KPop Stans - The round eye fans of slant eye bands

[Puck]

If youve been on the internet for more than 5 minutes youve probably come across the one of the internets most belligerent communities, kpop stans, the western super fans of kpop groups

The meaning of stan is a little unclear, some say it's a reference to the song "Stan" by eminem, others say it's a combination of the words stalker and fan.

Stans are well known for waging social media jihads against people who they feel have slighted their idols.

https://archive.li/blYyW

The short and probably incomplete list of people that theyve gone after include, Harry Styles, Arianna Grande, Simon Cowell, Ethan Klein, Halsey, CupkKake, Liam Payne, Miley Cyrus, and they even took shots at the Dolan Twins after their brother died.

A common misconception about stans is that their all 12 year old girls, but thanks too the internet grown men and women have the same opportunity to fangirl for their favorite kpop groups.

A Portland Man Has Inadvertently Become an Unofficial Mascot for One of Korea’s Biggest Pop Groups

In the weeks since, Phan has become something like a familial elder to Twice fans, referred to collectively as Once. They call him #ONCEUncle, “uncle” signifying a showing of respect in Korea. There are memes photoshopping him into the group’s press photos, and he’s being swarmed by Korean news...

www.wweek.com

A Portland Man Has Inadvertently Become an Unofficial Mascot for One …

archived 12 Dec 2019 08:16:35 UTC

archive.li

Things that annoy me as an "old" K-Pop fan

So I've listened to K-Pop since 2011 and many of my friends started to listen to it around 2016 or even later. Actually, there are a lot of people who…

www.allkpop.com

Things that annoy me as an "old" K-Pop fan | allkpop

archived 12 Dec 2019 08:16:52 UTC

archive.li

many stans also engage in a strange sort of findom where some spend upwards of 500 dollars a month on merchandise and records, with their justification for this being their fears over their favorite bands being forced to disband if their deemed unprofitable.

For K-Pop Fans, Devotion Can Come at a High Price

As the huge queues at BTS’ London pop-up showed this week, merch matters. But keeping up appearances as a fan has its price.

www.vice.com

For K-Pop Fans, Devotion Can Come at a High Price - VICE

archived 29 Dec 2019 05:33:38 UTC

archive.li

To close it out here's probably my favorite tweet from a kpop stan that embodies them.

 

[Exceptionally Exceptional]

This thread is an okay start, but needs a lot of work. For instance, screencaps along with the archive links because we usually use the archive links to preserve rather than present content. Having to pop open an archive in another tab makes reading this shit a chore, as well as making the thread itself look like shit.
But yeah, I approve. The entire KPop fandom is one big lolcow and I'm kinda shocked we didn't have a community watch thread on them until now.

Also, personal nitpick but capitalization and punctuation are your friends! USE THEM!

 

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

Stan culture is just a modernization of pre-teen fangirling over NSYNC, made cool and hip by enough girls secretly longing for this lifestyle to reemerge and thus engaging in a somehow successful gaslighting of the entire world.

"Why are these adults acting like toddlers?" "Oh haven't you heard? It's you who is out of the loop!". Exact same treatment cuckolding got. Oh I'm not cheating, you're just not an alpha-brain in on this new fetish for the intellectual.

Just like any other fandom, it's an instant redflag and an easy way to sort away trash.

 

[ZMOT]

Stan culture is just a modernization of pre-teen fangirling over NSYNC, made cool and hip by enough girls secretly longing for this lifestyle to reemerge and thus engaging in a somehow successful gaslighting of the entire world.

so that's what "stan" means? I see it all over the place but kinda missed where it came from (least the conext usually gives a hint).

 

[Animewasamistake]

yeah these people are nuts

Caucasian to Asian: My Jaw Bone Surgery To Look Korean | HOOKED ON THE LOOK

SUBSCRIBE to Barcroft TV: http://bit.ly/Oc61Hj A CAUCASIAN man has had his jaw shaved down, along with numerous other surgeries, to look like his Korean boyb...

www.youtube.com

Its like the old days when weebs were this new thing.

 

[Puck]

This thread is an okay start, but needs a lot of work. For instance, screencaps along with the archive links because we usually use the archive links to preserve rather than present content. Having to pop open an archive in another tab makes reading this shit a chore, as well as making the thread itself look like shit.
But yeah, I approve. The entire KPop fandom is one big lolcow and I'm kinda shocked we didn't have a community watch thread on them until now.

Also, personal nitpick but capitalization and punctuation are your friends! USE THEM!
View attachment 1047393

Thanks for the input, my computer died about 5 minutes after I started this thread so I'll have to wait to put the screencaps up till it starts working again to avoid shitty mobile ones.

But I'll take care of the capitalization and punctuation now.

 

[Slamerella]

Reminder that Stan is a word coined by the modern philosopher Marshall Mathers, naming it as a combination of "stalker" and "fan." Similar to "Otaku", both words are derogatory to the people who originate the word, and are not some cutesy label on a name tag. You're literally saying "Please stalk these Asians while also being a fan"

 

[Yellow Yam Scam]

I'm a 38-year old 아줌마 who also got into K-Pop recently-ish (right before BTS became, like, the biggest thing EVER). There are definitely people who raise eyebrows or giggle when I tell them how much I love K-Pop (Why would I be stanning a bunch of teenage girls?) If people question why I like it, my typical response is "Because it's fun and it makes me happy and there's enough stuff in the world for me to be sad about." I also started learning basic Korean and everyone always looks really stunned and impressed when I bust out an 안녕 (I always think "BOOM Y'ALL, CULTURE!)

But I'm an adult and I understand that school is a different world. I was picked on all the time in school, and adults being all "Just ignore it!" or "You shouldn't let words hurt you!" was NOT helpful. But slowly I learned that being the same as everyone else was really boring and that the stuff I liked was cool and that my actual friends may not get it, and may even think it's silly, but they love that I love it and that it makes me happy.

I wouldn't tell too many people at first, but my family and best friend knew I listened to kpop, but once I decided it wasn't that big of a deal and was more open, I found so many friends through kpop, who became my concert buddies and people I could discuss new comebacks and major news/scandals with lol. Maybe because it's more acceptable where I live, in California, but honestly I would recommend not hiding something so trivial. I guess since you're still in high school, you could be more sensitive to what other people might think about you, but trust me when you get a little older, you won't care anymore.

People don't know a lot about K-pop, so it seems like I like something completely inexistent. I'm 38, and since I started listening to K-pop, I stopped listening to everything else. Cardi B, Ariana Grande, you name it: I don't listen to that kind of music anymore and I don't even know many of the artists that are "hot" these days. I don't mean to be rude, I'm just interested in K-pop and everything else became secondary or invisible (in terms of music). I've said that I like K-pop a few times, but people don't care about it if it's not on the news all the time. I've heard "you like the fat guy from Gangnam Style?"; and that would be the only thing they know. Obviously, if they see anything about BTS "oh, you like these weirdos, they look like girls"; actually, BTS is not my cup of tea. So people start staring at you because that's where their knowledge of K-pop finishes: "what do you like then, are there more groups??". My ex boss saw a picture of Stellar as my phone wallpaper, and she looked at me like "wtf is this". I've been to a few K-pop conventions (I love them) and my mother has told me "you're too old for that, there are kids in those places". I love K-pop and I wouldn't change a thing.
Btw, my boyfriend doesn't like K-pop, but he likes Super Junior's version of the Luis Miguel song and he helps me making mashups with K-pop and songs that are not from the same genre (like BVNDIT and Red Hot Chili Peppers. I'm working on it.)

If you want to show off the things you love but feel nervous, start small. Put a photo card in your phone case, stickers on your notebooks, pins and keychains on your bags. (I carry a backpack to work and right now it looks like a walking IZONE/Everglow billboard.) Share music with your friends, or play songs out loud. When I turn on Spotify at work, inevitably someone will wander over to me and say "Hey, what are you listening to? I like the beat/sound/voices/everything." It starts a conversation.

The one time I had someone flat out tell me being a K-Pop fan was dumb and the music was bad, I very sweetly replied, "Then it's so good you don't ever have to listen to it!" They were so shocked that sarcasm-ed them back they just sort of looked and me and then walked away.

Love what you love. It is SO OKAY to do that. Everybody's got their something, and it's part of what makes you YOU. And it's okay if you feel embarrassed or uncomfortable telling people, too. Not everyone is entitled to know your business, nor are they entitled to an explanation about why you're into the things you're into. (I didn't figure that out until way later in life, but I hope that maybe you can keep it in the back of your mind.)

 

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

I remember in high school, both in Twitch streaming and with my Chad normie friends, Japanese music and especially duos took off. It was ironically listening to a male duo singing about love in majorly English, or kawaii shit like Girls' Generation.

What happened to Japan? It's always kpop, and it's always really dark and gritty compared to the upbeat flavorful music of Japan. I keep seeing "hurdur I have so much sadness in my life, why can't I enjoy asian music?" but I haven't seen one positive kpop song, ever. Closest I've been are those 8 guys in suit who make robot-like choreography and play upbeat music.

Korea is just, sad.

 

[Ctrl+Alt+Rt]

Reminder that Stan is a word coined by the modern philosopher Marshall Mathers, naming it as a combination of "stalker" and "fan." Similar to "Otaku", both words are derogatory to the people who originate the word, and are not some cutesy label on a name tag. You're literally saying "Please stalk these Asians while also being a fan"

Stan didn't do anything as crazy as stalking. He just did normie stuff like writing a lot of fan letters and murder-suiciding his gf.

 

[The Sauce Boss]

I remember in high school, both in Twitch streaming and with my Chad normie friends, Japanese music and especially duos took off. It was ironically listening to a male duo singing about love in majorly English, or kawaii shit like Girls' Generation.

What happened to Japan? It's always kpop, and it's always really dark and gritty compared to the upbeat flavorful music of Japan. I keep seeing "hurdur I have so much sadness in my life, why can't I enjoy asian music?" but I haven't seen one positive kpop song, ever. Closest I've been are those 8 guys in suit who make robot-like choreography and play upbeat music.

Korea is just, sad.

It's because South Korea is a shit place.

Extremely corrupt government, shitty economy, massive rates of interest leading to a huge margin of credit card debt, exploitative business models, and the fact that your next door national neighbor furiously orgasms to the thought of steamrolling your nation into a communist hellscape.

And that's not even getting into how exploitative and abusive the K-Pop industry is. It's a thing in Japan's 'Idol' culture too, but in Korea it's infamous for working idols to the bone, selling them out as sex dolls for industry deals/ favors, and driving them into unsafe or downright illegal surgical procedures to enhance their beauty. If a company did something like this in the US this flagrantly and openly, there would be feds knocking within minutes.

 

[Coke Pope]

Knowing how toxic and annoying the kpop community is it shocks me how long it took us to have a thread about them.

I'm a 38-year old 아줌마 who also got into K-Pop recently-ish (right before BTS became, like, the biggest thing EVER). There are definitely people who raise eyebrows or giggle when I tell them how much I love K-Pop (Why would I be stanning a bunch of teenage girls?) If people question why I like it, my typical response is "Because it's fun and it makes me happy and there's enough stuff in the world for me to be sad about." I also started learning basic Korean and everyone always looks really stunned and impressed when I bust out an 안녕 (I always think "BOOM Y'ALL, CULTURE!)

But I'm an adult and I understand that school is a different world. I was picked on all the time in school, and adults being all "Just ignore it!" or "You shouldn't let words hurt you!" was NOT helpful. But slowly I learned that being the same as everyone else was really boring and that the stuff I liked was cool and that my actual friends may not get it, and may even think it's silly, but they love that I love it and that it makes me happy.

I wouldn't tell too many people at first, but my family and best friend knew I listened to kpop, but once I decided it wasn't that big of a deal and was more open, I found so many friends through kpop, who became my concert buddies and people I could discuss new comebacks and major news/scandals with lol. Maybe because it's more acceptable where I live, in California, but honestly I would recommend not hiding something so trivial. I guess since you're still in high school, you could be more sensitive to what other people might think about you, but trust me when you get a little older, you won't care anymore.

People don't know a lot about K-pop, so it seems like I like something completely inexistent. I'm 38, and since I started listening to K-pop, I stopped listening to everything else. Cardi B, Ariana Grande, you name it: I don't listen to that kind of music anymore and I don't even know many of the artists that are "hot" these days. I don't mean to be rude, I'm just interested in K-pop and everything else became secondary or invisible (in terms of music). I've said that I like K-pop a few times, but people don't care about it if it's not on the news all the time. I've heard "you like the fat guy from Gangnam Style?"; and that would be the only thing they know. Obviously, if they see anything about BTS "oh, you like these weirdos, they look like girls"; actually, BTS is not my cup of tea. So people start staring at you because that's where their knowledge of K-pop finishes: "what do you like then, are there more groups??". My ex boss saw a picture of Stellar as my phone wallpaper, and she looked at me like "wtf is this". I've been to a few K-pop conventions (I love them) and my mother has told me "you're too old for that, there are kids in those places". I love K-pop and I wouldn't change a thing.
Btw, my boyfriend doesn't like K-pop, but he likes Super Junior's version of the Luis Miguel song and he helps me making mashups with K-pop and songs that are not from the same genre (like BVNDIT and Red Hot Chili Peppers. I'm working on it.)

If you want to show off the things you love but feel nervous, start small. Put a photo card in your phone case, stickers on your notebooks, pins and keychains on your bags. (I carry a backpack to work and right now it looks like a walking IZONE/Everglow billboard.) Share music with your friends, or play songs out loud. When I turn on Spotify at work, inevitably someone will wander over to me and say "Hey, what are you listening to? I like the beat/sound/voices/everything." It starts a conversation.

The one time I had someone flat out tell me being a K-Pop fan was dumb and the music was bad, I very sweetly replied, "Then it's so good you don't ever have to listen to it!" They were so shocked that sarcasm-ed them back they just sort of looked and me and then walked away.

Love what you love. It is SO OKAY to do that. Everybody's got their something, and it's part of what makes you YOU. And it's okay if you feel embarrassed or uncomfortable telling people, too. Not everyone is entitled to know your business, nor are they entitled to an explanation about why you're into the things you're into. (I didn't figure that out until way later in life, but I hope that maybe you can keep it in the back of your mind.)

Is this a pasta?
If the answer is no then I am afraid I am forced to giggle and raise my eyebrows.

 

[Tetra]

Posting my favorite response I've seen to any k-pop stan, it caused a shitstirr and I want this on the first page so k-pop stans that visit this thread will watch it:

To close it out here's probably my favorite tweet from a kpop stan that embodies them.

Polyphemus is a shitposter that is often just taking the piss by posting this kind of stuff, heres a couple more tweets from him:

A decent rule of thumb is to always doublecheck when someone posts something that is too perfect, of course given how k-pop stans behave it's easy to not know what is way to insane or not, So I don't blame you for not knowing and i'm sorry for ruining your favorite k-pop stan tweet.

tl;dr it's basically a fake tweet made to take the piss out of them.

 

[Aria]

Finally we have a thread on these fuckers.

 

[Hal]

They also like to mass report people and get you banned.

 

[Puck]

Polyphemus is a shitposter that is often just taking the piss by posting this kind of stuff, heres a couple more tweets from him:

A decent rule of thumb is to always doublecheck when someone posts something that is too perfect, of course given how k-pop stans behave it's easy to not know what is way to insane or not, So I don't blame you for not knowing and i'm sorry for ruining your favorite k-pop stan tweet.

tl;dr it's basically a fake tweet made to take the piss out of them.

Yea I know I just like that tweet and I've seen stans get pissed off by it so I wanted to include it.

 

[Wendy Carter]

People worshiping K-pop are even worse than normies worshiping mainstream celebrities (Beyonce, Taylor Swift, etc.), which is a feat previously thought to be impossible. They worship somebody who doesn't give an iota of a shit about any of their fans, which is probably even worse with K-pop, because K-pop performers are as close as you can get to "fabricated, mindless shit" in the music industry - identical-looking twinks singing about "i wuv u" and "pls smile bby".

Edit: I also wish to summon @Saffronette, who I'm sure would love to give a whole bunch of examples of K-pop drama and their fans thirsting/fighting over whichever identical-looking asian boy they like the most this week.

 

[Pissmaster]

What happened to Japan? It's always kpop, and it's always really dark and gritty compared to the upbeat flavorful music of Japan. I keep seeing "hurdur I have so much sadness in my life, why can't I enjoy asian music?" but I haven't seen one positive kpop song, ever. Closest I've been are those 8 guys in suit who make robot-like choreography and play upbeat music.

Korea is just, sad.

Here is an upbeat K-Pop song for you to enjoy:

Nah, I get what you mean, though. I've always figured modern Korean music follows closer to American music than Japan, so you get stylistic clones. Here's a 90's Korean rap video that, well, looks like a 90's American rap video (albeit, with zero budget):

So in the same vein, modern K-Pop picked up where American boy bands left off. Come to think of it, the newest boy band I can think of is One Direction, and didn't they blow up around 2012? So I guess that's how K-Pop got so big in the West today, there's too much demand and not enough supply, so Korea's picking up the slack.

(off topic, but I watched the video for Backstreet Boys' Larger than Life to help formulate my thoughts and it's fucking hilarious these days, holy shit I love late 90's 3D)

 

[RebelRein1488x]

Let's not forget the people like this:

 

[The Fifth Waltz]

Back in 2009-2012 I was a Kpop fan and the western fans were a bit more sane back then. I can't support an industry that seriously abuse their idols.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4545627