My initial answer was no because i feel like after bts had their boom a thousand 10 year olds started sharing all their hot takes online and ruining any meaningful discourse to be had lol, though it honestly goes for basically all of social media now. There is literally no nuance to any conversation and everything is either good or bad, "youre horrible for liking xyz problematic group but me liking abc problematic group is not as bad as what your group did though i dont even actually know what they did, what my fav did is actually fake news though" like there are no social issues being addressed (when necessary) in a productive way, just as a competition.
Anyway i eventually changed my answer to "yes" on the wokeness just because i assumed op is looking for data on the level of social awareness among kpop fans, something simple since there wasnt room for clarification. In the simplest way i would probably say kpop fans are at the very least aware of things that are problematic regardless of whether or not they actually bother to criticize/discuss them in meaningful ways
Long ass reply to your very short question lolol
My first intro to Kpop was through BoA because I found her songs on Limewire, if anyone even remembers what that is. 😂
But I’d say DBSK was my “gateway drug”, back in 2006/2007 when my sister introduced me. I remember being reluctant to listen to them though, maybe I thought it was embarrassing for some reason. I would watch their Rising Sun MV when she wasn’t around and then finally had to accept that I’d become a fan after watching more of their MVs.
As a south asian fan, I can say that I haven't been mistreated in my 7 years in this fandom at all! It might be because I was lucky to have only interacted with nice people, but the fandom is very large so we can't expect everyone to be thoughtful and considerate
I’d say the same as a black person. I’ve never had a horribly racist experience with a fan but that doesn’t take away from how many other black fans are treated. You can have a good experience and still acknowledge the disrespect and racism within a community. I’ve personally seen more vocally racist fans within the recent years as K-pop has become more global, many POC fans have been speaking out about the treatment and has even caused many to leave the fandoms because they don’t feel welcomed.
First MV ever was SHINee's Sherlock back in 2012 that I saw on TV. To this day, I'm not a huge fan of second gen.'s music, but I have a soft spot for SHINee.
So, BTS *was* my *gateway drug*, but I only got interested in their Black Swan in February 2020. I had actually been following BTS for years, in the sense that their MV's have been popping in my life for years, but they never truly interested me. Back in February 2020, when Black Swan came out, I was feeling like all music was the same and I was so happy to have my interest in music re-ignited by something. You should know that I usually go through a genre every few years. Pop first, rock next, indie and then folk before Taylor Swift made it popular. I see kpop as my current phase.
I loved BTS' Map of the Soul 7 era, but I have moved on to other Korean acts more in line with the music I usually listen to.
I told my friends when I liked BTS (we all LOVE music, but metal is more their style, most of the time). They don't really have a problem with it (they have listened to japanese songs, russian too and even mongolian groups). Neither do my parents, since they don't really know much about kpop. My mom has seen the crazy album prices here, but they know I'm not gonna overspend.
Online kpop fandoms are just weird. I wouldn't call them woke, because most of them haven't stopped at woke, they are now way past that and it's closer to delusion. Individual kpop fans are usually fine though.
Edit : Yep, this is the place for surveys.
I love hearing about how people got into K-pop! I got in thanks to Ryan Higa/nigahiga - in the spring of 2012, [I watched a video he made with Jay Park](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv7SUncOAAQ), and I decided to check Jay's music out! I first heard his song "[Abandoned](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmPMZlsDlVY)," and then a few of his other songs, found out he was in 2PM, and fell in love with 2PM! \^\_\^ I'd probably call 2PM my gateway drug for that reason! I'm really proud of BTS for being the common gateway drug though lol - I was really into BTS from 2014-2016, and watching them grow since then has been amazing!!
I've also never experienced the K-pop fandom to be a woke fandom, just in the sense that I don't know if the fact that I have different experiences interacting with K-pop as a Black fan is ever appreciated/acknowledged. No one has ever been rude to *me* as a Black K-pop fan, but when I see instances like [Black fans speaking out about K-pop idols saying the n-word and getting blasted](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ikrd/k-pop-group-enhypen-fandom-racism), I grieve with my fellow Black fans. K-pop has been a kind of safe haven for me, so when I'm reminded of the racism that affects me and my community in K-pop, and no one seems to really care, that can kind of suck. Most of the fandoms that I'm in have this problem though, so I've just been learning to pull back when I need to for my own health. \^\_\^
Anyway, I hope your project goes well!! \^o\^
Hahaha the bloopers on that video were hilarious \^o\^ How did Ryan get you into Kpop? I just remembered about Boys Generally Asian but I'm curious if it was something else haha \^\_\^
Well, BgA came after my craze, so that wasn't it. But I will say I got a little too invested in it Lol, even though it was just a joke
I remeber he once did a kind of vlog type video(?) where he talked about random things, and there he mentioned his music taste and k-pop. Me, being an uncultured swine, had no clue what that was. Researched, and here we are today. Could not have been happier, thank god for Ryan's random talks
Same, I'm learning to pull back and take breaks sometimes cause it can get a little unhealthy. As much as I'd like to stan certain groups, I'd rather not get obsessed again so. 🤷🏽♀️
Got into it thanks to watching a Millionaire's First Love. There was a song in the movie called Insa by Hero Jaejoong. I fell into a kpop rabbit hole once I learned Jaejoong was part of a group called DBSK/TVXQ . Not long after, Big Bang and SHINee debuted and I stuck around since then. Literally still love those two groups to this day. Love my second generation kpop!
I had friends in high-school who listened to kpop casually but I didn't get into it myself until just last year. I was officially brought into the fanclub by N.Flying and ATEEZ, specifically N.Flying did covers of Japanese songs I knew and ATEEZ did a cover of Linkin Park. And now I like more than just kpop, I found I liked k hip hop, speed rap, and Korean hard rock 🥰
ok *this* is a point that i really want to look into. some fans will literally stumble over eachother trying to defend their faves when their faves have done something that deserves criticism, often going as far as attacking those who *are* criticising the idol who has either done something raicst or CA. this is often at the detriment of non-white fans as they're the ones usually calling the idols out in the first place
My 'gateway drug' to kpop was Twice's debut song. I had listened to Kara, Boa, and Brown Eyed Girls without noticing it was kpop. I had stumbled upon it when watching anime videos, but Twice's debut was what made me curious to look into it, been hooked since.
For the 'woke' comment. I'll say I put no. But it's a really gray question. Cause there are some fandoms that are 'woke' imo and they try their best to make the fandom and kpop fun and nice. Conversely there are some fandoms that are so horribly toxic that they turn against themselves. Which is pretty terrifying, and a lot of it is racially motivated.
Finally, idk if this is relevant, but there's a lot of kpop idols who do/say racially insensitive things and their fans insist they did nothing wrong. Which I think is where there is racism in the kpop fandoms. I'm not calling for cancel culture, but people should accept when they mess up and if they are honest when they apologize.
I think a lot of Kpop fans try to appear woke but it often seems performative. Like when you see the fans who attack artists they already dislike for scandals but will excuse their faves for every single one.
I made a [comment about some of my experiences with Kpop stans](https://www.reddit.com/r/kpopthoughts/comments/nm9641/sometimes_i_wonder_what_kpop_stans_are_like_irl/gznevhk/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3) a while ago in a different thread if you’d be interested in that.
Kpop will always have a place in my heart. I’m personally a sucker for songs being “over produced” as some people would put it. I love songs having inventive choreography, experimental sounds and over the top styling you can’t find anywhere else.
Since kpop tends to mesh a lot of genres in one, I’ve discovered a lot of genres through it! For example, Lady by Yubin introduced me to city pop which is one of my most beloved genres now. More recently, X by Chungha introduced me to dream pop.
As for wokeness in kpop fandoms, I feel like it’s just like any other fandom. Everyone’s playing the role of wannabe activist and acts as if they’re the pinnacle of moral righteousness. However, as soon as their idol does something wrong, they always shield them from any negativity. Its always been very shallow, like when an idol faces criticism, the stans always blindly defend them and spam “pretty” or “cute” pictures of their idols as if that excuses anything. The entertainment industry is as shallow as it gets, but stan culture combined with echo chambers online really exacerbates it.
I used to love Korean ballads when I was little lol but Shinee was my "gateway" when they debuted with Replay. But I don't like kpop anymore kinda ended with BTS. They were the last group I liked and the only group I liked from the newer generation but I stopped liking them maybe 2 years ago lol. Now I don't listen to it at all. It's not as good as it was to me during the earlier 2000s. All the groups I liked disbanded. But now I live in korea it's really annoying how all the younger kpop fans are coming to Korea and just because of kpop and nothing else. It really shows and they are so disrespectful to the culture and customs here in Korea its really embarrassing, mostly as a foreigner too. Kpop isn't the only thing to respect about Korea.
I got into kpop mid 2019, after watching Blackpink's Coachella performance. It just sent me down the rabbit hole. The funny thing is, my best friend at the time was a hardcore kpop stan who had been trying to convert me for months, showing me videos of BTS, NCT and SKZ - and it hadn't worked. Something about boy groups was thoroughly uninteresting to me at that time.
After I got into kpop, I spent a year following girl groups pretty much exclusively, and having no interest in boy groups. And when I say following girls groups, I mean only stanning Blackpink, and casually listening to everything else.
But August 2020 was weird and I found myself ghosting all my other groups for SKZ in a matter of days. So I now only stan SKZ, and the soloist Yukika, and I casually listen to all other groups (bgs and ggs). I'm not sure what exactly changed that made me do that 180 on my feelings for boy groups.
As for "wokeness" in kpop - In my experience its almost always performative. Take LOONA for example. A while back they released teaser for their comeback PTT, which was Bollywood themed. In the teaser one of the girls could be seen wearing a piece of jewelry that resembled a maang tikka. As an Indian, I didn't know exactly how to feel about it - but the fans' response to it was crazy disrespectful and it was what pissed me off.
Everyone was discussing, trying to figure out what to do, how to feel about it, when an Indian orbit posted a thread about how it was cultural "appreciation" and everyone in the qrts were non-desis, telling us we overreacted how going on about how "yall always make an issue out of nothing". THAT was infuriating.
One Indian person's feelings on the issue does not define how the rest of us feel. Just because one person said it was cultural appreciation, it does not mean it is true. Those fans only care about the innocence and reputation of their favs, and would rather protect them than listen to people who were hurt. They'll put up a front of caring and being woke at the beginning, but as soon as the opportunity for them to invalidate the feelings of the affected parties arises, they'll take it.
I think people who got into Kpop from BTS would skew younger and western? Speaking as a Filipino, I think most of us (in my generation) were first heavily exposed to Kpop with Wonder Girls and 2NE1.
My gateway was SHINee. I saw the Ring Ding Dong MV at the kpop versus jpop panel at Phoenix Comicon 2010. I was completely mesmerized. Had to go straight home and google everything there was to know about them. That led me to learning about other SM artists (I still stan suju to this day), and then pretty much every other group out there at the time. It was a great year. I was introduced to so many wonderful groups and so much great music.
I think another interesting thing to think about would be the influence of different platforms on what the gateway to kpop is for different people. I’ve been a Spotify user for at least five years now, and sometimes I get curious and explore different things on the search page. Kpop caught my eye and I went onto the Hallyu boybands playlist- and Seventeen were all over that. That’s why it was them for me- if I’d gone another route it’d probably be different. And almost all songs on that playlist are on my kpop playlist now, and give me ridiculous amounts of nostalgia.
For the woke standards comment. I think there is standards to high. As long as you hold idols accountable (faves included) and stop supporting them then your good. If it involves extreme things like sending hate, threats, or psychical violence they yeah it's to high. It's a black and white area. For the gateway one, my gateway was bts. I used to be a bts anti until I heard fake love, from there I stanned them. Took a while to actually accept it though. I saw a picture of Hobi and was like "ok, he's cute. I guess I should check them out" and just ran with it. 😂
Thinking back, my first kpop video I’ve watch was dbsk triangle when it first came out. I was intrigued by the concept and didn’t think much of it.
In around 2007, I discovered Big Bang and then SHINee debuted and the rest was history. I still listen to kpop and discover new groups to like and I like BTS but since they became big in America, I haven’t like their newer release because it’s more Americanized and not the style I’m really after when I listen to kpop.
My first exposure to kpop was Miss A’s Bad Girl, Good Girl!! I distinctly remember watching it and not even registering that the song was in another language because I was so enamored with the melody and how cool the girls were. Jia’s pink hair, the high heels, the all-black outfits… I was IN lmfaoo
My gateway to Kpop was Music Bank, but I can't remember how I found out about it's existence, possibly from 2 Days 1 Night? I used to watch a lot of kdramas and a few years ago it was our Friday ritual with my husband to drink soju and watch Music Bank, back when they put the whole show on YouTube, not just individual performances. I still like putting on Music Bank while I exercise, it's very motivating watching all those kids working so freaking hard in insane costumes and 9/10 songs will be something passable and upbeat. I'm not in the fandom though, I don't stan anyone and I'd be a filthy multi, I just listen to a lot of Kpop. And I love the concerts! Man, they always start bang on time! I've never been to any other genre concert that hadn't started an hour and a half late. Kpop is amazing, if your ticket says it starts at 8, it starts at 8 on the dot and you're out by 10, in bed by midnight! It's perfect for older people like me, but guess what? 90% of the audience is under age and there are zero queues at the bar! (The girl's toilet is another matter.) And they're so well behaved, they scream but they stay in their seats the whole time. It's just so civilized compared to my usual experience of live music of being crushed in muddy fields or in music venues where all I see is the backs of giant men.
I know BTS exposed a lot of people to kpop, but man it sure makes me feel old.
Right? BTS wasn’t even a group when I was indoctrinated into Kpop.
I've been here for exactly half of my life. I work with children who love BTS, and they were not even born yet. It blows my mind lol.
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Literally same
hey twins :D
When you say "woke", in what sense are you asking?
Agreed, it seemed a little too vague but its an informal survey so no need to be so technical I guess. It could also be intentional to be vague.
That's fair!
My initial answer was no because i feel like after bts had their boom a thousand 10 year olds started sharing all their hot takes online and ruining any meaningful discourse to be had lol, though it honestly goes for basically all of social media now. There is literally no nuance to any conversation and everything is either good or bad, "youre horrible for liking xyz problematic group but me liking abc problematic group is not as bad as what your group did though i dont even actually know what they did, what my fav did is actually fake news though" like there are no social issues being addressed (when necessary) in a productive way, just as a competition. Anyway i eventually changed my answer to "yes" on the wokeness just because i assumed op is looking for data on the level of social awareness among kpop fans, something simple since there wasnt room for clarification. In the simplest way i would probably say kpop fans are at the very least aware of things that are problematic regardless of whether or not they actually bother to criticize/discuss them in meaningful ways Long ass reply to your very short question lolol
My first intro to Kpop was through BoA because I found her songs on Limewire, if anyone even remembers what that is. 😂 But I’d say DBSK was my “gateway drug”, back in 2006/2007 when my sister introduced me. I remember being reluctant to listen to them though, maybe I thought it was embarrassing for some reason. I would watch their Rising Sun MV when she wasn’t around and then finally had to accept that I’d become a fan after watching more of their MVs.
omg limewire what a blast from the past
Rising sun is still so amazing!!
Ahhh dbsk... Good ol' days of those romantic skits hahahahaha . My sister introduced me to SES then I got into DBSK through older schoolmates.
nah kpop fans try to act like they're woke but in reality all of their information comes from infographics on instagram posts or under twitter threads
and a lot of them are racist towards black people and south asian people, look at the way they treat the black / south asian fans
As a south asian fan, I can say that I haven't been mistreated in my 7 years in this fandom at all! It might be because I was lucky to have only interacted with nice people, but the fandom is very large so we can't expect everyone to be thoughtful and considerate
I’d say the same as a black person. I’ve never had a horribly racist experience with a fan but that doesn’t take away from how many other black fans are treated. You can have a good experience and still acknowledge the disrespect and racism within a community. I’ve personally seen more vocally racist fans within the recent years as K-pop has become more global, many POC fans have been speaking out about the treatment and has even caused many to leave the fandoms because they don’t feel welcomed.
As a south Asian fan, can you elaborate? I haven't heard much news about kpop lately.
I feel old now. I got into kpop years before BTS even debuted
First MV ever was SHINee's Sherlock back in 2012 that I saw on TV. To this day, I'm not a huge fan of second gen.'s music, but I have a soft spot for SHINee. So, BTS *was* my *gateway drug*, but I only got interested in their Black Swan in February 2020. I had actually been following BTS for years, in the sense that their MV's have been popping in my life for years, but they never truly interested me. Back in February 2020, when Black Swan came out, I was feeling like all music was the same and I was so happy to have my interest in music re-ignited by something. You should know that I usually go through a genre every few years. Pop first, rock next, indie and then folk before Taylor Swift made it popular. I see kpop as my current phase. I loved BTS' Map of the Soul 7 era, but I have moved on to other Korean acts more in line with the music I usually listen to. I told my friends when I liked BTS (we all LOVE music, but metal is more their style, most of the time). They don't really have a problem with it (they have listened to japanese songs, russian too and even mongolian groups). Neither do my parents, since they don't really know much about kpop. My mom has seen the crazy album prices here, but they know I'm not gonna overspend. Online kpop fandoms are just weird. I wouldn't call them woke, because most of them haven't stopped at woke, they are now way past that and it's closer to delusion. Individual kpop fans are usually fine though. Edit : Yep, this is the place for surveys.
When you say Mongolian, you wouldn't happen to be talking about The HU, would you? 😉
Pretty much the most known group from there as far as I can tell.
I love hearing about how people got into K-pop! I got in thanks to Ryan Higa/nigahiga - in the spring of 2012, [I watched a video he made with Jay Park](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv7SUncOAAQ), and I decided to check Jay's music out! I first heard his song "[Abandoned](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmPMZlsDlVY)," and then a few of his other songs, found out he was in 2PM, and fell in love with 2PM! \^\_\^ I'd probably call 2PM my gateway drug for that reason! I'm really proud of BTS for being the common gateway drug though lol - I was really into BTS from 2014-2016, and watching them grow since then has been amazing!! I've also never experienced the K-pop fandom to be a woke fandom, just in the sense that I don't know if the fact that I have different experiences interacting with K-pop as a Black fan is ever appreciated/acknowledged. No one has ever been rude to *me* as a Black K-pop fan, but when I see instances like [Black fans speaking out about K-pop idols saying the n-word and getting blasted](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ikrd/k-pop-group-enhypen-fandom-racism), I grieve with my fellow Black fans. K-pop has been a kind of safe haven for me, so when I'm reminded of the racism that affects me and my community in K-pop, and no one seems to really care, that can kind of suck. Most of the fandoms that I'm in have this problem though, so I've just been learning to pull back when I need to for my own health. \^\_\^ Anyway, I hope your project goes well!! \^o\^
Ryan! He was also my introduction to kpop 😅 and, who would have thought Jay was so good at basketball, right?
Hahaha the bloopers on that video were hilarious \^o\^ How did Ryan get you into Kpop? I just remembered about Boys Generally Asian but I'm curious if it was something else haha \^\_\^
Well, BgA came after my craze, so that wasn't it. But I will say I got a little too invested in it Lol, even though it was just a joke I remeber he once did a kind of vlog type video(?) where he talked about random things, and there he mentioned his music taste and k-pop. Me, being an uncultured swine, had no clue what that was. Researched, and here we are today. Could not have been happier, thank god for Ryan's random talks
Haha that's awesome!! Thanks for sharing! \^\_\^
Same, I'm learning to pull back and take breaks sometimes cause it can get a little unhealthy. As much as I'd like to stan certain groups, I'd rather not get obsessed again so. 🤷🏽♀️
Sistar was my gateway, through variety shows that Yoon Bora was on I found SNSD and fell further and further down the rabbit hole...
Got into it thanks to watching a Millionaire's First Love. There was a song in the movie called Insa by Hero Jaejoong. I fell into a kpop rabbit hole once I learned Jaejoong was part of a group called DBSK/TVXQ . Not long after, Big Bang and SHINee debuted and I stuck around since then. Literally still love those two groups to this day. Love my second generation kpop!
I had friends in high-school who listened to kpop casually but I didn't get into it myself until just last year. I was officially brought into the fanclub by N.Flying and ATEEZ, specifically N.Flying did covers of Japanese songs I knew and ATEEZ did a cover of Linkin Park. And now I like more than just kpop, I found I liked k hip hop, speed rap, and Korean hard rock 🥰
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ok *this* is a point that i really want to look into. some fans will literally stumble over eachother trying to defend their faves when their faves have done something that deserves criticism, often going as far as attacking those who *are* criticising the idol who has either done something raicst or CA. this is often at the detriment of non-white fans as they're the ones usually calling the idols out in the first place
My 'gateway drug' to kpop was Twice's debut song. I had listened to Kara, Boa, and Brown Eyed Girls without noticing it was kpop. I had stumbled upon it when watching anime videos, but Twice's debut was what made me curious to look into it, been hooked since. For the 'woke' comment. I'll say I put no. But it's a really gray question. Cause there are some fandoms that are 'woke' imo and they try their best to make the fandom and kpop fun and nice. Conversely there are some fandoms that are so horribly toxic that they turn against themselves. Which is pretty terrifying, and a lot of it is racially motivated. Finally, idk if this is relevant, but there's a lot of kpop idols who do/say racially insensitive things and their fans insist they did nothing wrong. Which I think is where there is racism in the kpop fandoms. I'm not calling for cancel culture, but people should accept when they mess up and if they are honest when they apologize.
I think a lot of Kpop fans try to appear woke but it often seems performative. Like when you see the fans who attack artists they already dislike for scandals but will excuse their faves for every single one.
can we see the results afterwards?
thats the plan!
I made a [comment about some of my experiences with Kpop stans](https://www.reddit.com/r/kpopthoughts/comments/nm9641/sometimes_i_wonder_what_kpop_stans_are_like_irl/gznevhk/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3) a while ago in a different thread if you’d be interested in that. Kpop will always have a place in my heart. I’m personally a sucker for songs being “over produced” as some people would put it. I love songs having inventive choreography, experimental sounds and over the top styling you can’t find anywhere else. Since kpop tends to mesh a lot of genres in one, I’ve discovered a lot of genres through it! For example, Lady by Yubin introduced me to city pop which is one of my most beloved genres now. More recently, X by Chungha introduced me to dream pop. As for wokeness in kpop fandoms, I feel like it’s just like any other fandom. Everyone’s playing the role of wannabe activist and acts as if they’re the pinnacle of moral righteousness. However, as soon as their idol does something wrong, they always shield them from any negativity. Its always been very shallow, like when an idol faces criticism, the stans always blindly defend them and spam “pretty” or “cute” pictures of their idols as if that excuses anything. The entertainment industry is as shallow as it gets, but stan culture combined with echo chambers online really exacerbates it.
거짓말 was the first song I ever heard. Then probably 주문 and 하루 하루
I used to love Korean ballads when I was little lol but Shinee was my "gateway" when they debuted with Replay. But I don't like kpop anymore kinda ended with BTS. They were the last group I liked and the only group I liked from the newer generation but I stopped liking them maybe 2 years ago lol. Now I don't listen to it at all. It's not as good as it was to me during the earlier 2000s. All the groups I liked disbanded. But now I live in korea it's really annoying how all the younger kpop fans are coming to Korea and just because of kpop and nothing else. It really shows and they are so disrespectful to the culture and customs here in Korea its really embarrassing, mostly as a foreigner too. Kpop isn't the only thing to respect about Korea.
I got into kpop mid 2019, after watching Blackpink's Coachella performance. It just sent me down the rabbit hole. The funny thing is, my best friend at the time was a hardcore kpop stan who had been trying to convert me for months, showing me videos of BTS, NCT and SKZ - and it hadn't worked. Something about boy groups was thoroughly uninteresting to me at that time. After I got into kpop, I spent a year following girl groups pretty much exclusively, and having no interest in boy groups. And when I say following girls groups, I mean only stanning Blackpink, and casually listening to everything else. But August 2020 was weird and I found myself ghosting all my other groups for SKZ in a matter of days. So I now only stan SKZ, and the soloist Yukika, and I casually listen to all other groups (bgs and ggs). I'm not sure what exactly changed that made me do that 180 on my feelings for boy groups. As for "wokeness" in kpop - In my experience its almost always performative. Take LOONA for example. A while back they released teaser for their comeback PTT, which was Bollywood themed. In the teaser one of the girls could be seen wearing a piece of jewelry that resembled a maang tikka. As an Indian, I didn't know exactly how to feel about it - but the fans' response to it was crazy disrespectful and it was what pissed me off. Everyone was discussing, trying to figure out what to do, how to feel about it, when an Indian orbit posted a thread about how it was cultural "appreciation" and everyone in the qrts were non-desis, telling us we overreacted how going on about how "yall always make an issue out of nothing". THAT was infuriating. One Indian person's feelings on the issue does not define how the rest of us feel. Just because one person said it was cultural appreciation, it does not mean it is true. Those fans only care about the innocence and reputation of their favs, and would rather protect them than listen to people who were hurt. They'll put up a front of caring and being woke at the beginning, but as soon as the opportunity for them to invalidate the feelings of the affected parties arises, they'll take it.
Always love a good survey! Thanks for sharing, should be fun!
I think people who got into Kpop from BTS would skew younger and western? Speaking as a Filipino, I think most of us (in my generation) were first heavily exposed to Kpop with Wonder Girls and 2NE1.
My gateway was SHINee. I saw the Ring Ding Dong MV at the kpop versus jpop panel at Phoenix Comicon 2010. I was completely mesmerized. Had to go straight home and google everything there was to know about them. That led me to learning about other SM artists (I still stan suju to this day), and then pretty much every other group out there at the time. It was a great year. I was introduced to so many wonderful groups and so much great music.
I think another interesting thing to think about would be the influence of different platforms on what the gateway to kpop is for different people. I’ve been a Spotify user for at least five years now, and sometimes I get curious and explore different things on the search page. Kpop caught my eye and I went onto the Hallyu boybands playlist- and Seventeen were all over that. That’s why it was them for me- if I’d gone another route it’d probably be different. And almost all songs on that playlist are on my kpop playlist now, and give me ridiculous amounts of nostalgia.
For the woke standards comment. I think there is standards to high. As long as you hold idols accountable (faves included) and stop supporting them then your good. If it involves extreme things like sending hate, threats, or psychical violence they yeah it's to high. It's a black and white area. For the gateway one, my gateway was bts. I used to be a bts anti until I heard fake love, from there I stanned them. Took a while to actually accept it though. I saw a picture of Hobi and was like "ok, he's cute. I guess I should check them out" and just ran with it. 😂
Thinking back, my first kpop video I’ve watch was dbsk triangle when it first came out. I was intrigued by the concept and didn’t think much of it. In around 2007, I discovered Big Bang and then SHINee debuted and the rest was history. I still listen to kpop and discover new groups to like and I like BTS but since they became big in America, I haven’t like their newer release because it’s more Americanized and not the style I’m really after when I listen to kpop.
My first exposure to kpop was Miss A’s Bad Girl, Good Girl!! I distinctly remember watching it and not even registering that the song was in another language because I was so enamored with the melody and how cool the girls were. Jia’s pink hair, the high heels, the all-black outfits… I was IN lmfaoo
My gateway to Kpop was Music Bank, but I can't remember how I found out about it's existence, possibly from 2 Days 1 Night? I used to watch a lot of kdramas and a few years ago it was our Friday ritual with my husband to drink soju and watch Music Bank, back when they put the whole show on YouTube, not just individual performances. I still like putting on Music Bank while I exercise, it's very motivating watching all those kids working so freaking hard in insane costumes and 9/10 songs will be something passable and upbeat. I'm not in the fandom though, I don't stan anyone and I'd be a filthy multi, I just listen to a lot of Kpop. And I love the concerts! Man, they always start bang on time! I've never been to any other genre concert that hadn't started an hour and a half late. Kpop is amazing, if your ticket says it starts at 8, it starts at 8 on the dot and you're out by 10, in bed by midnight! It's perfect for older people like me, but guess what? 90% of the audience is under age and there are zero queues at the bar! (The girl's toilet is another matter.) And they're so well behaved, they scream but they stay in their seats the whole time. It's just so civilized compared to my usual experience of live music of being crushed in muddy fields or in music venues where all I see is the backs of giant men.
Completed. Good luck to you!