#she doesn't like kpop but she put all of my kpop recs on a playlist

[luxurystark-jackson]

marauders era characters as kpop stans

idk i randomly thought of this making it up as we go along

james:

stray kids and ateez stan (CLOSETED TWICE STAN FIGHT ME)

his favourite song is hoodie season because it’s cute and it reminds him of regulus

as a Rich Friend™️ he buys concert tickets

jeongin biased because he reminds him of regulus (me, a delusional jegulus shipper)

sirius:

full on stray kids stan

also day6 and txt

insult changbin or hyunjin in front of him and you’ll end up in the hospital wing

exists on 3racha’s soundcloud

as another Rich Friend™️ he is the number one profit source for JYPE

he puts his posters up ALL over his room and walburga absolutely despises it

he goes feral (changes into padfoot starts howling fucking nuts) if he pulls a changbin pc

remus:

ateez and txt ults but also stray kids

the marauders all stan skz let’s be real

he also listens to bts and seventeen (he’s such a simp for shua change my mind)

biases yeosang and taehyun

sirius buys him albums all the time (my dream omg) like 15 minutes after he mentions he might get an album it’s on his desk

has playlists for certain moods

fanfic reader™️ secret tumblr account for his recs and ao3 is bookmarked (we do not speak of wattpad but he has one of those too)

peter:

exo shinee and bts ults

low-key nct stan (especially nct 127) plus superm

anyone who tells you peter isn’t a 3rd gen stan is LYING

the only thing he can afford is spotify premium and he lives off of it

sirius and james try to buy him albums and he’s just like Absolutely Not i Refuse to listen to you tiny 4th gen stans

when he has some money he goes all out every single exo album he can get his hands on

he believes in growl supremacy also save me like if he could inject it into his bloodstream he would (don’t do drugs kids only bts)

he likes to dabble in producing he has a secret wip he’s been working on for like three years it’s coming out next month

regulus:

txt (certified beomgyu simp) stray kids and xdinary heroes

his favourite song is 9 and 3/4 because it’s the first txt song he listened to (plus like the magic references obviously he’s convinced txt are secretly wizards)

he buys albums obviously but he also buys those seasons greetings (as in those £70 bitches) and has a collection of them

touch his pcs and it’s St Mungo’s for you

he says stream good boy gone bad

that one time he asked lucius if he’s ever met stray kids because i.n did an impression of dobby-

lily:

twice and itzy stan. the hugest itzy stan.

ryujin/yeji bias i'd think probably both

will not shut up when itzy have a comeback

absolutely peer pressures (gently) everyone around her to listen to itzy songs

she has absolutely dragged all of the marauders to a concert with her. sirius agrees that ryujin is cool and their bonding mechanism is going to concerts together 100%

alice:

twice and bts and txt stan

huening kai biased. i feel it in my soul

she's the type to go on twitter and be the mediator in fan arguments

collects pcs and probably runs a tiktok account where she does deco for her pcs

she seems like the type to write jyp and hitman bang fanfiction but not say any part of it is satirical

pandora:

dreamcatcher and txt stan

she runs a lore account on twt/tiktok

probably has a corkboard where she notes down all the txt lore she can decipher and tries to work it out

she's also obsessed with ryujin even though she doesn't stan itzy. like. who isnt lets be real

she gets into in depth discussions with remus about the plausibility of certain theories they have about mvs

barty:

xdinary heroes day6 enhypen txt and wayv stan. dont ask

he would die for o.de he has said this many times. and sunoo probably

he would start the fanwars alice breaks up (90% of them are where he says something about hyunjin to piss off sirius completely on purpose)

anytime he sees a man with long hair he feels immense gender thoughts

absolutely the hugest thirster in the set. cannot resist a man with thick biceps at all

very obsessed with enha's vampire concept. very very obsessed with it

he would willingly learn how to do cosplays and makeup without magic so he can authentically create costumes based around idols in specific mvs

evan:

was roped into xdh by barty and skz by regulus but discovered nct on his own

he watches cringe tiktok compilations all the time

has met mark lee before. dont ask me how. he just has.

he is the most indifferent person when he gets albums but is loony when it comes to lightsticks

no1 sticker defender. probably would set up a prank of some kind where sticker just plays on repeat in potions to piss off slughorn

professional at pirating unreleased songs guy

PUKU PUKU POW POW 💥

narcissa:

closeted twice itzy and blackpink stan

she is crazy about lisa and jeongyeon

absolutely no one knows about her interest in kpop except lily

secret kpop specific twitter

participates in fanwars to put gasoline on the flames but mostly just here for the music

secretly learns choreographies and has a popular instagram account where she posts fan art (secretly)

[beautifulpersonpeach]

Jesus Armys are so embarrassing...

But then I look at other kpop stans are they look legit demented. Stupid and hive-minded doesn't even begin to cover it.

How have you survived in this fandom for ~10 years?

***

I mind my business, focus on my faves, watch Jimin fancams, and vibe to good music.

Which reminds me...

Zico's new track with Jennie isn't bad at all.

Zico once again shows he's one of the best artists k-pop has to offer, and Jennie can be amazing when she puts her mind to it and is in an environment where her talent can flourish. Also, someone sent me an ask about the How album from Zico's rookie group, BOYNEXTDOOR, as well. To that anon, your ask is buried somewhere in my inbox and I honestly can't find it so here's an abridged answer: I prefer the songs on Why to the songs on How, but How further establishes BND's sound identity and that's kind of impressive given how young the group is. Zico is doing an amazing job with them. My favourite song on the album is So Let's Go See the Stars.

Other good music I've been streaming recently is Bubble Gum by NewJeans.

I'm down for NewJeans' soundscape. It's effortless good music, which stands countercultural to the dominant characteristic of k-pop, where everything is valued according to the perceived effort expressed in it. It's why most of the music in this industry is maximalist, most of choreographies are elaborate, most of the styling and music videos are bombastic, etc. It's all about being as big and loud and 'impressive' as possible. And NewJeans is... kinda like the antithesis of that. It shouldn't work, they shouldn't be popular, and yet NewJeans/ADOR/MHJ is able to distill the essence they create into a format that can succeed in this industry.

They operate like an alien or foreign object in the k-pop system body. And like an infection in a body, the immune response is to counter it and eliminate it, or contain it so it can't threaten the system, and that's the response we've been seeing to NewJeans from the wider k-pop fandom and industry since NewJeans debuted in 2022.

Fast Company published an interview with Min Heejin three days ago and I suggest anyone interested in how she thinks, read it. I've linked it here. The interview was done in November 2023, so right when all the discord with HYBE was starting to escalate though there's no direct mention of that conflict in the interview. One of my top takeaways was to learn her favourite artist is Astrud Gilberto - who just happens to be my partner's favourite artist alongside Wynton Marsalis, so that was nice to see. MHJ mentions The Girl from Ipanema in the interview, so here it is for your reference:

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Anon, you didn't ask for song recs but since I've already started, I'll end with Backslide by Twenty One Pilots that also came out a couple days ago, and Veridis Quo by Daft Punk because that just came up on my playlist.

Twenty One Pilots is right up there with Daft Punk when it comes to the most iconic duos in music, in my opinion. So yeah their music is on constant rotation. Here's a version of Veridis Quo as a mashup of Angèle and Daft Punk:

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When ARMYs are being idiotic and the rest of k-pop fandom is self-immolating, the music makes it easy to ignore the noise.