10 Reasons why the Kpop fandom is not like the rest

Victoria Huynh on Thursday, June 2, 2011 9:00PM

If you’ve just recently stepped into the Kpop world, then you’ve probably noticed the Kpop fandom is definitely not like the rest you see when it comes to American music. We are a different species compared to the teeny boppers out there, we’re special. There are a lot of us in this fandom and I’m sure we all got into it one way or another, whether it be by your friend showing you a picture of the hottest Korean guy in the world, hearing a Kpop song on a random website, or accidentally clicking on a Youtube video that changed your life forever. Here are my 10 reasons why being in the Kpop fandom is a unique world compared to the rest.

1.The first thing you might notice is that not everyone in the fandom is Korean. In fact, there are fan girls of almost every single race in the world. And no, not everyone understands Korean either. Some people ask why we listen to it even when we don’t understand it and think it’s weird, and here’s how we answer it: We shrug a little and say, “Because it sounds nice.” And this is why we love subtitles.

2. There’s a must-know key word in our dictionary that’s commonly used, it is the word Spazz. Fangirls in this world love to spazz. We like to discuss about our idols on forums, news portals, and just about anywhere we can. Spazzing can include screaming “Oh my god! Did you hear about…” a lot, flinging your arms around and jumping up and down while talking non-stop about your idol, nose bleeding, squealing, and having everyone around you think you’re crazy.

3. In the fandom, there are a lot of fan bases. We like to identify ourselves with names to represent our groups. Common ones are Cassies, VIPs, Shawols, Hottests, ELF, Sones, B2uty, and much, much more. However, names are not enough. Groups also have colors! I mean, how else are you going to represent yourself at a concert? Cassies are red, ELFs are sapphire blue, Sones are pink, and so on. Just make sure you pick the right color for your lightstick, balloon, and banner, and you’re all set for a concert!

4. When a group makes a comeback, a term that is also commonly used in Kpop even though they didn’t really go anywhere, fangirls are superior when it comes to finding out when a new teaser and music video will be released. We have a tendency to stay up until 3AM in the morning just to wait for it to be released. As you can tell, we are not patient enough to wait until the next day. And of course, when you’re done watching it, you’ll look like this:

And nope, we don’t just watch it once, we intend to kill the replay button.

5. When something big like that happens, beware because that’s when fangirls can pretty much crash and take over a lot of websites. We can hyperventilate and get super excited and all click on the same website at once to watch whatever new has been released or start trending something on Twitter. Oh, trust me, we can get something to trend #1 worldwide pretty quickly. We also have a habit of checking Kpop news sites every five minutes, hopefully, that’s your case with Ningin.

6. All the fans in the fandom are married, even if they’re underage, and no official ceremony took place, they’re still married. And better yet, they always have more than one husband. Many fan girls consider their favorite idols as their boyfriend, hubby, and absolute soulmate. If you ask a Kpopper “Who’s that guy on your desktop wallpaper,” most likely, the answer will be, “My husband.” The marriage may be fake, but the love for our idols is always true.

7. And when someone disses our idols, we automatically if not out-loud, then inside our mind, we go “OH NO YOU DID-INT.” *Z-Snap* If our idols get called gay or stupid, we’ll defend them with all our hearts. How many of you have ever said something along the lines of this? “WELL, just because some of them have long hair and flawless skin, IT DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE GIRLS! In fact, I think you’re just jealous.”

8. If an item has our biases’ or group’s name on it we’ll buy it. We absolutely love any Kpop merchandise with our idols’ faces on it. Cds, posters, lanyards, tshirts, socks, you name it, we love it. And when the order comes in the mail, mail men probably are terrified of fan girls the most. Why? Because we like to scream, squeal, and attack the delivery person for our package.

9. Fanchants. Where do you find fanchants anywhere else besides Kpop? Nowhere. Fans take time to learn it, make sure it’s on beat, and they even take energy to shout them as loud as they can. Idols actually feel very touched when they hear them.

10. For us, the end of the world is not 2012, not Judgement day or any other ‘the world is going to blow up’ day. It’s more of when a member of a group leaves or a group splits up. That’s our definition of an apocalypse for you. Or even sometimes, when an idol announces he has a girlfriend. Kpop idols actually have the ability to make fans cry, whether it’s because of something tragic or because a group won Music Bank for the first time. No worries though, we all eventually move on at one point. An example of that would be Jay leaving Korea.

Even though Kpoppers can seem a bit crazy at times or maybe even too obsessed, it’s only because we truly love the music, hot guys, pretty girls, and the great fun Kpop has to offer.

What do you guys think? Do you guys have anything to add?

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