How I got into Kpop and Seventeen
WARNING!! VERY LONG JOURNEY AHEAD!!
My journey began a few years ago back in 2017/2018 (I think because my sense of time is very wonky). I had a classmate who was a huge fan of BTS and she was always randomly singing choruses from their songs, particularly DNA. Anyway, I was more of anime fan back then (and I still am to a degree), but I figured I would check it out and asked for girl groups since I preferred them after watching anime like Aikatsu, Pretty Rhythm, and AKB0048. I ended up liking some of Twice's songs like Fancy and Dance the night away, but not enough to be a Kpop fan, so it was a brief phase.
Time skip to around 2023/2024, and I was reading lots and lots of Manhwa, particularly the isekai and regression genre. I also read webtoons but not a lot, mainly Tower of God. One day, I was scrolling through Webtoon to see if there was anything interesting when I came across the one and only "My comeback as the Youngest Member" or "I became the Youngest member of Top Idol".
Yeah, you can already see where this is going right 😂.
From this I slowly was dragged into the world of idol manhwa/novels and read stuff like the iconic "Debut or Die" and my personal favorite novels after them:
"The Malicious Member is back" (no manhwa, being translated here)
"The Second Life Idol's Lucky Plan" (no manhwa, WAS translated up to chapter 200 on wattpad but then Wattpad did evil stuff and poof. 1-100 are still on the tranlator's discord though!!)
Thanks to these manhwa I got to know about idol survival shows, and after exhausting myself of all the novels and manhwa I could find on the genre, I asked my friend Peachy, who has been a kpop fan much longer than me despite being two years younger, if there were any survival shows she could recommend.
At this point in time, it was spring of 2024, so of course, she recommended Boys Planet. Now please don't hate me Zeroses, because weeeellllllll.......
I never actually finished Boys Planet 😅. I was playing lot s of Genshin and HSR over the summer, and I had to go visit lots of relatives and then school started so.... I'm very sorry.
Anyway, it's now fall of 2024, and Youtube had picked up on my recent interest in kpop through my Boys Planet history, so I started seeing Kpop dance covers in my recommended section. For the most part I ignored them until I saw one whose costumes caught my eye, and the song they covered would lead me to stanning my first Kpop group: GFRIEND!!!
I slowly discovered their discography, and I loved basically all of their songs because of the orchestral sounds and how anime coded they were, and then I watched their dance practices and then their x2 dance covers of their songs!! I especially love their Japanese songs like my queen Memoria 😁😤.
Then I found out that their contracts were terminated and they were no longer together under the same label 🥹🥹🥹🥹. I did check out some of Viviz's stuff and did like Red Sun and Maniac, but I still haven't checked out Yuju and Yerin's solo stuff 😅. I think Gfriend's "sound" was why I really enjoyed their songs, so I don't enjoy their post Gfriend music as much.
My Gfriend dive then led me to the iconic MAMA 2016 collab performance between them and Seventeen, which is where I first came across them!!!
(I did learn later that Aju Nice and HOT were by them, but at that point I didn't pay attention to the artists of the songs performed in Boys Planet so I didn't realize I came across their songs before)
Like most people's first thoughts when they see Seventeen, I was like "Whoa that's a lot of members in one group!!" I didn't pay attention to BoomBoom or the Adore u Remix, but Aju Nice did catch my attention because it sounded catchy and familiar (Gee I wonder why?).
Next thing you know, more Seventeen shows up in my Youtube recommended, and I slowly slipped into the diamond life, and into the pearly gates of Caratland!! I don't know the exact order I watched these in, but the big things that drew me was: a Youtube short about everyone's reaction to Picheolin in BSS's MAMA performance, Hybe Game caterers, Seventeen Game caterers, Nana Tour, and Seventeen's killing voice.
I officially became a Carat in December 2024, so my first comeback was BSS's CBZ!!! I binge watched Going Seventeen from 2019 and am slowly discovering their discography by chance and as I read people's comments on Youtube and Reddit. I am currently watching One Fine day and In the Soop season 1 when I have time, and it's been great!!
I do consider myself a Buddy still, and I was struggling so hard when Season of memories dropped because I wanted to vote for them and BSS 😭😭😭😭😭. However, I am mainly a Carat now and probably know more about Seventeen then Gfriend at the moment 😭. I also started a kpop journal because of SVT, and I plan to share some of my pages here!
So yeah, that's how I discovered Kpop and became a Carat!! If you managed to read all of this, congrats!! I really hope you enjoyed how I described my journey, and I hope it was an interesting one considering how any hoops I jumped to get here.
Ok bye!!
