When I first got into the wonderfully weird world of K-Pop, I was fascinated by the number of restrictions it came with. Despite its seemingly endless amount of genre-bending songs and lung-busting choreography, everything wasn’t how it presented itself to be.
I was hesitant at first.
Until…
November 2017.
I saw “Kokobop” by EXO for the first time. I was intrigued by the smoky eyeshadow, the seductive looks, ‘the mullet’, and surrealist backdrop the music video was set against.
Suffice to say, I was hooked.
I wanted to know more about the industry, and how the music became so widespread; so, being the nerd that I am, I went over to /r/kpop and scrolled through some old threads to get a feeling of how the industry worked. It’s not the most scientific research, but as a muggle, I greatly appreciated what details I did get from my lurking.
I spent the next two weeks absolutely engrossed and mildly horrified at what I uncovered.
“Restrictions.”
That’s the keyword here.
For as much “freedom” we see kpop idols being given, when they’re in “idol mode” 9/10, that so-called “independence” is a facade.
K-pop is heavily filtered.
Unlike the Western music industry where most of the time we see people at their worst, k-pop companies make sure we only see the good side of their performers. Of course, sometimes that’s not always the case (hardly the case) but compared to their Westen counterparts Kpop boys are usually squeaky clean.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but in my 4 (far too long) years of being a fan, I’ve noticed a strange pattern that began to emerge from each fandom I’ve interacted with.
Never in all my years of listening to bands have I seen behavior as deranged as the “fans” on stan twitter.
There have been several occasions where I’ve seen people, bullied, harassed, doxxed (in my case), and ran off of twitter for the simplest things. Every fandom believes that they’re above this sort of tomfoolery but in reality when it comes to their ‘Emotional Support Kpop Boy or Girl™’ nothing is off-limits for them.
This leads me to believe that fans take the meaning of “idol worship” too literally, particularly on what we would call ‘stan twitter.’
While the word, “idol” is correct in K-pop terms, as a dumb Westerner and someone who happened to grow up(:/) in a very controlled Baptist Christian household, the word “idol” carries a different weight.
From what I remember during my time in the church, idolatry was one of the main “no-nos” in Christianity.
There’s even a couple of verses that talk about it as well, feel free to skip over these if you don’t want to read them:
“Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble.” — Judges 10:14
“Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.” — 1 John 5:21
“Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.” — 1 Corinthians 10:14
Idols in the Bible were objects to be worshipped and revered. According to the verses I posted above that was a huge red flag because when you latch yourself to an object or in Kpop’s case — a human or a band, you end up losing sight of who you’re supposed to be, regardless of religion.
When you “worship” a band or an idol singer, you’re basically giving a lot mentally and emotionally to said band or person. Like I said before, regardless of religion, you lose part of yourself trying to ‘protect’ these groups of guys and or gals from “harm.”
Now, I’m not trying to sound preachy, if you follow me on Twitter then you know for a fact that I’m the last one to judge other people, in fact, there are people who followed me only to unfollow me precisely cause they care more about their Emotional Support Kpop Boy™ instead finding out for themselves what went wrong or cultivating a genuine friendship.
But I digress.
Even I’m guilty of propping ..*ehem*a certain idols to God level status, but it starts to become an issue when fans start weaponizing their resources under the guise of “helping.”
There have been several instances on social media where fans have taken the idea of protecting their idol a tad bit too far.
I may get some flack for this, but things like “clearing the searches” where fans mass spam positive words besides the name of their idols with the hope of, well, clearing the “negative searches,” and expose threads for the tiniest things that in reality, could’ve stayed in the drafts — who cares. Get a job, find a friend, do something constructive.
Kpop has done a great job of making these parasocial relationships seem real. I’ll reiterate, I’m guilty of doing this, but I’ve recognized when I've gone too far, but most fans don’t. Stans are willing to drop friends, doxx, bully, harras, and ‘spam cam’ someone to death if someone were to even breathe in the wrong direction of their idol.
It’s especially egregious for Black fans.
After the recent nationwide protest of the murder of George Floyd, and the lack of response from companies like SM Entertainment (that heavily rely on black producers, black culture and black talent to fuel their bands) there was a “mass exodus” of Black kpop fans who swore they would never give another penny to an inherently anti-black genre such as kpop.
But like most late millennials and Gen-Zers their words rang hollow.
Not even a month later, the same fans that like to prop up their blackness every other day through their tweets, will sit there on their phones and laptop and defend/stan these Kpop groups like they’re paying their bills.
It’s hypocritical, and I’ve had this realization just recently. It doesn’t matter which fandom (Army, Exo-Ls, NCTzens, etc.) kpop has created a culture of emotional dependence. People will not hesitate to do anything for their bands, and that’s why the term “idol worship” has taken on a very harmful, very violent meaning.
Despite the genre looking fun and appearing to be harmless to outsiders, in reality, it’s hell.
For a while, the music can be great and I’ve met some wonderful people through it, but in the end, it’s not worth the trouble. You’re better off being a causal fan. Stan twitter culture is built off of bullying and fallacies. I’ve always said that “I will joke about everyone, including my favorite bands,” but as I’ve learned recently even your closets “friends” are not exempt from being brainwashed.
Save yourself while you can.
