Authentic Idols: Curation, Agency, and Connection in the BTS Experience
Authenticity is a word that’s thrown around a lot. The most basic way that we all intuitively understand authenticity is that it’s about something being “real.” When it comes to material objects, this can be an inherent quality: a Gucci handbag is either real or fake. But when it comes to people — especially artists, celebrities, or other figures who we primarily interact with through media— the question of authenticity is a bit more complex. Authenticity, in this case, is largely perception, our feelings that the person is being real with us, that they’re not faking it, that they’re not manipulating us into liking them.
Constructing Authenticity
The fear of being deceived and manipulated is really at the heart of why we’re preoccupied with authenticity. We want to feel good about the things we like, we want to trust that the people we admire and care about are being “real” with us. When we feel that people are being authentic, the result of that feeling is that we build a sense of connection with that person. There can’t really be connection without the feelings that make up our sense of authenticity — honesty, relatability, closeness, vulnerability. So when I say that authenticity is perception, I mean that we can never really know if there’s an inherent authenticity, we can really only decide based on our feelings about the person and if they make us feel that authenticity, that connection.
Authenticity is really a cultural artifact. Different cultures might value different ingredients, or the ingredients of authenticity might be expressed differently.
Because perceived authenticity is not rooted in anything material (like the Gucci bag), it means that the “ingredients” of authenticity can vary, depending on place, time, or even individual people. The key ingredients of authenticity from a Western perspective is that people are being real, sincere, honest, and unfiltered or unscripted. As such, authenticity is really a cultural artifact. Different cultures might value different ingredients, or the ingredients of authenticity might be expressed differently.
As musicians and artists, BTS face a lot of specific criteria about authenticity. There’s a perception that, in order to be considered “good,” art has to be authentic. This understanding of “good” art is defined by both objective and subjective criteria — this is, the skill or technique with which something is done and the more individual and context-based judgments about what we believe is “good” that depend on our our culture, society, and personal tastes. For example, there is a “fantasy of the rock star” in the West that guides our expectation of what kind of music is good and authentic. Genre is also a key element of how we construct authenticity in art and music. Certain genres are considered more authentic than others, and these have certain markers of authenticity. So we expect “authentic” musicians to come up organically, to create really personal music, to be minimally produced, and to work relatively independent of any commercial pressure.
As a BTS fan, we constantly come up against these preconceptions: that because they make pop music and because they dance and because they trained to be where they are, BTS can’t be authentic. What a lot of people fixate on when it comes to BTS, and a lot of pop music is general, is that it’s all manufactured. This runs into Western preconceptions about boy bands and the many reasons they are considered to be inauthentic — from being excessively marketed, to focusing on performances instead of making great music, and, of course, the misogynistic belief that young women don’t have any taste. And, as a K-Pop group, we also run into a lot of racist and xenophobic ideas about the “factory” system and the lack of originality when compared to the Western “fantasy” of the rock star.
Authentic Idols
What we call “K-Pop” in the West is actually referred to as “idol music” in Korea. The idea of the “idol” is, of course, that it’s a representation of something greater: an idea, a deity, a fantasy. The original meaning is literally a figure or an image that represents God. Obviously, we can’t equate religion and idol culture, but the sense of worship, admiration, and the veneration of the image is contained in idol culture. An “idol” is an image, a fantasy that’s based on a real person that is built up with creative and strategic choices to appear bigger and better and shinier. Authenticity is not necessarily the goal because it dampens the illusion, the fantasy of perfection.
What’s fascinating about BTS is that they’re finding a space for themselves to become authentic idols. Their eponymous song “IDOL” is just one of many songs that takes on the challenge of negotiating their identities as artists and idols. One key way that BTS have constructed themselves as authentic idols is by not becoming an image — in the sense of being shiny, perfect, out of reach performers to be worshipped. Instead, they control their own image.
“Image” is a term I’m using both literally and figuratively. In some instances, BTS are literally controlling their image — more on this in a moment. But more figuratively, they are also in control of how they want to be perceived by us and how they negotiate their identities as artists and idols. They control their image through self-awareness and reflection, and self-expression and curation.
When I say that authenticity is a path to connection, the music BTS make is a powerful way to achieve that because ARMYs feel like they’re part of the journey.
Self-awareness and reflection are key elements of the musical journey that BTS have taken from day one. They make themselves — their hopes and dreams and fears and experiences — the subject of their music. This already feels much more honest and personal than what we’d normally expect from pop or idol music. When I say that authenticity is a path to connection, the music they make is a powerful way to achieve that because fans feel like they’re part of the journey. And not only because we get to witness their self-awareness and self-reflection, but also because they inspire us to do the same in our lives.
BTS have tried to make their music personal and relatable from day one, but the journey of growth and self-discovery has really ramped up with recent albums. A lyric from the 2019 song “Persona” states, “who am I, a question I’ve been asking myself for my whole life” and that’s also true about their musical life. They’ve asked themselves who they are and how to live, and, in turn, they’ve motivated us to ask ourselves the same questions.
Curated by BTS
A particularly compelling example of how BTS controls their image is the “Curated by BTS” series of photographs that BTS released during the promotional lead-up to their BE album, released in November 2020. As we learned throughout the process, the members were more active in the making of BE than any other previous album, as they “took a step further and [were] involved not only in the music making process, but also in the overall production: concept, composition, design, etc.” (from the official press release). As a result, the album “reflects the thoughts, emotions and deepest ruminations of BTS.” We heard the members discuss ideas for the albums through a series of “logs” that were posted on YouTube starting in April 2020. One of the suggestions was for the members to design their own rooms and style themselves for the album concept photos. That idea became the “Curated by BTS” series of photos. Each room was a unique representation of each member and the rooms were curated in color schemes and with furniture and items that expressed how the members see themselves and how they wanted to be seen by us.
Curation is a particularly useful concept when talking about the construction of authenticity because it’s the process of being selective and deliberate in how something is presented. And like authenticity, it’s both about the choices the curator makes and the feeling they want to evoke in the audience. In this case, the “Curated by BTS” photos are a way that BTS are being selective and deliberate with their self-presentation and with how they want to be perceived. And that, ultimately, becomes a very powerful way of controlling their image and expressing themselves.
“Curated by BTS” is essentially a kind of self-portrait. Self-portraits aren’t always entirely accurate representations of the self but they express a number of key ideas about an artist and their art. And, again, it’s a way for the artist to control their own image, both literally and figuratively. The first way a self-portrait achieves that is by demonstrating the artist’s agency. “Agency” means that we’re able to make free and independent choices and be in control of our lives. A second key idea in self-portraits is that they’re a reflection of identity, because they capture and represent particular aspects of who we are and how we want to show ourselves to the world at a moment in time.
With “Curated by BTS,” we see BTS’s agency, that they are controlling their image, and that they select how they want to represent themselves and how they want to be seen. It also emphasizes expression as a way to construct authenticity — in that they curated their rooms as a way to express their taste, their aesthetic, and what they like and care about. “Curated by BTS” allows them to be both subject and object — they are the artists who exercise agency and free expression, but they also acknowledge that being an idol is often being the object, the image, the thing to be looked at.
Their authenticity is a process, a work in progress. It’s the process of navigating identity and sharing that journey with fans.
It is this self-awareness and the way that BTS often nudge us to question, to think, and to look inward that is at the heart of their authenticity and the connection they have with fans. Their authenticity is a process, a work in progress. It’s the process of navigating identity and sharing that journey with fans. It’s crafting the narrative together, so that the sense of authenticity is not just genuine, but shared.
The big question, then, is: are BTS authentic idols? However, as I’ve pointed out so far, that’s not quite the right question to ask. We can only ever ask if, how, and why we perceive them to be authentic. As a fan and a fan scholar, I’m always interested in the question of how we, as fans, experience connection, and how that connection can be built and maintained. I think authenticity is a key part of that, and we can’t fully connect to something or someone if we don’t connect to their version of authenticity. Our perception of how BTS are being authentic helps us create a sense of connection with them. And it’s that connection and how it’s fostered by our emotional experience of authenticity, that is ultimately the point.
