I never said you can’t, I’d rather not be painted as being against socialism because I’m not. K-pop thrives off capitalism no matter which way you’re able to consume it, so it’s not like my statement was outrageous?
I'm not saying you are but this argument is just flawed. There's this idea that k-pop is the most capitalistic industry in the world when........ that's far from a factual or fair statement. It mostly derivates from Western people who find it easier to find flaws in other cultures than their own. Is k-pop categorically bad? Yes. Is it worse than like 90% of the industries in the world? No. So why is it a contradiction for someone to be a socialist and enjoy a kpop group but not for someone to be a socialist and eat meat, for instance? Or not even to that extreme because the exploitation in the meat industry is very well talked about, but for someone to be a socialist and occasionally buy clothes in a megastore? I, personally, engage with k-pop by giving the companies as little money as possible (I don't buy albums, I don't buy merch, I don't buy concert tickets, and the money I give them streaming for sure is not paying anyone's trainee debt!) and I absolutely think that people should not encourage others to bulk buy albums the way they do. But I also believe that it's really difficult to write someone off as a socialist because they will buy a k-pop album here and there. It's not something we do when someone says they are a socialist and bought a Britney Spears album, so I mean. You're not the first person to argue this and I don't think you'll be the last. It's just a bit frustrating to have to encounter this discussion over and over again because it's like being told you have certain political standards means you automatically are not allowed to enjoy things. Not to mention there's a whole discussion about culture in capitalism x culture in socialism but that's ddddd too extensive and beyond the point.
I’d take it one step further and say the music doesn’t have to be good as long as half a million albums are sold... And I would also like to add that I’m seeing more and more of this mentality among Blinks... Stan wars are so weird...
Popular = good has always been a common fallacy. Be grateful that most of you missed the Beatles, Osmonds, take that etc. Difference now is that it's easier to spread that stuff online and harder to avoid. I don't know where I'm going with this. Might delete this post later, depending on if I sleep or not.
I will say that toxic fans have existed since as far as I can remember. This is a whole other topic, but I’m a bit annoyed with the takes I’m seeing elsewhere (not here on this forum, I will add) that this happened with the rise of K-Pop. A take like that is a bit... coded to me and another example of what @eccentricsimply says of “Western people finding fault in other cultures, other than their own.” For me, it’s more of a question of why nothing has changed: from the fans of the Beatles to MJ to the Beliebers and Directioners to the Army now. Why are people still not taught to “stan responsibly”?
I don't think anyone who's even minimally knowledgeable on fandom culture actually thinks toxicity in fandoms started with k-pop in particular. I mean................ John Lennon was murdered by a fan after all ddddd I think a big reason why a lot of people pin on Armys is because even from as early as six years ago when One Direction was at their peak, social media wasn't what it is nowadays. I 100% believe that any of those fandoms you mentioned would've done the exact same shit Armys do if they had the technology Armys have access to. It's just that it's really difficult not to point fingers when people are getting doxxed on the daily because they once said Jungkook can't use knives, you know? I do think that a conversation must be had about the specific racism and xenophobia that BTS and k-pop as a whole are victims of as consequence of the fans' actions but I also think the fingers must be pointed.
I mean, it doesn’t help that I see that a lot of the “K-Pop stans are the craziest ever in history!!!” come from people, who wouldn’t give non-English media a chance. It seems like some have used it as a new way to dismiss the music and art to me, just because K-Pop is exploding right now. Of course, a lot of it is the fault of the rabid fans and it isn’t always a case of casual xenophobia. I’d actually say some of it should be the responsibility of these large companies.... They can push to have Jisoo, Britney, MJ’s faces on Pepsi bottles, but rarely do we hear a peep from them on how to respect their idols. There should be more media discussing what exactly is the healthy way of being a fan, rather than multiple, recycled images of fans going crazy. But, I guess they benefit a lot from rabid stans so fuck idols’ safety and mental health, along with people who get attacked and threatened by them in the process.
Me streaming kpop but also being a globalist Marxist-Leninist and thus supporting the decolonization of Korean peninsula, the removal of America's global military presence from the Global South, and the reunification of the Korean people - if they so choose it as what they want - as my fellow comrades in the global conflict of the proletariat vs the bourgeoisie:
Let's not forget that New Year's Day was officially cancelled in 2013 in South Korea because that was the day that "I Got a Boy" was dropping and no one cared about anything else. Iconic.
Iirc there’s a glaring editing mistake in this (or purposeful choice because they lost footage who knows!!!) that after watching the mv far too many times is soooo easy to catch but I’ll pretend I didn’t see it !
