In my previous article, I talked about my love of K-Pop, but I didn’t go into detail on how much it’s helped me throughout the pandemic and how it will for the rest of my life, honestly.
Some basics for those who don’t know about K-Pop or the way it works: People audition for companies to take them on as trainees. If they get it, they start training to become idols, whether that be on reality shows, like Into the I-Land, or as back-up dancers for current groups in that company. It takes a long time to learn the skills needed, primarily dancing and singing, but some might work through rapping or producing music. Eventually, they’ll be able to debut as a soloist or with a group. After debut comes the fun part: they get to make music and attract fans. It takes a lot of time for idols to release music, so they fill that gap by participating in reality shows, live-streaming with their fans, attending fan-signs, and performing at concerts and comeback stages (and award shows when December/early January hits). Even if they’re not releasing music, there’s still a lot they do to entertain their fans.
Now, a year into listening to K-Pop and a lot of different idols and groups, I can say confidently that they’ve probably saved my life on multiple occasions. There’s so much happening all the time for fans at this point. In the time I’ve been listening to BTS (about ten months somehow), they’ve managed to do some much (some I remember and a lot of other stuff I can’t remember). They had three comebacks (comeback as in the release of new music): one for Map of the Soul : 7 ~The Journey ~, one for Dynamite, and the last for BE). There’s also been weekly releases of episodes for their variety show Run BTS (or 달려라 방탄 in Korean). They did a lot of promotion in America via news channels and The Tonight Show (Dynamite is their English single so American ARMYs went nuts) and managed to top the Billboard Hot 100 at #1 with Dynamite for three weeks and stayed on the chart for a long time. Back in October 2020, they performed their Map of the Soul tour online instead of in-person (which I got to see and was a sobbing mess). Other groups I’ve listened to have all done a lot of the same things, like award show performances (2020 MAMAs were sick) and comebacks.
I’ve always had trouble coping with my mental health. There wasn’t a lot I had to be excited for except for a couple of game releases and occasionally hanging out with my friends. Then the pandemic hit and I was stuck inside (not that I was complaining all that much; I’m an introvert who’s nocturnal). However, during the first month of quarantine, (G)I-DLE had a comeback for their album I trust, and I could not stop listening to it. Then I ended up getting into so many other groups that now I have a lot to look forward to. I think in October alone, I was on Comeback High™ for three groups: K/DA, BTS, and TXT (Enhypen debuted in November and I wasn’t ready).
Even with having things to look forward to now, a good chunk of the songs I listen to have really uplifting or sympathetic meanings that help me get through the rough days. BTS’ Magic Shop leaves a door open for fans whenever they’re feeling sad they can come to BTS’ music and get wrapped up in a hug. Stray Kids’ Levanter talks about letting go of the past and just wanting to be yourself. ITZY’s WANNABE says f*** the norms, just be who you are. TXT even wrote a song called We Lost the Summer about how they couldn’t do a lot of the normal things they’d do because of the pandemic. More often than not, when I’m down and/or overwhelmed with everything, I just plug in my earbuds and jam out (even if I don’t really understand a good chunk of what the songs say, but that’s why I’m teaching myself Korean).
Now, I’ve got a lot to look forward to and new ways to cope with unwanted feelings. Sometimes, all it takes is one random thing you’d never expect to like to change your life completely.
