Entry #4: Things you need to know about K-pop (part 1)

Hello my fellow classmates, we meet again.

Today, I will bring you a very interesting subject. There are many people here who have friends introduced you to K-pop. And of course, if K-pop is too alien to you, then you're going to ask questions. I am sure that sometimes you have seen your friend feel uncomfortable with your questions. Right?

So today, let's talk about things that you must not ask a K-pop fan, and I will explain something about K-pop.

Part 1 will be things that you should not ask a K-pop fan.

Let's do it, I hope you guys will enjoy this!

"K-pop is not just music, it's a lifestyle!"

1/ "What is the K stand for?" or "Is it like Chinese pop music?"

For the first one, K is stand for Korea/Korean. K-pop mean Korean-Pop. That's it. For the second one, do not ask this. You should know that not all Asians come from China, nor do Asians speak Chinese. That language may be strange to you but do not take it as Chinese. And in particular, K-pop's music style is different from C-pop entirely. Trust me, if you don't want to trigger a K-pop fan, do not ask this.

2/ "This is not North Korea, is it?"

Yes, North Korea is different from South Korea.Whatever you call it North Korea and South Korea, they have completely different national flags and different government. The political issues of these two countries are quite stressful. All K-pop groups, music are from South Korea. Artists and K-pop idols are purely from South Korea, although they are active in many other countries around the world but they never promote in North Korea because of political issues.

3/ "How do you even understand what they're saying?" or "Is it English in their songs?"

First, just like any non-native Korean, all international fans do not understand Korean, except for those who learn Korean. The reason that we understand lyrics is that most of all their music videos have English captions and subtitiles that provided by the management company. Even if the video has no caption, you can find lyrics translations or video lyrics on Youtube.

Second, you may wonder why sometimes you hear English words in K-pop songs, and you're not sure if that's right, or you wonder why that is? Yes, there are englishs in K-pop music. This is one reason why K-Pop is quite special when it comes to combining English words into Korean songs. This makes the song able to express its emotions, and in part to match the melody. In addition, the Korean language has some words that borrowed from English, the pronunciation and meaning are the same but the writing is different. and musicians have relied on it to create K-pop.

Try to listen this song and turn on the caption.

Serendipity - BTS

4/ "Why are there so many of them?"

As I said from my previous article, you can find it down here, a K-pop group usually have more than 5 members in it, some groups have up to 9 or 12 members. This is something you should know. The member from a group will be selected by their company and the group will be debuted. Every member in a has a different roles/positions; in addition to the usual positions like main rapper and main vocalist, they also have other positions like lead rapper, lead vocal, dancer, visuals etc. You may ask that, "What is visual role?" right? In Korean society, beauty is always valued as the first in everything. If you don't have a good face, sometimes you will be criticized, especially when you are celebrity. Therefore, the visual position in a K-pop group is extremely important. They will be the center of the show and the representative of the group, helping the team sign advertising contracts; As I said before, K-pop is not just about music, it's spreading to other areas like modeling and advertising. However, it does not mean that people who take a visual position do not have the talent for music, they totally can sing and dance professionally, and I dare to say that no ordinary person can do it like them. A debut idol not only needs beautiful beauty, but also knows how to dance and sing at a high level.

BTS

Twice

But, to be honest, Korean idols and artist today, all of them have beautiful beauty and are always present in the world rankings of the western charts. You will be shocked when you see their beauty. Trust me. You will wonder why they can be beautiful beyond the limit.

Jackson Wang

Irene

5/ "Is it like the Korean Selena Gomez?", "Is it like the Korean Justin Timberlake?", or "Is it like the Korean Backstreet Boys/One Direction?"

My friends, trust me, if you don't want to hear a speech and get a rage from the k-pop fan community, YOU MUST NOT ASK THIS!. This is the most annoying question for those who are k-pop fans. I mean, for me, I'm fine for these questions if you don't anything about K-pop. But if you ask this question to a crazy fan, you will receive a long speech for hours. K-pop Idols are as famous as western artist, but they are different. Just do not compare them with other artists.

K-pop vs Pop

I hope you guys will enjoy this. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me in the comment. I will try to answer everything in my knowledge. Tell me what you want to know more.

Thanks for reading !