The Journal of Culture Contents ISSN:2287-2256(Print) 2671-7026(Online) 문화콘텐츠연구

This article examines the phenomenon of “Chang pop,” which emerged within the MapleStory user community, as a case of generative AI-based meme production and content activism. Chang pop is understood not as a simple internet trend or fan-made parody, but as a collective mode of expression that transforms a specific figure and operational controversies into a repeatable form, thereby enabling multiple acts of participation and variation. To this end, the article first explores how structural distrust surrounding MapleStory and the affect accumulated within its user community became the conditions for the emergence of Chang pop. Second, it analyzes how generative AI facilitated the participation of non-experts and promoted the production and reworking of Chang pop. Third, it examines how Chang pop generates irony through the disjunction between the conventions of familiar popular music genres and satirical lyrics, and how it is organized as a repeatable meme genre. Furthermore, the article argues that the significance of Chang pop lies not in the direct message or agitational quality of individual works, but in its capacity to continuously render specific issues visible through the replication and variation of form, as well as through the accumulation of dispersed participation. In doing so, this study sheds light on changing modes of social expression within digital fandom in the age of generative AI and suggests the need to reconsider the concept of content activism in terms of form-centered practice, dispersed participation, and the circulation of affect.