticks were utilized in the DFU protests, known as the
Candlelight Movement in 2016. According to Kim, by employing light sticks, “K-pop
fans make their fandoms a dynamic form of social, political, and cultural engagement.”38

38. Jungwon Kim, “With the brightest light we have’ K-pop fandom in candlelight movement and diversifi-
cation of Korean protest culture,” In The Candlelight Movement, Democracy, and Communication in Korea, Edited
by JongHwa Lee, Chuyun Oh, and Yong-Chan Kim (Routledge, 2021), 53.

Lee and Kao | “I Need U” 55

In this way, K-pop fan practices not only strengthen the bonds among K-pop community
members, but also expand the socio-cultural boundaries of K-pop.

REPRESENTATIONS OF AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION

Before we describe our participant observation, we want to stress that BTS’s online
concerts went beyond a simple broadcast of a live concert. By utilizing multiple types
of new virtual reality technologies (especially in their later online concerts), BTS
attempted to overcome the physical, spatial, and temporal restrictions of in-person con-

Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article-pdf/35/1/46/773804/jpms.2023.35.1.46.pdf by University Of Washington user on 03 July 2024

certs. Through the “Virtual Augmented Reality” stages, performers could appear in front
of any number of backgrounds.39 Meanwhile, audience members from all over the world
were able to enjoy the concerts from their living rooms or bedrooms, as “[technological
inventions] reduce the dimensions of the represented object,” as Suk-Young Kim writes.40
While the online concerts by BTS differed from one another, especially in how they
addressed the problem of the absence of a live audience in the physical space in which
BTS performed, one constant throughout all performances was the presence of the online
chat window. The live chat window was filled with fans’ supportive messages of BTS, but
they were also full of comments that conveyed their excitement to other fans. In reality,
the primary purpose of the chat window was for fans to chat with one another since BTS
could not realistically stare at the chat window while performing. Many people reported
the city they were in and the time of day it was in their city. Some people shared whether
they were dressed up in BTS swag or in their pajamas. Some others described the types of
snacks they had prepared in advance. Others talked about the songs they hoped to hear
during the concert. It was extremely hard to read every message because of their enormous
quantity. The chat window for BTS ON:E Concert was open for an hour before the
concert began. In that hour, there were approximately 29 million comments and cheers.
By the end of that concert, there were 114.5 million comments and cheers.
The chat window provided a venue for communication and “social engagement in the
process, through [the] interpretation of symbolic forms,” as Feld states.41 Fans enjoyed
meeting each other and engaged in participant performance. The absence of live fan
chants during the concert, however, was evident to both the artists and the online
audience members.

FAN PARTICIPATION DURING BTS CONCERTS

1) Bang Bang Con: The Live

The lockdown due to COVID began in March 2020 in both South Korea and the U.S.
By April 2020, BTS had announced Bang Bang Con, which was a free two-day event in
which eight previous BTS concerts were broadcast and shown for free on YouTube. This

39. Note that other K-Pop concerts during COVID used the “Beyond Live” format, which also included many
similar advanced technologies.
40. Suk-Young Kim, K-pop Live, 129.
41. Steven Feld, “Communication, Music, and Speech about Music,” Yearbook for Traditional Music 16 (1984): 2.

56 JOURNAL OF POPULAR MUSIC STUDIES MARCH 2023

was announced as a gift to ARMY as BTS’s worldwide tour was postponed (and later
canceled). Of course, this also served to whet the appetite of ARMY as BTS immediately
announced their first online concert, Bang Bang Con: The Live, which would be held in
June 2020.
This concert included multiple stages, with no virtual augmented reality effects. These
were physical sets, and some included what appeared to be the interior of the hallway of
a house and another as a living room. The group seemingly sang live over prerecorded
tracks, which was similar to what they would do during an in-person concert. While the
sound quality was excellent, it was immediately obvious that fans were missing. Bang Bang

Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article-pdf/35/1/46/773804/jpms.2023.35.1.46.pdf by University Of Washington user on 03 July 2024

Con: The Live did not include any representation of individual audience members, either
in-person or on video screens. The primary challenge for BTS as they performed was the
lack of an audience and their sonic and visual participation in real-time. After their first
song, “Dope,” not only fan chants were missing, but even fan applause. It was surprising
that the production crew overlooked the importance of fan applause, cheers, and chants.
The song ended with complete silence. The same silence followed the next song, a fast-
tempo track titled, “Boyz with Fun.” From there, BTS entered a stage that appeared to be
a living room, which was outfitted with their albums and concert swag. When they
introduced themselves, during the times when the audience would normally cheer on
cue, the members had to improvise and shout what their audience members would
normally scream. At this time, they were able to read the comments in the chat window.
Though fans were excited about the first online concert, some complained about the
new concert format. For example, Junjin63 wrote in her blog that she was bothered by
many product placements and the occasional malfunction of the online chat window.42 A
fan of BTS on Twitter, steph7, wrote that “I would say see you next year #BANG-
BANGCON but I hope by next year we will have real concerts instead.”43 In fact, the
absence of in-person interactions with fans made much of the online concert experience
somewhat awkward, and for us as participant observers, we wondered whether we were
truly watching a live concert or a TV program or pre-recorded video. Artists themselves
also seemed uneasy because of the absence of fans and fan chants. None of the songs
ended with any applause, a problem they would mostly address in their future online
concerts. The production crew could have easily added some type of track to convey the
enthusiasm of the audience, and we were surprised that they did not anticipate the
awkward silence following each song. There were moments when the leader RM shouted,
“Make some noise,” which was met by complete silence since there were no in-person
audience members. BTS clearly found it difficult to perform, and the entire performance
was subdued and unlike any of the in-person or even television performances to which
fans were accustomed. Not until the song “Boy With Luv,” (about two-thirds of the way
through the concert) did the ARMY BOMBs (light sticks) appear. Using the light sticks
to represent the audience would be omnipresent in subsequent concerts. After this

42. Junjin63, “방탄소년단 온라인콘서트 방방콘 The Live 후기” (A Review of Bang Bang Con: The Live),
October 9, 2020, https://blog.naver.com/junjin63/222111172920.
43. Steph7, Twitter post, April 17, 2021, https://twitter.com/sas10f/status/1383476388347273227

Lee and Kao | “I Need U” 57

performance, member Jungkook said, “Did you see all those ARMY BOMBs during our
performance? We missed you so much so we portrayed ARMY and Bangtan (short for
BTS) together through this performance.” Member Jin then added, “Being among the
ARMY BOMBs really made it feel like you were there with us. We could really feel your
energy and hear your cheers. With that said, make some noise, ARMY.” The screen then
turned to the chat window. This is where we see how dependent musicians were on the
audience. We argue that for this reason, the relationship between K-pop artists and fans
should not be understood as a simple example of parasocial interactions in which per-
formers have hegemonic power over spectators.44 Audiences also hold tremendous power

Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article-pdf/35/1/46/773804/jpms.2023.35.1.46.pdf by University Of Washington user on 03 July 2024

over the artists.

2) Map of the Soul ON:E Concerts

In the two Map of the Soul ON:E concerts in October 2020, BTS employed virtual and
augmented reality technologies. Now there were multiple camera angles that viewers
could select throughout the concert. The performance included a combination of physical
sets and virtual concert stages. The concert began with their song, “ON” and transitioned
to “N.O” in front of a physical set with a mountain range. In total, there were four
physical stages and AR (augmented reality) and XR (Extended Reality) technologies-
enabled stages. Furthermore, in this concert, the viewers could see pre-selected audience
members at times and even hear them at selected moments. There continued to be no in-
person audience members due to COVID restrictions.
We immediately sensed that the concert producers attempted to remedy the problems
from the previous online concert. HYBE spent eight times as much on Map of the Soul
ON:E as Bang Bang Con: The Live,45 and the improvement was obvious.46 There was
audience applause added to many of the songs in this concert, but not after every song.
Throughout the concert, fans were prominently displayed for both BTS and the online
audience to see. When the fans appeared onscreen, it seemed to also inspire BTS. One
could see fans holding their ARMY BOMBs and even signs supporting their favorite
members. In Figure 3, you can see the hundreds of fans represented on screens as confetti
at the end of the concert.
It gave the BTS members something to look at between songs, and it gave us, the home
audience, the feeling that we were part of an in-person performance. It also further
enhanced the feeling of collective effervescence described by Emile Durkheim, that many
people experience during an in-person concert. These are events or moments where
individuals are swept up in a communal experience with other people, and helps to
reaffirm a sense of shared values and community. An effective concert experience is one

44. Donald Horton and R. Richard Wohl, “Mass Communication and Para-Social Interaction: Observations
on Intimacy at a Distance,” Psychiatry 19, no.3 (1956): 215.
45. Dishya Sharma, “Big Hit Reveals BTS’ Map of the Soul ON: E is 8 Times Bigger than Bang Bang Con: The
Live,” Pinkvilla, 9 October 2020, https://www.pinkvilla.com/entertainment/big-hit-reveals-bts-map-soul-one-8-
times-bigger-bang-bang-con-live-567254.
46. Susan-Han, “BTS’s ‘Map of The Soul ON:E’ to feature 4 different physical stages + 8x the production cost
of ‘Bang Bang Con The Live,’” AllKpop, 9 October 2020, https://www.allkpop.com/article/2020/10/btss-map-of-
the-soul-one-to-feature-4-different-physical-stages-8x-the-production-cost-of-bang-bang-con-the-live.

58 JOURNAL OF POPULAR MUSIC STUDIES MARCH 2023

 Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article-pdf/35/1/46/773804/jpms.2023.35.1.46.pdf by University Of Washington user on 03 July 2024
FIGURE 3. End of BTS Map of the Soul ON:E, Day 1. (Photo by the authors).

that is almost magical and suspends one’s sense of being an individual to being part of
a special community (ARMY, in the case of BTS).
After a short video transition, similar to those presented during an in-person show that
also allows for a costume change, RM performed “Intro: Persona,” a hip hop song from
their studio album Map of the Soul: 7. From here the concert shifts to another physical set
of a large building that appears to be burned out as they performed “Boy in Luv” (not be
confused with their hit, “Boy With Luv.”) After this song, they introduced themselves
and audience reactions are shown. In fact, there were videos of audience members that
had been selected in advance behind and in front of the group. Videos of audience
members were placed behind rows of ARMY BOMBs. At times, one could clearly hear
cheers from fans via cameras and microphones placed with pre-selected fans. The at-home
audience members did not hear or see cheering at all the times one might expect during
an in-person concert.47
Later in the concert, during the song “Dionysus,” when RM yelled, “Make some noise,”
one could hear the audience response. At other times, however, there were no audience
reactions when the artists called for their cheers. For example, during “Dope,” RM also
yelled “Make some noise!” But that time, his call was met with complete silence. While
the artist interaction with fans can be somewhat spontaneous when musicians and fans
are in the same in-person space, in an online concert, they must be planned in advance for
the production team to be ready to add fan responses. Also, there was no audience
applause, let alone fan chants, at the end of “Boy With Luv,” one of their biggest hits.

47. To be clear, this technology or idea was not developed by HYBE. From the very first Beyond Live concerts
(in April 2020) at the beginning of the pandemic, SM Entertainment groups SuperM, TVXQ!, etc. employed this
technology.

Lee and Kao | “I Need U” 59

 The absence of fans was inadvertently highlighted during Jungkook’s performance of
“My Time.” He was dancing throughout the song, and in the middle of the song, there
was a dance break.48 During the dance break, Jungkook performed while moving from one
physical stage to another. As he did this, the at-home viewer could easily see only
production staff in the audience. Cameramen followed his every move, but we are
reminded that the artists are performing in an empty space. The staff are diligently
working, but they are not cheering as fans would during a performance. The same
problem occurred during “Boy With Luv,” as the members walked from one stage to
another—the presence of staff without any in-person audience members reminded view-

Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article-pdf/35/1/46/773804/jpms.2023.35.1.46.pdf by University Of Washington user on 03 July 2024

ers that the group was performing in a studio without an audience.
Finally, the concert made some use of VR and XR technologies. During “DNA,” they
appeared as if they were performing on a floating stage in an abstract rendition of outer
space, reminiscent of their music video. In their performance of “Dope,” they appeared as
if they were on a fast-moving elevator, which ended in different landscapes during various
verses of the song. In Jin’s performance of “Moon,” there were not only physical sets, but
also the appearance of planets floating in front of him. In one of the final songs (before
the encore performance), the group members wandered on the stage staring at the screens
with fans. Of course, the fans are watching what the at-home viewer sees, so even if BTS
members stare right at the screen, they are not making actual eye contact. Still, the
members wistfully looked at the screens. Park Jimin later talked about how touched he
was when seeing the fans on the screens.
During Map of the Soul ON:E, Jimin became emotional after the audience was
consistently projected on stage. When they said their farewell comments (ments), Jimin
stated while crying: “But during the encore, as I heard your voices ARMY…sorry, I got
emotional…honestly I couldn’t focus much, so I’m frustrated, I couldn’t show the best of
me. Thanks for your support and encouragement through the screens.” In the same show,
J-Hope said, “To be honest, I’m 80% happy and 20% frustrated. This online concert is
a new challenge for us…We’re frustrated that we can’t see your faces.” Jin added, “During
the concert today, and during the rehearsal and concert, I didn’t feel like I was doing
a concert, it felt more like a promotion, so I didn’t feel so great about that. But as soon as
I saw you…and the slogans (signs) and ARMY BOMBs…and I could tell I was with you.
I felt so happy…I felt 50% of the joy of fans.”49 Suga added, “We felt a bit empty and
wondered if we had forgotten what we were meant to do…We were concerned whether,
through an online concert, we could satisfy you and ourselves.” V stated, “(we could)

48. A dance break is what K-pop artists refer to as the dance choreography performed during the instrumental
part of a song, which usually appears somewhere in the middle of the track.
49. In other K-pop online concerts we observed, many artists expressed how they miss in-person interaction
with fans. For example, Dino of SEVENTEEN noted, “There is no one here. I’m sad that’s a memory now.” DK of
SEVENTEEN then added, “I’m embarrassed I took your presence for granted.” During the SuperM concert, the
musicians tried to accentuate the positive, but when Mark asked “Everyone, are you all watching well?” Of course,
there was no response, and then the other members awkwardly cheered. Taeyong (also of NCT) then asked the same
question, and Baekhyun (also of EXO) added, “Well this part is kind of awkward.” Jisoo of BLACKPINK said that
“it’s a bit sad because of online format [that we cannot see and hear you in person].”

60 JOURNAL OF POPULAR MUSIC STUDIES MARCH 2023

jump and sing along with you ARMY. But just being seven of us, it was difficult to be
motivated…I mean you’re not here, but you are here with us on the screens.”

3) MUSTER SOWOOZOO 2021

BTS’s MUSTER SOWOOZOO 2021, broadcast on June 13 and 14, 2021, was their next
set of online concerts. BTS performed these two online concerts outdoor at the Seoul
Jamsil Olympic Stadium (see Figure 4), in contrast to the other concerts that were shot
on indoor sound stages.

Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article-pdf/35/1/46/773804/jpms.2023.35.1.46.pdf by University Of Washington user on 03 July 2024

As with Map of the Soul ON:E, a small number of pre-selected fans were projected
onto large screens. Again, the absence of the audience also meant that you could only hear
fan chants if the mics of the pre-selected audience members were on or if there were
prerecorded tracks with audience applause and cheers. However, the coordination
between BTS members yelling “Make some noise,” followed by cheering was better. There
were still some awkward silences or delays before applause and cheers could be heard. The
cheering sounded as if it was pre-recorded rather than from the audience on-screen. For
example, when J-Hope introduces himself, he usually says, “I’m your hope [pause]. You’re
my hope. [pause] I’m J…” and the audience would respond “Hope!” At this concert, the
other BTS members had to respond with “Hoooooppppe.” In some ways, having them
perform in an empty stadium further accentuated the absence of the audience. We
suspect that it would have felt like a soundcheck or dress rehearsal for BTS. But even
soundchecks at BTS concerts include many audience members in an in-person concert.
At the beginning of the song “Idol,” you can hear audience applause twice, but no fan
chants (although a low volume additional vocal track where the fan chant would appear
was added), and no applause at the end of the song. The additional vocal track suggests
that the production crew was aware of the absence of the fan chant and attempted to
compensate for it.

FIGURE 4. MUSTER SOWOOZOO outdoor stage (Photo by the authors).

Lee and Kao | “I Need U” 61

 This show was also interesting because despite the large stadium stage, there were a few
sets that suggested small intimate spaces. For example, BTS members rode in a small van
while singing “Life Goes On,” which brought on a more intimate mood. Cameras
mounted inside the van showed the members singing inside the small vehicle. Neverthe-
less, this set would have been more effective if there were in-person fans because it would
have served as a contrast to the large stadium which audience members occupied. Since
the vehicle went around many parts of the stage in which fans were supposed to be
present, BTS would have come in close contact and would have more closely interacted
with audience members. Yet, all that the BTS members could see outside of the vehicle

Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article-pdf/35/1/46/773804/jpms.2023.35.1.46.pdf by University Of Washington user on 03 July 2024

were staff members and fans’ visages on screens. At the end of the concert, Jungkook said,
“I missed all of you although I was able to see your faces [on screens] while performing.”
As Schütz argues, the meaning of music can hardly be found without the mutual tuning-
in relationship between artists and audiences. From what Jungkook mentioned, it is safe to
say that online concerts did not offer enough opportunity for BTS members and ARMYs
to share what Schütz means by the “togetherness as a ‘We,’” in music.50

CONCLUSION

Technological innovations have changed music consumption and production. According

to Peter Manuel, “cassette technology has been conducive to the decentralization, diver-
sification, and marked expansion of recording industries.”51 In the same vein, online
concerts during the pandemic have also allowed for many innovations. First and foremost,
online concerts can overcome restrictions derived from regional and temporal differences.
Visually, the at-home audience can clearly see the artists, whereas most audience members
at a large stadium concert have to stare at the projections of the artists as they perform
onstage. Second, the concerts attracted fans worldwide—reportedly from 190 countries.
Clearly, even on a world tour, BTS might at most visit ten to fifteen countries. Finally,
due to physical, financial, and other limitations, many fans may be unable to attend
a stadium concert even if BTS visited their region. The online concerts are relatively
inexpensive compared to an in-person concert. One does not have to worry about traffic
or parking difficulties that is associated with attending an event with more than 60,000
other people. Online concerts are much more accessible to fans.
Online concerts also allow for VR and XR technologies—stages can be easily shifted
between songs. Although these concerts did not use holograms, other online concerts
have used them. For example, artists of Big Hit Entertainment performed with a hologram
of Shin Hae Chul at their 2020 Big Hit’s New Year’s Eve Concert. Shin Hae Chul
passed away in 2014.52 BTS also used this technology when member Suga had shoulder
surgery in late 2020 and could not join the rest of the members on stage when the group
performed “Life Goes On” at the 2020 MAMA (Mnet Asian Music Awards). When

50. Schütz, “Making music together,” 96.

51. Manuel, Cassette Culture, 29.
52. Han-sol Park, “Holographic Performances of Dead Stars Welcomed, with Caution,” The Korea Times,
January 17, 2021, https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/culture/2021/01/135_302548.html.

62 JOURNAL OF POPULAR MUSIC STUDIES MARCH 2023

Suga’s part began, his hologram appeared in the middle of the line of formation with the
other six members. So, while their performance was technically “live,” due to the pan-
demic, it was prerecorded. Not only that, Suga’s part was recorded even earlier and added
to their performance. Some might ask whether these online concerts or performances
using VR/XR technologies are live or not. As Suk-Young Kim emphasizes, however, fan
participation is a crucial element in contributing to the liveness of K-pop. For example,
Suk-Young Kim argues that After School Club aired by Arirang TV would not exist unless
fans participated in the program as both performers and spectators. Plus, fans’ real-time
participation via voting, as Suk-Young Kim describes, authenticates TV shows such as

Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article-pdf/35/1/46/773804/jpms.2023.35.1.46.pdf by University Of Washington user on 03 July 2024

After School Club or Show! Music Core as live.53 Similar to the fans’ real-time participation
during the TV shows, chat windows during the online concerts also authenticate online
concert as live. But a live in-person concert is much more than just a live performance.
Though their online concerts should be considered a successful and novel format of
music concerts, the absence of in-person audience members remained a significant chal-
lenge. This was obvious to the BTS members as well as to all of us viewing at home. The
experience would have been improved if we could have seen real people screaming the fan
chants and cheering the group. While the producers of the shows quickly innovated to
address this problem, ultimately there was no substitute for the live real-time and in-
person interactions between fans and performers. In this context, we focus on the fact
that fans depend on each other in the concert space. Besides cheering together, many fans
bring gifts to distribute to other fans in a concert venue. A person might bring 50
bracelets, or 100 keychains, or even 200 signs to distribute. For example, prior to BTS’
in-person concerts Permission to Dance in Los Angeles and Las Vegas at the end of 2021
and Spring 2022, respectively, many fans exhibited the goodie bags they were making to
distribute to other fans. Fans displayed the gifts they received from strangers at the
concerts. All processes of musicking, such as going to the concert venue, giving other
fans gifts, choosing BTS-specific outfits, admiring other fans’ support banners, singing
together, and hearing other fans’ voices, were all absent from the online concerts. The
viewing experience for us as participant observers (and fans) was best described as solitary,
although the online chat windows certainly helped give us a sense of community. But it is
no substitute for the feelings of collective effervescence that all of us have experienced at
a live concert. As Suk-Young Kim states, fans are “key players in the making of
K-pop culture.”54
What does the future hold in the space of concert performances? At least for BTS, the
online concerts were lucrative, and we believe that HYBE will continue to offer them. In
fact, now that stadium concerts have returned, BTS has offered at least one of the in-
person shows in an online format. In late November/early December 2021, BTS per-
formed four shows in Los Angeles’ SoFi stadium. Because the concerts sold out so quickly,
BTS also offered tickets at the YouTube theater next door for fans to watch the concerts
“live” on a big screen. The last of these concerts was also broadcast online. On March 10,

53. Suk-Young Kim, K-pop Live, 79.

54. Ibid.

Lee and Kao | “I Need U” 63

12, and 13, 2022, BTS performed their Permission To Dance concert in Seoul, S. Korea to
a smaller audience due to pandemic restrictions in Korea. Two of these concerts were
broadcast online. In April 2022, they also performed four shows in-person in Las Vegas,
and the last show was also broadcast live online. We argue that online concerts will
continue to be a part of the BTS concert experience, and it represents a new form of “live”
music performance. It is unclear whether groups that are less popular can rely on them.
However, for BTS at least, they are here to stay. n

Kao is grateful for support from the Laboratory Program for Korean Studies through the Ministry of Education of

Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article-pdf/35/1/46/773804/jpms.2023.35.1.46.pdf by University Of Washington user on 03 July 2024

Republic of Korea and Korean Studies Promotion Service of the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2016-LAB-
2250002). Kao also acknowledges support from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, MacMillan Center, and Council
on East Asia at Yale University.
Both authors have made equal contributions to this work.

BI BLI OGRAPH Y
AllKpop. “Jungkook is the Most Searched on Google Compared to 32 Other Famous Celebrities,
Including Beyonce, Zendaya, Bruno Mars, and More.” AllKpop, 11 July 2021. https://www.
allkpop.com/article/2021/07/jungkook-is-the-most-searched-on-google-compared-to-32-other-
famous-celebrities-including-beyonc-zendaya-bruno-mars-and-more.
Anderton, Chris and Sergio Pisfil. “Live Music Studies in Perspective.” In Researching Live Music:
Gigs, Tours, Concerts and Festivals. Edited by Christ Anderton and Sergio Pisfil. Focal Press, 2021.
Aswad, Jem. “Concert Industry Lost $30 Billion in 2020.” Variety, 11 December 2020. https://
variety.com/2020/music/news/concert-industry-lost-30-billion-2020-1234851679/.
Auslander, Philip. Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture. London; New York: Routledge,
1999.
Barmaine, Annie. “‘#PTD_ON_STAGE_LA’: How Music Did BTS Earn from the 4-Day Concert?”
KpopStarz, 6 December 2021. https://www.kpopstarz.com/articles/303164/20211206/ptd-stage-
la-much-bts-earn-4-day-concert.htm
Basbas, Franchesca Judine. “BTS’ Break Own World Record with 1.33 Million Paid Viewers for
Online Concert MUSTER SOWOOZOO 2021, Earn over $71 Million in Tickets and Merch.”
Bandwagon, 15 June 2021. https://www.bandwagon.asia/articles/bts-break-own-world-record-1-
33-million-paid-viewers-online-concert-2021-earnings-sales-tickets-merch-muster-sowoozoo-
virtual-livestream-venewlive-kiswe-8th-anniversary-watch-hybe-big-hit-music-june-2021.
Bennett, R. “Live Concert and Fan identity in the Age of the Internet.” In The Digital Evolution of
Live Music. Waltham, MA: Chandos Publishing an imprint of El, 2015.
BTS_twt. https://twitter.com/bts_twt
Carnegie Hall. “Live with Carnegie Hall.” www.Carnegiehall.org.
Chan, Tim. “BTS Tops Twitter’s List of Most Popular Artists for Fourth Year in a Row.” Rolling
Stone, 18 February 2021. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bts-twitter-account-
mentions-fans-1128480/.
Chapple, Jon. “BTS Fans Spend €3.5 M on Livestreaming Historic Wembley Shows.” IQ Magazine:
Live Music Business News, 03 June 2019. https://www.iq-mag.net/2019/06/3-5m-livestream-
historymaking-bts-wembley-stadium/#.X25J5JNKiu5.
Chiu, David. “How Tim Burgess’ Twitter Listening Party Lifted Music Fans During Lockdown.”
Forbes, 12 April 2021. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidchiu/2021/04/12/how-tim-burgess-
twitter-listening-party-lifted-music-fans-during-lockdown/?sh=457ec1ea7aaf.
Cho, Michelle. “3 Ways That BTS and Its Fans Are Redefining Liveness.” Flow, 29 May 2018.
https://www.flowjournal.org/2018/05/bts-and-its-fans/.

64 JOURNAL OF POPULAR MUSIC STUDIES MARCH 2023

Choi, Ji-won. “[Herald Review] BTS and ARMYs Virtually Yet Strongly Connected in ‘Map of the
Soul: ON: E.’” The Korea Herald, 12 October 2020. http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=
20201012000750&np=1&mp=1.
Conner, Thomas. “Hatsune Miku, 2.0Pac, and Beyond Rewinding and Fast-Forwarding the Virtual
Pop Star.” In The Oxford Handbook of Music and Virtuality. New York: Oxford University Press,
2016.
Durkheim, Emile. The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. Mineola. N.Y.: Dover Publications,
2008 [1912].
Feld, Steven. “Communication, Music, and Speech about Music.” Yearbook for Traditional Music 16
(1984): 1–18.

Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article-pdf/35/1/46/773804/jpms.2023.35.1.46.pdf by University Of Washington user on 03 July 2024

Herman, Tamar. “BTS members make Twitter history as most-followed band in the world, taking
over from British boy band One Direction.” South China Morning Post, 22 December 2020.
https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/k-pop/news/article/3 1 1 4 9 4 5 /bts-members-make-twitter-
history-most-followed-band-world.
Holt, Fabian. Everyone Loves Live Music: A Theory of Performance Institutions. Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 2020.
Horton, Donald and R. Richard Wohl. “Mass Communication and Para-Social Interaction: Obser-
vations on Intimacy at a Distance.” Psychiatry 19, no.3 (1956): 215–29.
Jakarta Post. “SM, JYP establish joint concert company with Naver’s Beyond Live.” The Jakarta Post,
04 August 2020. https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2020/08/04/sm-jyp-establish-joint-
concert-company-with-navers-beyond-live.html.
Junjin63. “방탄소년단 온라인콘서트 방방콘 The Live 후기 (A Review of Bang Bang Con: The
Live.)” 09 Oct 2020., https://blog.naver.com/junjin63/222111172920.
Kaürki, Kimi. “Vocaloid Liveness? Hatsune Miku and the live production of Japanese virtual idol
concerts.” In Researching Live Music: Gigs, Tours, Concerts and Festivals. Edited by Christ
Anderton and Sergio Pisfil. Focal Press. 2021.
Katz, Mark. Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed Music. Berkeley: University of
California Press. 2010.
Kim, Jungwon. “K-Popping: Korean Women, K-Pop, and Fandom.” Ph.D. diss., University of
California Riverside, 2017.
Kim, Jungwon. “‘With the brightest light we have’ K-pop fandom in candlelight movement and
diversification of Korean protest culture.” In The Candlelight Movement, Democracy, and Com-
munication in Korea. Edited by JongHwa Lee, Chuyun Oh, and Yong-Chan Kim. Routledge,
2021.
Kim, Suk-Young. K-pop Live: Fans, Idols, and Multimedia Performance. Stanford, California:
Stanford University Press, 2018.
Lee, Gyu Tag. “방탄소년단: 새로운 세대의 새로운 소통방식, 그리고 감정노동 (BTS: New
Generation’s new communication skills, and emotional labor.)” Culture and Science 93 (2018.):
278–91.
Lee, Ha-yeon. “Big Hit Stock Gains 18% to A Historic High on Expected Partnership with
NAVER.” MK News, 25 January 2021. https://www.mk.co.kr/news/english/view/2021/01/
79093/.
Lyons, Sandy. “Big Hit Entertainment’s (HYBE’s) Profits From 2018 to 2021.” Koreaboo, 17 May
2021. https://www.koreaboo.com/lists/hybe-big-hit-entertainment-profits-2021-increased/.
Manuel, Peter. Cassette Culture: Popular Music and Technology in North India. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1993.
McIntyre, Hugh. “BTS was the Sixth Most Tweeted About ‘Person’ of 2020 Globally, Beating Elon
Musk and Kamala Harris.” Forbes, 1 9 February 2 0 2 1 . https://www.forbes.com/sites/
hughmcintyre/2021/02/19/bts-was-the-sixth-most-tweeted-about-person-of-2020-globally-
beating-elon-musk-and-kamala-harris/?sh=2636d33a1ec9.

Lee and Kao | “I Need U” 65

McKee, Andy. “McKee Monday.” YouTube, 06 October 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
KkMKHb5X_bU.
McLaren, Courtney and Dal Yong Jin. “‘You Can’t Help But Love Them’: BTS, Transcultural
Fandom, and Affective Identities.” Korea Journal 60, no. 1 (2020.): 100–27.
Park, Han-sol. “Holographic Performances of Dead Stars Welcomed, with Caution.” The Korea
Times, 17 January 2021. https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/culture/2021/01/135_302548.
html.
Rs Mk. “(방탄소년단) BTS in Brazil 2019-05-25 ‘Idol’ – B-Armys Fanchant.” YouTube, 08 June
2019. https://youtu.be/6gmRzXOMtLw.
Sanden, Paul. Liveness in Modern Music: Musicians, Technology, and the Perception of Performance.

Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article-pdf/35/1/46/773804/jpms.2023.35.1.46.pdf by University Of Washington user on 03 July 2024

New York: Routledge, 2013.
Schütz, Alfred. “Making Music Together: A Study in Social Relationship.” Social Research 18, no. 1
(1951.): 76–97.
Sharma, Dishya. “Big Hit Reveals BTS’ Map of the Soul ON: E is 8 Times Bigger than Bang Bang
Con: The Live.” Pinkvilla, 09 October 2020. https://www.pinkvilla.com/entertainment/big-hit-
reveals-bts-map-soul-one-8-times-bigger-bang-bang-con-live-567254.
Small, Christopher. Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening. Hanover: University Press
of New England, 1998.
Steph7. Twitter post. 17 April 2021., 1:44 p.m. https://twitter.com/sas10f/status/138347638
8347273227.
SUSAN-HAN. “Both SM Entertainment & JYP Entertainment on the brink of surpassing 2 trillion
KRW (*$1.77 billion USD) in total market value soon.” AllKpop, 26 October 2021. https://
www.allkpop.com/article/2021/10/both-sm-entertainment-jyp-entertainment-on-the-brink-of-
surpassing-2-trillion-krw-17-billion-usd-in-total-market-value-soon.
SUSAN-HAN. “BTS’s ‘Map Of The Soul ON: E’ to feature 4 different physical stages + 8x the
production cost of ‘Bang Bang Con The Live.’” AllKpop, 09 October 2020. https://www.
allkpop.com/article/2020/10/btss-map-of-the-soul-one-to-feature-4-different-physical-stages-8x-
the-production-cost-of-bang-bang-con-the-live.
Trust, Gary. “Coldplay & BTS’ ‘My Universe’ Blasts Off at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100.” Billboard,
04 October 2021. https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/9640332/coldplay-bts-my-universe-
tops-billboard-hot-100/.
Turino, Thomas. Music as Social Life: The Politics of Participation. Chicago, Ill.; London: University
of Chicago Press. 2008.
Universal Music. “Big Hit, YG, UMG and Kiswe Join Forces for Global Live Streaming Platform.”
Universal Music Group, 09 February 2021. https://www.universalmusic.com/big-hit-yg-umg-and-
kiswe-join-forces-for-global-live-streaming-platform/.
US BTS ARMY. “‘Dynamite’ Fanchant.” https://www.usbtsarmy.com/fanchants/dynamite.
Zubernis, Lynn and Katherine Larsen. Fandom at the Crossroads: Celebration, Shame and Fan/
Producer Relationships. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2012.

66 JOURNAL OF POPULAR MUSIC STUDIES MARCH 2023