Generation X Reacts to K-Pop Reactors for the First Time Ever!
YouTube has been with us now for 15 years and has come a long way from an 18 second video of co-founder Jawed Karim at the zoo, that just last month reached 100 million views. Now it’s a $15 billion revenue generator and media juggernaut for parent company Google.
While the king of stream has all manner of videos (with eye catching titles like this aptly named story), there is one niche genre that has earned thousands of subscribers and hours of life blown away — the reaction video. We willingly turn on YouTube to watch someone react to watching something else.
If it’s entertaining enough, we do it a lot. So much so that an entire channel was created in 2013 dedicated solely to reaction videos. The aptly named REACT channel is a sub channel of FBE, which has been a YouTube resident since 2007. REACT currently has 12.7 million subscribers and over 4.2 billion — yes billion with a B — views. Parent FBE has 20.1 million subscribers and over 8.1 billion views.
FBE prides itself as a producer of “award-winning REACT series, scripted, unscripted, animation, interactive, sketch comedy, Gaming, Laugh Challenges, Food Shows, Daily Vlogs, BTS, and more!” Those are some interesting subjects you have there, FBE. If you read the description closely, it does not say “music”. It mentions one very specific musical artist in particular — BTS.
“Why mention BTS?”, you may ask. And “what is a BTS?”, you may ask, if you’re out of touch with what the kids do these days. Most of us with a pulse know that BTS (방탄소년단 for readers of Hangul) is the top charting group from South Korea who has been shoving K-Pop under our nose like a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie, leaving us wanting more and more no matter what magnificently surgically enhanced human being they throw our away.
Most of us in the international community got a taste of the star power of K-Pop acts, when PSY became a record setter on YouTube with “Gangnam Style” being the most watched video from 2012 to 2017, and the first Korean artist to chart at #2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on iTunes.
Big Hit Entertainment’s BTS took K-Pop to another dimension. They rank as the best selling artist ever in South Korea. They are the first Korean act to have a platinum album in the US and score three #1 albums in less than one year on the Billboard 200 chart (four in total overall). Only two other bands have done that — The Monkees and The Beatles.
That is where BTS is at and K-Pop in general right along with it. It would have become even bigger in the US this year if not for a global pandemic shutting down live concert tours.
The FBE’s of the internet know what they’re doing. Content people want to see means more viewers and subscribers. Ultimately it means ad revenue shares from YouTube, if you are producing your own content. React videos of copyrighted material, such as music videos, do not earn ad revenue for the channel owner, but it can lead to earning money through donation services like Patreon, and brand awareness for a channel’s other content or additional channels. In return, record companies are getting free publicity for their artists and YouTube is making ad revenue off of it.
Los Angeles residents Falilou and Ousmane, better known as FO Squad, are YouTubers in the reaction genre. Their most popular channel is devoted to K-Pop reaction videos. Between their three channels, they’ve earned over 91 million views, with the reaction channel bringing in the bulk of them. I took some time to speak briefly to them virtually.
John: So why did you guys decide to create reaction videos and what is it about K-Pop that inspires you or that you enjoy?
Falilou: We saw a BTS video trending and since we were reacting to different things at the time, we checked it out. We then reacted to two other BTS songs and became a fan.
Ousmane: We became an official fan of K-Pop the day we reacted to BTS’s “Fake Love” which was May 20, 2018. We love so many groups and our reactions show it, but our all-time favorite K-Pop group is BTS.
Falilou: K-Pop is just way too different. You see things that you don’t see anywhere and since we’re just fans of good music in general, we live for new music. So to be able to unlock a new genre of music that peaks into everything you’re used to (and more) as far as hip-hop, R&B, a creative style of choreography, and the whole 9 yards — it’s just appealing to watch. It’s a feeling that’s just not easy to explain.
John: You just mentioned hip-hop and R&B as musical influences of K-Pop. They’re two things generally synonymous with our own culture. I have also noticed among react channels, they of course are represented by many different races and cultures, but one that is noticeable, at least to me, are young black men doing these videos and seem to become instant fans. Do you feel that you play any part now in bridging the Korean culture with the African American culture, musically or otherwise?
Ousmane: We noticed that there’s already a plethora of African American fans, so we don’t think that we’re making a significant difference. However, we do believe that we are playing a role in bridging the Korean culture with the African American culture whether it’s a big difference or small.
I have to confess to you, dear reader, that BTS is also my favorite, with NCT 127 a close second now. I stan Jimin and at this point everyone else is the bias wrecker (if you don’t know what those terms mean, you’ll have to Google it). Yes, I am a middle-aged man — old enough that most K-Pop idols could literally be my adult child, Jimin included. But people like what they like. Good music and good choreography are very appealing to most people.
I do my part to bridge the generations as a resident on the tail end of Gen X. Most people know better than to tell a Gen Xer what to do or think. We turned rock and roll on its head, and we made hip-hop what it is today. We’re a strange lot. I’d like to think we can do the same for K-Pop and drag it out of what some would consider fad status. Only time will tell. If we do, I’ll react to it. I may even make a crazy thumbnail.
**FBE could not be reached for comment before publication.
