Vinree Dorin / The Bull
A fan girl suddenly screams and within seconds, a stampede of girls runs towards the intersection to see a van with tinted windows. Fans stand with their video and still cameras on the ready, waiting for their favorite boys to come out and snap a shot. They follow their idols to a restaurant by the Nokia Center where they watch favorite boys eat. They stand outside until 2 a.m. just to see their idols wave and throw hearts and kisses their way. Standing in the cold for two hours, these diehard fans hold signs. Some of their signs are hand-made, but some went to extremes with blinking neon lights. Losing their voices does not matter any more. They scream and shout their idols names as loud as they can. Some fans came prepared. They had stools, and were wearing matching shirts and hats with prints of their favorite bands. Some were waving glow sticks with the logos of the boy bands.
These were some of the sights at the Korean Pop Culture event at Staples Center. The parking lots were full. The traffic was unbearable. But it was all nothing for Kpop fans.
Korean Pop (Kpop) has different meanings to different people. Technically, it is a genre of music similar to American Pop and R&B with a Korean modern culture twist. The majority of Kpop music is boy bands, but there are also some girl bands and solo artists. Kpop artists might sing and dance, but the good looking bands are what hook the fans.
Kpop fans have created an energetic world through their love for their bands. This has made Korean Pop music rise in popularity all over Asia. It is a mad world in which you enter at your own risk. Being a Kpop fan becomes a lifestyle to some fans. The passion that each fan has for the bands takes their love to a whole new level.
Valerie Baraan, 24, a Ralphs supermarket employee and also a Kpop fanatic has two blogs for her Kpop passion. She collects pictures of her favorite boys and purchases any merchandise whenever she gets the chance.
“For me, I like kpop because American music nowadays is all about sex and drugs and their videos and lyrics are all explicit and what not. I mean, not all, but majority,” Baraan says.
“Kpop is just catchy and their lyrics have real meanings.”
Baraan enjoys that she can almost get to know her favorite artists through her television.
“You can never really know them, but through all the variety shows they appear on, you get a glimpse of what they’re like, and I think that’s awesome,” Baraan says. Aside from television shows, Baraan also follows her idols online.
There is a Kpop news site that updates international fans the latest news and activities of the idols called Allkpop, it is like TMZ exclusively for Kpop. The website helps jump start the hearts of international fans.
Being a Kpop fan is not only for the idols. The fans also gain friends as they share the same interest. Every Kpop group’s fan club has an official chat room, where the fans get to meet and chat with others that also like the same things. Although there are good sides to friendship and most people like more than one band. Rivalry cannot be avoided. The boy bands have different fan clubs that have a special name and colors that they acknowledge. In the chat room sometimes other fans come to bash and take it to a more personal level.
Fans from the Kpop world have different stories on how they found this world. Baraan stumbled upon the world of Kpop while babysitting a toddler who was obsessed with a Korean drama, “Boys over Flowers”.
“[The toddler] would watch it the whole time I was taking care of her,” Baraan says. “She wouldn’t be able to fall asleep and nap without hearing one of the ballad theme songs from the show.”
Baraan could not understand a single word, but was curious.
“I ended up Googling it and watching the show online with English subtitles,” she says.
She loved the characters of the drama especially the one played by Kim Hyun Joong. “I ended up Googling him as well and came to find he was in a boyband, “SS501″. They were the ones who got me curious about the rest of the Kpop world,” Baraan says.
For fans like Baraan, Kpop music quickly become a lifestyle. Even though Kpop is primarily a passion overseas, it continues to melt hearts like Baraan’s here in the United States one song at a time.
Baraan admiring her favorite Kpop band. (Louie Heredia / The Bull)
(Louie Heredia / The Bull)
Baraan shows off her collection. (Louie Heredia / The Bull)
