In recent years K-pop has become more and more popular with artists like BTS and KARD racking up MILLIONS of views online, and it seems to only be getting bigger.
With many many more fans being added into the Kpop community every day as a fan myself it became apparent that something was missing… K-pop was nowhere to be seen in the British Media. Literally. Nowhere.
It was almost like it didn’t exist.
But after much work and some strokes of luck we’ve managed to put all these bands on UK TV in a regular weekly slot, since this moment, social media and fans from the UK have snowballed and made themselves widely known on Twitter. What was once before a few random fans in scattered areas have found a place to come together and talk about their favourite idols, songs and even managed to team up and buy a billboard in London to celebrate one of the bands.
photo@: btsarmyunite
There are some absolutely incredible, supportive and healthy fans out there like those above, but there are also a lot of unhealthy, competitive fans too. Wanting your favourite bands to win an award is part of any fandom, regardless of Kpop or just in general music from the UK or America. But when “fans” disregard other bands hard work or insult them because they won, things start getting a little crazy.
To these people I wish to ask them to truly think about what they are doing, to show some emotional intelligence and empathy for ALL K-pop groups (Not just the ones they love the most) In fact just for all people in general.
Every single group and artist is truly working their hardest to put out new songs, albums and videos to satisfy their own fans and bring them happiness, to disregard this is truly rude and should generally not be part of Fan Culture at all.
In fact, I recently put out a show titled BTS Vs EXO. The aim of the show was to purely show both EXO and BTS’s music videos and to just enjoy ALL of their talent as a collective. However, I realised I’d made a mistake. As soon as the show went out many people took it the wrong way, due to the “VS” in the name they started comparing the bands and arguing between themselves.
This is not what K-pop should stand for. Let’s create a better community together in which fans can enjoy any band they choose. I’m not saying that if you aren’t a fan of Red Velvet or EXO that you should suddenly start listening to them… But what I am suggesting is we stop the hatred for bands that win awards, stop the hatred for the bands we don’t listen to, and also stop the hatred for each other just because we prefer different bands and idols.
It’s time to change the community, there may always be unsupportive or hateful “fans” out there but it’s important that we stay strong and keep positive. Keep inspiring others, keep supporting our favourites and just enjoy the others that share our opinions! And yet when our group doesn’t win that award or our group comes second to another, let’s not hate the winners. Let’s also congratulate them, after all, they’ve also been working hard too.
On a more positive note it really seems that K-pop is rising in popularity with BTS going onto the Ellen show and more bands gaining fans at an impossible speed! I want to take this moment to say whichever bands you love, and whatever you are doing to support those bands… IT IS WORKING! Keep it up!
I know that every group you stan would be so proud to have you as their fan.
Let’s keep building our fanbase together and enjoy even more K-pop on UK TV! If you’re interested in watching some of my Kpop Shows you can watch them on Clubland TV (Sky 383, Virgin 345) every Monday from 7-9pm!
Let’s take over the world guys. I know we can do it.
– Xenara
Xenara is a TV Producer and Presenter on Clubland TV bringing Kpop on UK TV through Clubland K-pop. Past episodes include BTS vs EXO, MONSTA X vs GOT7, K-pop classics and others. Her ultimate bias is Taeyong from NCT 127.
You can follow her on Twitter, and catch the next Kpop episodes on Clubland TV (Sky 383, Virgin 345) every Monday from 7-9pm!
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