5 Best Things That Happened to K-pop Fangrrrls

READ: PERSONAL OPINION.

We all know our oppars and unnirs are practically the best thing that happened to us be it TVXQ, Big Bang, Wonder Girls, Girls’ Generation, 2PM, 2NE1, Beast etc etc etc.. but there are a few people/things in K-pop that changed the game a little and what made us love K-pop a little bit more. This is all personal opinion.. so it’s up to you if you agree with me or not in no particular order!

1. Amber Liu of f(x)

I think it was incredibly a good idea that SME decided to recruit a boyish image for one of their fresh girl groups. Don’t get me wrong I love f(x) as much as the next fan but I have to admit without Amber, f(x) wouldn’t be getting the major boost of relevance that they have right now. When she went on hiatus during the second half of last year (2010) and f(x) were doing promotions they were kind of stale without Amber. She brings the adorable swag and it’s such a refreshing thing amongst all the cookie cutter girl groups in K-pop.

2. The Digital Age: SNS, streaming portals

I decided to write about this because Choi Siwon of Super Junior has finally reached more than 1 million followers on Twitter, as of today.. and is the first K-pop idol to do so. Siwon opened up a Twitter account last year (and briefly followed me, will forever be proud of that) and he’s been nothing but consistent in his tweets and photos which give us a small insight on his life outside the stage and television. Not to mention we get to have bonus photos of the rest of the members. Super Junior, Beast, MBLAQ, Infinite, 2AM and many male groups engage in a lot of twitter conversations which make the fangirls go even more gaga over them. 2PM was also the very first group to have complete members on twitter (that even includes Jay, if you count my delusional self) and since 2010 lots of K-pop idols have been jumping on the Twitter bandwagon.

Then YouTube! What would K-pop be without YouTube? That’s why it kind of pisses me off (but then I totally get it anyway) when Korean broadcasting stations block uploaded shows on YouTube because without them their entertainment culture wouldn’t be this thriving and in such a huge demand.

3. Male Idols in Suits

Outside K-pop, I have to say Westlife and Boyzone really revolutionized the suits in boy bands, but sad to say their time of looking as amazing is long gone. Then came K-pop. To me, wearing a suit is the epitome of manliness, no matter how much of a flower boy you look.. with a suit you automatically double up to oozing with manly. TVXQ, Super Junior, Big Bang and 2PM.. not to mention even young Korean actors gave a whole new meaning to East Asian men in suits. There’s just something about them. You can’t quite put it into words. I fucking love suits in K-pop idols so much.. given that they are worn the right way.

4. Physical albums, CDs and DVDs

Probably the most money consuming things to own when it comes to being a K-pop fan. How can you say no? Korean pop idol albums have the best packaging and physical offers when it comes to their albums. A 10 minute photoshoot turned into a concept can look gorgeous when it’s packaged into an album and photobook. There’s a reason why SME is one of the richest companies in the Korean entertainment industry. They repackage their artists’ albums 2 or 3 times per release with completely different concepts even though containing the same amount of songs with the difference of one or two bonus tracks. Fans still buy it. I’m guilty of that, because I own 2 Bonamana albums.. I have to admit I got sucked into SME’s money-making scheme. The worst thing is, once you start.. you can’t stop. You just have to collect their beautiful (and expensive) limited edition albums, DVDs and all that.

5. Korean Fansites

I cannot even begin to express how Korean fansites have played such a big part in overall fangrrrling. I cannot thank them enough for providing us the photos and the videos we need especially during crucial moments and most of their promotions in Korea. They are even 100000x better than the Korean media when it comes to providing us with all the visuals we need of our favorite people. I BOW DOWN.