KPOP Concept Twitter Bot.
I can already hear the moans and groans of my readers when they reached the dirtiest word in that title… KPOP.
Korean Pop (KPOP), aka Korean Popular Culture: ultimately, an abbreviation for Korean popular music, but not only this, fashion, lifestyle and to some extent, meme culture. Also, the word and term KPOP has also become a controversial word in many circles. Firstly, announcing you’re a fan as a westerner is met with quizzical looks and questions like “do you know what they’re saying though?”. Also being a fan that is older than an “acceptable” age for pop in general, is also considered taboo. Regardless, music tastes are as unique as our DNA so whether you like it or not, you’re now hearing about KPOP over the breakfast table in the news, on your social media and even on Netflix.
KPOP, as we know it today, has been around since the 1980s, but with increased exposure in America from the likes of Blackpink, EXO, Monsta X, Super M and of course BTS (possibly the most well known name in that lineup), more and more people are now tuning in, listening to music that’s not necessarily in our native tongue, and streaming the related music videos online.
Which brings us to the focus of this topic, the Music Videos or MVs for short.
If you’ve ever sat down to watch KPOP Music Videos on YouTube, you’ll notice they’re really quite something. They’re typically some of the wildest, unique and budget explosive MVs in recent history. Each one either filmed on location, on a set with a famous director, complete with choreography, multiple wardrobe and even hair changes, CGI and even their own special effect stunts… not to mention the huge collection of dangly earrings.
To initiate you into this world, I pulled together some examples in this video:
Mind blown? A little bit right! Don’t worry, I’m not expecting you to like it and nor am I trying to. I just want you to see how wild or elaborate some of the concepts can be. This is what sparked PhD Researcher and friend Emily R Marlow’s brain when they were thinking of creating a Twitter Bot.
STORY TIME…
Late one Korean night, I called my friends in the UK and Emily was passionately talking about the project they were working on, a Twitter Bot. To explain, a Twitter bot creates computer programmed tweets that publish by themselves every hour. Sentences are populated from a database of options to make random stories, and in this case it would randomise KPOP concepts for music videos.
We were discussing ideas back and forth, which got my creative juices flowing and I was really excited for them and the project. We’re both fans of multiple bands and solo artists so it was great to see such variety. Even just talking about it added more options to the database.
Next thing I knew, Emily had sent me some example sentences to look at with my copywriting head-on, just to see if there was a way to make them less functional and to give the channel some personality. I lay in my bed buzzing with ideas, so in my usual style I threw myself in front of my laptop and thrashed out 2 pages of concept ideas for the channel’s language style which I shared with Emily to review. Of course, I got told off for working until 3am, but is it really work if you’re enjoying it?
The next few days were a mix of waking up, working on the concept bot, go to school, teach English, come home and work on concept bot before bedtime. Somewhere in amongst that I ate, slept and took care of life admin. I’m not going to lie, the schedule for doing that was crazy but I thoroughly enjoyed working through the ideas and several times, jointly worked through copy options live. It also meant I got to release my favourite part of copywriting, PUNS!
Emily had settled on having the channel language as a self-aware slightly clumsy, slightly sassy bot (think Janet from The Good Place). At the very beginning, it was evident that to show how wild KPOP concepts can really be, there needed to be a few messages or tweets that would hark back to spam email subject designs, Personal Assistant reminders, or those pesky errors or restart messages we frequently saw when using computers.
This was the easiest part of the copywriting as it required no specific structure, just KPOP puns. After publishing, it became apparent from some DMs Emily received that most Twitter Bots don’t normally have this built-in and it was refreshing to see. Of course, we were both excited to have potentially created something new in Bot behaviour. It was well-received by those who create bots regularly and definitely added to the humour of the channel.
Then came the main tweets.
These were much harder to construct as the sentences needed to work with the database of options yet still needed to not only make sense, but also have the bot’s decided language and quirks. This was no mean feat. Trying to make tweets into something coherent and only having a title of the database category as the option was really difficult to get my head around, For example, “The MV is filmed in #setting.a#”.
Even proofreading was hard as the database inputs would really throw you off the flow of the copy, nonetheless I, of course, created plenty of options to ensure there would be a variety in the tweets posted.
After a few days of testing, it became apparent even more variations were needed and some additional application for the channel’s personality. Easily fixed with some tiny font, formatting and emojis.
The KPOP concept bot continued testing for a few days while the copy, formatting and programming were perfected. Once Emily was happy, the channel went live on Twitter and is available to see here but also see the live feed below:
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RUNNING SYSTEMS // 💁 Serving up a Alternative metal single: MV filmed in a bathroom in Angola. Members are wearing… https://t.co/WkoTxm0k92 -
🤖P R O C E S S I N G 🤖 We have a Acid breaks single, with an MV filmed in an iron mine in Algeria. Your bias is wea… https://t.co/ipc2oLCNBZ
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👌💡 I know what you want. You need a Chicago house single right? Something that feels a bit loving? Let’s have the m… https://t.co/LErYkoHkjK
The channel posts its tweets hourly and occasionally shares random updates that are trending or relatable for those in Kpop fandom. These less frequent posts are manmade, but the channel managers retweet existing concept posts and use the applied channel language and personality throughout. For example:
REPEAT SYSTEMS // YOUR BIAS IS WEARING A SHEER TOP 🤭
— KPOP Concept Bot 🤖🎶 (@kpopconceptbot) October 1, 2020
.#BTSonFallon_D3 #BTSWEEK #Jungkook #Jungkookiswearingasheertop
. https://t.co/H0P6wd6QVE pic.twitter.com/VG6LDjvWjx
I want to thank Emily for giving me the opportunity to stretch my brain a little further by applying my copywriting skills to a new application. The exercise was thoroughly enjoyable and challenging, it also made me realise how much I was missing copywriting. It was genuinely exciting to work on.
If you’d like to see more work from Emily, you can check out their website here.
Please go give the KPOP Concept Bot channel a look and a follow if you’re interested in seeing more.
See you soon
Kiki 🙂
