How EXO is Advertising in the USA and South Korea
In recent years, the K-Pop wave has become more prevalent in the United States thanks to the wide range of artists and groups from BTS (or Bangtan Boys) to Tiffany Young (or Tiffany of Girl's Generation). Through this wave, these people have rapidly gained more fans and gained wider attention from fellow artists and other celebrities from the music industry, the entertainment industry, and even the fashion industry. One group that has garnered my attention and time as a K-Pop fan for more than a decade now is EXO. As a fan of K-Pop for about a decade and counting, I noticed how the group was differently portrayed and/or promoted in South Korea versus the United States. This is contributed by an apparent difference in hegemony and ideologies from both countries, which that align with alienation between fans (called EXO-Ls) and EXOs, culture and the surging rise of EXO as well as Asian representation in the United States media. As an addition to this piece, I will use my recorded mediums from my experience at an EXO’Luxion concert in Los Angeles as examples and as the art element to further emphasize the difference in promotions for this group.
To briefly introduce EXO and to not dwell into too much back history, EXO is currently a nine-member male K-Pop group from S.M. Entertainment, one of the top entertainment companies in South Korea, that comprises of eight South Korean members and one Chinese member. They debuted in South Korea in 2012 with their title song, Mama, that was uploaded through online media platforms such as YouTube. The world of K-Pop is a competitive one where awards matter to the livelihood of a K-Pop group, and also rely a lot on luck to garner attention. There is a concept in mind that connects to this. According to Antonio Gramsci’s chapter titled “Hegemony, Intellectuals, and the State,” one of the factors of hegemony is that a “class is dominant in two ways, i.e. ‘leading’ and ‘dominant’. It leads the classes which are its allies, and dominates those which are its enemies.” (Gramsci, 11) At first glance, this seems like an abstract sentiment but these statements describes what EXO did to get to where they are. The class for EXO’s case is their entertainment company. When they first debuted, many people and K-Pop fans including myself in South Korea and internationally outside of South Korea were skeptical of EXO. How they are marketed is through their pre-debut videos which suggest they are from another world. To elaborate further, their group’s concept is that the EXO members are from another planet called EXO Planet and they landed on Earth in search of love and each other, and there is an entire lore on this alien concept through their music videos and fan theories. However, the main form of advertising in South Korea is through variety shows, which are essentially entertainment shows that allow the audience to see a more down-to-earth and/or goofy side to the guests, hosts, and even the crew of the shows. Many shows on South Korea would use this concept as a talking point and on how unusual the concept is, even making them demonstrate their “superpowers”. As absurd as the concept sounds, it was a positive way to promote them because it allows the audience and fans to see a human side to them behind the personas their company has assigned them with. Now, they and the fan do not even discuss or even mention their powers as fans and the audience see the down-to-earth boyfriend- material side to them. Thanks to these shows, it has allowed opportunities for them to be sponsored by companies to be the representative for product advertisements. They even have a romantic- comedy show called “Exo Next Door” that all fans and EXO also do not mention and simply pretend it does not exists. In the United States, how they are advertised is that they are seen as a force to be reckoned with through their music and their music primarily. An example of this is my video recording of the inside of the stadium for the EXO’luxion concert before it began. This is an example of the result of the hegemony that was put in place. They lead with their allies who are the fans and dominated their enemies who are the people that underestimated them.
It may be a known fact to those both fan and not of K-Pop that there is a sense of glitz and glamour that seems almost unreal. In terms of the ideology of EXO, we as an audience do not really see more than what we are getting. The type of ideology that I am referring to is from the sub-chapter titled “Ideology” of the chapter “Basic Concepts” in Raymond Williams’ book Marxism and Literature. It is the second ideology in which “a system of illusory beliefs - false ideas or false consciousness - which can be contrasted with true or scientific knowledge”. (Williams, 55) How this relates to EXO is the image they portray to the people to both the United States and South Korea. EXO was promoted a lot in South Korea through a wide range of mediums and audiences from small music venues to TV guest appearances and product advertisements. While in the United States, the group were promoted for their performances and occasionally product advertisements. However, this coverage was primarily online through fan recordings or uploaded advertisements, or through the news for a pop-culture segway. For my art element, I chose one of my final pictures I shot that depicts EXO on stage taking a group photo. Though there are more people at the stadium, they mainly took a photo of those in the pit and anyone in the middle the camera managed to capture.
This male group was promoted through online media such as YouTube for their pre-debut. Despite that, their popularity grew and garnered a lot of offers and opportunities that go past music. In South Korea, there are a lot more advertisements, films, and televisions shows starring and/or endorsed by EXO members. On the other end of the globe, the United States in terms of advertising EXO is rather a one-shot story on the news or just online presence. Physical advertisements for EXO can be seen in the Korean districts or stores in any areas that feature a predominantly Asian population. Also, one of the only ways to even manage to view these advertisements and acting portrayals is through online streaming sites and through the Korean televisions channels if you can correspond with the time zones. International fans, or fans outside of South Korea, would sometimes or used to not feel the impact of K-Pop, but still want to support their favorite groups so they can garner awards and attention. According to Arthur Berger’s section on “Alienation” in his book Media Analysis Techniques, advertising subtly imposes their views and what they believe would be our choices onto us the consumers. (Berger 54) An example I have as an art element would be the poster I bought after the concert. Even though I was excited to finally purchase my first EXO merchandise, I realize sometime after that it rather filled a void and I do find myself later on not being a strong fan of EXO as I was in my earlier years.
There is an apparent difference in hegemony and ideologies from both countries, which that align with alienation between fans (called EXO-Ls) and EXOs, culture and the surging rise of EXO . I have been a fan of K-Pop since approximately 2009, but after that, I took a year break from the genre. However, around 2011 one music group that lured me back to the K-Pop fandom (or group of fans of a pop culture icon) was EXO. In recent years, there is more Asian representation in the United States media not only in K-Pop but also in television shows like Killing Eve starring Sandra Oh and movies like Crazy Rich Asians. Both examples have Asians in starring roles. Learning the correlations between the topics we learned in class and how I related it to EXO, I learned about the consumer side and facade of the K-Pop industry but still being a consumer by supporting EXO through streaming and interacting with fellow EXO-Ls.
