In February 2021, I was doing my daily doomscrolling for the day on TikTok. I came upon an advertisement promoting a song called “Don’t Call Me” by SHINee. Little did I know that this advertisement would change my life forever.

Maybe I’m being dramatic, but either way, K-pop is now one of my favorite music genres. It does have its downsides, as most things do, from the cost of buying albums to over-the-top fans who sometimes act more like stalkers. 

Some claim they have never listened to K-pop, but I can assure you that everyone has listened to at least one K-pop song in their life. “Gangnam Style” by PSY was a smash hit in 2012, and many people don’t realize that it’s K-pop. BTS also had a few songs that were on repeat on the radio for a while, including “Dynamite” in 2020 and “Butter” in 2021. Both of those songs are in English, so it helped them grow their Western fanbase.

Since then, I’ve discovered that music isn’t about being able to understand all the lyrics; it’s about appreciating the music. A lot of K-pop groups experiment with their sound — NCT 127 has a song called “Sticker” that was considered experimental, but also controversial because of the random flute sound the track contained.

Some of K-pop’s producers come from the United States. One of the main producers on “Sticker” is Dwayne Allen Abernathy Jr. — his producer name is Dem Jointz — a three-time Grammy-nominated American musician and music producer. He has worked with plenty of big names like Rihanna, Janet Jackson, Anderson .Paak, Eminem and Snoop Dog.

Yang Hwan Choi, an adjunct professor at DePaul who teaches a class called “K-pop & Its Global Cultural Influence,” said that K-pop “continually refines and diversifies its stylistic palette.”

“K-pop’s trajectory has not been one of mere replication,” Choi said. “The early incorporation of what were then considered peripheral genres — such as reggae, Latin music and (electronic dance music) — into its core repertoire has been a significant catalyst for its inherent diversity and ongoing evolution.”

I met my best friend, Camila, at a K-pop concert in 2023. I went to see P1Harmony by myself and heard Camila and her sibling talking about how messed up the line was. I decided to chime in, and we hit it off and started talking all things K-pop. A little over two years later, Camila and I go to concerts together and have even talked about things that aren’t related to K-pop.

I even met my roommate, Diana, through K-pop. The summer before my freshman year of college, I posted a K-pop song on my Instagram story and Diana slid up and said how she loves K-pop. We now have lived together for the past two years and we have little K-pop photos sitting by our TV in the living room. 

While K-pop is still one of my favorite music genres, it comes with its costs — both literally and figuratively.

Nora Sichak, a DePaul junior who has been a fan of K-pop for five years, agrees there’s “a monetary cost” to liking K-pop, “even if it’s technically by choice.”

“There is so much to buy — things like merch, albums, photocards and concert tickets. Groups really push selling it to make money,” Sichak said. “There’s also a fan culture around buying it, so you can feel really pressured into spending money.”

You may be thinking, Western artists do the same exact thing, right? Well, not exactly. 

K-pop albums come with “photocards,” which contain a photo of the K-pop idol’s face on a piece of thick paper material. Depending on the group, there’s a chance you get a certain member. For example, with NCT 127, you get a one in eight chance of getting your favorite member.

Some fans buy dozens of albums and hope to get their favorite member — but this also causes waste because they often throw away the extra albums. Albums can be anywhere from $16 to $40, so doing that can put a lot of fans into debt.

While collecting photocards and albums can be fun, it can feel like you have wasted all your money when the group or member gets cancelled. 

On April 7, a group named Kiss of Life was celebrating a member’s 25th birthday. They said the theme was based on “old-school hip-hop” — they wore accessories and hairstyles that are usually associated to Black culture, like gold chains, cornrows and Bantu knots. 

Many fans called them out for their behavior, and Kiss of Life came out with an apology letter. The group consists of international members, including two who were born in the United States. Fans thought their apology seemed fake, with some even thinking it was AI-generated. 

K-pop idols also deal with issues on their end. A group called NCT Dream has a member named Ji-sung Park, who’s my age, 23. He signed with SM Entertainment in 2013 at 11 years old and officially debuted in NCT Dream in August 2016 at age 14.

I barely knew what I wanted to do in life when I was 14 years old, so I cannot imagine getting into the swing of K-pop idol life when you’re not even halfway through your teens.

Another big cost of K-pop idol life is being in the spotlight, but it’s not as enticing as it seems.

For example, they sometimes have to deal with “sasaengs,” translating to “crazed fan” or “stalkers” in English.

Jeno Lee, another member of NCT Dream, got 20 calls from a sasaeng during a livestream with his fellow group mates in 2020. He tried to ignore it, but his group mate Huang Renjun took matters into his own hands; he answered the call and told the sasaeng to stop calling Lee.

I could keep on going because I know I am missing hundreds of other things, both good and bad. But I fear I am on a word limit and I’m already over 800 words… oops!

In short, I was intrigued to learn more about K-pop and now I’ve broadened my musical taste. Don’t be shy about listening to a music genre in a different language — you never know, it could turn into a music genre you love!

Related Stories:

• DeJamz: KPOP!
• From Seoul to Chicago: How K-Pop has made its home at DePaul
• K-pop is redefining music marketing in the U.S.