1:20<\/a>\u00a0mark, when an angelic-faced Felix raps his iconic line in that deep growl: \u201cCookin\u2019 like a chef\/ I\u2019m a five-star Michelin.\u201d\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0what my friend wanted me to see. The incongruity between Felix\u2019s looks \u2014 freckles! \u2014 and his bass-deep voice has enraptured people much more strong-willed than me.<\/p>\n\n\tFelix is what\u2019s called a stan attractor or gateway member, meaning he\u2019s the first one a fan recognizes and latches onto. Sometimes fans stay with their first bias (favorite), but other times, as they get to know the group, other members become their favorites (truth be told, Lee Know is now my bias in Stray Kids).<\/p>\n
\n\tThen I was off to the races, chasing down my own K-pop cladogram. Because of Stray Kids competing on \u201cKingdom: Legendary War\u201d reality show with other K-pop groups, I discovered Ateez, which is now one of my absolute favorite groups (Seonghwa is my bias). Then there was the EXO rabbit hole, which also led me to the solo work of D.O. (basically a Korean Hozier), Baekhyun (slow jams for days), and Kai, with his incredible dancing skills. From there I found SHINee, who are now my absolute favorites \u2014 my ultimate.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhy did this happen? What I love about K-pop is that it is a whole package; it\u2019s got music, dancing, flashy costumes, extremely good-looking people, and tons and tons of fan content beyond music videos. One of the first things that appealed to me, however, is that the lyrics are in a language I don\u2019t understand, so I don\u2019t have to roll my eyes at the cheesy lyrics \u2014 and really, the groove and emotion of the music and the few English phrases are usually more than enough to tell you what a song is about.<\/p>\n
\n\tOver the past four years I\u2019ve seen many of these groups live, even flying to other cities to see them. A K-pop concert is different from any I\u2019ve ever seen: There are lightsticks, fan handouts, chants, amazing outfits \u2014\u00a0and those are just the fans!\u00a0 Every time I go to a show (usually alone), I meet people and talk about our ultimate groups, our ultimate biases, who else we\u2019ve seen. Most shows offer the opportunity ($$$) to watch the soundcheck, do a meet-and-greet with the artist, and basically fangirl\/boy out about your faves. Seeing Ateez do their soundcheck with Seonghwa just ten feet in front of me was as thrilling as seeing the Pixies at CBGB (and a lot more sanitary).<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd once you\u2019re in, there\u2019s an entire K-pop universe to discover. It\u2019s divided into literal generations: Stray Kids are fourth-gen, which refers to the era in which they debuted, in this case 2018-23; first-gen reaches all the way back to the early \u201890s. There are also complex and often-confusing family trees around the groups, like the many NCT offshoots (see: NCT 127\/NCT U\/NCT Dream\/NCT Wish\/WayV).<\/p>\n
\n\tBut a key to the appeal may be this: Even though K-pop is massive and mass-market in almost every way, it still feels intimate. Learning which group\u2019s members love or hate mint chocolate ice cream, weighing in on the best hairstyle for your bias, maybe dancing along to the choreography of your current favorite track feels like a joyful hobby, something to distract from ordinary life \u2014\u00a0the same joy and curiosity I felt when I was discovering punk and new wave.<\/p>\n
\n\tI\u2019ve made good friends through K-pop, people I might not have ordinarily met without the help of Taemin, Moon Sujin, Lee Know et al (my group chat is titled \u201cIt\u2019s not meth,\u201d because while we all admit to a perhaps excessive love for K-pop, \u201cat least it\u2019s not meth\u201d). One friend is a professor who uses K-pop to teach literature.<\/p>\n
\n\tIndeed, I\u2019m not even the oldest person at a lot of these shows. K-pop isn\u2019t just for young people, even though it\u2019s delightful to see them scream and grow wide-eyed with excitement as the groups hit the stage. Can it be cringe? Of course! Does that matter? No! It\u2019s all part of getting lost in this glittering world of gorgeous people, dancing and (sometimes) singing. As long as you avoid the toxic \u201cantis,\u201d the K-pop community is welcoming, inclusive, and just as vibrant and, yes, rebellious as my dyed-purple flattop, back in the days when I was young and cool.<\/p>\n
\n\tMegan Frampton writes romantasy and historical romance under her own name and romantic women\u2019s fiction as Megan Caldwell, and is the former editor in chief of CMJ New Music Report. She loves reading danmei, listening to K-pop, and defending the Oxford comma. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If anyone had told me five years ago that I would be a K-pop stan, I would have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,1729,409],"class_list":{"0":"post-358054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-kpop-demon-hunters","12":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}