2018 was the last year of his intact sanity. Some hip hop, some old school rock, some Taylor Swift. Nothing out of the ordinary, a playlist for a guy that didn't listen to music a whole lot, a western white guys playlist.
In 2019, innocence is lost. He discovered the Persona game series, which dominated his gaming and listening and gaming for the year. His music starts leaning away from harder sounds and in mid-late 2019, while trolling the internet, he decides to watch a music video from four Korean girls, too see what this online chatter was about. He listens to their songs a little, then more... a genres addicting tendrils work their way slowly... slowly into his brain.
A year later, the madness has set in. Those probing tendrils have enveloped his brain completely, only two non Kpop songs bravely holding on in the top 15 songs, although a venture into the wildlands past that show more non kpop than kpop. He branches out, tentatively exploring past Blackpink... He buys his first kpop albums, all 4 version of The Album and with that, the last shreds of sanity are let go.
Come 2021, it is over for him. The listening habits of 2018 are gone, buried in the past. Even the only non kpop song in the top 15 is semi kpop related, being the main song played in a Kdrama he became obsessed with that year. It is not until 40th on the list that another non kpop song is listed. He no longer thinks for himself, his brain now replaced by the mass of writhing kpop tendrils. 4 albums on a corner of a bookshelf become two whole shelves of merch.
In 2022 there is nothing left for him but madness, madness and kpop. His days are spent on kpop forums, kpop playing in the background. His apartment is kpop merch wherever one looks. He spends thousands on a trip to South Korea and returns with more than double the luggage weight than he left with. His playlist is all kpop until the late 40's, when only a Disney soundtrack and Persona songs offer the slim promise of redemption, of a way out of the all encompassing madness that has consumed him. But does he want that? Does he want escape...
No... he doesn't. He likes it down here. It's comfortable and bright and happy and oh so lovingly crazy.
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