This passage is mostly just going to be about my personal experiences, especially as somebody who’s been in the K-pop since age of 9 (now 19) in this seeing the wholehearted difference between K-pop and 2015 versus 2025
Firstly, with the absolute positive is the fact that it is much more widely known in comparison to when I first got into K-pop, which was a time where nobody knew what it was and if they did, they would make fun of you for it. And I’m happy after 2020 that it’s become a lot more mainstream and socially acceptable albeit not as much as anime. I grew up as one of those “weird kids” so my first exposure to K-pop was anime amvs as nerdy as that sounds 🥲
I feel like because of the rises and K-pop’s popularity, especially internationally. The Phantom war that were already strong in Korea immediately got pushed to around the globe and that’s why I feel like K-pop nowadays is so much more aggressive since the time I first became a fan. I also wasn’t somebody who exactly idolize them as I genuinely dispute K-pop idols as musically celebrities at the time (basically just singers/celebrities with massive followings on multi platforms but Korean). So I never really gotten into the intensity of the stanning culture, especially as it is now. It’s still shocking to me. That people are against being a multi stand in 2025 especially newer fans. And as much as I understand the intensity of liking kpop and getting into it, it honestly makes it less enjoyable for everyone
It as much as I find the craziness now to be insufferable. I always have to remind myself that I’ve genuinely seen it all with how low the K-pop world has gone. I remember the 2010s scandals, the rise of bts, the wars between ahgases, armys, and eris. The mess with exo treating Chinese members horribly. The survival shows and the headaches they usually were. It’s its major I unfortunately remember it🥲
But after all this time, I can definitely say that it is become a childhood hobby that has lasted into adulthood, and I would never give up my interest in K-pop for the world. I’ve never considered myself a crazy fan, but I genuinely grew up with the music and all of the content that K-pop groups would put out were the vlive and YouTube videos I would watch after finishing my homework in elementary school. Because of how long I’ve been into K-pop, I’ve ended up stanning or liking around 15 groups. So the fan wars have always been insane to me because I’ve always ended up liking groups who have fandoms that absolutely despise each other even now. And they’ve only gone worse after 2022 and I wholeheartedly believe that if the K-pop world stopped trying to prove who is better or the next “BTS” more people who actually want to get into the music. There are people who think I’m crazy for saying that I like and equally follow all of these groups and it’s genuinely because it takes like 10 minutes to figure out what they’re doing in the upcoming months
For those of you that are older fans lr I’ve have been into K-pop for a long time such as me, what are your opinions on the dynamic shifts of K-pop where your opinions on how the past K-pop culture is so much different from now :0
submitted by /u/Budget-Leg8120
[link] [comments]
