How Boy Bands Across the World are Changing Masculinity

Authors

Maria Babko, University of Washington TacomaFollow

Author Biography

Maria Babko is a senior at the University of Washington Tacoma, double majoring in Communications and Computer Science as well as minoring in Innovation and Design. She is a passionate and innovative-thinking student with an interest in the combination of design, people, and technology. In her free time, Maria enjoys reading books, creating art, and taking long walks in nature.

Document Type

Undergraduate Research Paper

Abstract

This paper analyzes the BTS music video, Dynamite, from a sociological perspective and seeks to identify deeper meanings of the portrayal of masculinity from the visual encodings of the video. The first part discusses the sociology and sub-component definitions and how they will be applied to the music video analysis. The second section identifies the characters, the BTS boys, and the narrative, them dancing and having fun, as seen in the music video. The third part uses sociological analysis to make sense of the visuals discussed in the previous part, providing a wider view of K-pop boy bands as a whole and Western boy bands in comparison. Both are feminized and have homosexual tones. The final section of the paper determines the hidden meanings that arise from the sociological analysis of the music video and the broader topic of boy bands, showing that they can blur the lines of gender and sexuality, in part due to their audience consisting of females and LGBTQ+ people.

University

University of Washington Tacoma

Course

TCOM 444: Gender, Ethnicity, Class, And The Media

Instructor

Dr. Ellen Moore

Recommended Citation

Babko, Maria (2023) "How Boy Bands Across the World are Changing Masculinity," Access*: Interdisciplinary Journal of Student Research and Scholarship: Vol. 7: Iss. 1, Article 6.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.tacoma.uw.edu/access/vol7/iss1/6