I recently moved to Korea and while being here my look on kpop has totally changed and I wish former me would have known these things:
- Kpop is really not that big in Korea. I live in a city with 300 000 people... and there is NOT even ONE kpop/album store. Only the big convenience store has 5 albums (2 wannabe Itzy albums and 3 X1 albums) and even while being in Seoul I had to find a store on Naver map because I just couldn't come across one.
Further, nobody seems to be talking about kpop at all. My Korean friends all feel very indifferent, they once asked me if I knew bts but when doing karaoke, not one song was a kpop song.
- Fans don't have to speak Korean. Yes, I really felt before if you didn't even try, you weren't really a fan. I have been studying Korean in university for 3 months. I have to admit, I go 3x times as fast as my classes because I also have a private tutor, but studying Korean is hard and you need to put a lot of effort into it. So no, now I don't think speaking or not speaking Korean makes you less of a fan. Some people aren't that bright to do it and even then it takes sooo much effort. I only have respect if you try to study/be fluent in it.
- You don't need to like every group for any reason. All my groups are mid-tier groups. Before I really felt the pressure to follow all groups, listen to every single comeback, and like every single group. I came to realize it is not needed. I don't need to put time in groups I don't like. I don't need to listen to every song. You can just follow what group you like. That brings me to my next point.
- Liking only one group is not less cool, or wrong. I really thought like this before. Brutally honest. I just hated army that only liked bts and didn't have any interest in other groups. I found it annoying disrespectful and boring. (non-kpop warning) Now I really like måneskin. If you don't know them they are a rock band from Italy (linked) and I recently fell in love with them. So I actually searched for more rock bands, rock music. But I realized I don't like the genre that much, and if you ask me do you like rock? I will say no, just maneskin thank you. So I want to apologize to all army I cursed at in my head. You do you :) It is not my business anyway.
- How much merch you have doesn't make you more of a fan. For about two years I spend a TON of money on kpop. I have a comfortable living so I spend at least 200-500 euro (270 000 won - 670 000 won / 245 usd - 612 usd) each month which was a crazy amount for a one day/week working student. I had no money at any time because it immediately went to kpop merch (albums, lightsticks, photobooks,...). I have stopped with that bad habit and it feels good to have money. Now I spend around 20-50 euro a month on kpop depending if my faves made a comeback or not. So no have 5000 albums or 20 doesn't matter as much. After everything I have my favorite item is a Treasure blanket. It is soft practical and I love blankets :)
- Promise the last point. Kpop isn't that serious. Your life shouldn't be only about kpop, your ults, your bias,... Live your life. When stanning kpop I became so narrow-minded. When starting to like maneskin I was just shocked how open they were and how human they were. They laugh, they cry, they joke around, they smoke, they drink alcohol, they have plenty of tattoos, talking about their sex life like we are their partners, they date, they kiss any gender, even the female bassist had half-naked photoshoots when she was 18. Yes, they are the extreme of the spectrum, they are like 70s/80s rockers (minus the drugs) and then I realized how suffocating (some) fans are. Kpop idols never have the chance to be themselves to not stir any drama, issues and I honestly just feel bad now. They are normal people like all of us but still, we treat them like some god/goddess that are well behaved and never does anything wrong. At this point, I just would like them to be more human, to be able to speak their minds, to be themselves,... (not that they have to smoke or such, but I hope you understand?)
Sorry I don't know if this more of a statement I tried to make or more of a rant. What do you agree with and what do you not agree with and are there any things you learned over the years, months,...you wish you knew earlier?
(THERE IS NO HATE TO ANY PARTICULAR GROUP, SORRY IF I MADE YOU FEEL THIS WAY)
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