I have been a fan since 2019, but I have been aware of K-pop since 2014/2015 and I’ve seen the K-pop fandom shift over the past decade based on the posts I’ve been seeing back then and the posts I’m seeing now.
Just 10 years ago, K-pop wasn’t as accessible as it was today. Many K-pop groups were starting to travel outside of South Korea and America and entering to cities such as London and Paris via small venues that has no bigger capacity than 12,000 people. This would mean that most people mainly interacted with K-pop via online forums, Tumblr or even YouTube comment sections. It was a non judgmental space where did whatever the heck they want to do. Not trying to say that nothing happened of course. It certainly did, but it almost felt like the friendships made were more genuine if anything. Some people contributed for the community and made fanfictions, fanart, memes, sometimes even GAMES??? So many creative outlets, but fanfictions were definitely at its prime around 2013-2018. People were looking for those stuff when there’s no new content coming from their faves. Plus, they were just starting to translate stuff. We didn’t have live translations unfortunately so while we waited, we went into the depths of Wattpad to find your favourite EXO omegaverse story.
If they had the funds to do so, they would be able to buy merch with a lot of fees attached to it that would make the price go from $50 to $125.79 in a heartbeat. Usually, people just use their money to go to a South Korea trip, since it would make sense to buy an expensive to get the items you wanted online as opposed to buying straight up.
Nowadays, K-pop is much more accessible and more K-pop groups and idols are traveling to countries across Europe and different parts of the world such as South America and a bit of Asia, they are able to bring their faves to most people around the world. And if you weren’t lucky enough to have your faves come over as often, there would be fanmade events such as Cupsleeve Events, Random Play Dances, photobooths that were specifically made in Korea with events in there, K-pop stores, Karaoke bars, VR concerts at the Cinema and so many that I may have not named.
Personally, I don’t think K-pop being more accessible is the problem. In fact, it would’ve benefited so many people who had the interest for many years, having to jump so many hurdles, just to finally rest and have everything given to them. Or, they are completely resentful about it and are jealous of the next generation being able to have so many K-pop events when they became a fan when everything was just starting out.
I think the problem is the fact that Gen Z are basically the surveillance generation thanks to Instagram. We were shown picture perfect models on our feeds due to the fact that in 2016, millennials were the trend setters for the younger people and they wanted to emulate that. Eventually, many tweens didn’t want to be tweens anymore (possibly due to so many of them being bullied for having fun) so they went straight to makeup and everything that was deemed “grown.” That was why we dressed the way we did and acted the way we did.
In the 2020s, everything took a huge turn when all of a sudden became aware of how they were acting due to how people pretty much lacked common sense and started filming everyone, which was why a lot of people had a fear of being perceived negatively in any way shape or form.
Unfortunately, this attitude swept into the K-pop fandom, which is why all of a sudden fanfictions were considered something “weird” and “cringe” when it was something a lot of K-pop fans back in 2015 praised due to the fact that it was a way for us to get “new K-pop content” as well as a way to share to your community your love for K-pop as an interest. Plus, there’s so many contents out there of your faves now so people started to find it pointless of making fanfictions of your faves when they’re literally pumping out content non stop.
Nowadays, if you ever go on Tiktok to look up videos. Most of them would be stuff linked to over-consumerism such as showing off their K-pop album collection, showing off the concerts they went to, going to South Korea, etc, or it would be a video of someone who has a “talent” such as singing, dancing, making edits, drawing, etc. All of these videos would present well enough that it could create a sort of fomo in yourself like you’re missing out, especially when these videos are meant to share the most perfect, aesthetically pleasing images and steady and non cringy videos of you at a concert. It may not seem like much, but once you start to see bunch of the same videos, you start to feel like you need to post the same way. Cut the part out when you scream, make it colour coded, you have to dress the part, you need aesthetically pleasing K-pop friends, you have to be in a dance group, etc. All of this would be overwhelming to someone who may simply do not want to be a part of those groups and simply want to be a K-pop fan without needing to have a talent or over-consume.
As someone who has seen both sides of the K-pop fandom, it’s kinda understandable as to why so many teenagers want to be 2nd generation fans. Yes, they won’t be able to have the things that they got. They won’t be able to show off their faves in a photocard holder, they won’t be able to take fun photobooths with their friends, heck they’ll need to travel to South Korea in order to do some more activities other than being at home on their PCs while catching up with friends on LiveJournal! But the reason why, is because they rather go back to the simpler times where they were able to see their favourite 2nd generation group release their favourite songs however way they did it. Heck, I did that with SHINee, even though it led me into a downward spiral that I had to get out of. I don’t blame them at all.
Not to mention, this current generation is overwhelming. I tried to sign up to ATEEZ’s TokToq Subscription as well as Seonghwa’s and San’s Fromm messages. There were TOO many notifications. Not to mention, whenever it’s a member’s birthday (especially my biases) it is absolutely HELL. 30 back to back messages from Seonghwa, a live notification on YouTube, 2 TokToq notifications, a YouTube notification on ATEEZ’s account, 3 notifications on Instagram on ATEEZ and Seonghwa’s account, a notification on Twitter- not to mention, I started taking ATEEZ seriously from when they’re released work. Since then, they had FIVE COMEBACKS????? no actually, SIX??? (if you consider hongjoong and oderari as a comeback since it’s a collab.) Look, I love ATEEZ more than my parents, but this is getting too much right now.
Also, the rise of the word “parasocial” in normal fandom spaces could also be the fact that Tiktokers love to utilise therapy talk, the same way people online like to use the word “gaslighting” or “oversharing” even though they may use the word incorrectly or not in the right context. Before 2019, nobody was using parasocial to describe their love for K-pop idols, meaning it was a recent phenomenon used by Gen Z and Gen Alphas who may have gotten their therapy talk vocabulary from Tiktok and started labelling anyone as parasocial, even if they have a slight connection with their faves, even if they were not using it in the right context.
All I’m gonna say is, fandom culture is dying. Nobody wants to be whimsy anymore and have fun? Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely still happening but we need more posts from someone just having fun instead of miserable people ruining it for us. I don’t need no fairy themed outfits for TXT’s concert, we need a TXT Peter Pan inspired story- look see????? You can make fanfictions without all of that yucky stuff if you’re not into it. There’s so many possibilities! I missed our cringe side. I loved when we used to have so much fun. If I could travel back in time, I wish to be in 2015 for the fans. I just need them back. ☹️
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