Faith and fandom: young Indonesian Muslims negotiating K-pop and Islam

Abstract

Contemporary scholars in the intersecting field of popular culture and Islamic studies have argued for the importance of researching the ways Muslims engage with, make meaning of, and (re)produce different forms of popular culture. The current study continues these endeavours by examining a hitherto understudied form of popular culture in this field, namely, Korean popular culture. As previous studies on Islam and popular culture have drawn attention to, the focus of this study is on how this specific form of popular culture has been in/compatible with Islamic values, beliefs, and practices. Taking Indonesia as a context, the current study asked: What are the various ways Indonesian Muslim fans negotiate their identities as a Muslim and a K-pop fan? Drawing upon interview data with Indonesian Muslim K-pop fans and publicly available literature such as media reports, news, and websites, the findings exhibited at least four subject positions (available to be) taken up by Muslim K-pop fans, namely, (1) complete opposition, (2) partial opposition, (3) irrelevance, and (4) the interlacing of religious and fan subjectivity. The first two positions are predicated upon a belief that Islam and K-pop culture are in tensions, while the latter two consider there is no tension between one’s identity as a Muslim and a K-pop fan. This article contributes to the existing knowledge in the field of Islam and popular culture by offering a nuanced discussion on various possible forms of Muslim K-pop fans’ subjectivity.