Al'Adalah
Vol. 28 No. 1 (2025)

K-Pop Fans Reading Anti-K-Pop: Religion, Identity, and Subjectivity

Okta Nurul Hidayati (Unknown)



Article Info

Publish Date
17 Oct 2025

Abstract

The expansion of K-pop fandom among young Muslim women in Indonesia has unfolded alongside the rise of digital da’wa that frames K-pop as a moral risk. This study examines how anti-K-pop da’wa texts construct the figure of the ideal Muslimah and how fans negotiate that framing in everyday practice. Using a qualitative-interpretive approach, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of the book Pernah Tenggelam was combined with in-depth interviews with three Muslim women fans. The findings identify a configuration of nomination/predication/legitimation and intensification strategies that normalizes a binary opposition between the ideal Muslimah and the K-waver, which calls for identity repositioning. On the reception side, readers are not passive; they enact contextual moral reasoning through four tactics: content filtering, mapping private-public spaces, aesthetic reading (music/choreography rather than celebrity cult), and management of engagement intensity. These practices yield three dynamic subject positions: selective opposition, conditional co-existence, and hybridization, demonstrating the possibility of coexisting piety and popular pleasure. Conceptually, the study enriches scholarship on the encounter between popular culture and the politics of piety; methodologically, it demonstrates the integration of CDA with audience-reception data; and practically, it recommends dialogic-empathetic da’wa design and strengthened media literacy.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

aladalah

Publisher

Subject

Religion Humanities Education Social Sciences

Description

This journal aims to publish original research articles on Islam and Muslims, especially Islamic thoughts, doctrines, and practices oriented toward moderation, egalitarianism, and humanity. The journal articles cover integrated topics on Islamic issues, including Islamic philosophy and theology, ...