How My Perspectives on K-pop Changed

BTS speak at the UN. Source: thejakartapost.com

As we all know, these past years, K-pop became a worldwide phenomenon. Many people get crazy over K-pop idols. It’s fascinating to see how people around the world could appreciate Asian artists that much. As an Asian myself, I feel so proud about that.

I used to have this kind of mindset. I used to underestimate K-pop idols and wondering what they’ve done that can made people get crazy over them. I used to see K-pop idols as people who just rely on their visuals and just sing and dance. But after I knew more about one of them which is BTS, my perspectives on them has changed completely. 

For me who used to underestimate K-pop idols and their fans, I never imagined that I’d like BTS and enjoy their music. Back then, I used to wonder how BTS could become a worldwide phenomenon. I wonder how they could get Order of Cultural Merit from South Korean government, gave speech at the UN and appeared on the cover of TIME magazine. But after I got to know them, I finally understood why. In almost all of their songs, they try to spread positive messages, their hard work are inspiring and if you really know them, they always  try to support their fans by always cheering them up and sending motivational messages.

I can’t deny that sometimes they do things that are not right in Islam. I don’t want to complain because I know that they’re not muslims. But I also have to admit that there are also positive things we can take from them once we know them well, in this case BTS because I just know them. From the first time they debuted they have had this one purpose which was to send positive messages to their listeners. For people who likes music, it’s a good approach, because it’s so easy to send messages through things we like.

This morning I just saw a meme that compared teen girls back then with teen girls now who really attached to BTS, they even mentioned two members of BTS just to mocking them. As someone who know them, I feel so mad. I know that there are delusional fans that sometimes imagine inappropriate things, but it’s not the idols’ mistakes, it’s the fans’. From some comments people wrote on Twitter and Instagram, I know that people’s perspective on K-pop is not good, but it’s because they don’t really know who they’re talking about and maybe it’s because their delusional and hardcore fans. They just don’t know that there are also fans who can fangirling or fanboying wisely, purely love their music and only want to get positive things from their idols. 

I have to admit that once you became attached to them, you’ll spend most of your time and money on stuff related to them.  But I think it's okay if it will make you happy and it's your way to support them. But It’ll be bad if you can’t manage your heart and become delusional and do inappropriate things. After all it all depends on ourselves. In this modern era, it’s not easy to not like artists or singers, but as muslims we have to know how to manage our hearts so that we wouldn’t drag into bad things and only get positive things.

So the conclusion is don’t ever mocking people you don’t know just because some people do so. You have to know them well if you want to criticize them. And also, everything have good and bad side, it depends on how we see it.