Hello readers, Today I wanted to talk about how to get into K-pop when you first discover the genre and its many concepts, sub-genres, and other things you should know when you are getting into the K-pop genre and culture. Let’s get started.
First off, you should definitely discover what you currently like in your current discography from other artists that you listen to. From reviewing that list, you can find a variety of different artists of that genre or type of music that are in the K-pop genre. Now, the K-pop genre is an umbrella of various types of music, there are many subgenres within the singular genre itself. From, KR&B, KHip-hop, K-Indie, KRock, KEDM, Ktrap, KMetal, etc, there’s literally something for every kind of fan in the music world in K-pop. In other words, K-pop is not just the bubble gum pop sound like Twice.
For some artists to start with, I would recommend listening to some of the older generation groups first. What I mean by that is groups that debuted in the earlier days of K-pop like the early 90s or 2000s like EXO, Girls Generation, 2NE1, Shinee, CN Blue, etc. From listening to these, you can see the beginning of the genre itself and its current popularity. Once you feel comfortable with those, then I would recommend spreading your wings to the current favorites of k-pop fans like Stray Kids, Twice, The Rose, TXT, NCT, ATEEZ, The Boyz, Kingdom, Astro, Verivery, etc so you can see the change in K-pop in the current times.
K-pop has a lot of different concepts in terms of what the song’s music videos or tracks will sound like. So, what does that mean exactly? Concepts are the specific themes that K-pop idols use to follow for a comeback (bringing new music) or as a group identity itself. These concepts can be shown through the group or artists’ song genre and lyrics, their music video sets and mood, and most importantly, the experimental styling. What makes these different from the typical American media is that the K-pop industry takes these concepts and goes the extra mile to really showcase these themes. Some groups like Kingdom, TXT, Dreamcatcher, ATEEZ, Loona, and VIXX even have storylines that go along with their group’s identities to make a bigger impact.
Some concepts that you can see are:
- Techwear, which is a comfortable streetwear style usually using the color black. You will often see padded vests, combat boots, clasps, belts, and harnesses being the highlights of this styling. Aespa often uses this fashion in their dance practice videos like for Black Mamba.
- Elegant, a classic and royal style usually the groups are dressed in heels and free-flowing dresses or suits with leather loafers. A good example is Twice’s What is Love? music video where the members are all wearing this style.
- Retro, a throwback styling from previous style trends that are at least 20 years old. You usually see a lot of old-fashioned prints like Argyle, patterned Polo shirts or dresses, Knit cardigans, Double-breasted blazers, etc. A good example of this is Snuper’s Platonic Love music video with fashions that were influenced by 80s fashion.
- Girl Crush, a wide variety of fashion that shows female empowerment. There are no particular items of clothing that really show this concept, but the styling is made to make you feel confident and inspired. An example of this would be Blackpink’s DDU-DU DDU-DU outfits from their music video with the same title.
- Dark Concept, an edgy and intimidating fashion trend that gives a haunted, sexy, or violent impression. Just like the Techwear concept, black is used as the main color of the concept to give mystery, power, and sophistication. A good example are the king’s dark concepts, VIXX for their Voodoo Doll outfits.
- High School, also known as school concept is a fan favorite theme that aims to deliver a youthful and lovely styling. Things that you will see are like the typical East Asians School uniforms like short pleated skirts, white blouses, paired with blazers and/or formal pants to make a more dressy causal style. A good example of this is Stay C’s Stereotype music video outfits.
- Summer, a once-a-year styling for most K-pop artists, usually typically seen on Girl groups, the style is made to show a fresh and casual look by the seaside. The groups will often show more skin with sleeveless tops, denim shorts, flip-flops, short airy dresses and flowers also make the style very fun. A good example of this is Twice’s Dance the Night Away outfits.
Some groups will either stick to their original concept or have more than one concept. A good example of a consistent storyline is Kingdom, Kingdom’s concept is that each member is a different king in history and each member represents a different Kingdom which is in a fictional universe that the company has made. An example of a group that is always changing their concept is Mamamoo from their very bright debut of “Mr. Ambiguous” to “Hip” Mamamoo drastically changed from very innocent and cute to sexy and confident.
Often in the K-pop world, there are different types of programs that you can watch from your favorite artists for live stages of your favorite songs, survival programs, variety show content, and more! A lot of these you can watch on websites like YouTube and Viki to support your favorite artists.
For music award programs, fans will vote for their favorite group or artist’s song on that show’s website or mobile app to get that group or artist an award. The awards can be anything from Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Musician of the Year, Achievement awards, and awards based on the genre. Some of these shows you can see these awards given are The Korean Music Awards, MAMA (Mnet Asian Music Awards), Seoul Music Awards, Golden Disc Awards, Melon Music Awards, etc. A lot of these shows will often have performances by the artists that are nominated and given the rewards, which are always high-quality performances.
For live show programs, like The Show, Music Bank, Music Core, Inkigayo, and M Countdown, you can watch live performances of multiple groups performing all different genres of music to explore and see all sorts of groups and artists. Just like music award programs, live show programs often have voting online and on mobile apps as well for artists and groups to earn an award for the song that they are currently promoting or for a new comeback that they are showing for the first time to fans. This is also great to watch for when you are wanting to see what song you like from an album, EP or single release will sound like on a live stage performance.
K-pop fans will often watch survival programs on YouTube and Viki. Survival programs are competition programs in which potential trainees (people under a company that haven’t debuted yet) can show their talents and skills by competing against one another for a spot in the debuting group. Most commonly, there are twelve episodes and the seasons are 12 weeks long, they have many performances and individual performances to showcase themselves to be able to be a part of the group that debuts. The people that are eliminated from the show can either get called back onto the show from fan voting, get replaced by a member in the debuted group, or just go back to their current company to continue training (singing, dancing, rap coaching, etc) until they are ready to debut at that label.
Some examples of shows like these are Boys Planet, Kpop Star, I-Land (show that formed the current K-pop group Enhypen), Sixteen (formed Twice), Idol School, No. Mercy (Formed Monsta X), High School Rapper, Produce 48, Stray Kids (Formed the group Stray Kids), YG Treasure Box (formed the current group Treasure), etc.
There are also survival shows for idol groups, these shows often showcase different groups competing against one another to show their unique performances and further promote their group if they are one that is currently under-promoted. These shows are often available to watch on Viki in their entirety but have some performances from the shows that you can watch on YouTube. The shows will often have voting that you can participate in for your favorite group to stay and continue until they win the full program.
Some examples of shows like these are Road to Kingdom, Kingdom: Legendary War, Queendom, Peak Time, etc.
Other things K-Pop fans will watch are Comeback Showcases and Beyond Live concerts. Comeback Showcases are press conferences that are often live-streamed on YouTube that showcase a group or artist’s new album or EP release with performances of all the songs that are featured on the album with the inclusion of fun games, album packaging shows, and more. These are often at least an hour or so long but are worth watching if you are someone that likes to listen to full albums like me.
Beyond Live concerts are live-streamed concerts that happen on the app Beyond Live which streams real-time concerts for fans all over the world. You can watch these on your PC, Tablet, and phone. These performances often have special stages, fun games, and fan cams (cameras focused on one member or artist only), and some will even provide merchandise.
Variety shows are programs on YouTube or Weverse that are fun ways to get to know an idol group or artist. K-pop fans will often watch these kinds of content to “deep dive” or “stan” a group that they are really interested in getting to know. They have a variety of different themes and really show you your favorite artist or group’s personal personalities that you don’t often see on screen. A good example is GEMCND the variety program for the group MCND.
Another really popular show that K-pop fans watch is After School Club . After School Club is a Live Music Request show for K-pop fans all over the world. On the weekly interactive show, you get to see many artists come on that are promoting new EPs and albums, see those artists do fun games and activities, answer fan questions in both the studio audience and the virtual audience via Zoom call and other fun things. It’s another great way to learn about a group especially when you have a time crunch and you don’t have time to watch a full guide or set of music videos.
K-pop fans also often download a variety of different apps to communicate and get other exclusive content that is not offered on other social media applications. Here are a couple of apps that I personally have used and are often used by K-pop fans.
WeVerse: This app and website are owned by HYBE Entertainment. It hosts free and exclusive content from 63 acts including artists under HYBE Entertainment (BTS, TXT, Seventeen), YG Entertainment (BlackPink, Treasure, IKON), small and independent label artists like (CL, Sunmi, Everglow, Oneus), and many more. The features include a free community for their favorite artist where they can respond and comment to the artist’s posts and they can respond, Exclusive photos, videos, and text updates from the artist themselves. The home feed also combines posts from other artists to promote discovery. Official merchandise and fan memberships are available through the WeVerse Shop where you can get limited and exclusive merchandise from your favorite artist. It also has a live-streaming feature where fans can watch and talk to their artists via video.
Bubble: Bubble was an app that was created by SM Entertainment as a way for artists to connect with their fans on a more personal level. The Bubble app for SM Entertainment was recently changed to LYSN and the company has created bubbles for other labels like JYP, Jellyfish, etc. This app is a subscription service so you will pay monthly for the features. The features will include exclusive photos that you can download and view, videos and audio notes. You also can send messages to that artist but you are unfortunately limited to three messages a day and a character count depending on how long you have been on the app, 30 characters for the first 49 days, 50 characters after, and so on.
Pocketdols: Similar to LYSN and Bubble, Pocketdols is a another subscription-based messaging app. You can talk to many artists on this app as well like MustB, Vanner, 2Z, ABlue, Black Level, Dustin, Fist Bump, Great Guys, Golden Child, etc. Some features of this app include 1:1 conversations between you and the artist you are subscribed to, photos from the artists and other fans in the community, special events, and more. You do have to pay for pockets, which essentially are separate payments to send your messages but can still give you a great relationship with your favorite artist.
Mercari and Mercari Japan: Mercari is essentially a marketplace app for selling goods and preowned items. K-pop fans often use this app to look for and buy K-pop merchandise like photo cards, albums, fanship kits, and more for usually a more affordable price than the original. Mercari Japan is the same concept except that fans use it to buy Japanese merchandise like The Boyz She’s The Boss Album and many other things. To buy stuff, you all you really have to do is add a form of payment and you are set to get whatever you like on the app, it is completely free.
Discord: Discord is a free server community messaging app where you can make homes for your communities and friends. K-pop fans will often use this app to make servers for particular groups or artists to talk about them on chatrooms, voice chats, and video chats. For example, My discord for Verivery is Verrerdise where we talk about all things Verivery-related but have separate chatrooms for other various topics.
Other apps that may be included are Twitter, Tiktok, Facebook (mainly for Facebook groups), any and all ticket apps (Ticketmaster, Seat Geek, AXS, Live Nation, etc), Music Platform apps (Spotify, Soundcloud, Apple Music, etc). Flight and hotel apps for traveling (Expedia, Booking.com, Priceline, Hopper, etc).
K-pop fans often like to do dance covers to their favorite artist or groups songs from full covers on YouTube to just a TikTok dance of the dance that the group is promoting currently. Fans will do both girl and boy groups choreography which range in difficulty levels. This is a fun thing that fans do to come together to create art and hopefully get noticed by the artist or groups.
K-pop fans will often buy albums from many places, from local k-pop stores in their city to websites online. Because of the amount of merchandise and how limited it can be because of the group’s promotional and marketing teams, fans will often dash to these sites and their local stores to get the items that they want before they run out. Here are some online websites that K-pop fans often use when they don’t have a K-pop store in their area.
SubKshop- SubKshop is an online k-pop store that provides many types of merchandise from albums, Lightsticks, Seasonal Greetings, Magazines, certain groups or artist’s official merchandise, Photobooks, etc. It was personally one of the first stores that I bought many albums and other merchandise from when I first got into K-pop.
Link: https://www.subkshop.com/
Ktown4U- Ktown4U is an online k-pop store that sells K-pop merchandise, Korean beauty products, Korean fashion, Korean food products, as well as has many fansign events and Lucky Draw events that appeal to many K-pop fans.
Link: https://www.ktown4u.com/
Mwave- Mwave, a shop that is owned by the popular network M Countdown, they have a selection of K-pop albums and other merchandise that you can buy that are signed by the artist or group and are often a bit pricey and ship straight from South Korea but are worth the price to have an album signed by your favorite group or artist.
Link: https://www.mwave.me/en
Makestar- Makestar is a global website platform that offers full and happy experiences connecting artists to their fans around the world. They are known for selling events like video call events for artists and groups, Album signing events, and many more things. Fans will often go to the site to do big group orders of albums in hopes of video calling with one of their favorite artists or groups.
Link: https://www.makestar.co/?lang=en
Rising Star- Rising Star is a website that promotes upcoming artists under small labels for crowdfunding for albums, K-pop merchandise and k-pop goods, holding fansign and fan meetings for those artists, video call events and more. They often do video call events for groups like Vanner, MustB, Sema, Fistbump, and many other artists.
Link: https://www.rising-star.kr/
MyMusicTaste- MyMusicTaste is a global K-pop platform that provides fans with the opportunity to make their own performances for their favorite artists in their city. They often are concert promoters for a lot of different groups but also sell fansign and video call events on their page to help promote a group’s EP, album or tour that is being promoted. They also do stream live events as well for K-pop fans to watch.
Link: https://www.mymusictaste.com/
Thanks for reading, I hope this helped you in some ways understand how to get started in the K-pop community and I send you a warm welcome into our wild world. Hope to see you in the next one!
Kpopisforeveryone 