So Much Is Happening...

Looks like my furry K-pop art will be merging with my Pride Month art. Too much has happened this month and I couldn't keep up my own prompts. This is why I also stopped doing official art prompts.

Giving myself my own art challenges for 2023

This May, will be drawing and posting my fake furry K-pop idols, groups, and bands! Look for them! And then, in June, Pride Month artwork! 

I'm back into Kpop! *finger-hearts*

If anyone knows me and has been reading this blog for a number of years, I did a post about leaving K-pop. For folks not in the know, K-pop is short for 'Korean Pop' a popular music from South Korea that's catchy, addictive, and has become a global phenomenon since the early 2000s. 

Right now, I'll give my timeline for becoming a fan for another post. What I do want to say is that I returned to this music after a number of years away for personal reasons. After listening to BTS, the 7-member group who has become a global household name and my first as a fan to hear any K-pop music all in English, I realized it was time to return to a former fandom.

I think one of the many reasons I personally gravitated towards K-pop music was not just through the gateway of K-dramas- South Korean soap operas and TV series -but the synchronized dancing is just one of the pulls for me. I've always enjoyed ballet, modern dancing, and other performative arts, and as a former New Yorker, seeing random people break-dance on the streets. But it's when I entered junior high and watched our school's drill team during assemblies(do kids still have those?) and sports rallies. To be honest, I preferred watching them over the cheerleading. 

Fast-forward to community college when one of the Black fraternities did their Step-dancing during Club Rush Week. You also can't blame me, a young Black person, to find all these Black men, near my age, attractive!;p

Fast-forward to the early-to-mid 2000s when the 'Korean Wave' started and any cable Asian channel or station started to show B-Boy Competitions happening and there were plenty of representatives from the Southeast to East Asian nations. 

What's more, being used to these large music groups because I was also listening to modern Japanese music, it didn't take long for me to get into these mega groups, their incredible costumes, stagecraft, and the SYNCHRONIZED DANCING. Which I was already a fan of from Black culture of break-dancing(Puerto Rican dancers along with Black dancers, brought into mainstream dance culture), school marching bands, drill teams, and Black Greek Life step-dancing. 

Why am I saying all this? Because I'm creating my own K-pop music groups and bands for my story and I felt this was a good time as any to post my comeback to the fandom. Also, K-pop fans will get this, but these groups also have frequent comebacks too.;)

Look for my K-pop people posted to my Instagram @ Handdrawnbycarmenjr!

Take care, Dear Readers.

Why I Left Kpop (but eventually returned)

Being a Kpop(Korean pop music) fan sort of reminds me too much of trying to figure out Algebra. I'm all for how they market to a global audience and make many of their medium accessible to global fans, but the Kpop fandom has thrown me for a loop on how complicated it is to follow.

I came to Jpop(Japanese pop music) via the anime, TV shows, and movies I've enjoyed since childhood, and so Jpop will remain my first love, but I did come through to Kpop through Korean dramas.

Eventually, I saw that, much like the toxic fandom of Japanese idol groups, Kpop, which also spilled into Kdramas, since, oftentimes, a singer would opt to or be contracted to a TV series or film franchise. And how *toxic* you ask?

Well, I like my celebrities, I mean, I adore those I consider myself a fan of, to the point that I watch their interviews, may watch documentaries on them, etc. 

I rarely if ever read the gossip and tabloid stuff because their content offends me. I liken these magazines to wanting to know if one's celebrity ended up with diarrhea once they got food poisoning and trying to figure out if that's how the person will now diet. I don't like this sort of expose. I DID grow up on Entertainment Tonight, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, and Access Hollywood, but I soon gave up on these the more "tabloid-y" they became. 

Kpop fandom became no exception. Soon, I would go on sites like Soompi and Hancinema and fans would be screaming how an actress changed her lipstick or hairstyle. Or, how dare that actor find the love of his life, it should've been me! They need to DIE. I know I'm exaggerating, but, it's pretty close sarcastically to the truth. 

I couldn't go anywhere to read what my latest celebrities were up to without reading what counted for journalism, which was people posting nasty comments, hurling insults, and, even *threats* simply because a celebrity decided they wanted to start eating ice cream which made them gain two inches (some of these Korean celebs are eeny-meeny to a US person like me). 

But why did I leave Kpop for such a long time? People are always rude to celebrities, what's the big deal? 

The big deal is not only did the vitriol from fans start to cause rashes of suicides among the celebrity front, but, then those same toxic fans turned on other fans, bringing in cultural bigotry and racism into the mix. So, this trash had real-world consequences...

But, now I'm back. Somewhat. I'm only dealing with ONE KPOP GROUP and I'm sticking to just enjoying my Korean dramas with a small social media circle, simply tweeting about them and not interacting with the majority of fans. 

I don't need them and I know they *certainly* don't need me.