[Paper Review] The Struggle for Recognition in Virtual Idol Fandom: The Case of PLAVE

 The emergence of virtual idol group PLAVE caused no small crack in the Korean popular music scene and fandom landscape. They proved economic success by recording 100,000 visitors and 7 billion won in sales over one month at a popup event at The Hyundai Seoul in 2024, but behind this lay a fierce 'struggle for recognition' with existing K-POP fandoms. Jang Seo-hong and Park Ji-hun's research Struggle for Recognition in Virtual Idol Fandom: Centered on the Case of PLAVE Fandom analyzes through in-depth interviews and ethnography that the conflict they experience is a struggle against social hierarchy and identity negation beyond taste differences.

The 'Real' Debate That Started at the Boundary Between Reality and Virtual
PLAVE is an idol of the virtual streamer type where actual performers (main bodies) exist behind avatars. Fans perceive them as 'real idols,' focusing on their main bodies' musical capabilities and human charm rather than their appearance, but outside gazes are cold. Particularly when rookie award candidacy was mentioned in 2023, existing idol fandoms showed a stance of not recognizing PLAVE as equal competition, saying "they're just drawings on a screen." The researcher pays attention to the fact that 'otaku hatred' pervading our society is being mobilized as the basis for this exclusion. Existing fandoms tried to push PLAVE fans into an inferior hierarchy by naming them '2D otaku' rather than 'fangirls,' attempting to push them out of the mainstream K-POP domain.

Incomplete Victory in a Hierarchized Fandom Landscape
 The domestic fandom landscape does not exist in an equal horizontal structure but in strict hierarchy according to genre and properties. PLAVE fandom succeeded in imprinting themselves as a 'presence that cannot be ignored' through chart rankings and award records, partly inducing changes in public awareness. However, that victory was accompanied by the wounds of internal fandom division and departure of existing fans. The paper dissects the dynamics produced when new technological phenomena called virtual idols collide with existing value orders. Their struggle raises the fundamental question of 'Can one be recognized as an idol even without the form of a real person' and remains as an ongoing attempt to expand K-POP's recognition scope.