A question specifically for people who started listening to K-pop before 2018

I already have one foot out the door when it comes to kpop, tbh lol I'm just hanging around to see through the rest of Twice's career that's all.

Quote from emanresu

I've got into kpop in 2007, several months after SNSD's debut.

A friend showed me their Into The New World MV

I fell in love with Yoona. And kpop. And have been here in the kpop world ever since.

As far as my love of groups and the state of kpop, the first half of my kpop experience coincided with SNSD's early to mid career, and they were my central emotional connection to this world for the first part of my kpop experience.

When they became less active, I was lucky to find a successor in TWICE that has come to he the emotional rock during the second half of my kpop journey, and my becoming enamoured with Tzuyu, who became my 2nd ultimate bias, and successor to Yoona.

While I've always found something to enjoy or love in kpop, I'll admit the late 2nd generation is my favorite time as it comes to the industry as a whole.

In my opinion it was the perfect storm where kpop was global enough that international fans could participate. But still local enough with an engaged Korean public in such a way that the zeitgeist was clearly centered with Korea in the driver's seat.

It had a much more niche feel and output than today. A quirky and differentiating charm that has largely been stamped out in pursuit of international integration and expansion.

I miss it.

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Not trying to sound like some sort of "veteran" elitist or anything, but I agree with this a lot. Also, when I first got into kpop, one of the things that appealed to me was the "off stage" moments that made idols feel personable and real (i know that wasn't necessarily true but hey, i was young and naive) as compared to other entertainment industries, but still felt like some sort of hidden gem to me; now that "realness" has become way too excessive. Another reason for me is because sns (twitter etc) wasn't as prominent back then...it made stanning a group feel much more enjoyable then. I know fanwars and antis still existed then, but it wasn't in as in-your-face and could easily be shut off compared to now.

Been a fan of my ult group since 2013 and still here. I’ve heard Kpop since 2009/2010 but never stanned anyone until bts.

I’m a fan of a couple of 4th gen groups and enjoy their music also and listen to Kpop casually a lot

First started listening kpop in 2nd Gen but after a couple of year real life happened and I stopped for 3-4 years. This happened twice, but I didn’t lost interest. I got back when I had chance to check up on groups and music.

I used to be an Inspirite but with Hoya leaving I lost interest. Then I liked BTS but I wasn’t online in the fandom unless you count talking to ppl on YouTube.

Txt made me buy physicals for the first time, sign up to AKP, stan twitter, I stream and vote. I’m having fun with it.

I don’t think I ever got bored with it because even during 2nd and 3rd Gen I was focusing on variety shows too. It made it fun for me even during more quiet times. Like during 3rd Gen I used to watch idol group contents regardless of who it was. These days I don’t have time to watch variety shows from other idols, the ones I stan giving me enough content to keep me occupied.

Fan since 2015 here.

I mostly just listen to older kpop groups now, aside from a few newer songs.

I mostly focus on music and don't follow content (sans Lovelyz members, I follow all of their updates). I do follow kpop news in general, because I love to read forums.

Before, I only listened to kpop but now I listen to many different genres.

If I were to stan any new group, it would most likely be aespa. But for now, most of my favs are either disbanded or almost disbanded.

I did follow gp999, but none of my faves (sans Mashiro and Xiaoting) got into Kep1er so I don't follow the group.

Like others have pointed out, I have become lazier as time went by. I started listening to kpop in 2012-2013 because I wanted to enjoy something more than k-dramas and I was impressed by pop group members appearing in dramas, movies, commercials and the like. Up to that moment, the only time I would see a pop group was on mvs, or magazines, so having so much content was really new and appealing to me.

I embraced kpop back then as a novelty and as a chance to prolong my days as a fan of pop music (plus living a new experience as a fan). Kpop was that old known genre someone was trying to approppriate and twist to make it their own. It was exciting, cringy and funny at the same time, at least for me.

My favorites were appearing as I was discovering new groups and some have changed over the years but I must say SNSD and EXO became my favorite groups and they still are to this day. There are other groups I like but I feel my interest in them has dwindled as their careers have progressed or they have disbanded or gone on hiatus. Also kpop finally found that point where they are appealing to the West but it is not as interesting for me anymore. So I just listen to them with no obligation to stan and so far very few groups have stayed on my radar.

I discovered K-Pop's existence on 2015, and for 2/3 years I became obsessed with the industry as a whole.

The impact of MV's, the cool choreography, pretty girls all around... I was the kind to check out ANY new song that would be released, even unknown groups and solo artists that wouldn't get to 300k views. And I found a lot of song gems that I treasure and even sometimes listen to nowadays.

Eventually, I realized which ones were the kind of songs that I really liked, what kind of groups to look forward to... and with time became uninterested of the K-pop "scene" because:

1 - I'm more selective of what I like

2 - The industry overall became too toxic for me. I feel like an outsider of the average K-Pop fandoms. I always was fascinated (still kind of am) of certains aspect of the industry (history, business-side...) but I feel like I'm almost the only one.

Between visuals and superficial criticisms (this song is terrible, this idol can not dance, not a rapper because x, 10,000 album versions, etc,etc,etc) I almost feel like a K-Pop boomer so I wouldn't say I'm a k-pop fan at all, I like the groups that I like but I'm just not interested on the industry as a whole and it's next trendy group to stan them. I find some of the things that k-pop fans find "fresh" mediocre and watered down american pop singles/k-pop b-sides from 10 years ago.

I still could make an effort and go out my way to listen to nugu releases like I did years ago and find like 3 bangers, but I'm not that invested anymore on K-Pop as a whole. I just check the groups I'm interested in and I'll eventually listen to BTS, BP, Twice or any other popular groups' songs on TikTok, Twitter, Random Play Dances or whatever.

I'm not as invested as before

I used to watch every content released and keep up with forums etc. But I stopped when I got into college and now I watch a show once every week or 2 weeks when I get bored.

But recently since I found Lesserafim I got more excited to follow themz but still not a new fan excitement like before

Songs tho I keep listening to them, like spanish or French i put playlists and shuffle through

I got into kpop between 2010 and 2012 (started casually listening in 2010 but it wasn't until 2012 that I fully got into it). I still follow the few faves that I have found over the years but now all of them are either on hiatus or not as active as they used to be so there's not much keeping me in kpop anymore. Just the odd release from my faves. I'm hoping once my last three groups are through military service things will pick up again.

I have tried listening to new groups but none of them have interested me as much as the groups I'm already a fan of so I stopped checking out new groups. I know nothing of 4th gen and only a few 3rd gen groups now.

I am still here waiting for that Brown Eyed Girls comeback.

Any day now, I am sure....

I'm still a fan of most of the groups I started kpop with but I did lose interest in some of my old bias groups and in general don't find kpop to be as much fun as it used to sadly~

Started by stanning BTS in 2017.

Lost interest in kpop in 2021 after unstanning BTS and IZ*ONE‘s disbandment (my ults)

Then I came back because of IVE‘s debut.

I can only say that the main thing that has changed for me is the fact that I don’t listen to BGs anymore.

I looooved 3rd Gen BGs and really liked checking out their music but I don’t find 4th gen BGs half as interesting as them. There’s not a single 4th Gen BG that I bother to check out

Since 2010 with SNSD. I was big fan of kpop overall not just SNSD. I would listen to a lot of groups including bgs (always been a mainly gg listener) and even if I didn't care fore groups music I would still watch a lot of them on TV shows. Invincible youth for me interested in many ggs like T-ara, Secret 4 minute etc.

But around 2016 I lost a lot of interest in Kpop overall. Most of the 2g groups I liked were gone, TV shows with idols were almost non existent and with most new groups I didn't care. so I I say my interest went from 100% early on to about 30% I guess. I would only check my faves and any popular group/song that was getting a lot of hype and skip over everything else.

Then around 2018 I pretty much most of my interest. The music was meh to bad (not really a fan of the experimental stuff or noise music groups were pumping out), my faves were more or less disbanded and I dunno kpop seemed to just follow trends (such everyone doing the same concepts) and was pretty boring.

Fat forward to now an I'm even less interested for the reasons above. That plus I'm obviously over 10 years older lol so I have different life responsibilities meaning I don't fan boy staying up late as I did once upon a time. While I sometimes take a listen to popular songs or groups I've more or less stopped going any further than that. I don't look up their other songs outside titles, I don't follow new groups, I don't even keep up with what's happening in kpop as a whole (I have no idea about the bullying scandals that went on earlier or whatever paedo gate was actually about, I only know if them because of the memes lol). I'm basically mostly checked out of Kpop.

SNSD CB was a bright light and brought back every thing I missed about Kpop (the melodic songs, TV shows, members interacting having fun trolling each other and such). Through the years I've been holding on the tiny sliver of chance they would have reunion and it paid off. But that was seemingly a 1 time event and unlikely to happen again so now I'm back to having one foot out the proverbial Kpop door. Maybe in a couple years I'll be out of the Kpop completely or of SNSD disbands fully, whichever comes first.

Not at all. I actually find I listen to more. I'm a lot like ISaidISaid in widening my focus since EXO first brought me in 2014. I'm older now so I just listen to what I like, just like I do other genres of music. I still have my faves and love them but I think my perspective on kpop has changed. I love my faves but also really like to see what's out there, partly because one of them is less active with enlistments. I also try to dig in more to group's bsides or reconsider groups I skipped when younger. Plus I really enjoy what's happening in gg in the last 2 or so years, which creates even more music opportunities!

Yea

I got into Kpop around 2005 and lost interest in 2009. I casually listen to Kpop occasionally but no group caught my interest. Then I got back into Kpop fully in 2014 when I got into BTS. Lately I've been losing interest again. It's kind of a come and go thing.

I've been into K pop for some 11 years now and yes I am starting to lose interest. I've already ditched some groups like SJ. I had been a fan for 8 years then unfollowed them a couple of years ago because their music is off and their personalities are a bit immature for men that's supposed to be in their 30's. I've simply got no time for them anymore. The same can be said for Aespa, I've only been a fan since last year but their comeback was very disappointing for me and I am just not as passionate as I once was. I guess you could say I'm just a casual listener nowadays.

Quote from Deannn

Have you guys lost your interest in the genre & your favorite groups? I started listening around 2017 and 2021 is when I would say I completely lost my interest in K-pop, the new groups weren’t doing it for me & Blackpink was on hiatus so i also didn’t keep up with them until only this year when Pink Venom recently got released. I seriously think the pandemic has made the atmosphere really stagnant, award shows aren’t fun to watch anymore.

As someone who got into kpop a decade ago, I didn't lose interest in most of my favorite groups, but they did. There are other factors that have largely spoiled kpop for me now compared to then, but the relatively short shelf-life of its artists is the main culprit. I've never been a fan of this whole "generational" system they have going, and as I get older, it becomes even less appealing. Some of the third gen groups were able to hold my interest despite my original favorites dropping like flies, but I don't see anyone in this new generation of groups that will keep me interested once their predecessors are gone. Kpop is a young person's game.

Started listening to kpop in 2017. In 2019 I was seriously checking out all debuts and comebacks. But now I am more relaxed and just focus on those who interest me (usually GGs). I’m forever interested in anything BTS related so far that hasn’t changed.

I have been in kpop for pretty much a decade now and I am into it as much as I was.

One of the reasons is that kpop has become even more success oriented than before. Short songs to help with streaming, doing gimmicks for sales and records etc etc. Companies care more about these things now than music. It is so about the bragging rights headlines for the fans and the weirdly specific records for the fans.

I also think the problem is 'sameness'. At some point ( I am not so sure if this still happens now because I have stopped checking), most groups, especially rookies, did the same thing. The same mv type, the same drop, the same way to end the line, the same expressions, the same dance moves. You could predict what was going to happen and it got boring to me.

And the way the company has been handling my favorite group and the way the fans reacted to it and to people, like me, who were loud with their displeasure affected my connection to both.

For some time I felt disconnected from everything for many reasons.

Now I will just listen to music I like, my faves and some others, and watch some performances of some groups and be here to post from time to time. No variety or fan content, no kpop Stan twt, no weverse or anything fandom related.

yes and no

yes, I am getting more distant to following groups and their activities

no, I still listen to new releases even if they are not my faves, checking out new groups songs is still interesting to me