u/kloklossy

i rlly liked kpop when i was a child (around 2009-2012) and then i stopped caring until honestly last year LOL but as i've been getting back into kpop and seeing how the fan community is, it's rlly opened my eyes to how crazy fan culture is. like i just can't imagine that ever being me lmao

i'm 25 now and fan culture is obviously much different now compared to when i was 11. kpop has expanded globally and fans have so much more access to idols online these days which makes it easier to fall into parasocialism or obsession. those terms aren't always interchangeable and honestly, i'd say obsession is worse bc parasocialism isn't always inherently harmful.

but anyways, since i wasn't in the kpop spaces for over a decade and haven't personally witnessed the rapid growth of kpop and its fan culture, i wanted to ask u all:

what was ur wake up call that cured ur obsession / parasocialism? or, if u never fell too deep in, what prevented u from becoming obsessed / parasocial?

some ppl on this subreddit could use some tips...

lol no need to answer all 3 questions! if u only have an answer to 1 of them, totally fine ofc. i'm just bored and curious

question 1: if you could take 2 (or 3 or 4 or however many) groups that are under the same company (hybe, sm, yg, jype, starship, etc.) and combine them into one big group and have them operate just like NCT, which groups would you choose? and which idols do you think would work well in a song together? what units would you like to see? basically imagining which groups would work well in an endless members concept and have high potential with rotating members

ex) if i combine BTS and Seventeen (hybe + similar in age) together in one big group (20 members which is close enough to NCT), i think it'd be fun to imagine jungkook x dokyeom on a song together or 97z unit song

question 2: also from the same company, if you could create a new "superm" group, which idols would you include? kinda similar to question 1, but this is handpicking select idols who could work as a fixed group instead

question 3: basically questions 1 and 2, but can combine and select groups / idols from any and all companies mixed together

basically what the title says

for any of u whose ult group or any group u enjoy lost a member or has a member on hiatus, if u could "steal" an idol from another group or a soloist to fill in for them, who would it be?

hiatus can literally just mean that a member was sick and only had to miss 1 performance lol it doesn't have to be a 6 month absence

who do u think could be a suitable replacement for a vocalist, dancer, rapper, etc. that isn't active in your group anymore/at the moment?

i'm just curious bc i know groups usually do very well w/ covering for members who either left or are on hiatus, but then i think about how SM used to send suju members to fill in for shinee members who were sick during the RDD era. that's not a common practice rn at all, nor was it ever, so it's got me curious of who could fill in the spots if that actually became a thing

this is just for fun and not serious at all lol. this is more of just assessing which idols have similar skills and abilities with each other or which idols could be a good fit in different groups. and ofc u can mix idols from different companies, that doesn't matter at all

what would you keep doing / change / stop doing? what video ideas would you have? what kind of content would you want to create?

for me, i'd love to see groups that have foreign members post videos that have to do with embracing the foreign members's cultures. ex) learning to cook a chinese member's favorite childhood meal, 1 hour thai language crash course, japanese style art class, etc.

i'd also stop (or limit) the babysitting content, at least for actual babies. toddlers, fine. grade school-aged children, fine. but i think a baby who can't even communicate or have the slightest understanding of what's going on shouldn't have a camera shoved in his/her face.

i'm just curious lol but as i'm sure we've all seen before, in pretty much every kpop group, there's always complaints from fans about a member (or 2 or 3 or...) being on the lower end of the line distribution. sometimes their complaints are about only like 1-2 instances and other times, their complaints are about the whole discography.

so basically my questions are: has any idol ever publicly addressed (in a live, in an interview, in a statement, anywhere) the line distribution? are there any idols who have said that they actually prefer to have less lines?

and beyond that, are there any idols who we know prefer the performing aspect of being a kpop idol and would rather dance and have great stage presence over a great vocal performance? or maybe an idol prefers to produce / compose and would prioritize that over vocal participation? or maybe an idol specifically addressed 1 song and was like "yeah this song wasn't rlly suited for me in my opinion so i sang less"? actually for the latter question, i'm super curious if anyone has ever explicitly said they don't like a certain song in their discography and that's why they had little involvement in it

there's always discourse over this so i'm just curious if u know of any idols / groups where this is a resolved issue not worth debating over

the redundant discourse on all the kpop-related subreddits is getting kinda annoying (like we get it! there's only so many ways ppl can paraphrase the same reasoning behind their dislike for certain groups) so let's talk ab something fun instead

now, when i say "embarrassing", i mean it in a fun way, not in a shameful way, so basically nothing controversial or criminal...

a moment that basically made u think "i love u but why r u like this, why would u do / say this on the internet"

exactly what the title says! like yeah we're on the same team but pls never say that again...

an easy one for all fandoms is prolly when some stans ask cringy "if we were dating..." questions at fansigns but that's v generic. or maybe when stans use the most useless metrics to try to brag ab ur group.

is there anything specific in ur fandom???

ok so i'm sure we can all agree that protest trucks are kinda crazy and that it's unfathomable that people spend so much money on them... BUT...

if u were to send one to any company's HQ as a joke, just for shits and giggles about an unserious complaint / first-world problem u have, what would it be?

examples could be like ur fav group is performing at the ur least favorite venue in ur city or there's something u want to nitpick on with the lightstick design or the font on the album cover is so hideous or ur bias is wearing the worst color eyeshadow

basically a non-issue u would complain about for fun, something that would make everyone laugh

now, when i say controversy, i obviously don't mean something criminal like burning sun or any other serious cases like that. situations like that deserved the scrutiny and shock and uproar.

instead, i mean something much less serious that an idol got backlash for that u honestly think people overreacted to. it can be a purposeful action that an idol was at fault for or something that had harmless intent but deserved valid criticism.

or if u can't think of a valid and deserved controversy, maybe a misconception or misconstrued story about an idol that causes people to dislike them but u think the reasoning is misunderstood or invalid?