u/heewondiarie1009

I said “stream Loona” and immediately got hit with the classic “oh so you support an abusive and toxic company!!”

No. I support Loona. The twelve members. The discography they made under shitty conditions. The art. Not Blockberry Creative.

Let’s actually look at what happened instead of recycling 2022 talking points in 2026 like nothing has changed.

What the boycott was actually for

In late 2022, after Chuu was expelled with the “gapjil/abuse of power” claim (which was widely disputed and looked a lot more like retaliation after she pushed back on the contract), the rest of the members filed injunctions. Dispatch reported the contracts were structured so members were stuck in perpetual debt: 70/30 profit split in the company’s favor, 50/50 expense split, so the more they worked, the deeper the hole. Members publicly said they weren’t getting paid properly. Fans organized a boycott of paid products, streams on official platforms that benefited BBC, merch, etc. Goal was clear: pressure the company, support the members’ legal fight to get free, and stop funneling money to the people who put them in that position.

It worked. Pre-orders for the planned album tanked hard enough that BBC postponed it indefinitely. Streaming and sales numbers dropped significantly. By mid-2023, all 12 members had won their cases or otherwise gotten out. They left. They signed elsewhere (ARTMS under Modhaus, Loossemble under CTDENM at the time, Chuu and Yves solo). BBC is effectively dead/collapsed under the legal and financial fallout. The formal boycott was called off by the organized fan response groups in June 2023 once the members were free.

The need for the boycott is gone. The company that was the problem no longer controls the members or profits from their old work in the same way. Continuing to treat every stream of “Hi High,” “Butterfly,” “Paint The Town,” or whatever as moral endorsement of 2022 BBC is just purity theater at this point.

The current purity-test version is dishonest

Claiming “if you stream Loona you support abuse” collapses the distinction between:

• the members who were the ones being mistreated and who fought to leave,
• the music they created,
• and the company that is no longer in the picture.

That’s not “protecting the girls.” That’s using the girls’ trauma as a blunt instrument to police other fans’ listening habits years after the legal fight was won. It’s also selective as hell, a lot of the same people have no problem with other groups whose companies have had their own scandals, as long as it’s not the one they decided to moralize about forever.

Supporting Loona now means supporting the members’ post-BBC work (ARTMS, Loossemble when active, Chuu, Yves, solos, etc.) and being able to listen to the catalog without pretending the catalog itself is contaminated. The members made that music. They performed it. Treating the songs like they’re radioactive because the old company was trash is not solidarity, it’s just another way of letting the company’s toxicity define the group forever.

I boycotted when it mattered. I didn’t buy albums or merch that would have gone to BBC. I supported the legal fight. Now that the members are free and the company is irrelevant, I’m going to stream the music I like. That is not “supporting abuse.” That is supporting the artists who survived the abuse and still have a discography worth listening to.

If your response to someone saying “stream Loona” is still “you support an abusive company,” you’re not fighting for the members anymore. You’re just addicted to the moral high ground from a fight that already ended.

LOONA is 12. The company is gone. Stream the music if you want. Support the members’ current activities. And stop acting like listening is a betrayal three years after they got free.

I genuinely wish K-pop spaces would stop treating girl groups and boy groups like they're two opposing sides that people have to choose between.

I'm so tired of seeing people completely dismiss an entire category of artists simply because of their gender. And I'm not talking about simply having a preference. It's perfectly fine to prefer girl groups, prefer boy groups, or mostly listen to one over the other. You don't have to force yourself to listen to music you don't enjoy.

What I don't understand is the people who proudly say things like “I don't listen to boy groups” or “I hate girl group music” and then refuse to even give certain songs a chance purely because of who is singing them.

And yes, this happens on BOTH sides.

There are BG stans who act like girl groups are inherently less talented, less interesting, or only make “easy” or “generic” music. There are also GG stans who talk about boy groups as if every single BG song is just loud noise, excessive rap and meaningless shouting.

“BG music is just noise” is especially funny to me because... have you actually listened to different boy groups? 😭

Boy groups make R&B, pop, rock, synthpop, house, UK garage, ballads, acoustic music, dreamy songs, funky songs, experimental music, hip-hop, and basically every other kind of sound you can think of. Obviously some groups specialize in heavier or more aggressive production, but that's a style preference, not an inherent characteristic of being a boy group.

And the exact same thing applies to girl groups. Not every GG song is automatically soft, pretty, catchy or “better produced,” and not every GG is doing the same thing either.

One thing that really makes me question this mentality is when people seem to judge the exact same musical style completely differently depending on who performs it.

For example, there are boy group songs with soft vocals, dreamy production, delicate melodies, UK garage influences, R&B elements, etc. that could very easily fit into the discography of a girl group. Yet sometimes someone will say they hate the song specifically because it's a BG song.

And I can't help thinking: if you would have loved this exact song with female vocals, are you actually criticizing the music, or are you criticizing the fact that men are singing it?

Obviously, vocal preference is a different thing. Some people simply prefer certain vocal tones, and that's completely valid. But there's a huge difference between “I don't like this vocal style” and “I don't listen to men/women singing this kind of music.”

I also don't understand why some people feel the need to constantly compare GGs and BGs as if one has to be superior.

“GGs have better music.”

“BGs have better performers.”

“GGs are more creative.”

“BGs are more talented.”

Like... can we just let different artists exist???

You don't have to put one group down to praise another. You can love a GG without hating BGs. You can love a BG without hating GGs. You can even dislike both! Nobody is forcing you to listen to anything.

Personally, I listen to both, and I honestly think it's much more fun that way. I don't want to limit my music taste based on whether the artists are men or women. If I like the production, melody, vocals, concept or overall sound, I like the song. That's it.

K-pop is already such a huge genre with so many different sounds and styles. Why intentionally cut half of it out because of something as irrelevant to the actual music as the gender of the performers?

You don't have to like both. You don't have to stan both. You don't even have to listen to both.

But can we please stop acting like an entire gender of artists is automatically bad?

Judge the song. Judge the production. Judge the vocals. Judge the performance.

Just don't decide that you hate it before pressing play. 😭

For those who don’t know, a new boy group called WAYF BOYS debuted yesterday with the single “WAYF BOYS DO.”

They already had solid pre-debut hype (viral a cappella covers, a Waterbomb stage, etc.), but what actually exploded was a single line in the song where they say “F*ck ICE.”

That clip went viral almost immediately. A lot of people are calling them bold, radical, and political for putting that in a debut track.

But if you listen to the full song, the line is completely disconnected from everything else. The track is standard debut energy, confidence, lifestyle flexing, “nobody does it like the WAYF BOYS.” There’s no theme about immigration, no political context, no narrative that builds toward that line. It just appears out of nowhere.

I don’t have a problem with the message itself. ICE has a well-documented history of violence and abuse against immigrants. Criticizing them is valid. The problem is how WAYF BOYS used it.

I know some of the members are immigrants (or have immigrant backgrounds), and I’m not dismissing that. But even with that context, the line still feels forced. The overall meaning and concept of the song have nothing to do with immigration or resistance against ICE. It’s not woven into the lyrics or the story, it’s just dropped in.

Dropping one isolated “F*ck ICE” in the middle of an otherwise apolitical song doesn’t make the track political. It makes the line feel like a calculated addition designed for engagement. They knew exactly what kind of reaction it would get, and the numbers prove it, most of the discourse isn’t about the music, the performance, or the group’s actual concept. It’s about that one line.

This isn’t a political statement. It’s marketing dressed up as one. And it’s working, which is exactly the problem.

Anyone else felt the same after listening to the full song?

My general opinion on Hesther is that I personally don’t like it, and I think a lot of that comes down to how I interpret Esther and Heather’s relationship. I genuinely see them as friends, close friends, obviously, but still friends. Heather seems to be one of the few people Esther can genuinely connect with, and I think their friendship is meaningful because Esther doesn’t appear to have many relationships like that outside her family. Watching her learn to trust someone, care about someone, and maintain a genuine friendship is already interesting to me. I don’t feel like their bond needs romance to be emotionally important.

I also don’t really like the tendency to interpret every close friendship between two girls as romantic. Two girls can care deeply about each other, spend a lot of time together, support each other, and be emotionally close without secretly having crushes. Friendships can be just as meaningful and complex as romantic relationships, especially when the characters are children.

And personally, I’m just not comfortable shipping two children. I know kids can have innocent crushes, and I’m not denying that or saying fictional children can never be written as having crushes. I simply don’t enjoy viewing Esther and Heather through a romantic lens, especially when the show hasn’t clearly established that either of them has romantic feelings for the other. Their friendship feels more natural and more valuable to me as a friendship.

That doesn’t mean people are wrong or bad for liking Hesther. Shipping is subjective, and people are free to interpret fictional relationships however they want. I just don’t share that interpretation, and I don’t think disliking the ship means someone is dismissing queer representation or refusing to acknowledge a possible queer reading. I’m completely open to queer characters and relationships when they’re actually present in the story; I just don’t personally see Esther and Heather that way.

My issue is mainly when a headcanon starts being treated as an established fact. Saying “I headcanon Esther as a lesbian” or “I like imagining Esther and Heather having a childhood crush” is different from claiming that Esther is canonically attracted to Heather when the show hasn’t confirmed that. You can enjoy the ship without presenting your interpretation as the only correct reading.

Overall, I prefer Esther and Heather as genuine friends. Their bond already means something to me without romance being added to it, and I think stories should be allowed to portray close, important friendships between girls without every affectionate or meaningful interaction automatically being interpreted as romantic.