Anyband
| RPF Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name(s): | Anyband, Anyband (cf), RPF - Anyband |
| Scope/Focus: | The temporary musical group Anyband and the short film/commercial for which it was created. |
| Date(s): | December 2007 |
| See also: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Anyband is a project created as part of Samsung's Anycall promotional series to advertise their Anycall cell phones. Anyband consists of Korean artists Tablo of rap group Epik High, Xiah Junsu of pop group Dong Bang Shin Ki, soloist BoA, and jazz pianist Jin Bora. The concept is that the four are school friends fighting a totalitarian military regime in a near-future dystopia with the power of music, love, and cell phones. While the narrative is reminiscent of several classic science fiction stories, both the casting of Korean musicians in the lead roles and the filming in Brazil with local extras provide this iteration with more potential for diversity than many of the classics.
Along with filming a nine-and-a-half minute short film, which was segmented into smaller portions to air as commercials in Korea, Anyband also did a concert sponsored by Samsung. The concert featured the group performing three songs together, two of which were featured in the short film. There were also solo performances, a duet by Xiah Junsu and BoA, and performances by Dong Bang Shin Ki and Epik High.
Fandom
There are two components to Anyband fandom: FPF and RPF. Generally, the bulk of RPF can be found as crossover material in forums dedicated to the individual group members and/or their primary performance groups. However, there is an LJ community, anyband, that welcomes both RPF and FPF. The FPF version has also made a surprisingly prolific (for this fandom) appearance in Yuletide in 2009, though mislabelled as RPF, and has been nominated for Yuletide 2010.
While in FPF, the popular pairings of Tablo/BoA and Xiah Junsu/Jin Bora seem strongly influenced by canon, BoA/Jin Bora may be the current largest pairing, due to the introduction of the fandom into the wider fannish consciousness via female character-focused challenges and prompts. The ship of "OT4" is also popular in this fandom, as in many K-pop fandoms associated even tangentially with Dong Bang Shin Ki (the K-pop fandom in which the concept of polyamory was first introduced in the English-speaking segment).
On the RPF side, both Tablo/Xiah Junsu and BoA/Xiah Junsu are by far more well-represented, likely due to the popularity of Dong Bang Shin Ki and consequent amount of information available about its members. While many fans express fondness for Jin Bora, she is not technically a K-pop artist, and very little information about her is available in English.