Dickinson College Dickinson Scholar Student Honors Theses By Year Student Honors Theses Spring 5-17-2020 K-Pop Connection: Maintaining Fandom Loyalty in K-Pop and V Live Amanda Xiong Dickinson College Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.dickinson.edu/student_honors Part of the Korean Studies Commons, and the Music Commons Recommended Citation Xiong, Amanda, "K-Pop Connection: Maintaining Fandom Loyalty in K-Pop and V Live" (2020). Dickinson College Honors Theses. Paper 379. This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Dickinson Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. K-Pop Connection: Maintaining Fandom Loyalty in K-Pop and V Live Amanda Xiong Senior Thesis Department of East Asian Studies Dickinson College May 6, 2020 Xiong 2 Introduction “It’s almost like a drug—companies keep giving just a little bit more to maintain interest and fans always come back.” - Alice, female 23-year-old K-pop fan from America Korean popular music, more commonly known as K-pop, is a smaller branch of the Hallyu Wave. Hallyu refers to the international success of Korean popular cultural products such as film, music, television, radio, fashion, and computer games.1 In recent years, K-pop has seen a tremendous rise in global popularity as more and more K-pop artists attempt to leave their mark on the Western music scene. However, the reasons for this success continue to elude scholars. Some, such as Solee Shin, believe that the answer lies in the way K-pop companies conduct their business and marketing strategies to appeal to fandoms.