Celebrated on social networks for sabotaging the recent Donald Trump meeting, the community of K-pop fans is increasingly asserting itself as an activist, far from the smooth image of this popular Korean music. #RallyFail (meeting failed), #CrowdFail (absent crowd)… Since Saturday, hundreds of them have been celebrating on the social network TikTok what they present as a concerted operation to disrupt the campaign meeting of Donald Trump in Tulsa (Oklahoma ).
Built on groups of young Koreans inspired by "boy bands", created from scratch by musical labels, K-pop is, a priori, a musical movement without roughness, the opposite of any form of political commitment. But it has been a long time since the fan community, with a very high level of mastery of social networks, has been serving causes, mainly charities.
Trump's meeting in Tulsa sabotaged by K-pop fans on TikTok? https://t.co/FpLko2g427
- 20 Minutes (@ 20Minutes) June 21, 2020"K-pop fans are open people, interested in social issues"
A first decisive turn was made with the movement born after the death of George Floyd, supported by a good part of the K-pop army. In early June, the BTS group, the flagship of the movement with its 26 million followers on Twitter, tweeted its support for the demonstrators and expressed its solidarity with the #BlackLivesMatter movement. The group also donated $ 1 million to the movement. In a few hours, an association assembled by fans, One in An ARMY, then collected the same amount.
“BTS songs have a role in helping us to have confidence in ourselves, to be kind to others, to support each other,” says Dawnica Nadora, volunteer for One in An ARMY.
"K-pop fans are generally open people who are interested in social issues," said CedarBough Saeji, specialist in Asian culture and professor at the University of Indiana. "And in the United States," she adds, "K-pop is very much supported by people of color, (as well as) by people who identify as LGBTQ. "
"They will convince themselves that the vote is useful"
The K-pop community has taken the initiative online several times in recent weeks, notably to counter an attempt by the Conservatives to make the keyword #WhiteLivesMatter (“the lives of whites matter”) viral. In a few hours, hundreds of messages containing this "hashtag" were posted by fans but with content denouncing racism and promoting K-pop. They drowned hostile messages to Black Lives Matter under a deluge of their own production.
"If they feel they can change things," says CedarBough Saeji, looking towards the presidential election in November, "they will convince themselves that the vote is useful. "
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- By the Web
- Social media
- Racism
- United States
- Donald trump
- American presidential election
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- BTS
- Fans