It can be easy to get swept up in a new trend when it goes viral but, personally, I’ve always tried to stay away from the hype. When BTS exploded all over western pop culture back in 2017, bringing a new wave of fans to the Kpop industry, I didn’t want to go near it. I shy away from being a bandwagoner to whatever just went viral on Twitter, but BTS has luckily held on to their popularity over the years.
Kpop as a whole got even bigger when BTS reached global superstardom, but still, I resisted checking them out. I didn’t want to be part of the fad or follow the next One Direction, especially considering how One Direction panned out over the years, so I just observed them from the sidelines. It wasn’t until 2021, when my co-worker introduced me to a lesser-known Kpop group called A.C.E., that I finally got sucked into this whole other world of entertainment. I spent the summer listening to A.C.E., allowing them to be my one and only foray into the Korean music industry. By the time August rolled around, I became curious about BTS as well. After that, it was a slippery slope to falling in love with BTS’s music and them as a group.
Inevitably, this ended up being a gateway to the rest of Kpop. I now listen to and love songs by Stray Kids, Blackpink, TXT, Itzy, and many other groups, as there are so many out there. In the end, I jumped on the hype anyway, but just a few years later than other fans. I still think it’s a bit more fun to see if something will stay popular before joining because it can be really easy to get drawn into something new, only for it to just end up being a trend.