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by jorgesborges 1352 days ago
It’s wildly different. Not a sports guy but it’s like NFL vs CFL. Sure they’re both football but the industries built around them are millions of miles apart. Kpop has the support and resources of a nation state with an explicit objective to become the world’s leading exporter of culture.

The behaviours of the K-pop fans in my life don’t resemble anything like the fans of boy bands growing up. Do you remember vast swathes of wealthy, intelligent 30-40yr olds listening to Backstreet Boys, selling and trading merch, building shrines, etc
2 comments
rTX5CMRXIfFG 1352 days ago
If the behavior of 30-40 year olds are the only difference, and if they had social media back then, it’s highly likely that they might have.
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bobthepanda 1352 days ago
The parasocial intensity is something else.

Stans (who take their name from Eminem’s song “Stan”, where it wasn’t a positive association) get quite intense, to the point of breaking and entering private property, stalking and causing road accidents, writing messages in their blood, even poisoning them, and that’s just the “selected incidents” on Wikipedia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasaeng_fan

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monkey_monkey 1352 days ago
No, stans don't get that intense, it's literally a tiny crazed subset - ie the Saesangs.

Every fandom of any type of a certain size has insane fans (looking at you sports teams and fans).

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jorgesborges 1352 days ago
I think there was an enormous amount of innovation and ingenuity required to broaden a market so narrow that it only included preteens to the entire globe across all sex, age, and cultures.

I understand your point but there’s more interesting analysis here than “this is the same it’s been done before.”

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anon_cow1111 1352 days ago
>The behaviours of the K-pop fans in my life don’t resemble anything like the fans of boy bands growing up.

My completely anecdotal experience seems to contradict this, the most "mainstream" example I have was when I saw Loona's AMA on the front page of reddit. I read through the thread, and you're going to have a hard time convincing me the average poster was not a 14-year-old girl.

I've also listened to some kpop myself and more directly I always thought, yes, this is type of music I'd go for if I had severe ADHD (not an insult to the genre, I can't say it was "bad", it just gave me that impression)

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