Introduction Jeon Jung-kook, known as Jungkook, is a South Korean singer, songwriter, and dancer. He is a member and vocalist of the South Korean boy band BTS. Jungkook and the rest of the members of BTS went on a hiatus from group activities to purs…
Jeon Jung-kook, known as Jungkook, is a South Korean singer, songwriter, and dancer. He is a member and vocalist of the South Korean boy band BTS. Jungkook and the rest of the members of BTS went on a hiatus from group activities to pursue solo work right before entering their two year mandatory military service. The singer, now 26, first debuted with the group when he was just 15 years old. With the rest of his members they have climbed their way to the top of the music charts and broke many records.
Jungkook
BTS at the Grammys
BTS during their sold out Las Vegas concert
Often praised for his vocal skills and his overall skillful abilities with anything, Jungkook was quickly nicknamed as the "Golden Maknae" (i.e., youngest in the Korean language) of BTS by fans, a label that even his fellow members later adopted. The word 'Golden' would later be used for his first solo album. For his solo work Jungkook wanted to show ARMY, BTS' fanbase, a different take on the type of music we weren't use to hearing from the group. With the branding/concept of boundless growth and limitless potential, Jungkook has shown his fans the growth he has made and the potential he has to be an amazing artist.
The design of Jung Kook's symbol mark originated from his own autograph. The symbol incorporates the English initials 'J' & 'K', as well as the Korean letters 'ㅈ' & 'ㄱ', representing the concept of boundless growth and limitless potential. This… pic.twitter.com/j0bXdMN9kA
With South Korean artists, their entertainment label are the ones that have control to what is posted. Only as of recently, in the year 2021, has the BTS been able to make their own personal accounts. These are the accounts Jungkook is active on.
Weverse is a South Korean mobile app and global fan community platform that was created by South Korean entertainment company Hybe Corporation. The app specializes in hosting multimedia content, the sale of artist-related merchandise, content subscription, and artist-to-fan communications for artists. As of recently artists from other South Korean entertainment companies and artists from Universal Music Group have been added to the platform. On Weverse there's a "Feed" where users can look at content created by other fans and an "Artist" tab solely dedicated to what celebrities are posting. BTS has their own account and this is where Jungkook does "tweet" like posts and does many livestreams for ARMY that consist of him cooking, doing karaoke or even answering questions from fans in the chat.
In the K-pop community TikTok is very popular. Every group or artist has a TikTok and this is where you can see your favs do many dance trends. BTS has a TikTok account and many have speculated if any of the members had their own personal account. ARMY would always say that if any of the members had an account it would definitely be Jungkook, seeing as how he is the youngest member and is very aware with the upcoming trends.
On August 1, 2023 Jungkook accidentally shared his TikTok account on Weverse when he shared another Korean boy group's , Enhypen, TikTok video link featuring the group members Jungwon and Jay doing the singer's Seven Challenge. Many fans clicked on the link and discovered that it was shared from the Jungkook's hidden TikTok account named Ian.
Link that shared Jungkook's secret TikTok account
Jungkook's reaction after fans found out
Jungkook later admitted that Ian is his TikTok account and soon after proceeded to change his username to JK. Now on his account he posts several dance challenges from other creators on the platform and dance challenges that he has come up with from his music.
YouTube is a common platform for artists to use to put out their music and to posts videos to accompany that very music. As for Jungkook he is under two YouTube channels. The first channel is for the entertainment company he is a part of. Hybe Labels posts all of his music videos and songs. Whenever there is a new single or if there is an album coming out Hybe Labels' YouTube is where you would go to find it. The second channel is dedicated solely to BTS. On this channel this is where you will find live performances and behind the scenes sketches of Jungkook during his solo work.
Spotify is another common platform amongst artists. Spotify is a commercial music streaming service that is now considered a social platform because of its integration with Facebook and Twitter. Artist are able to post their music on their artist account and share it with millions on the internet. After his solo debut Spotify made Jungkook his own artist account while still participating in the BTS account. His solo account consists of his singles/EPs that were made in BTS and his most recent singles and albums as a solo artist. Spotify has also created a This Is Jungkook playlist that includes all of his solo discography and clips of messages/interviews that he has done with the company.
Overall Jungkook's social media use either has to do with promoting his music or just posting random stuff/ interacting with fans on Weverse. The two platforms where he is most present or more "personal" is Weverse. Before going in to do his mandatory military service he posted very frequently on Weverse rather than his other platforms. He also use to have a personal Instagram account, just like his other band members, but has since deleted it claiming that "I deleted my Instagram account. It wasn't hacked. I just deleted because I wasn't using it much... So don't worry!" His account had amassed around 52.4 million followers right before he deleted it and later admitted to even deleting the app all together.
When doing a deep dive into Jungkook's digital footprint what comes up are images, his age, height, social media, discography and the latest news about him. I was not surprised to see any of this because usually with celebrities this type of information is shown. When I scrolled down a bit more articles and biography pages are shown as well as fan accounts for Jungkook. Links related to BTS can be found and their profiles as well. With artists from America it is common to see one or two scandals when you first initially type in their name in the search engine. Surprisingly when typing in his name I did not see anything negative. Everything was pretty much on the positive side, but of course some rumors may appear if you type in his name and something else after.
Commendations and Recommendations
In this day and age it is very difficult to maintain a clean social media presence. Many artists that have personal accounts usually can slip up and say something that can be controversial. Once something is put out onto the internet it stays there. Something that Jungkook does that is commendable is if he does not use a platform he'd rather not have the platform at all. There are celebrities that will use the platform just for follows and views. Jungkook stating that he deleted his Instagram account simply because he "wasn't using it much" gives off a sense of humility. It reminds people that he is like everyone else or maybe wants parts of his life to stay private.
Although Jungkook not having many personal profiles is good for privacy purposes, I believe that maybe he should have like one or two more if not managed by himself, at least managed by someone from his entertainment company. Having these platforms is a way to reach out and gain a broader audience for the music one puts out. As of now many know Jungkook as Jungkook from BTS and even though he is still part of the group having more separate or personal accounts could benefit him into finding more people that would love his music.
Some of Jungkook's achievements during his solo work
Honestly I would not improve or change much from Jungkook's digital foot print. His digital footprint is pretty "clean". If I were a celebrity I would want the best parts of my career portrayed. So Jungkook having positive articles and achievements as some of the things that mainly appear when you search his name is great for him. If there was one thing I would improve it would be for social media presence. Partially this would be for the entertainment company that Jungkook is under though. Seeing as how in the K-pop industry many of these artists/idols do not have much freedom with what they do or post, it is very hard for them to make personal accounts. These personal accounts are usually monitored have to be approved by the higher ups of the company. Only as of recently was BTS able to have their own personal accounts because they have been in the industry for so long and have some freedom to post what they want.
Regardless of Jungkook currently being away furfilling his military service with the rest of his a members, he still maintains a social media presence on Weverse. The singer will sometimes send an update to ARMY on how he is doing in the military, talk about how he misses his dog, go on to congratulate a fellow band member on new music they put out or celebrate a new single that he has saved and put out for ARMY when it was their anniversary. Even with just about 2 social media accounts, after the completion of his military service, Jungkook will not only come back to his beloved ARMY, but a huge new fan base as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment