What do you think attracts most people to kpop?

Visuals, Stages, and Music

Then eventually the choreos, personalities, and kpop community

Oops I posted what I like about kpop personally.

But I think you answered your own question

Catchy songs+cute people.

bp's beauty

Cute boys and girls

Visual stimulation was the first thing ti thought of.

I think for me it is, since most music from my country is literal shit and boring and people often don't care much about the artists (or at least the majority is like "yeah I listen to her, but I don't follow what she does because I think she dosn't posts on social media and has no vlogs on Youtube") and it feels so weird to see what people listen to in my country without even having a lot to share about... if you meet a let's say rap fan as a rap fan in my country than you both may exchange wich artists you listen to with eachother, but thats it. Maybe you say you saw someone in concert or got their CDs but thats it, that is the height of those convos and than boom, nothing happens anymore. Also the style of music is pretty annoying of most western artists and especially those of my country and some people who are not that bad tend to get boring after you listen to them for a bit. I also met soooo many people on social media to talk about music I like. If I would be a fan of music from my country only I would probably be lonly and bored on social media and might sit in a room with no music on for most of the day since I get annoyed of the few songs I would know after only a few listens.

As I was a kid I mostly tried to find artists that might've been popular but I had no internet back than so my knowledge was small and mostly reduced to either what my classmates knew and shared with the rest of the class or what I knew from TV and radio. It got pretty boring actually since most people in my class back than liked the same 2-3 artists from my country and constantly did useless fanwars cause of them and I didn't liked any of them so I was like the only one who was never talking about these artists. And back home when I played the radio it got boring when they constantly repeated songs I disliked or even with songs I liked and they played the too much I wondered when the F would the radio station decide to play something different... I also was the allways bored kid so when for example being with my family while they visited their friends my mom allways asked her friends if I could get something to draw or if I could watch TV in their friend's house and at home I allways was like: "I'm booooored!" - "Watch some TV!"- "But there is nothing interesting on right now...." - "Who cares, just go watch TV and stop being bored allready!!"- "But..." this happend more than once a week as I was a child. I tried to talk to kids in my neighborhood or my friends but they were often too busy so I got bored quit fast and a lot during the week.

Later as I was new to the internet and had no idea where to find people with the same interests I got pretty bored when I was on website where people either ignored me since I liked different music than they did or I randomly was on pretty dead websites where people with similiar interests either didn't existed or were allways just offline. The more I found things later on on websites like Twtter or Youtube and even now with being on Discord, I think it feels better. I don't think I would find many people who like the same music from my country online that I like and we don't have anything to talk about since the artists I like are boring and don't really do anything usefull or interesting but the majority of Asian artists I like is different, since they do a lot stuff and you often allways find something to be looking forward to plus the amount of talkative people on social media and chat-website are way more and you allways find something to talk about with them wich dosn't makes it boring to still talk on the same artist.

I mean if I find someone who let's say likes the same German artist, the talk ends often in "oh cool you also listen to her" and boom you never talk again to eachother. But if it is let's say a Japanese artist and you find someone who is also a fan than you often have something to talk for at least 5 minutes or longer and than maybe talk again when someone did something interessing like for example releasing the OST to a show, working as actor, releasing new music,... etc.

In most cases you really even see how different the comunities are between western-music fans and fans of Asian music ... western music fans just be like "OMG Taylor Swift's dress is so cute"- "Right, what a queen, so pretty"- "Oh and her new album slaps"-"yes man!" and than you don't chat again for let's say 5 weeks but if it is Asian artists you might find someone who reminds you each day about the artists, might even talks to you about their CD-sales, if they planned to make new music, what some of the member do,... and maybe there is a 3rd person or more people who talk about the same topics and bring in their ideas and than you talk for hours without getting bored.

And the music is also very catchy. You could force me to listen to let's say my favourite songs of Meghan Trainor on repeat but after 3-4 songs of her I would get bored and would want to play something else. Do the same with let's say ATEEZ and I would listen to their entire discography 3 times in a row without being bored.

Quote from MissBehave

Is that what draws you to kpop more than any other music. Beauty? They are really pretty tho :)

no

bp is pretty but I like their music a lot. I prefer catchy songs rather than super deep ones. It's a shame that they don't have more music though. I think their personalities help me connect to the group even more.

Quote from MissBehave

I love kpop. I love the music. I think the performances and concepts and visuals are cool too as is the community, but the music is what drives me to be a kpop fan. I would still be a kpop stan even if all I had was spotify.

But I realize that everyone has their own reasons for loving kpop. More than a few people have told me that it's not the music that makes them a kpop fan. A couple said it was the focus on dance and performance. Others said it was the all the extra content that they loved. One straight up told me it was purely about the visuals that kpop brings. Sometimes, reading what stans like to talk about, I feel that the competitive environment of kpop and feeling like they are part of a "winning" fandom is the thing they enjoy. Or even the community and comfort they get from being in a fandom banded together to fight for a nugu or underdog. It gives them a sense of purpose and if they "win", a sense of accomplishment that maybe they don't have in their irl lives. And of course, there is the parasocial nature of kpop.

What do you think. Do you have any theories about what brings fans to kpop? Do you think that if kpop just competed on music alone, that it would be as successful worldwide?

everything you've said is correct my friend

different people enjoy kpop for different reasons...

no since that's not an idol...the term kpop idol as I LSM founded is a jack of all trades - sing, dance, rap, speak >1 language, entertainer, artist, composer, producer, comedienne, fantasy gf/gf etc etc all those things make up an idol...now sure some are better in one area more than others but they are all trained in all those aspects to be an idol...one can't simply remove those things that make up an idol without changing the nature of being a kpop idol itself...

Quote from MissBehave

Gorgeous idols, colorful outfits, aesthetically pleasing concepts, and well shot videos right?

.

Not in my case though😁😅. Fell in 💜 with Butterfly before I knew it was sung by BTS, hehe.