The Platformization of K-Pop: From Weverse to NFTs

Abstract

With the rapid growth of digital technologies, K-Pop has been at the center of the Korean cultural industries in the early 21st century. K-Pop continues to be a frontier of digital platforms and entertainment agencies that utilize digital technologies to advance new forms of cultural production. Indeed, K-Pop has been more deeply connected to digital platforms than any other cultural genre. In “The Platformization of K-Pop: From Weverse to NFTs,” Dal Yong Jin outlines how emergent media platforms drove shifts in the marketing and distribution of music, the facilitation of interactions between K-Pop idols and fans on social media, and the innovation of new forms of digital performance and art. The author looks at the case study of BTS to track how these new forms have developed.