Idol in Veil: young muslims and K-pop fandom in Indonesia

Abstract

As the world faces crisis due to cultural conflicts and terrorism, religious and ethnic tension are intensified as ever in the 21st century. This paper will examine Islamic youth culture and their consumption of popular culture in the context of globalizing media. I conduct an ethnographic study of Indonesian teenagers who are fans of Korean media and K pop (Korean popular music). Indonesia is the world largest Islamic countries and majority of young people are muslims. Korean media is popular throughout Asia, but Indonesia is one of the rising market for korean media. K pop is particularly popular in Indonesia for young people. K pop is a specific version of Korean pop music which is Westernized and industy oriented project music targetting global audience. Presumably there are cultural and value discrepancy between Islamic society like Indonesia and global contents of K pop. I am particularly interested in value of contemporary Islamic young people who have been stereotyped by radicalization of religion, particularly due toinfluence of ISIS and terrorism in the world. In order to conduct an ethnographic study, I have visited one of Islamic high school in Yogyakarta run by Muhammadyah, the largest Islam organization in Indonesia. I have done participatory observation in the high school for a week and have in depth interviews with 18 people. I have focus group interview with these 18 people and have individual interviews 3-4 times afterwards. In addition to interview with this high school stduents, I have contacted fan community in town and have interviews with 7 members of the community in the same procedures. The field study last for 2 month between January to February 2017. After face to face interview during this time, I will be continuing interview with them for about 6 months through SNS using Line Chat which are commonly used in Indonesia.