K-Pop Ranter

Confessions of a K-Pop Fangirl: K-Pop V-Card - You can only swipe it once!

Posted by : KPopRanter July 29, 2013

Whether it was from a boy group or girl group, from the year 2000 or just yesterday--we've all had that one K-Pop group that got us into K-Pop. Of course, most of the time, the person remains fans of the group throughout the whole duration of them being K-Pop fans however for others, that's not the case--other groups in K-Pop rearranging and shifting our biases lists so much, we neglect our so-called "first loves". Yet, regardless of that fact, the writers of K-Pop Ranter, Saskia, Tiffany, Jeana and Andi came together and confessed their experience of getting into K-Pop... telling us all how they lost their K-Pop virginity by swiping that infamous K-Pop V-card that you can only swipe once.

Saskia: I'm not exactly sure how to answer this. My friends showed me about a year and a half ago this really weird music video in this really weird language I've never heard before - Co.Ed School - Bbiribbom Bbaeribbom. Before I got into K-Pop I was a big J-Rock fan and still am an Otaku (= person who's obsessed with anime and manga), and I didn't want to admit to myself that I actually enjoyed this MV. I just wanted to forget about it and concentrate on my love Japan, but my friend started to sent me more and more of those 'K-Pop' music videos.

One day, she told me about this new debuted band called NU'EST and when I saw their music video Face, I became obsessed with them. And while 'stalking' them I came across other K-Pop music videos as well, and one of them were EXO, who also just had their debut. I liked their few songs, but I wasn't as amazed and drawn in by them as I was with Nu'est - though my love for nu'est got smaller and smaller over time and I'm an obsessed EXOtic for almost a year now :p

All in all, I guess I can say that Nu'est are the guilty ones and got me into K-Pop. By the way, they are also the culprits when it comes to may mom's love for K-Pop ;D.

Jeana: Unlike most people who usually forget their first experiences, I clearly remember the first group to get me into KPOP to be SHINee. I've actually been into KPOP for only 2+ years, which is incomparable to many of the KPOP 'veteran' fans out there. Back then, I was first introduced to the music video of SHINee's Hello by a close friend, knowing literally nuts about what I was going to be in for. I couldn't appreciate it much at first, but my class in school somehow seemed to find it really fun, especially at the part of the chorus which goes 'Hello Hello!'. I was gradually influenced by them. My friend then began introducing to me more about the members of SHINee and their past songs, and so my interest in them as well as KPOP as a whole grew exponentially over time. It can be said that I am who I am today because of how the music video of Hello by SHINee impacted me at that fateful moment in time.

Andi: My first experience with Kpop was BoA’s Amazing Kiss sometime in 2002-2003. I don’t even remember how I came across the song, I just knew that I was forever in love with this girl and her music. From then on, I listened to every track she released that I possibly could. I wasn’t exactly into Kpop at that time, but I was starting to dip my fingers in it. Unlike a lot of people who are immediately pulled into the Kpop scene, I was kind of weaned into it, mostly because I was extremely lazy about looking further into the genre. When I was in high school (sometime around 2005), a friend of mine introduced me to Se7en as well as Rain. I wasn’t too impressed with Se7en as a whole but I found Rain captivating. When I expressed this to my friend, she told me that I should watch Full House and also introduced me to a lot of other dramas. Most of them were Taiwanese but as I began looking into them further, I ventured on into the Kdrama scene. I began watching shows like A Love to Kill and later, the movie I’m a Cyborg and That’s Okay. My entrance into the musical side of Kpop was somewhat of a late bloomer. I really enjoyed the soundtracks on all of the Korean dramas I watched but as I said before, I was super lazy about looking into them on my own. And then… Girls' Generation happened. They released their song Gee in 2009 and I happened across the song at an anime convention of all places. It was so sickeningly cute and over the top that I was almost afraid to like it but it pulled me in and also finally broke my laziness when it came to actually researching Kpop. I found groups like Super Junior and DBSK and immediately fell in love. Though Girls Generation kick started my interest in Kpop, it probably would have never happened if I hadn’t have started off with BoA.

Tiffany: To be honest, I actually kind of knew about K-Pop and Korean music but I never really cared about it for years... I mean, I knew artists like Hyori, BoA, SHINHWA... but it was only till a lot of my friends (specifically one who was my true breakthrough friend) were getting into K-Pop that I really started to pay attention. I think the first group that I really started to care about was SHINee when I watched Noona Neomu Yeppeo and also a bit of Girls' Generation and Super Junior. What's funny is that the first time I watched Big Bang, I was so against them (their style was off-putting for me) however, now, they're one of my favorite groups.

Now, readers, who's the group or soloist that swiped your V-card? Comment below!

Like our stuff? Follow us on Twitter and Facebook!