Okay, so I have followed kpop since late 2019 and discovered it through my friend showing me music videos on YouTube. I hence further discovered groups and songs via algorithms sharing me similar songs and content on YouTube and streaming services. And I have followed groups and their releases and activities through promotion on their social media pages on Twitter and Instagram, and have received tailored notifications from them and also from subreddits tailored to them.
I was recently thinking about all the promos and teasers that groups have lined up for a release up to months in advance and how were practically spoon fed content and know everything that is going on. And I wondered what it was like years back in the ’00s when social media wasn’t around and even into the early 2010s as social media was just up and coming to follow a group as someone outside of Korea. Like where did you first learn about kpop, how did you find out about new releases, how did you learn about debuts?
Additionally, what was it like trying to get their merchandise? Like nowadays there are different buying sites for the Korean, Japanese, and western markets and facilitate direct to address shipping. But I know that for buying things from Japan in general you may still need to have things delivered to a Japanese address and then shipped to your western address separately. Did you have to do something like this? Was currency exchange an issue that had to be managed? Or did you have to buy things from someone that happened to have traveled to Korea recently and brought back things?
This is something that came across my mind and I’d love for any of you longtime kpop fans to answer as I often hear of people who have been following kpop since SNSD’s debut or remember the days when Super Junior was the hottest group around and the members were fresh in their 20s and I just wonder what it like during this time.
Love to hear your input
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