Resources

BTS’s production team’s original content choice for 2022: “Telepathy.”

Producer Pdogg’s music choice for BTS 2022: “For Youth.”

BTS performance director Lee Byung Eun’s performance choice for 2022: “Run BTS.”

Dr. Youngdae Kim is a music critic and author, holding a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from the University of Washington, Seattle. Born and raised in South Korea, he lived in the US from 2007 to 2020 where he studied music while observing and documenting the evolution of global K-pop over a decade. Kim has contributed his critical articles to both Korean and American media, including Vulture, MTV, and the Hankyoreh, and appeared on numerous TV/radio shows, podcasts, and public/academic lectures globally. He is the author of multiple books, including BTS The Review: The Comprehensive Look at the Music of BTS (2019) and Idols as Artists in the K-pop Era (2021).

This article uses BTS as a case to examine how fans' abilities to expand mediated liveness challenges frameworks of popularity and publicity through viral appearances.