At the end of every year, Time Magazine dedicates their coveted December cover image and story to honour an individual, ensemble or event which they deem has had significant influence over the past year, marking their impact with a portrait.
Previous winners have included Mahatma Gandhi in 1930, Adolf Hitler in 1938, the Apollo 8 astronauts in 1968, Barack Obama in 2008, Mark Zuckerberg in 2010, Elon Musk in 2021, and this year the title went to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
See every TIME Person of the Year cover throughout history #TIMEPOY pic.twitter.com/ueJ7koZNJq
— TIME (@TIME) December 7, 2022
But in recent years, the magazine has expanded their spotlight to cover more than just one person, now naming trailblazers of other varieties such as this year’s recognition of big names in six main categories: Person, Heroes, Innovator, Icon, Athlete and Entertainer.
Here are the Time winners for 2022:
President Volodymyr Zelensky and The Spirit of Ukraine – Person of the year 2022
TIME's 2022 Person of the Year: Volodymyr Zelensky and the spirit of Ukraine #TIMEPOY https://t.co/06Y5fuc0fG pic.twitter.com/i8ZT3d5GDa
— TIME (@TIME) December 7, 2022
The Women of Iran – Heroes of the year 2022 for “fighting for freedom.”
The Women of Iran are TIME's 2022 Heroes of the Year #TIMEPOY https://t.co/ZAKOOKS9zA pic.twitter.com/wO8fv9oe6B
— TIME (@TIME) December 7, 2022
Gregory Robinson and the James Webb Telescope – Innovator and Photos of the year 2022 for representing “something larger and grander than all of us.”
TIME's new cover: The best photos of 2022 https://t.co/qRSLkPrADw pic.twitter.com/hKwrs737wb
— TIME (@TIME) November 23, 2022
Michelle Yeoh – Icon of the year 2022 for being a “trailblazing actor.”
Michelle Yeoh is TIME's 2022 Icon of the Year #TIMEPOY https://t.co/AEDMA9He2o pic.twitter.com/lDwrZmJCW3
— TIME (@TIME) December 6, 2022
Aaron Judge – Athlete of the year 2022 for being the “home run king.”
Aaron Judge (@TheJudge44) is TIME's 2022 Athlete of the Year #TIMEPOY https://t.co/H87cG7h6iE pic.twitter.com/PSMeO2B8Ck
— TIME (@TIME) December 6, 2022
Blackpink – Entertainer of the year 2022 for being “global superstars.”
.@BLACKPINK is TIME's 2022 Entertainer of the Year #TIMEPOY https://t.co/g1t9ZUgkfR pic.twitter.com/EekOF0t15X
— TIME (@TIME) December 6, 2022
Whether you’ve heard of all of these figures or not, their influence on 2022 has been felt across the world in a myriad of ways.
All of this year’s winners deserve an honorable mention, but one in particular is a relatively new name on the international music scene whose “global superstar” status may paint an accurate picture of their impact in showbiz, but doesn’t necessarily fully explain the impact they’re having on the planet or the perspective of global youth in parallel.
Who is Time Entertainer of the year, Blackpink?
Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa, and Rosé are the foursome that make up the K-pop cool-girl quartet, Blackpink.
The Korean hip-hop-pop band formed in 2016, and since then have taken not just South Korea by storm, but the entire international music industry. Their origins span from Seoul to New Zealand, Australia and Thailand, and it’s partly because of this international diversity that the girl group has amassed a global following of millions of fans affectionately known as “Blinks” across the world.
Blackpink are YouTube’s largest musical group with over 83 million followers, and with internet-breaking sell-out tours, best-selling albums, luxury designer sponsors and fashion house collaborations, the foursome are now widely regarded as the biggest girl band in the world.
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Minsuk Yang, chairman and CEO of Blackpink’s label, YG, says “Blackpink will continue to play its role as a trendsetting icon, not only in music, but also in beauty, fashion, and other industries.”
You’d think they would have their hands full being prominent members of the K-pop industry, known for its hardcore rules, discipline and high throughput approach to churning out stars. But despite their impressive world success as K-pop music artists, fashion icons, and beauty role models, they’re also using their global stardom and influence on the South Korean and wider global youth for good, in another important area their presence is prominent within, and that’s climate change.
Blackpink care about the planet, and so do their fans
All four members of Blackpink are official UN SDG advocates, and have on several occasions addressed audiences at events such as the UN General Assembly in New York, COP26, and COP27.
The @SDGAdvocates are influential leaders who support the @UN Secretary-General in raising global ambition for the #SDGs. Meet our members: https://t.co/FZ99i0cWRk pic.twitter.com/72hMhcQUaB
— SDG Advocates (@SDGAdvocates) July 22, 2022
Ahead of COP26 in 2020, the group embarked on a mission as part of the UN’s Climate Ambition Summit to learn more about climate change, openly admitting “we’re not experts, and we’re not fully aware of all the issues, but we do care about our planet.”
Ahead of the Climate Ambition Summit, we heard from @BLACKPINK about their journey to learn more about climate change in the run up to #COP26 next year.
Watch the video 👇@ygofficialblink | #BLACKPINK | #ClimateAction pic.twitter.com/BlTRS27ctD
— COP26 (@COP26) December 9, 2020
The group also filmed a short segment as part of the YouTube Originals “Dear Earth” climate series, where they presented snapshots of climate impacts in an “important message” for their fans, also performing their song “Stay” to raise awareness for the climate action community.
Then, as COP26 rolled around, Blackpink expressed the value of their climate learning journey in addressing their army of “Blinks” and world leaders at the conference in three languages (English, Korean and Thai), to implore them to act urgently and stay focused on the Paris Agreement’s targets to mitigate “the most important issue of our time.”
“The important thing is that we all take responsibility,” said the group, “we hope you will make the decisions necessary to protect our planet now and forever.”
They closed their message by stating: “We, Blackpink, our Blinks (our fans), our generation, our world, will be watching and waiting.”
This year, in the run up to COP27 in Sharm-El Sheikh, Blackpink once again raised their internationally influential voice to call the global community to join them in the fight against climate change.
"Let’s take a moment to learn about our planet and what we can do to make it better."
— @SDGAdvocates @BLACKPINK calling on everyone, everywhere, to join them & commit to #ClimateAction.
Here's how you can #ActNow: https://t.co/JBHzdVBgpU pic.twitter.com/UHax6ydK2y
— United Nations (@UN) September 19, 2022
K-pop for the planet
The world’s biggest girl group are not the only K-pop stars setting the climate action standard for the music industry, the world’s biggest boy group – if not the world’s biggest group altogether – BTS, is also vocal on climate change and the UN Sustainable Development Goals as South Korea’s “special presidential envoy for future generations and culture.”
Most recently, BTS also very aptly partnered with South Korea’s biggest company, Samsung, to promote a joint environmental campaign called, “Galaxy For The Planet” which aims to reduce plastic waste in the ocean and raise awareness for the damage it causes.
Other K-pop groups are also engaging with the global youth on climate change matters, as earlier this year another K-pop girl group, Dreamcatcher, even went as far as to release an entire song titled “Maison” about breaking bad habits to protect our one and only home.
It’s also not just those in the K-pop spotlight that are stepping up to do their part to combat climate change, the millions of fans are also increasingly getting involved.
In fact, K-pop fans have repeatedly proven themselves as a force to be reckoned with. When mobilized, they show up in force to speak out against issues or support causes their beloved idols care about, and as a community are regularly very active in the social justice sphere.
In 2020, after the murder of George Floyd and #whitelivesmatter was trending on Twitter, scores of K-pop fans took it upon themselves to rally and flood Twitter with their own fan footage to bury the racist hashtag. Similarly, when Donald Trump was campaigning for the US Presidential race that same year, thousands of tickets to his rallies were snapped up by K-pop fans so there would be none left for pro-Trump supporters and the stadium would be left empty.
K-pop fans even attended COP27 in Sharm-El Sheikh last month to show urgent solidarity in the fight against climate change. One organisation in particular, known as “KPOP 4 PLANET,” had a spot within the Korean pavilion at the conference, and aimed to use the moment to encourage the international community of K-pop fans “to fight for climate justice.”
We just attended COP27 in Egypt!
KPOP4PLANET (ft. Koya) giving a speech in Korea Pavillion, talking about the importance of forest and showing global leaders about kpop fans movement against climate crisis! — What you’ve been doing, global leaders?? 😕 #KPOPtakeoverCOP #COP27 pic.twitter.com/mkMtTppu28
— KPOP 4 PLANET (@kpop4planet) November 21, 2022
“KPOP 4 PLANET” was set up by a small group of fans last year in Indonesia, who since forming the NGO have launched six individual campaigns to tackle issues such as plastic packaging and deforestation. One of their most successful campaigns, “No K-pop on a dead planet,” called for the Korean music industry to minimize its carbon footprint through prioritizing production of digital copies of songs rather than the plastic hardcopy.
This particular initiative even drew the attention of the South Korean government, who reached out to “KPOP 4 PLANET” to open up dialogue between their organisation and the music industry to discuss greener alternatives.
Also worth noting is that as well as BTS themselves being vocal climate advocates, their fans are also known for speaking up on planetary issues.
Jin, one of BTS’ seven members, has previously voiced support for an array of environmental causes such as waste and water conservation. He even once stated that if he could have only one superpower, it would be to solve climate change.
His loyal fans listened.
Upon hearing Jin’s advocacy, a group of his supporters quickly hatched a plan to spread awareness for the ecological concerns he raised by planting an entire forest of trees in the Jurung Tiga Nature Park in Indonesia for his 29th birthday. They called it the “Epiphany Forest” in honour of his song “Epiphany,” and plan to embark on planting a second forest soon, as well as another woodland in Seoul in collaboration with the Seoul Environment Association.
The fans who orchestrated the mass planting say they were moved by his hopeful speech at the UN General Assembly, and they too wanted to be a part of the movement.
Bintang Ungu, @orangutanjourney, @jurungtiga and @armypangkalanbun menginisiasi penanaman ratusan pohon endemik hutan Kalimantan diantaranya Pohon Getah Merah, Nyatuh, Idur.
Terinspirasi pidato Jin @BTS_twt pada UNGA 2021 pic.twitter.com/J7YfyP8o8Z
— Bintang Ungu (@BintangUngu3) December 6, 2021
K-pop can drive change
The K-pop industry is renowned for its mass produced music, doesn’t necessarily evoke a distinctly sustainable sentiment, and its catalysis of consumerism certainly cannot be ignored.
Neither can the music industry’s carbon footprint.
Though hard to pin down the exact quantities of CO2 produced from all embodied emissions of a globally dynamic sector, the impact of producing billions of copies of plastic CD’s and vintage vinyls is undeniably significant.
But just because the shift to digital music is slow, and more effort can certainly be made in general by the sector’s stakeholders, doesn’t mean the climate efforts of those within the K-pop or wider music industry, who are raising their voices on behalf of the planet, should not be commended.
K-pop has proved to be powerful, the influence these superstars have over their devoted followers is outstanding, and the potential of the international community of millions of K-pop fans to drive real change is unlimited, so it’s good to see global idols embracing their position in society as role models, and advocating for open dialogue on urgent climate issues that affect all of us.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of Impakter.com — In the Featured Photo: Crowd of fans at a BTS concert. Featured Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
