Running Head: ETHNOGRAPHY 1

Ethnography:

Why Listen To Music You Cannot Understand?

Aleighna Guajardo

Augusta University
ETHNOGRAPHY 2

Ever since I was younger, I have always been interested in music. I played the french

horn for 10 years and grew up in a musical household with 3 other siblings who also played a

variety of instruments. Because music was such a big part of my life, I constantly went through

multiple musical phases in which I would be obsessed with a certain artist, genre, or musical era.

Whenever I strayed into foreign music however, whether it be Japanese anime intros, traditional

Hawaiian dance, Italian rap, or French opera, I would always be asked the same question by

friends and family: “Why would you listen to music you can’t even understand?” With my recent

exposure and interest in the seven member Korean boy band, Bangtan Sonyeondan (or BTS), I

decided to use this common question a basis for my research on their fan base (ARMY) and the

globalization of music as a whole.

Before I began my project, I consulted a variety of articles with information on the rise of

Korean pop music as well as South Korea’s own perspective on their successful global music

industry. Through this research, I discovered that Korean pop music can be heavily different

from American music in regards to language, but musicality and lyrical content is actually more

similar than that of Korean pop music to traditional Korean music. Though it is important to note

that Korean pop music remains a genre of its own and is not to be lumped with American pop

music, despite the vague similarities. It is because of this reason that Jin & Ryoo admit to Korean

pop existing in its own “third space” of music, rather than a cultural hybrid. Marcus Tan also

points out through his analysis of Gangnam Style that Korean pop music seems to be rather

formulaic with predictable repetition.

Never having encountered this phenomenon of Korean pop music, often referred to as the

“Korean Wave,” I decided to use an upcoming BTS concert as an opportunity for a participation

observation. Witnessing the fan interactions at the concert allowed me to get an idea of why
ETHNOGRAPHY 3

people are drawn to being in a fandom and calling themselves a fan. Everyone wants to be

accepted; everyone wants to be apart of a group. Being in a fandom as large and diverse as

ARMY allowed for many people to feel that highly desired completeness. When I talked to other

fans at the venue, they seemed relaxed and comfortable to approach me. People would freely talk

to new and random people standing around just because they knew that they shared such an

interesting connection. The kindness and community held by the fans was surprisingly pleasant

to see. Being emerged in the subculture at the venue allowed me to learn many things about

Korean concerts such as the movements called fan chants and fan projects. I will never forget the

feeling of awe as a stadium of 18,000 began singing Korean lyrics as one voice. Fans at the

venue had brought the official BTS lightsticks to the concert and, as part of one fan project,

different colored plastic bags were passed out to each section of the stadium to transform the

ordinarily white glow into an organized rainbow of lights. When the band saw this change at the

end of the concert before the encore, the leader of the group, who spoke English very well, told

the crowd in English “Can you feel the power right now? Music and performances transcends

language and countries and races. I don’t care if you’re red, I don’t care if you’re blue, orange,

green, purple either.” The stadium went wild at his words. Some people even began crying tears

of joy at this vocalized fact that everyone in that stadium had already known. Even though we

were from different backgrounds and spoke different languages, we could come together over

music.

Along with the participation in the concert, I decided to conduct further research to better

understand the individuals in the fandom. I distributed a 15 question survey via Google Forms

onto a cell phone blogging application for BTS fans called ARMY Amino (also known as ARA).

On the 22nd of February, I published a blog on ARA explaining my university project and
ETHNOGRAPHY 4

provided a link to the Google Form. The short survey contained questions about basic

demographics and simple questions on their linguistic levels and experience with BTS. At the

end of the survey, ARMYs could then request an interview that would have more in depth

questions. The survey was open until the 31st of March and I received a total of 213 responses.

The survey was able to give a pretty clear image of demographics. An overwhelming

amount of respondents were female. Nearly 98% of participants stated they were female and

95% reported being between the ages of 13 and 25 years old. One of the most interesting results

that I found from the survey was the fact that approximately 50% of survey respondents did not

speak or understand any Korean whatsoever, including myself. Yet these are people who

consider themselves big fans of this Korean boy band who only sing in Korean. The remaining

50% mostly only somewhat understood Korean as well. Only 8 out of the 213 fans stated that

they do speak or understand Korean.

For the interviews, I personally contacted each survey respondent to send them

information for the interview. Participants could either fill out another Google Form of free

response questions, have an interview with me through the ARA chat system, or have a live

interview on Google Docs if they felt comfortable enough with me. In the end, I received a total

of 103 responses through Google Forms, 18 responses through ARA chat system, and 3

responses through Google Docs.

In the beginning of my interviews, I found that a few of the ARMYs from other countries

noted how listening to Korean music such as BTS is not too odd for them because they already

listen to American music, despite living in Japan or India. This got me curious to see if this was a

pattern that I could uncover through more interviews. So I decided to also ask “are other

countries outside of America more open minded to other cultures and foreign music?” However,
ETHNOGRAPHY 5

after many more interviews, I found that this was not the case. While a good handful of fans did

remark that they had a supportive or open minded group of people around them, many responded

saying that they were bullied, criticised, or discouraged to listen to BTS because it was foreign

music. This resulted in a majority of ARMYs being closet fans, which is a term used when one

hides the fact that they are a fan of someone or something in order to avoid judgement.

Through interviews I was also able to come to a conclusion as to why ARMYs choose to

remain fans of BTS despite their music being in another language and the discrimination that

may come with this. I had initially thought that fans would comment on their appearance,

because it is a large stereotype for fangirls to obsess over a man’s looks, as many Justin Bieber

or One Direction fans are known to do. However, I found that this was not the case with any of

the interview respondents. While some did admit that they may have originally checked out the

group because of appearances, not a single individual stated that this is the reason why they

remain loyal. Many ARMYs stated that they appreciate BTS for their hard work and authenticity

as artists. Coming from normal or low income families, the members of BTS were never meant

to succeed in the hardship of Korean society. With the way that the music industry is set up in

South Korea, BTS was from a small company and stood little to no chance to make it big. But

because of their hard work and real, relatable song topics, they were able to capture the hearts of

men and women around the world to be as globally successful as they are today. This humble

attitude, positive personalities, and social awareness was the biggest reported reason as to why

their fans still kept up with BTS.

In terms of limitations, I would certainly consider the language barrier one of them. A

few different ARMYs selected that they would like to be contacted for an interview, but when I

messaged them, they responded in broken English apologizing for backing out due to their bad
ETHNOGRAPHY 6

grammar. One specifically said that they were “afraid to mess up the interview.” This language

barrier obviously prevented me from receiving too many international views. Because the survey

and interview forms were entirely in English, the respondent had to be able to communicate well

enough in English to fully submit a response. I did receive responses from many countries, but

still around 56% of the survey responses came from North America alone. Another limitation

would be the difficulty to control who submitted a survey response and how many times they

submitted one. I had several people fill out a survey or interview form multiple times on accident

to make sure that it had went through. While I tried to control this situation by deleting obvious

duplicate responses, it was certainly difficult to keep tabs on every response that was submitted.

I also found that being a fan of BTS aided my research as well as limited it because of my

bias. Being an ARMY myself, I was able to connect more with the girls around me. ARA has a

Reputation Point System that allows more experienced content producers to have a higher

ranking and I believe that seeing my higher ranking and extensive blogging profile made the

other fans feel secure in confiding about their personal fan experience. It allowed for easier

connections to be made between me and the fan and being in a social media app centered around

BTS provided a safe and trusting environment for them. Yet I can also say that I am certainly

biased towards BTS and the culture that surrounds Korean pop music.

Works Cited

Jin, D. Y., & Ryoo, W. (2012). Critical Interpretation of Hybrid K-Pop: The Global-

Local Paradigm of English Mixing in Lyrics. Popular Music and Society,37(2), 113-131.

Retrieved May 5, 2017.

ETHNOGRAPHY 7

Joo, J. (2011). Transnationalization of Korean Popular Culture and the Rise of “Pop

Nationalism” in Korea. The Journal of Popular Culture,44(3), 489-504. Retrieved May 5, 2017.

Tan, M. (2015). K-Contagion. TDR: The Drama Review,59(1), spring 2015, 83-96.

Retrieved May 5, 2017.