I’ve been into K-pop and K-hiphop for over 10 years, but as a casual international fan, not deep into fandom culture. Like, I never bought merch, I am not in any fandom nor do I know any korean. I have been a fan of kpop since Big Bang’s still alive days. Actually saw them during a hurricane in New York.
anyway, I was listening to redred by cortis, and a line about covering your pants made me think about sagging. i liked it, it was catchy. one of the lyrics goes “covering your butt (thats red red)”. I THINK it means, NOT sagging your pants, is not cool but either way, it was the reason I thought of this.
in the US, pants sagging is not a wholly hiphop thing. it’s seen as a cultural thing with social context. It’s been stereotyped, criticized, even legislated against. It carries baggage beyond just fashion and music. Even Obama has spoken on it. But my point is, no one here says “you are sagging your pants, you must be hiphop.”
But in kpop/khiphop, it often gets reduced to a symbol of being “hip-hop” or “rebellious.” That’s what feels off. This happens with a lot of things: fashion, slang, gestures. Pieces of marginalized cultures, especially Black culture, get turned into aesthetics without the history behind them.
When I watch variety shows on youtube, or catch lyrics about pants sagging, its so cringe. i hear things, “yeah, pants sagging is hiphop.” or using sagging pants as a anti authority thing. im starting to see when they say “this is hiphop”, they mean “this is anti authority/against the norm.” Where in the US, that means oppression, in Korea, this means rebellion.
It’s like they see what goes against the norm, where marginalized groups like african american culture sit, due to the power dynamic and take it to the extreme. This is “anti authority” so they use it as an aesthetic, as a lyric, as a symbol that they are “hiphop.”
With that said, it’s just one of many things that kpop/khiphop take without context, and make such like a concentrated version that is very good, technically, but without the soul, the history.
And to be fair, Kpop does this incredibly well on a technical level. The choreography, styling, and production are top tier. But sometimes it feels like everything is optimized to look right rather than come from a deeper understanding, like studying to ace a test instead of actually learning the material.
Things like… dancing/choreography, fashion, slang, etc. You seen k-rappers throw up their jujutsu hand signs, yelling gang gang. You seen dances become viral challenges.
With all that in mind, I personally don’t care that they do it. They look lame, it is what it is.
I also think fan reactions can go too far in the other direction. I am not one of those that get triggered by braids. I don’t cry about Jay Park. Fans will project their own morality and want to destroy people and careers over these things. I laughed at the craziness of a comment that said “anyone that supports gdragon is racist.” i got called racist.
What sucks is, we will see the loud people. And when they grow up, mature, or lose interest, and move on, we wont notice because there will always being a visible party yelling “TSUZU IS RACIST” or “THEY ARE ACTUAL NAZIS!”
At the end of the day, it’s just something I’ve noticed: how certain cultural elements can be misunderstood, repackaged, and amplified and how the conversation around it can get just as extreme as the issue itself.
submitted by /u/throwturtleaway
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