Beyond The Visuals: Why K-pop Is My Safe Zone
I’m back again. I feel that the moment I dropped that resignation letter, pushing aside the fact that I had been crying now and then, I feel a little relaxed. Work does bother me sometimes, whether it’s the people I work with or the workload itself. But I try not to let it get to me a lot. I’m serving my 3 months notice so I’m counting down the days.
And I’m currently using my new laptop that I bought with the company’s employee benefits. It’s one of the things that is actually good about the company. It’s the changes happening in it and said changes I’ve seen happening in the people as well that are not making me stay. If I want to say more, it’ll be for another post. Maybe.
Anyways… this post isn’t about my resignation era.
I’ve been seeing some things on my social media feed that is not exactly annoying me but it is something that I feel I need to get it out of my chest.
It’s about K-pop so if you are bothered by the topic, feel free to click that X button.
I’ve read posts or anonymous confessions about fans who are older than the members of the K-pop groups that they “stan” and these posts mentioned about how weird it is to witness it. And I’ve also read the comments on these posts arguing how K-pop won’t thrive without the money coming from these “older fans”.
K-pop, to me, is one of the many music genres out there and if we start putting age limits to listening or enjoying music, then I must say that none of us should be listening to Beethoven’s Für Elise because that was published in 1867, long before we were all born. In fact, if we want to put an expiration date to enjoying music, Lee Haechan, from NCT, shouldn’t be a fan of Michael Jackson. He was just a wee little toddler when Michael Jackson died. Haechan wasn’t alive when Michael Jackson “debuted”.
Now, does it sound ridiculous? It is, isn’t it?
If we start having such thoughts on K-pop, then we will be reducing K-pop into something superficial, looking at the surface or the visuals rather than the depth, the production, the talents beneath it.
Of course, of course, it will be weird if someone starts to sexualize the artistes but this is the same whether it’s K-pop or J-pop or M-pop or C-pop or whatever pop. It’s the same with Britney Spears, Madonna, Christina Aguilera, Elvis Presley, The Beatles. I can go on and on. It is not limited to the K-pop industry.
And since I’m touching on the likes of Elvis Presley and The Beatles, there is one post that also talked about how K-pop as an industry has successfully made it into a fans-focused industry where everything that an artiste does exist because it is something that is needed or wanted to by the fans and for the fans such as the YouTube contents, the variety shows, the fansigns, etc. I don’t disagree with that notion but it is not a novelty that only exists because of K-pop. Simon Cowell and the likes of him have done this decades ago. Simon built his entire empire on it – auditioning hundreds of people to construct Five, Westlife and One Direction. You think K-pop created photobooks and storylines? Did you know New Kids on the Block had an entire series of fictional books published? It just goes to show how old I am but yes, they had it. Before K-pop group lores/storylines exists, New Kids on the Block books existed. K-pop didn’t create the playbook; they just perfected the art of it.
I’m not degrading K-pop like it’s the lesser of any other music out there. I’m not saying this to put K-pop as something lesser than their Western counterparts. No. Like I said, K-pop didn’t create the playbook, they perfected it. However, we shouldn’t diminish the music genre to something so superficial and putting an expiration date to it. That’s so degrading to the talents within the industry.
And at the end of the day, good music is good music regardless of where it comes from or who it's marketed to. I refuse to diminish K-pop to such superficial notions, especially when Tomorrow x Together (TXT) is the “medicine” for my current mental state. I was joking initially saying that they are my Xanax, my Panadol, my sleeping pills. But recently, I realized that my mind and body have come to treat their music as a safe zone whenever anxiety strikes me, which nowadays happen quite often. So, no, I won’t reduce K-pop to whatever anonymous posts out there because they’ve been my safe space.
Music is meant to heal, not to be gatekept. As for me? I’ll keep listening to what grounds me, taking it all one day, and one track, at a time.
Source: Beyond The Visuals: Why K-pop Is My Safe Zone
germansingergirl
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
turnnoffyourmind
kianamaiart
yousharknotpass
gummygunk
