I’m sure we’ve been asked it several times. But I want to know from my readers how they got into J-Pop, K-Pop or even C-Pop and how it perhaps led them to an interest or an obsession. Another person’s story that I came across was quite interesting that I found at Ladyalice’s Weblog.
I want to leave the part about J-Pop out until September since that’s when it’s officially 5 years. But this month marks my 4th year in K-Pop, it’s pretty amazing how I can vaguely remember the month too, guess my memory’s not so bad. After getting into J-Pop for a few months, my other friend who was interested in the music told me to listen to BoA’s Girls on Top. Even though it was in Korean somehow I didn’t hear it very well and thought she was Japanese. I only realised when my friend told me when I got into Se7en. It made me think “Where did all these Korean people come from debuting in Japan?” This was also past the point when I got into C-Pop (around May/June).
I searched for an artist when my same friend talked about Jay Chou and I found Jolin Tsai who I find pretty cool. Two years later, and I also listen to Elva Hsiao. Thing is though at the point we started to become possessive by saying to each other “I found _ first!” or “She/he’s my favourite artist, choose another!” I also thought DBSK were Japanese when I discovered them in Koda Kumi’s video, LAST ANGEL (course back then, I only concentrated on Jaejoong for a good 9 months) then clicked on a link in Veoh to Wonder Girl’s Tell Me in December and instantly loved the song. I have to say I became a fangirl of girl grous before boy groups. I started finding out more about Wonder Girls straight away and only grew to love DBSK in July 2008. And in that summer, I also learned who SS501, Big Bang, Super Junior and SNSD. The last four months are a blur because of Mirotic and I started getting to know more new artists such as Seo In Young, 2PM, 2AM, SHINee, Lee Hyori, Rain Son Dambi, U-KISS, KARA and Brown Eyed Girls.
Back then, I didn’t rely on sites allkpop for info either just Wiki (not Wikipedia, a random site that quickly updated on artist’s singles and albums) even though it opened in 2007. I only started using Korean related sites in 2009 such as K Bites and then allkpop. To think I’ve been listening to this music for so long, I feel that perhaps I should have learned Japanese in 2007 and Korean back in 2008 and worked even harder. I know there are some people who started listening to the music way before me but I don’t think I know any black girls who have been listening to it longer than me around my age group. Technically the four artists I thank for getting me into K-Pop are BoA, Se7en, DBSK and Wonder Girls.
So, what’s your Asian Pop Story? Part 1 of how I got into J-Pop will be revealed in September.
I think SHINee was my first with noona your so pretty and wonder girls were my first girl group with tell me. I didn’t really get into like brown eyed girls and big mama until mid 2008 and by then I had found out about allkpop and they were pretty funny.my first variety show was we got married the episode when Alex and sinae had first met and after that I fell in love with the show and the people on there. The first season will always be my favorite Korean variety show ever. Now it’s my 5th year as a kpop music junkie and I think that I really know my way around kpop and he music and tv shows.
How do you count it as a 5th year?? I always just say what year I got into it or 4 years ago.
Since I’m half Chinese, my uncles and older cousins have been blasting C-pop for many years. I didn’t realize there was other Asian pop until one of my older cousins started blasting groups like SOLID, Seo Taiji, Fink.L (one of them was obsessed with Hyori -.-), JinuSean, etc. I remember blasting S.E.S.’s “Dreams Come True” a lot because I was seriously in love with the song. I then found out all these groups like As One, Baby V.O.X., Big Mama, (my friends all rocked BoA songs every since she started), H.O.T., Sechskies, you get the picture.
Back then all we had were forums and message boards. Message boards were pretty popular since sometimes the artist, like Brian Joo, would come by and write a message to fans. (Yea I was obsessed with Fly to the Sky too.)
Popseoul! was the only site that I knew of that had Kpop news and it triggered and effect because they were seriously larger then life. It wasn’t big like how allkpop is now, it was even bigger. Popseoul! was the only online thing connected fans to Kpop news and if you didn’t know Korean, it was the only site to go to.
I was spending the night at my Korean friend’s house. She only watches Korean TV, and they had the music channel on and ss501(pretty new at the time I think maybe 2008 or 2009) was performing “UR Man”. They were wearing low cut V-necks and we were making fun of the song and style (even she was and her mom was like, “it’s ok to make fun of it cause I don’t like them” lol), but then we ended up really liking ss501, and I ventured into the other groups on my own. I was pretty much obsessed with Asian culture in general at the time since I had a crush on this guy that was like 1/8 Japanese XD
I’ve always loved Asia, don’t know why it took me so long to listen to their music!
My obsession starts back in 2004 when I came across Naruto( probably wondering what has that got to do with nything? Patience, my friend! I had a crazy high school life with anime filled days! By the time I’d finished yr11 I had gradually moved on to watching Japanese dramas and movies then j-pop(although never really got into it) As things moved on I started watching Korean Dramas( biggest mistake of my life as im hooked now) Now its around 2006/7 and it was just listening to drama OST, then onto Kpop( and life had finally started!), i think wondergirls were probably the first kpop band id heard! I’ve pretty much dragged on but life now pratically revolves round Asian songs and drama’s etc. I’m also a black kpop fan
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