Week 9: The reality of being Kpop fans in this era
To The World, this is Tania last blog
For the last posts for my Tumblr blog, I will talk about the reality of being K-POP fans in this new generation where everything is modern. First let me brief you about what fandom is and how do they work?
Fandoms are becoming more widespread as a social and cultural phenomenon including numerous aspects of current society and its consumer culture. (Gray et al., 2007; Hills, 2002; Jenkinsand Shresthova, 2012) For example, fandoms give birth to professional fans by shaping their existing professions like journalism and academia and shaping it to a new profession like commemorative writers, video games streamers and bloggers. (Jenkins, 2006b) Fans discover that the joys associated with popular culture are entwined with their identities. They occupy fandom-related social roles. (Duffett, 2013, p. 18). All fandoms have their own culture, rules and jokes. If we compare the western and Korean fandom culture, there are a huge difference. We can see from the concert culture. For K-pop, every group have they own designated cheer light or what we usually call as a Ligh stick. Every time there is a concert, the fans will bring their Ligh stick to the concert venue.
Furthermore, there is another thing that fans commonly bring to the concert venue or outing, which is a photocard. Photocards can also refer to cards that come with albums or other merchandise, such as K-pop albums. Some collectors would swap some of their duplicates with other fans or purchase particular pieces from various internet merchants. The old generation fandom did not collect photocard in the past but for this generation, fans are more obsessed with collecting their favorite members photocards than the album.
I do collect photocard as well especially NCT Jeno!!
"A person with a relatively deep, positive emotional conviction about someone or something famous, usually expressed through recognition of style or creativity," is how fandom studies define fans. In short, fandom is where a person likes and idolizes a particular singer, actor, streamers and more. I believe everyone has one celebrity or public figure that they look up to.
Fandom name
In the K-pop world, I identify myself as NCTZEN, which is a name for a fandom of NCT. Nowadays, a name for a fandom is common, the older generation did have a name for their fandom, which is not surprising that every group in this generation have a fandom name as well. Fandom names in K-pop must have a unique meaning and may not even be terms that are taken from the name of the artist. For example, “ENGENES” a fandom name for boy group ENHYEPEN, this word works on both as a paronym to “engine” and a reference to “gene” as in to mean a DNA connection between the group and the fans. In all cases, the fans must identify with the name. With the existence of fandom names, I believe it helps the fans to identify themselves on which fandom they belong to. Fans can express themselves, connect with one another, and set themselves apart from other audiences by using fandom names. Even popular western singers and bands like Taylor Swift and One Direction have their own fandom name which is Swifties and Directioners.
The reality of being kpop fans in this era
The industry is becoming more toxic now, even between the fandoms. Fan war happens almost every day and you can often see it on social media. The problem with the new fandom is that everyone judges easily, and everyone cancels the idol easily for a small reason like smoking or dating. The amount of Sasaeng fans or what we call stalkers has grown so many now. A lot of celebrities and idols are afraid of Sasaeng fans because these people are the ones who leak their personal information, numbers, private social media accounts. Even worse, they can be the ones who will follow celebrities or idols everywhere, it doesn't matter if it's overseas or not. These people are just obsessed and delusional too much about being close to their idols will make their idols like them back. Which is very disturbing.
Thoughts?
Being a Kpop fan in this generation does need a strong mentality. Sometime the fandom can be the one who destroys their own idols mentality. For example, one of NCT members is having an anxiety attack and when he come back from hiatus to join the group activities, a lot of comments from its own fans are body shame his chubby face. People need to know that you’ll gain weight if you are under medication and it’s normal. And sometimes, you should always say something nice cause you don’t know how the person mentally is.
Thank you!
(788 words)
Reference
Ribeiro, A. C. (2024, August 7). Journey towards a fandom name: the Sabrina Carpenter fan base case. Stanly. Viewed 27 November 2024 https://event.stanlyapp.com/post/journey-towards-a-fandom-name-the-sabrina-carpenter-fan-base-case#:~:text=The%20fandom%20name%20can%20be,to%20choose%20a%20fandom%20name?
Fuschillo, Gregorio. (2020). Fans, Fandoms, or Fanaticism?. Journal of Consumer Culture. 20. 347-365. 10.1177/1469540518773822. Viewed 27 November 2024 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322273679_Fans_Fandoms_or_Fanaticism/stats
Gray, J., Sandvoss, C. & Harrington, C.L. (2007) " Introduction" in Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World, NYU Press, New York, pp. 1-16 Viewed 27 November file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Fandom_Identities_and_Communities_in_a_Mediated_Wo..._----_(Introduction)%20(1).pdf