What do people think about k-pop in your country/region/culture?

there are mixed opinions

Unfortunately, it has never been all that popular in Australia for some reason. Not that many groups come here and those who were supposed to tour here got concelled. BTS have a huge following as you'd expect but that's about it.

In California no one thought anything of it. The only weird part was I'm was a 41 year old blacksmith welder who jams out to kpop. I've moved to Idaho and I've had to explain to one neighbor that it's not Commie music... And that South Korea is one of the US's top allies. Other than that one weird incident Idaho is an amazing place to live with awesome people.

Some see it as their sole reason to live, some see it as a joke

If North Korea or China invaded South Korean I'll be the first guy joining the flight so I can go bitch slap come commies. K-POP will not fall!

I think the most people don't know what is kpop. I don't know anybody irl who listen to kpop except my sister.

Quote from MY-Kwangya

Unfortunately, it has never been all that popular in Australia for some reason. Not that many groups come here and those who were supposed to tour here got concelled. BTS have a huge following as you'd expect but that's about it.

Yeah was gonna say this. We have a K-pop fandom presence but it's still underground. Our music in general is just very different from America even though American stars do hit it big especially recently. So it's difficult for K-pop to have popularity here.

My parents call BTS and NCT the backstreet boys... so that's nice.

There's some people in my school that liked it. I actually got complimented on my MX posters which was cool.

I feel like on average, if they are familiar with kpop at all, they'll know of BTS sort of.

Thirding that its not known much at all in Australia, and if it is, only really by certain demographics. Unfortunately, I'm not a member of those demographics, which makes being a kpop fan a bit lonely for me here.

The general population doesn't really know kpop at all, and a large number of people (maybe majority) wouldn't even know who BTS are. People view kpop, if they are aware of it, as ultra manufactured, fake etc etc. As an example, our national news broadcaster recently ran a story about Jins enlistment. The majority of the comments on their Facebook page about it were "who", "never heard of him", "why is this news in Australia?", "who cares" and a not small collection of racist/homophobic jokes.

The deep vein of hidden xenophobia in the Australian population doesn't help. For a supposedly multicultural society, there is very little non-Anglosphere/non-English speaking stuff that breaks out into the mainstream and that which does is kind of considered a "novelty", and is even treated with scorn by some segments of the population.

Pop music is not known here at all. Most people here only like country music. Kpop is basically non existense in the public space

not much but it depends on the people I hang around with

Quote from MY-Kwangya

Unfortunately, it has never been all that popular in Australia for some reason. Not that many groups come here and those who were supposed to tour here got concelled. BTS have a huge following as you'd expect but that's about it.

and yet they produce quite a few idols, esp compared to the population size. wonder why this is

Quote from KpopJop

and yet they produce quite a few idols, esp compared to the population size. wonder why this is

As a rough, quickly spat out reasoning...

Because Australia, especially Melbourne and Sydney, does have a very sizeable Asian population. I know it's very sweeping to say "Asian" as one group, but there really are significant populations from most Asian countries. Given our geographical closeness to the Asian "continent", it makes travel to and from an easy prospect compared to the US. This has allowed a fairly high rate of immigration and movement and Australia has been a VERY popular destination for students from Asian countries. 30% of Australians were born overseas. We no longer collect census data by race anymore though.

I know my post said that Kpop isn't popular here, but I did say within certain demographics it is, and the Asian demographics are included in that.

Because of this, and with a lot of the younger populations of Asian descent (because lets be honest, the kpop companies are recruiting from those pools) living close to or IN the two major cities, it makes a really concentrated and easily accessed talent pool. If a talent search is done by a company in Australia, it'd be done in Syd/Melb, and for many, thats a bus trip, not a multi day trip for most hopefuls.

they call them sissy boys and slut shame the women

yeah, you dont ever want to watch some of the middle eastern talk shows talk about kpop

In my area specifically: they don't.

Which actually makes it very easy to say "I like kpop" because most people have no preconceived notions about it. The closest I've come is if I then follow it up with liking K/DA, because there are a lot of LoL fans around and they're at least familiar with the bands in the LoL universe.

Quote from KpopJop

and yet they produce quite a few idols, esp compared to the population size. wonder why this is

Yes, but that won't make it any more popular just because they were born here. It just doesn't seem to be a big market for it here.

I don't think the majority of Americans think anything about kpop since they're not very exposed to it. IRL people are only aware of BTS.

Luckily for me, I work in Koreatown so I hear kpop and see kpop fans every day

Quote from MY-Kwangya

Yes, but that won't make it any more popular just because they were born here. It just doesn't seem to be a big market for it here.

What surprises me is that the media here actively IGNORES the achievements of Australians in kpop.

The media absolutely wets themselves over Rebel Wilson, Margot Robbie, Chris Hemsworth or Tones and I and their achievements. We even LOVE to steal Kiwis that have a link to Australia is they make it big.

But theres never a peep about Australians doing well in kpop.

Take Rose. It's true one can argue the fact that she is/isn't Australian, but for mainstream media to actively ignore her and for many Aussies have no idea who she is, when she considers Melbourne her hometown and speaks in an unashamedly Aussie accent, is insane given her achievements.