K-Pop: Ruined by the fans

There is no doubt that K-pop (Korean-Pop Music) has global appeal and has been a huge success for Asian representation in the music industry. Almost every K-Pop performance is enthralling; a cohort of beautiful, picture perfect individuals sing and dance for their obsessive fans with finesse. Furthermore, the two biggest Korean groups right now, BTS and Blackpink, have topped American charts for the first time since Korean solo artist Psy’s “Gangnam Style”. BTS has even went on to perform with Taylor Swift, Halsey, and appear on mainstream American television shows like Saturday Night Live.

However, a common trend among wildly popular K-Pop groups is extreme, almost embarrassing fans. With a simple Google search, there is a tsunami of results of questionable behavior from fans, or “stans”, that misrepresent the groups’ image. There is no issue with loving K-Pop, as the popularization of this genre leads to more representation and acceptance of Asian cultures. However, it is important to be aware of the toxic side that this new phenomenon entails. As an example, recently, Youtuber Ethan Klein made a few distasteful comments towards BTS, which led to immense backlash from many K-Pop fans.

“I don’t get the BTS thing,” Klein said in a video. “I’m just going to say it right now, I don’t like K-pop. I hate K-pop. I don’t get BTS. How did this become a thing in Western culture…”

Klein’s comment undoubtedly comes off as a somewhat caustic, but the backlash the Youtuber has received is indicative of the K-pop community’s toxic attitude; any perceived threat towards the beloved—perhaps too beloved—performers warrants an extensive witch-hunt. Such immense devotion to attempt to “cancel” Ethan Klein led to an #h3h3isoverparty hashtag that began trending on Twitter. His reputation remained intact, but this demonstrates their ability to hound an individual in immense, dangerous numbers. A few months ago, they took down a Twitter account called @bruhmoments, because the admin uploaded a video making fun of K-Pop through mass reporting. Their numbers are threatening and are a force to be reckoned with.

In addition to mass hoardes, these fans can be highly invasive, posessive and disgustingly devoted to their idols. This dangerous subgroup of Korean fans, also known as Saesang are known for stalking and intruding upon their idols’ private lives. For example, one fan broke into TVXQ’s residence to take pictures, Jackson Wang, formerly a part of GOT7 suffered injuries from a car accident with a taxi carrying an obsessive fan and several fans crashed Exo star Baekhyun’s brother’s wedding. In addition to their obessiveness, many fans see their idols as Gods who can do no wrong. In light of the Burning Sun scandal, many Saesang were highly adamant towards the fact that their idols were not guilty, and this was an orchestrated witch hunt to slander their names when evidence proves otherwise.

There’s nothing wrong with defending one’s celebrity idol, but when fans are racist to fellow fans, this becomes another issue that further stains K-pop fans’ reputation. One fan was called the n-word by other fans, another was told that she did not deserve to be a fan of BTS for being black, and when a fan spoke out about receiving such racist comments, she was met with criticism for wanting attention. In response to this, a movement called the #BlackArmyBeauty project began in order to fight racism against black BTS fans.

Worst of all, K-Pop stans will use every single opportunity they can to promote their favorite bands. For example, browsing Twitter, it is not uncommon to find a “fancam” video reaction in response to a completely unrelated post.

For example:

Funny meme Photo Coutesy of @VideosFolder

K-Pop fancam Photo courtesy of @sugarfatherr

Indeed, behavior such as this is extremely insufferable, but it gets even worse. Even during the event of the Christchurch shooting, many stans shamelessly promoted their bands.

Awful fan behavior Photo Courtesy unknown

Furthermore, during the deaths of important celebrities such as Stan Lee and XXXtentacion, K-Pop stans again, attempted to profit from tragedy in this manner. There’s literally no gain from doing something as absurd as this. Not only does this continue to paint the entire fanbase as insufferable, attention seeking brats whose sole purpose in life is defined by a band who will never, ever notice that they exist as individuals, but this also taints the reputation of the K-Pop genre. It is important to understand that the fans don’t necessarily represent the artist, but when the artist gets associated with a negative group of people, misinformation and bias will spread.

Obsessive fan culture will always exist like an ever- evolving superbug with no cure, and K-Pop fans are a perfect example of this. Their massive hoards will target you if you make a distasteful comment about their precious pretty boys, they have proven to be racist to one another and they will use any chance they can get to promote their idols. Obsessive. Toxic. Disgusting.

For additional reading, here is a link to the worst K-Pop fanbases.

by Wesly Wong