If you’ve read my bio or perhaps stayed reading my posts for the good past couple of years, you would very much know that I am a K-pop fan.
Now, when I or probably most people go out, the reaction you get when saying you like Korean music isn’t usually heartwarming. People would be racist, maybe rude, feel the name to for some reason state that they hate K-pop or in general stereotype the fan itself. They’d mostly stereotype you as some livid super-fan who dedicates their whole life and soul to K-pop. So it’s a pretty big gamble when you want to share your music taste, hoping you wont get judged or you find someone who also likes the same music as you. For that reason, I ask that you forgive me for being a bit awkward throughout this post, as I never really found it that comfortable to express my interest in Korean music to an open audience.
History
I think I began listening to Korean music around late 2019 to early 2020. Notably, the very first K-pop song I heard was BTS’s ‘Blood, Sweat, and Tears’ after watching a TwoSet Violin musical charades video where they played that song for South Korea. I think that was in 2017 or 2018. I didn’t really pay much attention at that time because I was a 10 year old kid with better things to do. But surprisingly, I got into K-pop- or rather BTS- from a Kids Bop music video. Kids Bop actually did a cover of BTS’s Boy With Luv, covering the Korean and English and a bit of modified choreography, and I somehow absolutely loved it. Like, I would watch it every day, constantly. (And this was me still in my Kids Bo phase, wanting to find a good music taste that wasn’t swearing all the time) I reluctantly checked out the original song, getting my first glimpse into the world of Korean music videos and idols, and it really just took off from there. I really liked the song, and I watched hundreds of performance videos- James Corden, dance practice, moving version, BBMA, etc. I think it was from there that I just got into the group as a whole. I added it to my playlist along with Blood Sweat and Tears, and then a few more songs I liked from that one James Corden Carpool Karaoke video. (ON, Mic Drop remix, the works) I remember having like 4 songs, max, on that one playlist that I would just listen to over and over again. I was really hesitant to expand my interest into more songs, but that changed as I made myself watch more music videos. I think it’s also good to note that this was during early COVID- and my first year of middle school- when we were all at home with literally nothing to do and I could freely watch music videos without having to worry much about the pending work I was procrastinating on or a task I needed to do.
So I REALLY got into BTS. I made a playlist with (almost) all of their songs- which I still have- and watched so many performance videos, BangtanTV uploads, funny moment edits, and so on. Within my last few weeks of ‘summer’ that year I remember my agents giving me like two weeks ‘off’- because I was doing a number of side quests those past few months so I didn’t get out of the habit of working- and I sat down and binged the entire ‘Run BTS’ variety show continuously. I think it was also around that time- maybe a few weeks to a month into my newfound obsession- that I decide dto spill my secret to my parents. For some reason I was pretty hesitant about sharing this with my parents because it was a pretty new interest that I don’t think they’d ever heard of before, nor did I know what their expected reaction would be like. I also felt like they would be judgemental, I don’t know. But they reacted pretty okay? I mean, I just had to reveal it at some point because even though I made some details vague, they pried out information to know more. (In a very, were your curious parents who want to know what’s going on with you type of way) But anyways, I was pretty hooked onto BTS for a good three years or so, until maybe freshman year. Up until that point I would only listen to BTS- I rarely listened to other groups’ music, except for the occasional Blackpink song or so when mentioned.
It was with the 10th Anniversary- what a traumatic live I STILL HAVE NOT WATCHED TO THIS DAY- that I changed and decide dto look into other groups. With the gradual enlistment of each of the members and solo activities and albums each woudl be releasing, I decided it would be a good opportunity to start exploring. I started with TXT and Enhypen. I got really invested with TXT that summer, and watched mostly everything TXT related. That went on for a while until around July where I watched the HYBE Game Caterers (Channel Fullmoon) and I got introduced to Seventeen (or the few members of the band that they could send). I initially watched it for TXT, but it didn’t take much time for me to get distracted by SEVENTEEN. SEVENTEEN REALLY captured my attention, as they are very known to do, but I didn’t get into them until later. (It was the random dance game where ‘HOT’ started playing and literally everyone knew the choreography and started dancing in sync) Along the way I also got into The Rose- a Korean American Indie Rock band (similar but not similar to Day6) and had the opportunity to see them live in concert around October my freshman year. I shortly started getting into Seventeen after that, and was instantly hooked. I listened to their entire discography repeatedly, followed all the members on Instagram, went through their profiles constantly, and binged most of their content. With that I became a pretty big CARAT- SEVENTEEN fan. I also got into New Jeans, ATEEZ, BoyNextDoor, WayV and the occasional NCT, and TWS along the way. As for BTS- I’ve actually spent less time listening t their music than before. It was just the idea of the members becoming far too different than how I first met them, and their music becoming increasingly Western rather than true to their original element. But by staying from that, I was able to start getting into other groups. (As of today I am trying to listen to more SHINee, a group I very desperately wished I was old enough to see debut and perform when they were a whole group)
So I guess that accumulates to about 4 years of being a K-pop fan. In this, I have been to two-ish concerts (The Rose isn’t really K-pop): Enhypen and Oneus. I have one lightstick for SEVENTEEN, and 13 albums. 9 SEVENTEEN albums, 1 TWS album, 1 ATEEZ album, 1 Enhypen album, and 1 The Rose album. Now, the journey how that all magically elevated from three to 13 so quickly has to go to our trip to Korea.
Korea
When visiting Korea, I didn’t really have many expectations. I was really just excited to visit the country, and do some shopping for a good number of souvenirs and items. Among this was makeup/skincare, and albums. Overseas shipping of albums from official sites is pretty expensive. Two albums can surmount to about $130 give or take. Shopping at a local album store near you would ring it to maybe less than half that price. In Korea, you could buy at least 5 albums for that price. Furthermore, there’s a higher chance of getting the albums you want at the next available shop rather than having it constantly sold out online. I talk of this with experience as I went to Korea with the sole purpose of buying one specific ‘album’.
SEVENTEEN Dino’s TTT (The Thirteen Tapes) Solo Mixtape Photobook.
SEVENTEEN does this special thing where every time a member releases their solo mixtape they have a special interview and photobook that talks about the behind process when making it. SO far, 4 out of 13 members have made one, and the most recent is the maknae (or youngest member) of SEVENTEEN, Dino. Why this specific member? Well, frankly, he’s my bias of SEVENTEEN and the member I have a huge parasocial crush on (?). I don’t think that’s a term, but you get what I’m talking about. Anyways, on our first day there we visited a mall and went around exploring, finding two shops that sold albums (The Artbox and a bookstore) and yet neither of them had it. I do think I went a little crazy at the bookstore though because I went in looking for one album specifically and came out with 6 albums instead….(Three of those were for friends so does that count?) So yeah there’s one fun adventure. We went to Myeongdong a few days later- somewhere I was super excited to visit since it’s a street market with vendors and cute shops everywhere- and I did manage to finally find it! I did a quick search of the photo book on the ride there, looking up shows that sold it online and asked our guide to help us find the fist one that popped up. In my desperate attempt to find this photobook and ability to say only a limited number of words in Korean, I pretty much just kept the picture of the photobook open in my safari window at all times and sowed it to the shop owners every time I visited. Thank goodness for that! The shop in Myeongdong had it, and the way I actually gasped and nearly cried when she gave it to me. (It’s an exaggeration, but I was genuinely so excited) I think it was the thrill of finding that album that lead me to buy four more. (Excluding Dino’s) But in reality, these albums were ridiculously cheap in comparison to what they cost in the UNited States, and if I could buy at least 6 or 7 of these for the price of 2 if I bought them at home, then that is exactly what I was gonna do. And so that’s how I ended up with 9 more albums to add to my collection.
I do think I might have looked a little insane when pulling out albums left and right from the shelves in front of the workers/store owners, and that’s kind of embarrassing now that I think of it. But hey, I’d probably not get this opportunity again for a very long time, so why not just make the most out of it while I can, right?
But in reality, as a K-pop Stan seeing Korea for the first time, the experience did not disappoint! I know a lot of people usually say that Korea is profoundly racist but we didn’t experience much hostility during visiting. (That also may be because we were living in more foreigner friendly areas) I think it’s also funny how I was in literal shock to see Jeonghan (from SEVENTEEN) in a clothing store promoting the products or New Jeans photos plastered all over glasses shops as if they aren’t from Korea. It’s like when you hear a K-pop song play on Western radio shows, except you see K-pop idols being promoted in Korea. (Fork found in kitchen moment) It was a real genius moment for me not gonna lie. One of my most brilliant times. But I got used to that as well as how often people will play K-pop songs in their shops. It’s just music. I think it’s funny how, me living in the U.S., it’s super normal for Western music to be playing casually in stores, but Korean music usually isn’t because it’s in a language people don’t understand, but you hear Korean music constantly in Korea because that’s normal for them. (I know what I’m saying sounds stupid, but I’m being so serious right now.) Hearing ‘Attention’ by New Jeans in a random shop in Myeongdong is just the same as hearing ‘Shake it Off’ by Taylor Swift in Walmart or something. But that just genuinely threw me off.
And that’s about it really. I mean, along the way I have gotten better about my whole sharing my music taste part of meeting people, as just the other day me and this other girl at a volunteering activity I was at were fangirling pretty hard over NewJeans for a solid 15 minutes, and I have some close friends who send me daily reels of their favorite TXT member or ZEROBASEONE member on a periodic basis. For a while I never really had a preferred music taste, but I think that getting into K-pop was a pretty good decision. It’s fun to watch clips of pretty boys dancing to hit songs and just go completely crazy. But it’s also allowed me to get a more open perspective to a lot of things I probably wouldn’t have before- such as consumerism, celebrity status, gender norms, and so much more. Apart from that, I’ve just felt it to be something I can be comfortable around when discussing, and have a good time talking to people about. It’s really exciting when you randomly bump into another CARAT in a random Ramne shop late evening in Hiroshima without even expecting it. (Real story btw) It’s the way you click. You may not know the same language, the other person, their background or anything, but for a brief moment, you can be happy and they’d also be happy knowing that they met another like them. Another fan, another fellow K-pop Stan who can relate to them in some ways, and that they aren’t alone.
