#the life of a kpop stan buyer

[emeraldenha]

losing my sanity trying to find that tbz azit jacket🧎‍♀️

[lavandulacosmos]

K-Pop Recap Of 2023!

Thanks for the tag @wifehwa 💜

Groups You Started Stanning?

Due to my tumblr/kpop hiatus, I only got to properly stan Stray Kids this year so I'm very much playing catchup with a lot of their content but they really didn't catch my attention back in 2018 so. Other notable mentions are Xdinary Heroes and IVE.

New Ult Biases?

There is nothing new about my ults, I'm set in my ways, mostly just a shift of focus onto the most active of them. But that one dude at the end has fought his way onto the list~

Idol(s) Who Got The Most Of Your Simping?

I can't even imagine who could that be- (gets dragged under by the crushing weight of reblogs)

Most Streamed Group(s)?

Ateez (based on spotify, which is a valid accusation)

Most Streamed Soloist(s)?

Too many but Sunmi, Yunho, DPR Ian and Taemin took the top that's for sure.

Top K-Pop Song(s) Of This Year (Opinion Or Streaming, You Choose)

Well my good old friend, Wrapped listed This World as No.1 followed by Halazia, Dune and Wake Up. I wouldn't dare fight this decision. Queen and the crown jewels at their rightful place.

Top Debut This Year

Monsta XXL Kiss of Life!

Choreographies You Learned

The chorus of Bouncy and Crazy Form in a very sedated manner, plus a few cute moves that came up in challenges.

Albums/Merchandise You Bought

I'm a serial album buyer, so one too many of those - especially since I'm still catching up on a few of my faves. But the most memorable was buying WILL in Thailand and getting this adorable pc for free from the kind girl at the store~ (Thanks again Nittaya, you are a saint of a shinestar)

New Kpop Mutuals You Made?

Hi there, Atinys~ ✨️💕

Tagging: @hongjoongpresent @hwangelbaby @irlkpop @rashfcrd @xuseokgyu @userwoosan @lgbtuan @lecknow @choienthusiast @yeofi if you want to, and anyone who wants to do this! 💖

[ilhoonftw]

okay I’m no expert when it comes to sales and industry dynamics but I truly fully believe that K-pop reached its height and all these inflated sales and records purely cuz of covid. this isn’t to discredit anybody’s work and of course there was already a spotlight on it but the level it reached was purely cuz of covid cuz with everybody locked up inside a lot of people just needed lighthearted content to binge and that’s what kpop provided. I might be fully wrong about the prediction but I do believe that with lockdowns not happening kpop will minimise a lot more than what stans expect at the moment. I just find it so fascinating and sometimes I do wonder if Covid didn’t happen then what would the kpop landscape look like? im sorry for any mistakes cuz English isn’t my first language

sorry for late reply anon!

i think covid was def a factor but sale numbers started rising before that. like i remember when digital downloads took over and very popular idols weren't cracking 500k sales because market saturation. albums also had less gimmicks, like photocard poster and that's it. exo is the group that brought back massive sales, for whiiiiile they weren't considered a legit million sellers because sm produced multiple versions of albums. now it doesn't seem like an issue anymore... g.o.d were the last idol million sellers (fun fact first million sellers in korea was a band hyunsik's father was in)

i do think covid cranked things to the max. whatever was going on already became accelerated(?). no doubt sale numbers would continue to go up as kpop became more known abroad and buying albums became more accessible, but covid did cause things to skyrocket. and you can tell kpop's growth goes hand in hand with korea's economy, because things are slowing up there. there's gotta be some shady stuff going on, like buying back albums to hike up sale numbers artificially (cube did that to 4m in 2012 were caught immediately...) as digital chart manipulation in 2010s was a thing companies like starshit got away with. like at this point i wonder if authorities tasked with catching fraud are just looking the other way, ignoring how album sales numbers look unreal

i think you can gauge kpop's rise abroad by how many youtube videos about "dark side of kpop" popped up. a lot of them at best silly at worst misinformed. active entertaiment industry in every country is Bad. kpop was based on japanese and american teen idol systems if you ask Me, and both of these are... yea. lee sooman especially basically copied everyone's homework, sm rookies are exactly what johnny juniors are minus i guess backdancing for senior idols

covid caused things go online and tbh stuff you wouldn't be able to access in 2019 was uploaded officially in 2020. being able to stream kpop concerts online??? unthinkable before that

shipping things from korea became harder to do because korea post became super restrictive, i ordered some kbeauty items in feb 2020 from ebay, sellers couldn't ship them and just refunded me. things shipped in jan/feb came like 3 months later 🫣 i stopped buying albums by that point so idk how that affected individual buyers, but group order accounts are all over twitter/fb so idk

personally covid caused a lot of hurt and pain in my life i wish it didn't happen at all. and that govt's response wasn't basically 'if you die, you die' but that's besides the point

and your english is fine! don't worry! im not a native speaker either