K-Pop as a Platform

Associate Professor Dominique Falla

Queensland College of Art and Design

Griffith University

Dominique Falla is a design researcher, author and educator whose research examines creative entrepreneurship, platformnative
creative systems and contemporary Korean popular culture.

Her work explores how creative practitioners develop audiences, communicate expertise and build sustainable creative
practices within digital environments.

She is the author of The K-Pop Content Strategy: Marketing Models for Creative Success (Routledge, 2026) and conducts ongoing research into K-pop, digital platforms, fandom, content strategy and creative industries.

Digital platforms have transformed how creative work is discovered, distributed and monetised. Musicians, designers, writers and other creative practitioners increasingly operate in environments shaped by algorithms, social media platforms, fragmented audiences and the expectation of continuous content production.

K-pop offers a particularly valuable case for examining this shift.

Although K-pop is commonly understood through its music, performance and fandom, its global success also depends upon a highly developed content infrastructure. Music videos, performance videos, livestreams, behind-the-scenes footage, variety content, social media, fan platforms, physical products, collectables and live experiences operate together rather than as separate promotional activities.

The research considers K-pop not simply as a musical genre but as a creative system.

It asks how audiences move from discovering an artist to developing increasingly deep forms of participation, identity and economic engagement, and how entertainment companies maintain those relationships across multiple platforms and forms of media.

This work has led to the development of a series of models for understanding platform-native creative practice, including five interconnected content functions:

Discovery — content that allows new audiences to encounter an artist.

Bonding — content that builds familiarity, attachment and relationships between artists and audiences.

Authority — content that establishes expertise, cultural significance and creative identity.

Cadence — the continuous rhythm of communication that maintains audience attention between major releases.

Revenue — the products, experiences and forms of access through which audience engagement can support sustainable creative activity.

The research also examines the relationship between four broader systems: content, participation, access and monetisation.

Together, these models provide a framework for analysing both K-pop and the changing conditions of contemporary creative industries.

The project investigates several interconnected questions:

• How has the K-pop industry so successfully bypassed Western gatekeepers?
• How does the K-pop industry use different forms of content to move audiences from initial discovery towards sustained participation and fandom?
• How do content, participation, access and monetisation operate together within K-pop’s broader creative ecosystem?
• What can K-pop reveal about the changing relationship between creative production, digital platforms, audiences and
  economic sustainability?
• Which elements of these systems can be translated into useful models for independent artists, designers and other
  creative practitioners?

The project combines research across popular music, creative industries, digital platforms, marketing, design and fandom studies.

Research activities have included analysis of K-pop content ecosystems and platform strategies; examination of artist and entertainment-company practices; study of fan participation and digital cultures; development of conceptual models for understanding content and audience relationships; analysis of major K-pop artists, releases and campaigns; conference presentations and invited talks; media commentary; and the translation of research findings into public-facing digital content.

The work increasingly examines not only the content produced within K-pop but also the underlying infrastructures that shape its circulation, including algorithmic discovery, localisation, platform economics and participatory fan cultures.

Five-layer content strategy short-form video

A central part of the project involves translating academic research into forms designed specifically for digital platforms.

Research findings have been adapted into short-form video, visual frameworks, public talks and social media content aimed at audiences beyond academia.

An Instagram series explaining K-pop’s Five Content Layers became a significant example of this approach, reaching more than 430 thousand views in 90 days.

Rather than treating this activity as simple promotion, the project treats short-form content as research translation and public scholarship.


The process creates a useful feedback loop:

Research → conceptual framework → public communication → audience response → further research questions.

Audience comments, sharing patterns, questions and discussions can reveal which concepts resonate with broader audiences and where further explanation or investigation is required.


This allows the research to circulate beyond traditional academic publications while also creating evidence of engagement with communities of practitioners, fans and creative professionals.

• publication of The K-Pop Content Strategy: Marketing Models for Creative Success with Routledge in 2026;
• development of the Five Content Layers framework: Discovery, Bonding, Authority, Cadence and Revenue;
• development of a broader model examining the relationship between content, participation, access and monetisation;
• conference papers, invited presentations and keynote presentations examining K-pop, platform culture and creative
  industries;
• public-facing research communication through Instagram, video and digital publishing;
• media commentary on K-pop, fandom and the international development of Korean popular culture;
• application of the research frameworks to creative entrepreneurship and design education;
• continuing research into platform capitalism, algorithmic localisation, fandom participation and K-pop’s evolving global
  infrastructure.

The project demonstrates how research can move between academic publication, teaching, creative practice and public communication.

One area of impact is public engagement. Short-form explanations of the research have reached audiences at a scale not normally available through scholarly publication alone. The response to the Five Content Layers series demonstrates substantial public interest in understanding the systems behind K-pop’s digital success.

A second area concerns translation into creative practice. The frameworks developed through the research are designed to help practitioners understand how audiences discover creative work, develop relationships with creators and move towards deeper forms of participation.

The research has also been incorporated into design and creative-industries education, providing students with contemporary models for thinking about audience development, platforms and sustainable creative practice.

Together, these activities demonstrate a model in which academic research can generate scholarly outputs while also circulating through professional practice, education, media and public culture.

The project is continuing to develop beyond the publication of The K-Pop Content Strategy.

Current research extends into questions of platform capitalism, algorithmic localisation, global fandom, translation, cultural
circulation and the infrastructure supporting contemporary Korean popular culture.


This includes research examining how K-pop adapts content for international audiences without relying solely on conventional models of cultural export, and how platforms, algorithms, fan communities and entertainment companies collectively shape the international movement of Korean popular culture.


The research also contributes to a broader investigation of what platform-native cultural industries can teach other creative sectors about audience participation, creative sustainability and the changing economics of cultural production.