The biggest reason why I would ‘stan’ a group is genuinely because of their music. Then their live performances come next. Everything else like their personality, visuals are just bonuses. The moment the music just don’t hit with me, I lose interest. But that does not mean I will judge and ignore everything they release going forward. Personally I’m the type of music nerd (who just happens to be into kpop too) who would listen to entire albums on the release day at least twice or 3 times to really understand how I feel about it. And if I find it’s not for me. I will not stream it again.
Now with most kpop stans, once they are set with the group they chose to ult, they are compelled to force themselves to like every release, every comeback and discourage any type of critical discourse. And at the same time, they will be overly critical and nitpicky of every release from other groups they see as competition for their faves even if it’s not actually as bad as they really think it is. I mean this isn’t new and this has been the case for the biggest kpop fandoms for years now. But I think the direct result of this kind of fan behavior is the groups constantly releasing music that the core fandom does NOT actually want. Of course it’s normal to not like a song or two. But if the group or artist keeps releasing a certain type of sound or style which is objectively not good, or mirrors another group who does so, that is probably because the overly positive reviews and praises pushed by their fandoms, as well as record breaking sales made these artists and labels think that a lot of people genuinely enjoy that kind of music. Or maybe not exactly the style, but the obvious lazy and repetitive structure and composition of these songs feel like the labels (or the group themselves) probably think, oh we know they like this shit so let’s just keep giving the girlies what they want. Yeah the fans showed up to support, buy and stream for their comeback and sure that’s beautiful but at what cost?
An example of this I would say is a large part of the BG fandoms have been eating up this trend of one word or one note staccato chant choruses that has been going on for like 3 years now. But now I can see that among these said fandoms (sure the toxic positivity is still there but) there is also a growing sense of fatigue. While on the other end of the stick, there are releases from certain groups that the general kpop community love to shit on, whether they actually listened to the whole record or not, because the group is too successful for their liking. They are automatically already labeled as bad or too commercialized for “trying hard” to appeal to the GP as if such criticisms do not directly apply to their faves’ recent releases too. But the difference is some of these labels or groups do not understand what would be the real healthy balance of appealing to both the fandom and the GP. Because at the end of the day, I think both fandom support and GP recognition are important in a sustainable kpop group career. If the songs don’t hit with the fans anymore, you can’t expect it to be a hit with the GP either. Also biases aside, there could be a huge gap in terms of production quality, melody and composition, lyricism etc that competing fandoms just love to ignore. Or their opinions are also heavily driven by fake narratives that have clogged their little bubble of algorithm, so if all they read are nothing positive things about their faves while also every horrible bad shit said about another group they hate, they think that’s real life and that’s how it really is. Unfortunately, most kpop stans are really incapable of forming their own opinions when it comes to music.
All that said, I think the true winners are the groups who constantly turn GP into dedicated fans simply because they do in fact enjoy a recent comeback from them, without their existing ones feeling neglected either. And both set of people ending up fighting to buy tickets to their concerts.
Anyway, I really am grieving the music that a lot of these groups used to release. It is so sad to compare the difference. And for the record, it’s not even about being against them exploring or changing their sound or experimenting, it’s actually the opposite. It’s about the laziness and deteriorating quality that is really upsetting. But at the same time, I’m also hopeful these groups overcome whatever creative slump they all seem to be going through right now. Maybe it’s the looming MS that’s affecting them, or they are overworked as hell and they probably need like a real hiatus as an active idol too to be able to come back stronger, idk.
And what I really just wish for the kpop community is to be truly honest with how they like their music and stop with their preconceived biases. Stop this immature over glazing of their faves and over hating on those that they ‘anti’. But I guess that’s too much to ask from kpop.
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