K-Pop Source — Keeping the K-Pop Forum Spirit Alive

honey and sweetie for rat names???? sounds about right lol
but why rats? since they were smaller and less needy?

I did have a god but it died from not very good reasons if I remember - I was never and still not an animal person
I'm much more of a people person

I guess because of my son I did have 2 guinea pigs, butterflies, spider, grasshopper, cricket, snail, earthworm...
(the one's in bold "sadly" have passed away lol)

are you an animal person on general or just a dog person?

My parents wouldn't let me have a pet larger than them, and they're actually pretty smart and sweet when it's just a couple of them. Like one time, one of them got out of their play ball but just went back to their cage and waited for me to open it.

In hindsight, I think there was an element to it that my parents (and me, by extension, as the kid) kind of viewed them as, almost like fish in a way, something there that was entertaining when you wanted it but otherwise out of the way.

I like my dog lol. I didn't notice before I got one, but most people are lousy dog owners. I've had multiple people tell me I walk mine "all the time" but it's only 3-5 times a day, depending on her mood. A lot of people just shove their dog outside.

You've basically had a zoo though! Is your kid pretty good about taking care of them? (Well, the still living ones anyway lol)

these were like lab rats right?

make sense since a dog is a lot to take care of compared to a rat

3-5 times a day??? that does seem like a lot lol where do you even find the time???

never at the same time though and I guess no since they died lol???

would you want more pets?

No, lol! Bought them at a pet store. That place is no longer in business though.

Easy to find the time: I work for a bank and I don't have kids lol. So no late hours or unexpected emergencies or anything. It works out for me too, because I listen to books when we walk.

I don't think I'd want more pets. Certainly not while my dog is still alive (I tried to foster again to show I could give the pet back and my dog hated having another animal in her space so much). It's hard to say for after. A lot of my time revolves around her needs, but nothing loves you as uncritically as a dog loves you. Hopefully I won't have to think about that for many more years!

Would you ever let your kid talk you into adopting a larger pet? Guinea pigs are still a relatively manageable size.

no longer in business hmmm lol

nice I guess if one has set hours and no overtime and things like that then you have plenty of time - unlike myself with 2 little ones lol

" but nothing loves you as uncritically as a dog loves you. Hopefully I won't have to think about that for many more years!"
I feel the same way about my kids - I guess once you find something to love and that loves you back nothing else matters!!!

probably not since we don't have the time for it lol - yeah but we had the guinea pigs for like a month and then it was too much work and we got rid of it lol

Yeah, it's not so much set hours, but I have a lot of flexibility. Like there's supposed to be a bad storm, so I left work at 12:30 and I'm finishing the day up from home. If only I could get out of going into the office at all~

Aw, that's so sweet!! How old are your kids?

ahhh that's cool so it's more of "get the job done" and results based as oppose to hours based?
I think there's lots of jobs like that and more should be like that since as long as the work is done does it really matter when it gets done?

6 years and my youngest is 10 months lol
would you ever want kids (eventually)

Yes, you got it! It's nice to have the flexibility, while still working for a bank, so I never work nights or weekends. Unless I wanted to, I guess, but who would? Lol.

Aw, that's a good age for them still being cute and smol.

I like other people's kids well enough, along with the ability to make them someone else's problem as soon as they stop being cute lol, but not for me. It took me three years to work up to getting a dog, definitely not having kids of my own!

well depending if one wants to climb the corporate ladder I suppose you know hit and exceed all one's KPIs and all that

yes young and smol but blink and soon they'll be bringing girls home and whatnot lol

that seems like a very mature choice my friend - be the fun aunt

I used to care about that, but the older I get, the more I'm okay with work just being the thing that finances the rest of my life. I don't dislike my job, but it's not, like, the reason for my existence or anything.

My cousin had a baby last year, and man, nothing makes you realize how much time is passing like seeing a baby get older! At least dogs more or less stop growing after a year, lol. It's less noticeable how much time has passed with only one of them.

that's a very good philosphy work to live and not live to work!!!

they grow up so fast!!!

so how did you get into kpop in the first place my friend?

When I was in college, a friend of mine wouldn't stfu about her favorite kpop groups, so we made a deal that I would listen to a couple of songs, and in return, she was never to mention them again if I didn't like them. It was SHINee Hello, SNSD Run Devil Run, and SHINee Lucifer.

And I liked Lucifer well enough and at the time, kpop was really big into doing those variety shows with 1-2 members from a bunch of groups, so I found other groups I liked even more. And now I think I'm the annoying kpop friend; she basically stopped listening after Brown Eyed Girls stopped releasing music lol.

How about you?

interesting all it takes is a song or two huh?

well it was 2019 and YT recommended me D4 right before KTL dropped - I was like hey this has a lot of views so let's give it a try and then I saw the bedazzled tank and wouldn't you know it kpop is pretty cool lol

although that wasn't the first kpop song I heard it was actually nobody from Wonder Girls but it during whilst I was playing DDR so at that time I didn't realise it was kpop until I had gotten into kpop and realised hey nobody is a kpop song

I probably should have trusted that my friend might know my taste!

That's so interesting! You like so many groups, I'd assumed you'd been into kpop forever. It's funny how seeing the whole package together can influence things! And like in a cool way; I enjoy Psy but I get why Gangnam Style maybe didn't convert a ton of people to kpop broadly the way BP or BTS or SHINee back in the day did.

I was thinking this yesterday: I noticed a lot more smaller groups are doing English releases like Dreamcatcher doing an English version of Bon Voyage or H1-Key's new project seems to be totally in English. I wonder if there's going to be an approach to, like, sneak into people's playlists for people who don't realize it's kpop. The way Cupid and (arguably) XG have managed.

it depends though since I guess one of the reasons I joined A K P was that none of my circle liked kpop - and some of them actively diss kpop lol (it's gotten better as kpop groups achieve more success and whatnot but some people are set in their ways)

I'm not sure if you already know but for example my wife who I love to death and best friend and all that - when I show her kpop for 99.9% of it she's like why are you showing me "noise music" lol so yeah different strokes for different married folks??? lol

only GG though who like boys??? they have cooties lol
well for me the thing which puts a group from random to one of my favs is the member's personality and chemistry like I can listen to any group BG or GG or soloist etc but for me to get into a group it's their cohesion how well they get along (or at least seem to on camera)

currently my favs are BP, Twice, Itzy, RV, Aespa, Gidle, IVE, LSFM - what about you? who are your favs?

I think it's a way to get one's name out there for the west (especially the American west) - for one thing it means more potential listeners and thus more recognition and more money

I'm not familiar with the two groups you mentioned but I do know somewhat about IVE and can comment about them - IVE are releasing an english track with one sweetae (or however one spells it) and it's very interesting since IVE is very popular in SK but don't really have a big western presence so the english track is designed to expand their listeners and hopefully capture some of the that western market.
The same thing can be said of Gidle with their latest English releases - last year and the year before that they had great success and catapulted them to massive SK fan but they lacked a strong western presence

I think for most established or semi established groups going for english releases is to try to capture a new and different market compared to just SK (surrounding countries and kpop fans). If one just releases korean songs then one is limiting oneself to SK and the existing fanbase it's hard to get fans. How does one get new fans in? one option is to release an english song to hopefully become the next cupid or GS or even if it doesn't reach those heights convert some people into fans of your group

Ah, that's fair! What kind of music does she like? I don't mind listening to the radio on the drive, but the average pop song is kind of dreary and I appreciate kpop's energy.

HA! I used to be into BGs more in second gen, but the girls are definitely better these days. Currently, my faves are Dreamcatcher and (G)I-DLE as my perpetual top two, and then in no particular order, Everglow, NMIXX, Purple Kiss, and Xdinary Heroes for my the rest of my tops these days. (Sorry for the boys in XH!) And probably Yena and Rose for soloists! But if the artist has a large enough discography, I'm bound to like at least a few songs. I think that's what's kept me in kpop while my friend has mostly checked out: while I have my faves, I mostly enjoy the genre.

Yes, that's fair! I really liked I Do and the rest of the album was ... fine, lol. It doesn't top their others, but that's hard to do too. I kind of hope they are seeing enough western popularity that, when they tour next, they'll come close enough to me in the States that I won't have to spend two days, a hotel, and 12 hours in a car.

I did see that about IVE! I don't really know Saweetie, other than her being on one of Little Mix's songs (Confetti), and not in a critical way, but she has a much different vibe from IVE. I wonder how it'll work out. Hopefully it'll be good, and not one of the phoned in collabs that we've seen western artists agree to.

That's fair enough! Especially with things like FIFTY FIFTY saw with Cupid, just needing a single song to take off and pay off their debts. Or like T-ara who was saved from disbandment back in the day by their large Chinese fanbase. Not having to deal exclusively with the whims of a single market just makes sense.

my wife is also chinese so traditional chinese music/ost/chinese bands??? so for genre wise I guess she likes ballads

as I asked someone else today - how do you choose which groups you stan or favourite vs casual listener?
since like you I can like songs from any group

yeah unfortunately I wasn't much of a fan of I DO - I think I prefer their korean releases (or just soyeon knows what she's doing lol)

" I won't have to spend two days, a hotel, and 12 hours in a car. " holy shit - I'm pretty sure I know the answer but was it worth it?

and especially for GG it's a good thing to diversify oneself as an idol and as a group - whether that's western collabs or english songs or japanese songs or even non musical stuff like acting and variety shows and everything else in the entertainment industry to get one's name out there...
like Gidle with it's many diverse members from different countries - a person might see running man china and think they I like yuqi what else does she do and hey I like her songs and oh wow she's a kpop idol I'd give her a listen or a thai person sees minnie and becomes a fan that way - I'm sure there are neverlands who became neverlands through seeing soyeon in pd101 and maybe if/when miyeon's acting career takes off there will be people who see her and go wow she also sings?

Ah, that would be a bit different taste! I was wondering why she called your music noise music when some of your faves have never done anything that could be called that lol. Within the fandom that is!

I think it's a matter of what groups have members I find captivating, where I find that I'm interested in what they're up to and am motivated to check out their collabs or other activities (usually musical still; I don't really care that much about idols' acting or advertisement gigs). I have to really like their music first, but also like groups where I am interested in watching their MVs and performances. Like I really liked the I Want That MV, even though I think the song is below (G)I-DLE's standards. Versus, like, IVE. I've liked most of their title tracks, but I could not tell you a single thing about their members (I think there's six? pretty sure one of them is considered an it girl) and I never watched their most recent MVs for Baddie or Off the Record. Or like Itzy, where I can identify all the members and I broadly like their general style well enough, but I don't like their music consistently enough. So I need both. What makes you add a group to your faves list? I know you must check out new music, since LSFM wouldn't be there otherwise. So how'd they make the cut vs. some of the other new groups?

Ha, yes, I would ultimately say it was worth it! It was nice to take a trip solely for myself and something I wanted to do, and be surrounded by all the fans who were singing and dancing and genuinely happy to be there. Like there's a whole other energy to concerts that I really enjoy. But not being in a good locale for visitors does make it quite costly. I know some people who live in one of those cities that are always on tour lists, so they'll go see any group, where I have to reserve it only for my faves. Have you seen any group live? Would you want to?

Oh, that's fair!! I remember when Miyeon and Soyeon did the second LoL collab right before Hwaa came out and there were a ton of comments on the MV that people wanted to check out the group that was behind K/DA. Now that I think about it, (G)I-DLE was really built perfectly to have broad appeal. It's kind of impressive that they don't really have an akgae problem the way some groups who try for that same segmentation do.

I just think she means anything not ballads

well I liked izone prior to IVE and LSFM so because of wonyoung,yujin, sakura and chaewon were on my radar...and obviously I guess I have to like some/most of the group's songs as well in addition to the member's personality
it's hard for new groups to enter my list (I sound pompeous huh? lol) for the previous eight it was because of a connection to something prior...

BP - first kpop song I heard from them but in 2019 their discography (was and still is) "limited" lol
which meant I branched out and checked out other groups which included Twice and RV since they were similar
IOI was next but they had already disbanded
(I think those were literally the top 4 groups of the third gen???)
Itzy was next I think because of their connection to Twice and also Somi suppose to be in Itzy
then Gidle because of Soyeon and learning that she wrote basically everything which to this day is a rarity amongst GG - sure GG have members writing songs but only for bsides
and I think izone after that because of IOI (and through izone - IVE and LSFM)
and Aespa because of RV

I checked out nmix as a result of Itzy and Twice but I didn't like their songs so pass
I checked out BM as a result of BP and I liked the song - not sure about the members though so maybe in the future

but with eight active groups I find it hard enough to follow their content let alone finding another group to add to it I think 8 is a good number

what about you how did you come to stan/fav - DC? Gidle? EG? PK? Nmixx?

sounds great
nope no groups come to my nugu city lol
if they do they usually go East (like where Rosé comes from) whereas I'm from the West

you're absolutely right - KDA and LOL that was a huge collab and deal with Gidle - brought in so many new fans
I think for Gidle all the members are all chaotic enough and give each other "shit" that fans don't have to??? lol

It's so interesting reading your thought process! I can see how the groups are connected now. Thank you for sharing.

Let's see, for me:

Dreamcatcher - I was familiar with their first iteration as MINX and checked out DC's debut song because I could see they were talented, but MINX wasn't anything special. And rock was my preferred genre at the time, though these days I like the pop/rock cross-over more, so it extra works out... which probably explains Xdinary Heroes too. With DC, I loved that Dami could drop the aegyo and be the kind of icy rap queen. For XH, it was seeing their Strawberry Cake live and liking it more than the album. There aren't a lot of groups where I prefer their live shows more than the nice clean album version.

(G)I-DLE - I was just a casual listener originally, but as they released more tracks and showed they could nail basically anything, I was really impressed by their talents. And then Yuqi's A Page single album solidified my interest in them as individuals too. I think that was my most listened to album in 2021.

Everglow - I was pretty indifferent to their debut track (Bon Bon Chocolat), but as they released more songs and kept with that kind of cocky, aggressive sound and refined it, I really liked that approach. And then Mia always stands out so much in their MVs and that got me interested in them as members.

Purple Kiss - I liked Mamamoo originally (though as they released more songs, I found them more hit and miss), so I checked out PK. I like that they do the creepy/cute thing and Dosie is really stunning as a dancer and center. It's similar-ish to DC, but without the rock element, so they still have their own vibe.

NMIXX - Was an accident, lol. I didn't like O.O or Dice, BUT for some reason, I like messy Christmas songs. I don't like the "attempt to make a new classic" that artists try to release. So I loved Funky Glitter Christmas. And then there was a year-end show where different groups were supposed to do a dance cover of each other's songs, and seeing Kyujin just absolutely stand out among all those idols and then seeing that the O.O cover the other groups did avoided all the hard parts of the song, so I could appreciate their talents even if O.O wasn't it. And these days, their mixing is better, so there's less harsh changes in the mixpop approach; I really like Sonar and Run for Roses. Though, to be frank, Kyujin significantly carries my interest in the group as members; she got so much shit when Jini left, but every time they perform, she's always giving everything, even when the camera isn't centered on her. I would definitely follow her if she became a soloist.

Now that I look at it, most of these groups are "they snuck up on me" lol.

Ah, so it would be even harder for you! Like it's expensive for me, but I could make it. It's not a "fly across the country" thing.

Ha, that's fair!! Like half of (G)I-DLE's content is them causing trouble lol. But that's what makes them great too, that they are obviously very comfortable with each other. On that note, did you like K/DA? In a way, I consider that group an extension of (G)I-DLE so I do. Though I could see how the non-(G)I-DLE peeps' fans might not agree with that categorization lol.