I’ve been heavily involved in the world of Kpop for about five years now, and in my experience the stages of being a fan (or descent into madness) can be roughly divided into four stages that generally capture the Kpop experience.
Stage One: The WTF Stage
This stage occurs when you are first introduced to Kpop. Chances are, you’re going to have this thought on more than one occasion throughout your time in the world of Kpop, but it never seems more “shocking”, as my Korean professor put it, than when you see your first music video. I’ll be honest: Kpop is weird, really weird. It took me a while before I could truly get into Kpop, but there was something about it that kept me from being able to look away.
Stage Two: The SM/YG/ JYP Stage
During this stage you mainly listen to groups from the largest recording companies: SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment, and JYP Entertainment, also known as The Big Three. It’s not out of dislike for other companies, you’re just getting your feet wet; you really don’t know what else is out there. This is usually where your loyalty to a specific company begins. For a long time, I was completely loyal to YG Entertainment (see: Bigbang, Lee Hi, and Akdong Musician), but then Exo and BTS decided to debut and completely ruin both my life and my bias list.
Stage Three: Fan Meets Fandom Stage
This is actually a pretty fun and enjoyable stage. In this stage, you’ve found a group (or groups) that you like enough to want to talk about them with other people, so you find a website that meets your needs and you enter into the organized chaos that is The Fandom. There can be drama, but I’ve also met a ton of wonderful online friends through The Fandom and have been exposed to so many new groups through them!
Stage Four: Say Goodbye to Your Life (and Money) Stage
The final stage; Kpop has essentially taken over your life. A lot. At this stage you live and breathe Kpop: your vocabulary has changed, chances are you’ve made more than one joke at JYP’s expense, and you’ve probably developed a loathing for SM Entertainment (the company, not the artists. You feel bad for the artists). Your money is dwindling away along with your sanity, and sometimes you question your life choices, but hey! You found some fun music and made some friends along the way; things could be worse!
Kpop is a hit-or-miss genre. Some people like it, some think it’s terrible. It’s an all consuming lifestyle and while it can be a really fun, womnderful thing to love, it is also so full of drama both within the actual fandoms, and within companies and bands, keeping up with all the drama and scandals can be draining. So make sure you take time away from the world of Kpop if you find you need to! Keep things fun for you!