In the world of streaming, your favourite K-pop artist’s songs may be fuelling carbon emissions.
In 2021, BTS spoke about taking climate action at the United Nations, while Blackpink were named advocates of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The fan-run activist group K-pop4Planet also kicked off last year, trying to raise awareness of climate action;fans of K-pop stars have a long history of planting forests to mark the birthdays of their favourite stars and other special occasions.
Though no individual music listener’s impact is typically that intense, the popularity of certain artists and songs on streaming platforms like Spotify result in immense energy consumption, as does common K-pop fandom behaviour that promotes mass streaming to boost the chart rankings of artists.the top 10 K-pop songs, all by BTS and Blackpink, streamed in 2021 on Spotify produced thousands of tons of carbon emissions over the past year.