The Unintentional Plastic Consumerism of K-Pop

Hi everyone!

 

Today I’ll be talking about K-Pop!! Korean Pop is a popular genre of music originating from South Korea that has taken the world by storm. In the late 2000s, these Korean groups started to make its mark around Asia, gaining more popularity every year, and has slowly made its way around the world. According to Vox:

 

“K-pop has become a truly global phenomenon thanks to its distinctive blend of addictive melodies, slick choreography and production values, and an endless parade of attractive South Korean performers who spend years in grueling studio systems learning to sing and dance in synchronized perfection.”

 

However, underneath all the glitz and glamour, k-pop can arguably be considered a product of mass consumerism. From collecting posters and photocards when buying the physical albums, to collecting different lightsticks at concerts, the entire k-pop fandom revolves around the act of extreme devotion resulting in consumerist activity.

 

Now let’s look at some of these consumerist activity in greater detail.

 

Light sticks

 

If you are not part of a k-pop fandom, you might not understand what these light sticks are and how big of an importance they play in boosting a fans experience in a concert so let me break it down for you.

 

https://zenmarket.jp/en/blog/post/7969/kpop-lightsticks

 

Light sticks are a huge part of the K-pop culture. Different K-Pop groups personalise their light sticks to be of different shapes and colours from the rest, each holding different meanings that are special to each individual fandom. Not only are there different light sticks for every fandom but there are also many different editions of light sticks for a single fandom.

 

https://www.koreaboo.com/lists/best-kpop-lightsticks-chosen-koreans/

 

These light sticks are brought to concerts where all the fans would use them to bring up the atmosphere in the theatre and to enhance the strength of their fan chants, showing their love and support for their favourite K-Pop groups.

 

CD Albums

 

Another merchandise that fans tend to splurge on would be the physical albums that each of these groups release. These albums are unlike typical music albums that other artists release due to the fact that what you get with each album is more than just the music itself.

 

Each album would usually come in an interestingly shaped packaging and include bonus DVDs, a photocard of a random member, postcards, and sometimes even  a photobook with photos and lyrics. However, since each album would give you a photocard of a random member, fans would tend to buy multiple albums in the hopes of collecting the photocard of their favourite member or even to collect the photocard for all the members in the group.

 

Not only that, these K-Pop groups tend to have multiple releases including mini albums,  repackaged albums and special edition albums which fans won’t hesitate to get their hands on.

 

How is this a problem for our environment?

 

After learning about all of this, it is clear how K-Pop fuels the consumeristic culture. However, in this environmentally conscious age, it is hard for us to ignore the negative impacts this culture has on our environment. The lengths to which K-Pop fans go to support their favourite groups and show loyalty towards them is so extensive to the point that they are blindly contributing to plastic pollution.

 

With their concerts increasing at a rate of 82% a year, K-Pop now has an extensive global fanbase all of which contribute to this consumerism culture. Since the success of these K-Pop artists are entirely dependent on their fandom, fans will do anything and everything they can to support their favourite groups including spending lots of money on their merchandise.

 

All of the merchandize that they strive to collect such as the numerous plastic light sticks and the many releases of their plastic packaged CD albums will eventually end up as waste in the bin. From there they will make their way to landfills where they will get incinerated and release greenhouse gases into our environment.

 

With such a global audience, the result of their consumerism culture has become a global problem of plastic pollution, one in which sees no end.

 

 

References:

 

Romano, A. (2018, February 16). How K-pop became a global phenomenon. Retrieved November 10, 2020, from https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/2/16/16915672/what-is-kpop-history-explained

 

Tai, C. (2019, May 13). Light Up Your World: Light Sticks and K-Pop. Retrieved November 10, 2020, from https://snackfever.com/blogs/magazine/light-up-your-world-light-sticks-and-k-pop

 

Ai-Da-Ice. (1970, January 01). Whose packaging strategies are more evil?: J-Pop vs. K-Pop. Retrieved November 10, 2020, from http://qat2pa-apops.blogspot.com/2014/05/whose-packaging-strategies-are-more.html

 

Dang, D. (2020, March 15). [OP-ED] Kpop in the age of environmental awareness – how does it fare? Retrieved November 10, 2020, from https://unitedkpop.com/2020/03/op-ed-kpop-in-the-age-of-environmental-awareness-how-does-it-fare/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Skip to toolbar