When South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, attempted to institute martial law in early December, the public responded with massive protests. These protests have continued across the country. On December 14, for example, an estimated 1 million people gathered outside the National Assembly in the capital, Seoul, as lawmakers convened to vote on the motion to impeach Yoon.

The sight of young people moving to K-pop’s electrifying beat has become part of the drama of this protest movement. Protest organisers are blasting out K-pop hits, and demonstrators are waving K-pop light sticks (portable devices associated with specific artists or groups), turning the protests into multicoloured musical rallies. An article in the Guardian newspaper noted that parts of the protests resembled “a club dancefloor”.

There are many words from K-pop songs that resonate with the sentiment of the protests. For example, a verse from Girls’ Generation’s Into The New World (2007), which has been one of the most popular songs at the protests, promotes purpose and camaraderie, with lyrics like: “Don’t wait for any special miracle. The rough path in front of us might be an unknown future and challenge, but we can’t give up.”

But K-pop fan culture also connects with community spirit and politics. Observers have noted that the most visible demographic group at the impeachment protests is women in their 20s and 30s. Many are K-pop fans and also discontented with Yoon’s anti-feminist stance, as well as the gender-based violence that is widespread across South Korean society.

It is these women who first brought K-pop light sticks to the protest sites and made waving them a wider protest ritual. They also passed around information on social media such as the location of the protest sites and publicly available toilets, as well as lists of useful rally supplies. And they collaborated with the older official organisers to rework K-pop soundbites, signs and artefacts into the protest grounds.

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