• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.1-13
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• 2018

Idol goods refer to products such as cups and towels, or mementos or souvenirs that are manufactured to gratify the desires of fandom and may include the facial images of a star. The objective of this research was to explore the purchase behaviors of K-pop idol goods. Two hundred and sixty female idol goods purchasers in their twenties participated in an online survey. Cheering tools were the most often purchased idol goods, followed by idol slogans and dolls. To investigate the difference in idol goods' attributes they considered when shopping, respondents were divided into three purchase groups based on their annual total expense for purchasing idol goods. There were significant differences among light, medium and heavy purchasers in terms of goods' price, practical features, and scarcity. The light shopper group was majorly guided by price and practical features as compared to the other two groups, and heavy shopper group was majorly guided by scarcity attribute than in the other two shopper groups. The more they identified their favorite idols, the more they worked hard, the higher their income, the higher the expenses of investing in idol products, the more likely they were to repurchase idol goods. In term of post-purchase behavior of idol goods, most idol goods purchase by fans were stored rather than used, and few indicated that they purchase two identical idol goods for use and storage.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.291-302
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• 2020

Korean popular music industry, which is lead by "Idol group", has forsaken their fandom all over the world. Therefore, idol groups has become not only an artist but also the most influential people in the Korean economy. A global idol group with a strong fandom can earn more than a trillion-dollar by attracting their global fan's interest in Korea. In other words, it is considerably important to carry the idol to a successful conclusion. This study tries to expect whether the idols can be survived or not at a certain point after their debut by ANN, Decision Tree, Random Forest. We decide that certain point as the three-year and eight-year after their debut, because it is their break-even point year and the year after their average renewal of the contract. In addition, this study also explains which feature is the most important to their survival by feature importance and Logistic regression. In conclusion, features like the number of idol competitors, the number of debut members and the number of the genre are significant. These results shed light on the efficient management of K-Pop idol to improve industrial competitiveness.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.71-84
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• 2011

This study is purposed to categorize external image types of Korean male idol stars, and to understand characteristics of fashion and beauty design for each type and through such, the study is meant to identify the various types of male image and to provide data of image making. As part of the empirical study, it selected well-known 15 groups of male idol stars who were active during February of 2008 and August of 2010, categorized the image types by their photographic data, and analyzed characteristics of fashion and beauty design for each type. In order to measure the degree of image types, a survey was also conducted. The image types of male idol stars, which were classified through a workshop by a group of image-related experts, were categorized with 6 types that are Elite, Urban Chic, Charisma, Rebellious child, Toy boy, and Homme Fatale. The six types of male idol stars have a great relation with the modern male trends and images, and that the male idol stars have been leading the trends and presenting the image by the public preference. In addition, as shown the above, the recent male image appears as a mixed image of femininity and masculinity, showing a complex aspect that does not dominates with one image, and that it was found out to constantly be changing in the flow of times.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.221-232
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• 2019

The uniqueness of the K-Pop 'idol' culture, which is a key area of its success, can be found not only through the acceptance of diverse cultures and the strengthening of the performance capacity, but also by the effective utilization of new technological environment. As a result, the Korean idol system, which is distinguished from the Japanese idol system, is established. And these systems are evolving with new technological environments. This paper examines the process of evolution of the Korean idol system that adapts to the technical environment through the case of the idol girl group 'IZ*ONE'. 'IZ*ONE' not only achieved rapid success by actively utilizing SNS and new media and producing interactive narratives, but also establishing stable expansion and homogeneity of fandom through interactive rituals. By comparing the evolution and achievement of such a system with the Japanese idol system, we will be able to present the factors of K-Pop success more clearly.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.110-125
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• 2023

Virtual idol groups are a product of changes in cultural content and development of digital technology. The purpose of this study is to derive the characteristics of technical expression and fashion of virtual idol groups of Korean entertainment companies, and the significance of this study is to provide basic data for creating a new content business model for virtual idol groups. The research method of this study consisted of literature research and case analysis. Korean virtual idol groups 'K/DA', 'Aespa', and 'Eternity', which show the evolved business model of the entertainment industry through rapid advances in digital technology, were selected as the subject of case analysis for this study, and newspaper articles were searched by keywords and analyzed. As a result of the study, the technical expressions shown in Korean virtual idol groups were 'implementation of realistic content through interaction technology', 'delicate motion expression through motion capture technology', and 'convergence of information between the real world and virtual world through AR technology', 'provision of experience similar to reality by VR technology' and 'formation of cultural contents by Deep Real technology' were deriven. In addition, the characteristics of the Korean virtual guide idol group's fashion are 'marketing strategy through collaboration with fashion items', 'giving recognition as a digital fashion icon of real existence', 'creating a sensuous image as a fashion brand ambassador' and 'fashion style expression of the Z generation's sensibility'.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.1-18
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• 2021

Idol music, which began to gain huge popularity in the domestic music market in the mid-1990s, has become one of the major global contents thanks to the global popularity of K-POP. As a result, the Korean music market continues to grow, forming the world's sixth-largest music market, and domestic music agencies are focusing more on fostering idol groups and producing idol music. The global success of idol music is surprising, but this has resulted in the domestic music market being biased toward idol music. As a result of the study, it was confirmed that there are several problems with the phenomenon of being biased toward similar types of musicians and music content. First, just as trend-oriented cultural contents face the problem of life expectancy all the time, the "Korean Wave" is also forced to think in terms of identity and sustainability. Second, it was observed that only consumers of a certain age may cause cultural alienation of other age groups, and thirdly, various problems such as shrinking creative paths due to the size of the cost required for idol group production and the lifespan of idol musicians' art activities. This paper derives the reality of the domestic idol bias phenomenon through comparative analysis of the English-American music market and the domestic music market, which have had a profound influence on the global music market in popular music history, and verified the theory and results through an expert survey using the Likert scale. In addition, the problems caused by the idol bias phenomenon were considered based on the theory of cultural diversity, and improvement directions were also suggested to solve this problem.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.69-78
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• 2020

K/DA is a K-pop virtual idol based on the game character. This study analyzed the creation process, characteristics and existential meaning of virtual idols from the perspective of Pataphysics. K/DA is a character with both characteristics of game character and K-pop girl group. Also, virtual character and real idol share the body through motion capture and augmented reality(AR). As a result, K/DA crosses virtual and reality, and at the same time becomes a pataphysical subject that does not belong to either virtual or reality. K/DA is suggested a third zone where digital subjects will be located in the future.

• Journal of The Korean Association of Information Education
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.701-710
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• 2018

In the 4th Industrial Revolution, it is a time when all the devices and people interact to create new added value. Software education is necessary in elementary school because what is more important is software. However, until now there is a lack of teaching and learning methods for software education in elementary school. In this paper, IDOL model is proposed as a method to solve this problem. statements for elementary students. The idol model is learning through observe, to implement, to diversify. In the implementation, the elementary students are to make it quickly, In the diversification, it is variously changing the things that have been made, and observation how the changed things are different. A model is verified by a group of experts consisting of elementary school teachers.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.47-57
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• 2019

New product innovation is a key component of a company's survival and sustained growth. With the rapidly changing market environment and global infinite competition, The importance of innovative new product development is growing. In the domestic entertainment industry, Competition is intensifying, and many companies are focusing on developing innovative new products in order to secure continuous competitive advantage in the era of global infinite competition. The problem is that as the intensity of competition increases and the idol production system develops more and more, The costs of planning and marketing are increasing. The fair trade commission estimated the cost of creating an idol group to be about 1 billion won, and some large entertainment companies claim that the investment cost is about 20 ~ 3 billion won. Lean startup is attracting attention as an innovation framework for sustainable competitive advantage of companies. But, there are not many related studies in Korea despite the growing interest. In particular, Case studies that can help to establish specific strategies are limited. Therefore, this study analyzed the successful case of JYP Entertainment's idol singer TWICE who succeeded in new product innovation and suggested practical implications. Theoretically, This study extended the Lean startup to the entertainment industry and suggested practical implications as the basic data for establishing the innovation strategies for the idol singers of domestic entertainment companies.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.63-71
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• 2020

K-Pop is powerful. Once considered to be at the periphery of global music scene, it is now reaching the whole world. Not surprisingly, the media, domestic and foreign, have scrambled to unlock the secrets of K-Pop's phenomenal growth. In doing so, they have not failed to highlight the underside of its success, such as cut-throat competition among idol-group members and the programmed member replacement by their agencies. One of the most notable characteristics in this process is called, in their business jargon, 'the graduation system'. This paper attempts to explicate this management practice unique to K-pop industry. To do so, this paper draws on Rene Girard's work on desires, particularly his notion of mimesis, violence and the scapegoat mechanism. Based on a documentary film, interactive online sites and a monograph that have chronicled how the K-pop girl group <9 Muses> have 'graduated' during their debut process, this paper applies, as its main analytical tool, the scapegoat mechanism and attempts to explore on its basis what 'the system' entails for the K-pop industry in general and the actors working within it in particular.