I started to get into K-Pop in 2018 due to the KDA Popstars Live Performance of Soyeon for the LOL World Championship.
After rewatching that Performance too many times my YouTube recommendations were pretty K-Pop heavy. With Jennies SOLO which got released around the same time I started to watch a lot of Blackpink content.
After this I warched the subbed 2NE1 content I could find. In 2020 I binged a lot of ITZY content after Parus et ITZY and Wannabe. Then I found Dreamcatcher and watched about all of their content.
In 2022 I went to my first K-Pop concert with the Sunday of K-Pop FLEX and later in the year the Berlin and Tilburg shows of Dreamcatcher’s Apocalypse: Follow Us Tour.
The very first Kpop song I heard was SNSD’s Gee. As a kid I was toying around with a software called MMD and it had some motion files for it which was my first expoisure. Since it was ages ago, Japanese software, and I didn’t know what Kpop was, I don’t even know if it was the Japanese or Korean version. All I understood was “Gee gee gee gee baby baby”.
But the song that got me into Kpop however was 2NE1’s I’m The Best. Back then, YT gave you the most random stuff and I just somehow ended up there. But it got me hooked. 2NE1 is still my all time favourite group.
I had a little break from Kpop somewhere since later 2nd gen, but got back somewhere early 3rd gen during the early days of the hallyu wave hitting Europe’s mainstream (here the wave hit the shores with, of course, Gangnam style. Followed by BlackPink’s debut). Been around again ever since.
Having been around since 2nd gen, I do sometimes feel like an oldie. Especially with most around me being younger and coming in 3rd or 4th gen. But that’s cool, it’s nice to see more people getting into Kpop!
I’m never visited Kpop concerts, but I’m an avid CD collector. I collect everything I listen to, including but not limited to Kpop. But that collection is still far from complete, altrough growing.
I started to listen to BigBang around 2008 when Haru Haru came out. I was introduced to the song by a friend. I really didn’t pay attention to Kpop at the time and didn’t even know that it was this whole big thing back then. After listening to them for a year or so, I had stopped and moved on to other genres of music to listen to, since my mood for music changes often.
I didn’t listen to Kpop for another few years until around 2013/2014. I was browsing YouTube and stumbled upon the Girls Day/Boys Day performance of “Something.” At first I was really confused thinking “Why the heck are they making boys dress up in long dresses with feathers on their pinky fingers and dance seductively?” I got more intrigued and ended up looking up other performances of this song realizing that was just a special instance.
At the same time I learned of the different daily music awards shows they had, realizing that Kpop was a whole big industry in Korea. This really piqued my interest. Learning that groups make multiple comebacks a year with LPs, EPs, mini-albums, full albums; there’s fandom names for each group; there’s meet & greets and fan signings; there’s lightsticks; fan chants; point moves in choreography; variety shows with idol appearances. Finding all this out and more, I ended up just digging myself into a bigger rabbit hole that is Kpop. I was pulled into the whole charm of detail and dedication of it all, for lack of better words, just because of one YouTube video.
I have been listening to Kpop ever since but I admit I briefly took a break when news started coming out that many third generation groups I followed were either breaking up or having members leave. And I didn’t really pay attention to fourth gen groups as they started debuting. Today I still listen to some singles here and there, watch some variety shows and continue supporting some third gen groups that are still around.
