I don't understand being loyal to groups and companies.

in essence different strokes for different folks no?

each person chooses to consume kpop in different ways - some might stan, some fan, some are casual listens etc etc - even within those categories people stan their favs in different ways - we have saesangs and solo stans and akgaes and success stans and visual stans and company stans etc etc

I think the difficulty is in not understanding how others choose to enjoy kpop and this can be hard to explain especially if we don't feel the same way - this is true of most things not just kpop related

Quote from yerisvelvet

In essence I suppose I don't understand stanning. I might have a pfp of an idol but that's a novelty. I am not actually keeping up with the artist on a regular or even listening to all of their music without fail. But kpop stans are super loyal to their favourite groups, going as far as to listen to everything their faves release whether they like it or not. Sometimes I might like only one or two members of the group.

Another aspect of this is the company stanning. People might think I am a Red Velvet stan (I am not) and expect me to defend SM but I would be the first one to say that SM lifts off black artists and has a history of treating their artists horribly. Yet you've got kpop stans literally defending these companies as if the company is their faves.

Is the concept casual listening alien to kpop these days?

No, but they're much less likely to be on a Kpop forum.

I thought I was a RBW stan at some point, since I liked all their groups then, but turned out the company wasn't as nice as I thought either.