virtual artists is that, while K-pop stars often struggle with physical limitations, or even mental distress because they are human beings, virtual artists can be free from these" - says Park Jieun, the woman behind K-pop girl band Eternity. There are 11 members in the band, all of them virtual characters. Since releasing their debut single I'm Real in 2021, K-pop girl group Eternity have racked up millions of views online, BBC reports. There's a girl band aespa with four human singers and dancers - Karina, Winter, Giselle and Ningning, and their four virtual counterparts known as ae-Karina, ae-Winter, ae-Giselle and ae-Ningning. During the Covid-19 pandemic, K-pop group Billlie had to cancel their live performances. In order to throw a party for fans in the virtual world, the band's management company created virtual copies of band members. At least four of K-pop's biggest entertainment companies are investing heavily in virtual elements for their stars, and five of the top-earning K-pop groups of 2022 are getting in on the trend.

The leader of North Korea described K-pop as a "vicious cancer" corrupting the young people of his country, and has started a crackdown on the cultural import, the New York Times reports. Kim Jong-un has declared a new culture war to halt the spread and influence of South Korean movies, K-dramas and K-pop videos to his citizens. Punishment for owning and/or watching South Korean entertainment has been lifted from five years of hard labor to up to 15 years in labor camps.

"I think the most important part of being a singer is the will to communicate something" - Bang Si-hyuk, founder and CEO of Big Hit Entertainment, has said about his concept of making stars. He encouraged members of his biggest project, BTS, to have personal social media accounts and to communicate freely with fans. Mark Mulligan, a music-business analyst and managing director of MIDiA Research, thinks this concept has led to a seismic change: "Big Hit monetizes fandom. In some ways, it's not even the artist that is the product; it's the fan which is the product". An excellent read in NPR about BTS, Big Hit, and fandom in general.

The average size of the top 10 selling K-pop groups of the last decade is 9 members, there is even one with 23 members. The Pudding offers a few answers on why the bands became so large - it's a combination of the popularity of super-size groups, the growth of trends in casting, subunits, and survival shows, and the shifting roles within groups over time.

In the wake of #BlackLivesMatter protests, a #WhiteLivesMatter hashtag appeared on Twitter, but it was successfully trolled by American K-pop fans. Soon after, they humiliated Donald Trump - a large number of TikTok users and K-pop fans, it transpired, had registered for tickets to attend the US president’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last weekend, but they had no intention of attending. Trump ended up speaking in front of about 6,200 supporters and organisers in the 19,000-seat BOK Center arena, Guardian reports. New York Times tries to explain why K-pop fans are turning into political activism.

Consequence of Sound praises K-pop fans for mobilizing on social media for a good cause. Usually, they use social media to support K-pop stars, this week however, they're using their powers to commandeer racist, right-wing social media hashtags like #whitelivesmatter, #bluelivesmatter, and #MAGA. On both Twitter and Instagram, K-pop fans have flooded the aforementioned tags with videos of their favorite K-pop groups (called fancams), GIFs, and memes. The barrage of these posts has, at least for a short time, effectively drowned out posts actually related to the hashtags.

Watch any K-pop music video and you’ll likely be met with loud hair colors, elaborate outfits, flawless skin, heavily made-up eyes and painted lips. To South Korean stars - or idols as they're called there - it’s not only the norm, it’s also specifically calibrated for audience appeal - Rafinery 29 writes in an analysis of young beautiful South Korean boy bands.

Chen of K-pop boy band EXO announced last month that he is to marry his pregnant girlfriend, which some fans didn't take lightly. Many fans did support Chen's straightforwardness in breaking the news about his personal life and defended celebrities' right to privacy, but some angry fans even took to the street in protest, demanding Chen's withdrawal from the group. In the weeks after Chen made the surprise marriage announcement, several other stars came forward to reveal their marital status. Prior to that, Sungmin, a member of another popular boy band, Super Junior, has been excluded from the band's activities since June last year after his surprise marriage to a musical actress in 2014 led to an angry reaction from some fans.

'New Kings of the World: Dispatches from Bollywood, Dizi, and K-pop' by Pakistani writer Fatima Bhutto investigates the burgeoning cultural movements from India (Bollywood movies), Turkey (dizi series), and South Korea (K-pop). Not that the author likes these much, it's just that she acknowledges its popularity and influence. A short, well-researched, and engaging book.

Jung Joon-young and Choi Jong-hoon, both 30 years old, were sentenced to six- and five-year prison terms, respectively, after a South Korean court found them guilty on charges that they sexually assaulted women too drunk to give consent and then shared secretly filmed videos of those rapes with friends in a private online chat, the Yonhap […]

South Korean pop star Goo Hara was found dead at her home in Seoul on Sunday. Goo made her debut in 2008 as a member of the girl group Kara, which had big followings in South Korea, Japan and other Asian countries. She later worked as a solo artist and appeared on many TV shows. […]

K-pop actress-singer Sulli rose to prominence as a member of girl band f(x), but she came to be known for speaking out on mental health issues, cyberbullying and women's rights - issues that remain sensitive in a conservative society like South Korea, BBC reports. Guardian goes a step further - London paper reports about anger […]

Billboard reports about huge numbers in ticket sales for BTS shows at their tour in USA and Europe. The Korean boy-band grossed $44 million from six shows in Pasadena, Chicago and New Jersey in May (two shows in every city), selling 299,770 tickets. It was followed by stadium dates in Sao Paolo, London, and Paris, which […]

Boy band BTS have made history on Saturday by becoming the first South Korean group to headline Wembley Stadium, in front of 60,000 screaming fans (CBS). BTS in London paid tribute to Freddie Mercury - singer Jin led the crowd in a version of the Queen frontman's "ay-oh" chant, with his band-mate naming other bands […]

Guardian has another "bigger picture" article on social implications of a pop-culture trend. They write about estimated 1 million youngsters from South Korea and Japan competing in auditions for talent agencies, which will take on a select few as “trainees”. It's not just showing up at auditions, they train beforehand, paying thousands of dollars worth […]

Korean boy-band BTS captures its third No. 1 album in less than 12 months on the Billboard 200 chart, as 'Map of the Soul: Persona', debuts atop the list with 230,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. It's their third No. 1 album on Billboard in 11 months - 'Love Yourself: Tear' was on […]

South Korean boyband BTS have landed their first ever UK number one album with 'Map of the Soul: Persona', becoming the first Korean act to score a chart-topping album in the UK. Billie Eilish's 'When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?' dropped to number two, while Chemical Brothers' ninth studio album 'No Geography' […]

YouTube confirmed on Saturday (April 13) that the South Korean boy-band's newly released 'Boy With Luv' music video featuring Halsey had the best-ever first-day music video on the site (watch it here). YouTube didn't give exact numbers, but the video had 115 million views on Sunday, Billboard reports. BTS premiered their live performance of 'Boy […]

Korean boy-band BTS is the first K-pop group, and Asian artist overall, to surpass 5 billion streams on Spotify. Their single 'Fake Love', was Spotify’s most-streamed K-pop track of 2018, and has been responsible for more than 219 million of BTS’ 5 billion streams (listen to it here). Billboard...

South Korean pop boy-band BTS has reportedly already sold over 2,6 million copies of it's new album 'Map of the Soul: Persona'. The septet’s upcoming album is said to have achieved this feat within five days of going on-sale March 13 for pre-orders ahead of its release on April 12, Billboard reports.

A second K-pop star has quit the music business, in a sex scandal - Jung Joon-young, 30, admitted to secretly filming himself having sex with women and sharing the footage. It comes a day after superstar Seungri from the group Big Band quit the industry after being charged over allegations that he ran and illegal […]

Guardian writes about K-pop fans, desperate to get close to band members, who buy expensive airline tickets and then abruptly cancel their flight once they have taken photos of their idols. Korean Air has documented 35 such cases which has prompted them to increase refund penalties for late cancellations. But, isn't there some good marketing […]

South Korean boy band BTS have become the first K-pop artists to reach number one on the US album charts. For the week ending on 24 May their new album 'Love Yourself, Tear' came in at 135,000 album units - which are based on sales, downloads and streams of albums - pushing the previous weeks' chart […]