RUN BTS, BTS’s original web series, has aired around 125 episodes over its five-year run on V LIVE and Weverse, with numerous episodes exceeding 10 million views. Last year, episodes were aired featuring the esports team T1—including world-renowned player Faker—as well as members dubbing over animations authorized by Disney, who are famously stringent with their copyrights. That some episodes of RUN BTS, an original series made by one group especially for their fans, have been aired as specials on major broadcast networks including Mnet and JTBC since 2018 is emblematic of the rapidly growing status and influence, even on legacy media, of original content produced by the K-pop industry.

Each new episode of GOING SEVENTEEN, a web-based variety show that SEVENTEEN hosts on YouTube, V LIVE and Weverse, has an average of over 750,000 views on the first day of its release. In the three instances since August that the show did not air, the show’s title ranked among the most searched terms on web portal Naver’s real-time top 10 searches. GOING SEVENTEEN is gaining widespread appeal with teenagers and, consequently, by December 23, GOING SEVENTEEN 2020 exceeded 74.5 million cumulative views and six million subscribers on YouTube. The following day, a 12-hour clip show stream attracted 1.49 million viewers. In the K-pop world, self-made or original content generally refers to media created by the artists themselves for their fans. However, as RUN BTS and GOING SEVENTEEN show, the definition of an “original” is changing. The production team for GOING SEVENTEEN also said that they aim for the program to be “competitive, including with mass media.”

It took 327 days for SEVENTEEN’s YouTube channel to increase in subscribers from four million to five; it took only 181 days to then reach six million. SEVENTEEN’s channel includes not only GOING SEVENTEEN but also their music videos, as well as videos showing their choreography, behind the scenes, and the members’ individual work. In line with the explosive growth in subscribers, it seems fair to say that SEVENTEEN’s YouTube channel has become a wide platform that showcases everything about the group. Likewise, it is no exaggeration to say that BTS’s history is itself a gigantic castle built from their accumulated self-made media. Since their start 10 years ago in 2011 until they were named the most mentioned account in the world on Twitter and through to today as the most talked-about K-pop artist, BTS have released more than 12,400 videos and related media. Their YouTube channel, BANGTANTV, has secured 43.4 million subscribers and its videos more than 8.1 billion views cumulatively since its launch in 2012, and has 1,398 videos in its archive as of January 15. BTS have posted more than 590 videos to their V LIVE channel over the past five years, and in June of last year became the first in V LIVE history to surpass 20 million followers. These self-produced videos contain the artists’ histories as well as their messages to and joy for their fanbases, and this original content serves as an opportunity to reach out to even more people thanks to increased follower and subscriber counts.

“We wanted to create our own channel and provide content that way to ensure both quantity and quality,” Kim Su-lin, Lead Professional of Big Hit Three Sixty’s Artist Content Studio, said. BTS’s content plan stems from an “awareness of the problem of how difficult it can be to reach the public through existing broadcasters and formats” and was a decision made to overcome the limitations of legacy media, Kim said. When BTS dubbed over Disney animations on RUN BTS, Zootopia screenwriter Jared Bush and Mexican voice actor Carlos Segundo praised the performances through comments they left on their social media. This kind of response can be expected thanks to BTS’s global superstardom, but it also suggests we are in an era where original content like RUN BTS can easily spread around the world. From the beginning, RUN BTS was planned while keeping in mind international users of the V LIVE platform who are major fans of K-pop and already familiar with fan culture. RUN BTS has continuously leveraged this to regularly produce original content that shows off each member’s charm and their relationship with the whole K-pop fanbase since August 2015, and with a new theme every time. According to Bang Woo-jung, Senior Professional of Big Hit Three Sixty’s Creative Studio, “Just as a travel program naturally ends when the trip is over, we realized that we wouldn’t be able to continue on if we tried to stick to just one topic or concept, so we decided to keep every possibility open and make it an anything-goes type of variety show.”

The freedom to explore everything is ultimately a way to show an artist’s appeal. “Only when the artist really enjoys themselves can the viewers be happy, too,” said Bang. “Conversely, the artist can only enjoy filming when the viewers are happy.” When the esports team T1 appeared as guests, the producers focused the episode around games as a common interest linking BTS and T1, but chose games that everyone could enjoy together regardless of skill level. The two teams quickly grew comfortable with one another and by the end of filming were more like old friends, free of any awkwardness or pressure. The animation dubbing, meanwhile, started with an idea from the members. “Having watched the members for so long, I was confident they would be good at voice acting,” said Bang. “They told each other they wanted to try dubbing something, so we got to work on the episode. Copyright on web-based shows is generally strict, but discussions with Disney went smoothly because it’s BTS.” The production team behind GOING SEVENTEEN likewise labeled the artists’ engagement the most important part of planning and organizing the program, stressing how they “think the more the members are engaged in things—the more they enjoy them—the more audiences recognize that and enjoy it themselves.” SEVENTEEN started releasing original content even before their debut, planning and organizing programs directly through live streaming platforms like Ustream and AfreecaTV. According to the PLEDIS marketing team, “The members had been preparing for SEVENTEEN to be known as self-made idols since before their debut, so we had confidence in their abilities and judgment,” adding, “streaming on their own and making their own videos was also consistent with SEVENTEEN’s image.” One of SEVENTEEN’s own video concepts, “Part Switch,” was made as a direct consequence of their ongoing autonomy.

It is therefore evident that an artist’s sincerity plays a key role in these aptly named originals. When artists enjoy making their videos, they elicit a response from their fans, which in turn instills the artists with even more enthusiasm to make more content. BTS “told the producers they wanted to share with their fans a video they had of them all goofing around,” Bang said, which shows “how sincere their love for their fans is.” The video, in which the members check the Grammy Awards nominations together, was shot on November 25 after they all agreed to RM’s suggestion that they record important moments together and share them: “It would have been somewhat inappropriate to ask the members to film when the nominations were going to be announced so late at night,” Bang recalled, “but they eagerly pitched the idea first, and thanked the staff after they were done shooting.” It was “thanks to the members that I was able to capture that important moment,” Kim said, while noting that “the most important thing when producing content is the artist’s desire to connect with their fans.” The PLEDIS marketing team also singles out “the motivation of the members” as the core of SEVENTEEN’s originals: “The members of SEVENTEEN, as well as the film crew and the company, take pride and a have sense of duty in their original content thanks to the love they get from all the people.” Personal media is filmed not as a method of passive self-disclosure, which would open artists to invasions of privacy, but rather as an act of self-presentation. “We began following all the artists’ activities and archiving them in the likely event that the materials would be needed in the future,” Bang explained. “It was made possible by the members sharing the same vision and wanting to communicate actively with their fans.” Such materials are supplied in a way that is suitable for each platform, deepening fans’ interest in the artists. Koo Mi-kyung, head of Big Hit Entertainment’s Digital Communications team, explained how they “curate the content to the characteristics of each channel so that users become familiar with a kind of grammar and seek out the platforms and content that suit their needs.”

Artists and fans both enjoy original content, and there being without any obstacles makes original content so effective in reeling people in to becoming serious fans. “Just the feeling of watching something together itself can satisfy the needs of media-savvy users who want to be a part of a place that looks fun,” Kim said. “I think that the influx of users into the fandom via popular platforms plays a big role in the fun culture created by artists and fans.” Both RUN BTS and GOING SEVENTEEN avoid mean-spirited scenes and excessive competition, and even if some game’s rules actually state only the winner is allowed to eat something as a prize, both winners and losers end up enjoying the prize together anyway. While this production policy defends artists on an ethical level, it also makes the show more attention-grabbing and popular. The more fans can tell that the artists are having fun and feel safe, the happier they are to share the videos, and this can continue to spread outside the fandom, resulting in all sorts of related or derivative media referencing the original. For example, if an artist’s choreography video receives attention among fans, it increases the likelihood that a user who is interested in the channel will be exposed to the artist’s choreography and fans’ reactions, which leads to better access to the artist themselves. Through this succession of events, derivative media such as cover versions, reaction videos, and comments taken collectively, however else they may benefit their creators, function as billboards for artists and fan culture; a “viral loop” is formed around the original content.

Of course, it cannot really be said that original content lives in a completely independent ecosystem. Most self-produced media relies on new media platforms and their algorithms that are based on users’ established interests, and so there are limitations to sparking new curiosity. From that standpoint, legacy media remains an easy window through which to promote artists to the general public outside the fanbase. On October 31, GFRIEND performed “Apple” on JTBC’s Knowing Bros while wearing eye masks, then continued to build on the popularity of that broadcast when they released a masked choreography video for “MAGO” on their YouTube channel. TOMORROW X TOGETHER appeared on the EBS TV program Tok! Tok! Boni Hani on November 19, and that same day their “Blue Hour” music video had 130% the number of views on YouTube compared to the previous day, and then increased another 40% the following day. This kind of upward trend shows the correlation between appearances on legacy media and the influx of new viewers to the relevant artist’s channel. The artists are not the only ones to benefit from the publicity, however. Immediately after the episode featuring TOMORROW X TOGETHER aired, EBS released an edited version on the Boni Hani YouTube channel, later joined by additional behind-the-scenes videos from the episode and rehearsal, which together garnered 400,000 views. In this way, a mutually beneficial relationship is born, where artists broaden the scope of their fandom via legacy media, while the legacy media attracts the collective strength of the fans to their channel via the artists’ related content.

The essential role of original content is to turn casual curiosity into a core interest, but also sets new trends in a convergent media environment. BTS’s In the SOOP, for example, found a way to overcome the constraints of self-produced content by collaborating with legacy media to increase its reach into the public, arising from the idea that as people live through the pandemic, they could feel a sense of sympathy and consolation by watching the members relax in a freeform, stress-free format. By releasing each episode as it originally aired on JTBC as well as a Weverse exclusive extended version as VOD (video on demand) together, the project was 20% more profitable than season four of the previous incarnation, Bon Voyage, over a similar period. Big Hit Label’s strategic difference stems from “working together from the planning stages with the in-house production team and external platforms to identify any number of needs and then fine-tuning and collaborating to respond flexibly to the rapidly changing media environment,” according to Seo Gye-won, head of the Big Hit Three Sixty Content Business office. Along this line of thinking, 2021 NEW YEAR’S EVE LIVE aimed to promote its artists to the wider public while simultaneously living up to fans’ expectations, as Jang Hye-sun, the Big Hit Three Sixty Media Content Business team leader, detailed: “After continuous, close consultation with the broadcaster, we made it possible to provide a streaming experience that differed from the version aired on TV, including 4K resolution, multiple angles, and a running time that was more than twice that of the original.” The version that aired on TV showed performances selected by the artists themselves, with messages appealing to the general public, like the countdown to the new year. The streaming version added performances with never-before-seen arrangements and minigames that show the artists in a less formal setting. “Each artist had a performance they wanted to show to the public on TV and one they wanted to share with their fans,” Jang explained, “so we tried to reflect their views as much as possible.”

As original content spreads across global platforms, it simultaneously creates the potential to attract or “fandomize” new viewers and expand its influence by popularizing fan-made content. This organic merger, a chemistry between the platforms and their content, builds a new media ecosystem. During the rapid rise of mobile content and tech-savvy MZ Generation (born between 1980 and 2004) emerging as major consumers, K-pop became an early example of shaping listeners in these cohorts into fandoms through social media. Now, with COVID-19, online media has become increasingly important, and self-made content born of the artist’s independence, whether made by someone’s fan or otherwise, and regardless of whether it makes use of old or new media, is putting down broad, deep roots across the whole media environment—just one aspect of the media’s new normal.