(soft dramatic music) (suspenseful music) Fan: I'm from Russia and came just to for meet Kang Daniel. He's really kind. I love this guy very much.

And music too. Bernie Cho: For K-Pop stars, a fan meeting, you can sell out arenas, just packed, almost like it's a mega church. It is just silent.

But the moment the cue happens, it's probably quieter having your ear next to an airplane engine than sitting in one of these fan meetings. (crowd cheers) ("Touchin'" by Kang Daniel) ♪ Ooh hoo ♪ ♪ Touching like we know each other ♪ ♪ Touching like we know each other ♪ ♪ Ooh hoo ♪ ♪ ♪ Ooh hoo ♪ (crowd cheers) (upbeat pop music) (crowd screams) (crowd screams) (crowd screams) (crowd screams) (upbeat pop music) Bernie Cho: There's roughly about a hundred million K-Pop fans around the world. These fans are hardcore, super passionate.

(crowd screams) (upbeat pop music) Every K-Pop group has a specific name for their fans. So a good example would be SHINee where our fandom name is SHINee WORLD or SHAWOL for short. Amber Liu: So we have one fandom name, it is MeU.

It's literally Me, U. MeU. Ha.

(crowd screams) (gentle music) ♪ ♪ Baby, I'm fallin', fallin' ♪ You don't make it ♪ Call me, call me ♪ ("What Are You Up To" by Kang Daniel) ♪ Baby, I'm fallin', fallin' ♪ Can't you make it call me, call me ♪ (crowd screams) (crowd screams) (uptempo pop music) Bernie Cho: Your hardcore, diehard fans are defined any and every way possible to vote for you because having their favourite act debut at number one means everything to them. How do you make a K-Pop group or any group last a long time? There's a very short answer.

You have to find that fine point in the middle, what they want to hear, what you want to give 'em. If you follow that formula, you have a very happy family. (soft pop music) I'm Mary Funk.

I am from Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. I am going to the SuperM concert in Vancouver today. I saw NCT 127 last year in Vancouver, so I'm really excited to see some of the members again.

♪ We'll take the highway to heaven ♪ And I can't wait to love you all alone ♪ (Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah, yeah) ♪ Mary Funk: I just love their concepts, their songs, their dancing. Performance production, everything. I'm not knocking like today's pop but like lots of the stuff kind of like sounds the same like trap and rap, so to find something that I like to listen to and I also like the words of, it's-it's a really cool feeling.

♪ Skrrt pull up in the coupe, beep-beep ♪ Girl, I got your lovin' on repeat (Brra) ♪ I'm going to show you guys what I usually pack for a K-Pop concert. Your concert outfits. Your own name slogan.

You actually can't forget about your lightstick. ♪ You want to see ♪ Tell all your friends that you're busy, they know ♪ They know we got the chemistry ♪ Mary Funk: For the concert today, I made like four of these hats that I'll be giving out for free and then I also made like 50 of these patches here. I know when I first went to NCT 127, my first K-Pop concert, it made it super memorable for me 'cause I was like, wow, I got all this like free stuff and everyone was so sweet to me, like as someone that didn't really love themselves in high school, that really connected with me and, sorry.

I met so many amazing friends from it. I'm actually meeting like a few more people that I met online today. So, we just got to the arena and Mary's here and we have the camera crew as well.

Lots of people already lined up which is crazy. We have our lightsticks. We're ready.

(soft pop music) (crowd cheers) Bernie Cho: These aren't just your normal sort of raver style glow sticks. These are hardcore hardware. Ah!

You know, when you, uh, pair your lightstick with their seats, we can manage with the console here, so she follows the beat of the music, so basically we can make a wave start from the bottom to top or top to bottom. (crowd cheers) Ky Hanitijo: Being a part of such movement, you know, it's not just one person supporting an artist. (crowd screams) Ky Hanitijo: Thousands and thousands of people in one arena, like that makes a whole ocean.

Not to be cheesy but, no, we do become their shining light. (crowd cheers) Mary Funk: I mean, the amount of money spent on like merch, fan made stuff, albums, it's, it's quite a lot. (slow tempo pop music) Bernie Cho: Merchandising licensing, it is a huge business.

In fact, for a lot of these top K-Pop acts, they're going to likely make as much money selling merch as they are selling music. (slow tempo pop music) I buy a ton of K-Pop CD's. They have so much in them.

Like you get like a photo book with them, a CD, um, you get a little photo card. (Mary screams and laughs) They're usually worth the money. Korea is the only country in the world where CD sales not only grew but grew by double digits.

I remember this one fan bought like a hundred copies and, uh, they sent me the receipt. Ky Hanitijo: K-Pop is expensive but, uh, fans keep supporting them like me because we are passionate about the artists, their art and the music and just in general, we want to support them as much as we can. (loud music) (crowd cheers) Did you guys like the show?

(crowd cheers) (crowd cheers) (slow pop music) Bernie Cho: Kang Daniel did his time with the band but he went on to become a solo artist. He's the boy next door that daughters love and mothers love and everybody loves. (crowd cheers) Bernie Cho: I think what a lot of people perhaps fell in love with is his story.

(lively pop music) (sighs) (suspenseful music) Bernie Cho: In Korea, TV audition shows went above and beyond what we're accustomed to in Western markets. Audition shows on Korean TV remind people of the American Idol or The Voice but for some, maybe The Hunger Games. (speaking in foreign language) (lively pop music) (crowd cheers) Bernie Cho: It essentially transferred the skill of A&R to the hands of the fans themselves.

And so, for many years the Produce series was a surefire way to have a hit and not just become a star but a superstar. But as fast as the rise was, the fall was just as quick. Fans got suspicious when two of the very popular members that were placing amazingly throughout the season did not make it.

(dramatic music) ♪ I do feel like, betrayed and also heartbroken for those trainees that worked so hard. It's like they're innocent but they have to be dragged down by the scandal. Bernie Cho: At the end of the day, boy bands and girl bands will never go away.

Audition shows will never go away, but the music industry has to face the music in terms of what can be done differently, what can be done better, and what can be done right. Ky Hanitijo: So, I think as fans we do have the power to change the market demand and the industry. We have the power to shape where the future is going for K-Pop as well.

(dramatic music) ♪ Amber Liu: With social media, they just share this information. The amount of organization that goes into all of this, it's insane. The level of mobilization is almost military like.

The army's not synonymous with military, it's now synonymous with probably one of the most vocal and active fan clubs in the world. (lively pop music) ♪ (vocalizing) (upbeat pop music) No matter who you are, where you're from, your skin colour, your gender identity, just speak yourself. BTS, they inspire so many people and, um, they're right about like mental health, depression.

(slow pop music) (slow pop music) ♪ Bernie Cho: When you look at who are leading these movements, it's often young women, and it's not just one leader, it's almost like a cabal of multiple leaders who work together. Depending on certain market or certain language, each of them have certain responsibilities. They're often translating the articles, subtitling the music videos.

Their mobilization to make sure that BTS would hit number one all around the world was just staggering. (lively pop music) (fans screaming) (upbeat pop music) ♪ (crowd cheers) ♪ Ooh hoo ♪ ♪ Touching like we know each other ♪ ♪ Touching like we know each other ♪ ♪ Ooh hoo ♪ ♪ Touching like we know each other ♪ ♪ Touching like we know each other ♪ One of the things that we're starting to see unfortunately is the rise of cyberbullying, which is leading to not only depression but sometimes even death. I think they have a lot of pressure on them and you just want to see them be happy, you know?

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