Everyone is born into a community based on their nationality or who and where they grow up around. However, there are so many other communities out there waiting to be explored. Ariana Fernandez, age 18, is a Dominican woman born in New York, USA. Ariana unlocked her interest in K-pop one year ago. The K-pop community is a group of people joined together by their interest in South Korean pop music. Korean pop music had been introduced to the States by the Kim Sisters who performed for American soldiers during the Korean War and grew a larger career from there. “Musical performance spelled survival for the Kim Sisters in the 1950…” (Seid, 2019). Later on girl group 2NE1 made their US debut in 2011 as well as Girls’ Generation (SNSD) who made their US debut in 2012 on Late Show with David Letterman. Many more artists followed and SHINee was even mentioned by Barack Obama in his speech for the 8thAsian Leadership Conference. Thanks to the 2017 American Music Awards, BTS made their presence known with their performance of “DNA” and nomination for Top Social Artist which they won.

The Top Social Artist award shows the influence of social media in this generation. But before social media and digital albums, the biggest artists were 2NE1, Girls’ Generation (SNSD), TVXQ, SHINee, BIGBANG, etc. These are known as 2nd generation (2003-2010) artists. 1st generation artists include BoA, H.O.T., Rain, G.O.D, S.E.S, Lee Hyori, etc. Artists of the 3rd generation include some of the biggest names in K-pop today, BTS, BLACKPINK, EXO, 4Minute, TWICE, SEVENTEEN, Red Velvet, BtoB, GFRIEND, GOT7, NCT, etc. Now 2018- present marks the 4th generation with new faces such as ATEEZ, TXT, Stray Kids, ENHYPEN, ITZY, The Boyz, aespa, etc.

The K-pop community is not marginalized. It makes up a portion of Americans. Furthermore, K-pop is global so there is a good portion of global fans out there. For context, EXO holds the record for the fastest sold-out concert ever. EXO Planet #3 – The ElyXion at Gocheok Sky Dome sold 66,000 tickets in 0.2 seconds. That was in Seoul, South Korea. In theUnited States, the total audience for the 4 days of BTS’ Permission To Dance at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles was approximately 813,000. These are only two out of the many cities in the world. If K-pop fans are told they’re “weird”, or any other negative words, for liking and obsessing over these artists by mainstream society, they’ll always be able to find a safe space on Twitter. Twitter is where all fans around the globe can come together and talk freely about their favorite groups and members. Of course there are always fan wars about whose better than who but that furthermore proves Twitter is the place for discussion and opinions. Any type of K-pop related content is mainstream on Twitter.

Before joining the K-pop community, Ariana was struggling with her mental health and on top of that COVID-19 had taken multiple family members from her. Ariana discovered BTS while she was scrolling through her YouTube recommends. She remembers the two videos being “BTS ‘Dynamite’ Official MV” and “BTS Carpool Karaoke”. Ariana said, “After discovering BTS, I finally had something to be happy about and look forward to again. I found people that had the same personality I have.” BTS was able to bring light into Ariana’s life again with their endless content, new and old, 9 years worth (since BTS debuted in 2013). Being able to laugh and smile again after such events in Ariana’s life was a relief for her. She found people who she resonated with even if they’re just through a screen. That indicates how intimate Korean content is. From sentimental music videos to variety shows to vlogs. And seeing your favorite group in

US vs Korea is entertaining because of culture shocks. Some things may be scripted but even if that’s the case, these entertainment companies are doing something right.

Ariana discussed joining the k-pop community has grew her feminism. “Society, specifically men, will find any reason to hate on women’s interests.” Ariana was a huge fan of One Direction in the past. Something about boy bands really lures her in. Completely understandable. She was told, by males, that her interest in boy bands were “stupid” and that fans of boy bands were “toxic”. “They failed to see how fans of other things, like sports, are also just as toxic, or even more toxic,” Ariana pointed out. “When it comes to me having an interest in something that’s not traditionally a girl interest, I always have to prove to a man that I actually have this interest and I don’t like it for the attention of men.” Ariana gives her own experience with mainstream society. This statement illustrates how men in mainstream society find ways to put down women in society. These type of men don’t think about how this boy band actually makes this female happy. They don’t think about the events that led up to the female liking this boy band. They immediately go to categorizing all women who like boy groups as “toxic” because they’ve seen a group of fans be toxic. There’s so many reasons why generalizing is wrong. Getting to know the person and all the whys and hows would help get rid of this bias instead of jumping to conclusions.

I have been apart of the K-pop community for 9 years and Ariana has been apart of the K-pop community for 1 year. I did have stereotypes about new K-pop fans before our interview. I knew K-pop fans who joined the fandom in 2017-present were all brought into this community by BTS. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I am so grateful to BTS for spreading K-pop across the globe. It’s just that every interaction, 5 in total, that I’ve had with a BTS fan on Twitter is just that person saying my bias group, NCT, only makes trash music. I just want to know why they

were camping under tweets that have nothing to do with BTS and don’t even mention BTS. This has happened to an infinite amount of people on Twitter. Specifically people who run fan accounts for groups that aren’t BTS. But I didn’t have this issue with Ariana. She said other groups she has heard a song or two from and has enjoyed were TWICE, ENHYPEN, and NCT. Ariana was eager to listen to new groups and even asked me to send her a playlist if I had one. Of course I sent her one! I was so happy to have met an ARMY (BTS fandom name) who has an open mind. What we can do to open more ARMY minds is simply by befriending them. Show them you also enjoy BTS and from there you can introduce them to your favorite groups as well.

In conclusion, the K-pop community in America is about sharing and enjoying a common interest in Korean pop music but it’s also about having each other’s backs. K-pop is seen as different in mainstream American society since the “perfect” person in mainstream society would be male, English speaker, and an American citizen that listens to English music. Somehow K-pop was able to bring together all different people of many races and cultures and that’s the real beauty in this community.