TWICE, BIGBANG, MamaMoo, BTS- if these names ring even the faintest bell in your mind then congratulations! You have not been living under a rock and have certainly been hit by Hallyu, or the Korean cultural wave, that is unmistakably taking over the world. Now, as a K-pop intellectual, I have had my fair share of frowns, questioning looks and mocking taunts to endure but now that the world is finally opening up to accept this phenomenon, not even Salman Khan’s SUV running at its highest speed can stop me from finally drafting a proper answer to the perpetual question I have been brushing off for a long time now- why the f**k am I so obsessed with K-pop?
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Even though the very roots of K-pop can be traced back to as far as 1885, the flesh-and-blood existence of K-pop was not a reality until artists like the Kim Sisters (1959), Add4 (1962) , Han Dae-soo (1974) and Cho Yong-Pil (1975) appeared with their American-influenced Korean music. K-pop music as we know it today though, the one dominated by idol groups and hype beat-oriented music essentially started with SeoTaiji and Boys. After SeoTaiji and Boys, the floodgate was thrust open and one after another K-pop acts started coming in with chart topping numbers.
Now, moving away from the facts and dates and history, and coming back to my personal obsession with this beautiful yet complex music industry, like it or not, we must discuss who are arguably being dubbed as the biggest boyband in the world right now, BTS or Bangtan Sonyeondan. Like most of the international K-pop junkies, I became familiar with K-pop through BTS as well. The more I looked up to their music the faster I was drawn in and before I knew it, I was frantically throwing hands and legs in my feeble attempt to dance along to Baepsae or Mic Drop, crying my eyes out with Reflection, waking up to the tune of Serendipity.
No matter how small of an aspect the latter seems, it is the raison d’être why so many people still resist the urge to even give K-pop a chance and dismiss it immediately as another whimsical trend that the youth have decided to indulge into. The difference of culture and our glaring ignorance of east Asian societies or as we formally term it, our xenophobia, mixed with the colonial hangover and white worshipping syndrome still stop us from accepting anything that is different and not from the West.
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One of the aspects of K-pop that I find so relevant and am consequently drawn towards is male idols wilfully participating in doing things like putting on make-up, wearing gender fluid clothes, openly showing affection towards their other male friends, shedding tears without inhibition- just through existing as real human beings without burdening themselves with the phrase of “man up”, they are doing more than enough to show the world that you can do and wear whatever you want to, even the stuff that is considered “feminine” and still be man enough. That is the best summarization that I can offer as my reason to be so into K-pop.
