How I Got Into Kpop

Surprisingly, it wasn't mindlessly scrolling through YouTube that got me into Kpop... Just like how I introduced this 'genre' of music to my friends, Kpop was also introduced to me.

Before every Kpop fan became a fan, they knew nothing about it - they hadn't fallen into the hole yet. So, when my friend's friend, who I became close with at the time due to our love for anime and who was also a hardcore Kpop fan, sent me a link to a song, I semi-fell into the hole. And then crawled back up. My reaction was negative. I didn't like it because of one stupid reason: I couldn't understand what they were saying, even though the beats blessed my ears.

I know what you're thinking... I watch anime, yet I couldn't handle hearing a song in a different language. "What about subtitles?" You have to keep in mind that Kpop wasn't globally recognised like it is today - a song with English subtitles back then (2014) was scarce and even though I like to read, it was effort to search up the English translations; I was also not introduced to colour coded lyric videos yet, until later on... when I stumbled into the hole once again and decided to dip my foot in it.

Let's fast forward to when I jumped into the hole and stayed there.

I think I was in the middle of boredom. I had just finished an anime, an inspirational one, which made me think of Kpop for some reason. I remember the words "Let's give it another chance" so vividly in my memory.

So, I went back to the chat with the link and pressed it. YouTube immediately popped up and I was met once again with the slaying beats from the first ever Kpop song I listened to:

(Currently listening to this song as I type).

And that was how I fell into the Kpop hole.

From watching 'Boy In Luv', V, or as I used to describe him before knowing his name, 'the guy with orange hair', stood out to me mainly because he had the same hair colour as my favourite anime character:

Then V became my bias (and probably my ultimate bias, but no one really needs to know that).

The first thing I failed to notice when I first watched the video without much interest in getting to know Kpop, was the dancing. BTS were amazing dancers (they still are!) and after researching, I was in shock that every group incorporated visuals and dancing in their music videos. Every group had their own sound, together with unique and catchy songs. I hadn't seen anything like it, and I was very much impressed.

It was also Kpop that inspired me to dance.

Therefore, I delved deeper to the point that I turned into what you might call a Koreaboo, discovering other groups and my first girl group:

This was when I realised that Kpop had what they called 'concepts'. At the time of Apink's debut, no other group had debuted with the cute concept, so they rose and stole the hearts of netizens. In the present day, I feel like the 'girl crush', 'badass' and 'sexy' concepts seem to be popular; groups implementing these concepts within their image are dominating the Kpop scene.

And as I continued my research, I discovered about the roles of each member, which also ultimately led me to realise that Kpop wasn't just Kpop - there were loads of other Korean songs in different genres: K-hiphop, K-rap, probably even K-grime, etc. It blew my mind, but I had no idea why because it was basically the same in the Western world of music.

Throughout the years, this Koreaboo-ness has mellowed, but I'm still a big fan of Kpop. However, compared to the Lindsey of the past, who felt it was her mission to get to know every group and research their interests, I mostly listen to a group nowadays only for their songs.

Discovering Kpop reminded me that "music transcends language" (RM, 2018). You don't need to know the language of a song to enjoy it (if you enjoy it), and that, I think, is one of the most beautiful things about music.

Music introduces different cultures, which leads to embracing diversity.