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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

In simple words, fans can be described as people who adore something. Fan

is actually an abbreviated form of the word “fanatic,” which has its root in the

Latin word “fanaticus” (Jenkins, 1992). In its most literal sense, “fanaticus”

simply meant “Of or belonging to the temple, a temple servant, a devotee” but it

quickly assumed more negative connotations, “Of persons inspired by orgiastic

rites and enthusiastic frenzy” (Oxford Latin Dictionary). It means that fan is a

supporter of a celebrity, an idol, a public figure, athletes, politicians, football

team, and so on. Moreover, fan can be a follower of something, such as dramas,

movies, cartoon characters, and so on.

Fans are also known as the segments of mass culture audiences who most

actively select from and engage with the performers, players, products, and

productions of commoditized culture (Kelly, 2004). Therefore, fans are also said

as a cultural product because fans are made by mass culture that consist of the

people who have similarities about adoring something. Their focused attentions

on the celebrities they are following are reworked into what John Fiske (1992)

calls “an intensely pleasurable, intensely signifying” subculture that both shares

with and is distinct from the experiences of more ‘normal’ audiences. Subculture

is an ethnic, regional, economic, or social group showing characteristic patterns of

behavior enough to distinguish it from others within an embracing culture or

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society. Thus, the fans can be said as cultural product. The fans often do some

actions that other people may see as ridiculous act. Female fans often show

intense emotional reactions such as sobbing, screaming, and fainting when

watching or meeting their idols.

The Korean wave or also known as Hallyu wave refers to spread of Korean

culture around the world. Hallyu appeared by Beijing journalist in the middle of

1999 in China. The Korean entertainment and culture are also the most

influencing factor in China. Therefore, hallyu grows fast and becomes popular in

that time, so that it makes the journalists surprised.

In Indonesia, hallyu wave began in 2002 when one the popular Korean

dramas, Winter Sonata is aired in one of Indonesian TV station. This drama got a

very good attention from Indonesian’s viewer and the main actor of that drama,

Bae Yong Jun became a very popular character who is being admired by

Indonesian women.

Then, Korean Pop Music, which is also known as K-Pop, or short form of

Korean Pop becomes a large part of Korean wave. K-pop’s popularity has been

attributed to talent and individualism, the entertainment companies sometime

takes a chance to collaborate with international producers. In recent years, Korean

entertainment companies have started to recognize YouTube as a key component

to the international spread of Korean culture.

There are many hallyu fans around the world. For example, the impact of

Korean wave in Korean drama in 2005, KBS exported $43 million-worth of

content abroad. In 2004, the network's exports reached $65 million, going to 38

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countries (Lara Farrar for CNN). Another example is Bae Yong Jun who is the

leading actor in Winter Sonata caused ‘Yonsama fever’ in Japan. When Bae Yong

Jun came to Japan in 2008, around 3,000 people turned out to greet him at Kansai

International Airport on his arrival (Japan Zone Entertainment News).

On the other hand, from K-pop side, one of the biggest K-pop boy bands,

Dong Bang Shin Ki, has around a million fan club members in Korea and Japan

alone. Dong Bang Shin Ki put his name in Guinness Book of Record as a boy

band who has more than 800.000 members of fans. Dong Bang Shin Ki started

their debut performance in 2003 and since that time, they already had many fans

that are called Cassiopeia or Cassie. Another example of K-Pop boy band is Super

Junior that started their debut in 2005. Super Junior also has many fans called

E.L.F or Ever Lasting Friendship. Super Junior is a popular Korean boy band, and

has thirteen members. Super Junior is under the SM Entertainment label and

production agency. Super Junior is one of the most popular Korean boy bands

outside Korea besides Dong Bang Shin Ki. This boy band started their debut

performance in SBS Inkigayo TV show in 6 November 2005 by singing TWINS

and U as their first single. In December 2005, Super Junior collaborated with

Dong Bang Shin Ki in Show Me Your Love song as their duet single. After that,

in 25 May 2006, Super Junior’s second album became the most successful album.

In this album, the single titled U became the number one chart in Korea

(Lizlemagazine, 2010).

Hallyu fans have some characteristics that make them show their existence.

The character of fans is a consumer active. K-pop fans in Indonesia – like Super

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Junior fans – also do many activities to make themselves closer to their idols.

Buying merchandise is one of their activities. They usually buy or import the

original albums/DVDs from Korea. Not only albums, they also buy merchandise

that their idols wear/use like t-shirt, goodie, ring, necklace or they will make the

replica of it. They will buy their idols’ official colored light stick, even though

they will probably never go to their idols concert. Fans’ gathering is another

important activity for K-Pop fans. In the gathering, fans share the latest

information like pictures, movies, movie cuts, music videos and songs they get

from the internet with other fans. Gathering is also a moment where fans discuss

and gossip about their idols.

In Indonesia, Korean boy bands and idols gain popularity quickly. They

have a lot of fan girls. Since the Korean idols holds concerts such a 2PM

showcase and Korean Idols Music Concert Hosted in Indonesia (KIMCHI), many

people who did not respect Korean wave become fans of K-Pop idols

immediately. The reason why they become fans girl is because the appearance of

the Korean idol itself. Besides, people can get the ticket of KIMCHI concert

easily and the distribution of the tickets spared evenly. Moreover, the tickets are

also free in some cases, like following lottery quiz in internet. By giving easy way

to access and get them easily, the audience can watch the idol closely. The

KIMCHI live concert happened on 4 June 2011 in Istora Senayan, Jakarta. More

than 12 hundred thousand people that are standing and sitting attended this

concert. Besides, the 2PM showcase happened in Hall A of JCC, in Jakarta and

more than 10 hundred thousand people came.

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Furthermore, the Korean fever also inspires some Indonesian artist in

making a boy band or girl band or idols. SM*SH becomes one of the most popular

Indonesian boy band and 7Icons is one of girls band that exist today. This boy

band is reputed as the imitation or the copy of K-Pop idols or boy/girl band. The

members of SM*SH also have a lot of fan girls that scream and sob when they

watch SM*SH’s show in television. In every show, especially live music program

that is jazzing up by this boy band many audience will come and scream to make

the program fancier.

Based on the fact about Korean wave above, the researcher thinks that

Korean wave has big a significance in Indonesia, especially for many girls. The

fan girls make a fans group and do an imitation of idols’ song and dance. This

activity is ordinary called gathering. In gathering, the member of this group tries

to do the idol’s choreography they like. This dance activity is called as dance

cover. Although, the idols are boys; the fan girls can copy and do the dance well.

Fans who can imitate the idol’s dance properly – the dance cover competition –

especially for K-Pop.

Based on the the hallyu phenomenon above, the researcher tries to analyze

the past experience and event of K-Pop fan girl. As a member of fans, K-Pop fan

girl faces different promlem among the societies. The K-Pop fan girl is influenced

by the Korean wave or hallyu. Thus, the researcher tries to cover out the hallyu

impact of K-Pop fan girl by using narrative theory. Narrative analysis is an

analysis of a chronologically told story, with a focus on how elements are

sequenced, why some elements are evaluated differently from others, how the past

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shapes perceptions of the present, how the present shapes perceptions of the past,

and how both shape perceptions of the future (Reissman, 1993). Narrative itself is

an analysis that is analysing the event that is happened in the past time of the

participant. Thus, the researcher will know how the participant experiences his/her

event in his/her life. The telling story of the participant should be sequential

because it helps the listener draws the situation and the condition of the

participant.

According to Berman (2003), narrative study focuses on how stories can be

explained through their structure and they are also structured through ordered

clauses that make a point about the world that the speaker and recipient share. It

means, the story must have recognizable. Therefore, both of the speaker and the

listener can recognize the series of the story based on action or events that contain

in the speaker’s story. Then, the points of the story can be reportable by the

speaker. Finally, the listener can draw in his/her mind about what the story tells

about.

The researcher tries to cover out how K-Pop fan girl face her life based on

her story telling by using Labove’s narrative structure. Based on Labov and

Waletzky (1967), narrative is characterized linguistically as one method of

recapitulating past-experiences by matching a verbal sequence of clauses to the

sequence of events, which actually occurred. According to this theory, the past-

experiences that were stored in people’s mind about how they see the world can

be revealed.

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Labov’s theory argues that narratives have formal properties and functions.

There are six elements/properties in the theory; they are abstract, orientation,

complicating action, evaluation, resolution, and coda.

From those elements, Labov argues that the most important element is

evaluation. Evaluation ties one speaker’s utterance to another’s because it focuses

on the story and it can take the forms of repetition, adjective, reduplication,

intensification, and reported speech as Berman argues in her book Speaking

through the Silence: Narrative, Social Convention, and Power in Java (2003).

By using Labov’s narrative structure, the researcher tries to investigate the

life story that is provided by K-Pop fan girl will reveal something because

narratives as data are considered one of the most important social resources for the

creation and maintenance of personal identity. They reflect the individual who

decides to tell a story and his or her needs, choices, and social responsibility, and

the most significantly, they reveal a speaker’s view of self with regard to the

interlocutor (Berman, 2003).

The researcher chooses K-Pop fan girl as the data because the researcher

wants to look at the phenomenon that is K-Pop fan girl is represented. Mostly,

people give negative mark about fans’ attitude and their activity. By doing a

narrative study on a K-Pop fan girl life story the researcher aims to find out the

structure of this fans’ life story and how this structure helps to deliver the theme

of this fans’ life – what characterize her life as a fan and how the theme

differ/corroborate the common stereotypes/generalization discourse about fans. In

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a bigger picture, the study will help giving a more detailed account about what

actually goes on inside fan culture as a society’s youth culture.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Based on the background of the study above, the researcher aims to analyze

how the life stories of Indonesian K-Pop fan girl in Surabaya are structured.

Briefly, the statement of problem of this research can be formulated as follows:

a. What is the narrative structure of the Indonesian K-Pop fan girl’s life

story according to Labov’s narrative structure?

b. What are the main themes that characterize the life of an Indonesian K-

Pop fan girl?

1.3 Objective of the Study

The objective of this study is to see the ways people tell their stories. The

people’s stories are different within people from different culture. Although, the

researcher uses Labov’s narrative structure to segment the life story but the result

can be different with Labov. Beside, every story contains a certain theme that

makes the story easily to understand. Therefore, the researcher aims the objectives

of the study as follows:

a. To know what the narrative structure of the Indonesian K-Pop fan girl’s

life story according to Labov’s narrative structure is

b. To know what the main themes that characterize the life story of an

Indonesian K-Pop fan girl are.

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1.4 Significance of the Study

The narrative approach becomes a good way to understand more about

someone’s life story because it bellows what the speaker tries to hide about his or

her experience. By using narrative, people pass important aspect of their identities

and relations with other. In addition, through narrative, people comprehend the

world and present their understanding of it to others. Thus, the narrative approach

is different with other approaches that used graphic. Therefore, the narrative

approach is appropriate to apply in this study. It is because narrative can show the

personality of the participant through his or her story.

This study is expected to give contribution to the study of the narrative

structure of K-Pop fan girl’s life story. Through this study, the researcher hopes

that the reader especially the students of Faculty of Humanities understand more

about the narrative story and how to analyze it by using narrative theory. The

researcher also hopes that this research will enrich the study about

sociolinguistics. In addition, the researcher hopes the reader understand more that

the way people speak are not same as a consequence of different the cultural

background. Hence, the study will help giving a more detailed account about what

actually goes on inside fan culture as a society’s youth culture. Then, the narrative

study on a K-Pop fan girl’s life story can be used to identify what characterizes

her life as a fan and how the theme differ/corroborate the common

stereotypes/generalization discourse about a fans.

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1.5 Definition of Key Terms

Narrative : an understanding of a sequences of

events into a whole so that the

significance of each event can be

understood through its relation to that

whole (Elliott, 2005)

Life Story/biographical account : a detailed account of all the events of

somebody's life/biography. (Microsoft

Encarta Dictionary 2008)

Narrative analysis : an analysis to a narrative text. Narrative

analysis in the human sciences refers to a

family of approaches to diverse kinds of

texts, which have a storied form in

common. (Riessman, 1993)

Fans : persons inspired by orgiastic rites and

enthusiastic frenzy (Oxford Latin

Dictionary)

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