Becoming Korean: K-pop idol culture and the rise of soft power in Iran

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This study examines practices of K-pop music listening among Iranian fans and the emergence of Iranian fandom in a globalized context at the intersection of global Islam and Korean soft power. I propose that Iranian fans of K-pop constitute a new counter-public in Iran today, one that focuses on listening, analysis, comparison, and knowledge production, which generates methods of expression among fans.The post 1979 revolutionary Iranian government gender segregates and monitors public spaces. Surveillance occurs through the politicisation and control of art, music, women, Gen-Z/teenagers and social activities. However, the government permits certain media, including Korean popular culture. At South Korean funded Sejong Institutes, for instance, Iranian women gather to study the Korean language and consume Korean media. Ensuing discussions compare K-pop with other popular music in Iran. Contrary to common understandings of K-pop as simply derived from Western models, these listeners find linkages with Iranian, Turkish and Arab popular music.These discussions continue in online spaces that fall betwixt-and-between government surveillance. Although the government blocks most social media platforms, the Iranian counter-public uses filterbreakers to access these platforms to connect with each other and worldwide communities of K-pop fans. Placing Iran within flows of global popular culture that sits entirely outside of the West, cultivates new forms of expression that do not depend on Western influence-a stance that enables safety in a location where the West is deemed an enemy.Extant scholarship on K-pop primarily focuses on the organisation of K-pop industry (Shin 2009; Lei 2012; Park 2013; Fuhr 2017), the spread of Korean cultural products (Oh 2014; Yoon 2017), and connections to Western models (Jung 2006; Fuhr 2017). Fandom studies examine East Asia and the West, focusing on cultural hybridity (Yoon 2017) and the social identities of fans (Keshin-Binark 2021). This project examines the growth of K-pop within the Iranian society for which no scholarship exists, and also offers innovative conclusions about the listening and analytical practices of K-pop in the making of a vibrant counter-public both online and offline. In the spirit of decolonising scholarship and decentring Western ideas, this project places global Korea and the agency of young Iranian women at its centre.Research questionsHow do Iranian counterpublics emerge through K-pop listening practices? How do practices of taste emerge from K-pop listening and how identities are reshaped in new taste groups?How might the case of Iranian listening practices offer novel insights into Korean popular music and movie studies away from a Euro American centred focus? How might analysis in social media settings build new fan bases?MethodologyThe project utilizes virtual ethnography to study fan communities. I will track Instagram and Telegram particularly, due to popularity with Iranian fans. I will engage with Iranian websites and forums providing Korean media. If safe, I will undertake several weeks of fieldwork in Tehran and Isfahan to visit Korean language institutes where K-pop fans meet. I will study the musical intersection between Iranian and Kpop music and understand how Iranian audiences hear familiarity in K-pop.