How I Became a K-poper

It was summer 2008, I was only a 19 years old clueless second year student of an university. I was in the car of Aru, one of my besties back in the university days, there were also with us, Aderu, Shanshan, Myonk, and Mermer, we were singing along of Big Bang's song titles "Lies", crumpled in Aru's tiny 2007 car. That was how, I became indulged in kpop, that was how, I became the die hard fan of Big Bang (even though now I no longer their fan anymore).

The person that really made me into kpop actually was Aderu, she introduced me to their songs, and vocally admitted she loved GD (the leader of the group), I was not really into Kpop at that moment to be honest, even though Aderu kept talking and promoting about Big Bang almost every day. Aderu also introduced me into another Korean variety show which called Family Outing (which I will elaborate later in another story), in Family Outing I knew for the first time, this young, bright smile, and cheerful boy called Daesung. Daesung was the youngest among 8 regular members of Family Outing. Though he was the youngest, but he maintained his position as one of the strong and popular one in that variety show, he also had lots of funny moments that cracked me up while watching him there. I was not aware that Daesung actually a part of a boygroup member until Aderu start mentioned it.

Though Daesung is the least appealing compared to other Big Bang's member, but he has a husk, broad, and golden voice, made him as the main and lead vocal of Big Bang. But it was no Daesung from Big Bang that captured my heart for the first time, it was the Daesung from the Family Outing that made me fell in love to him, that made me even more serious following the up dates of Big Bang, and eventually I became the fan of BigBang. XD

Back in the days, BigBang was not as big as what they are now, they were quite famous, but such term like VIP (a name given for BigBang's fans) had not found yet. Things like their signature lightstick (you know, that glowing stick you usually bring to the concert) which is shaped like a yellow crown, had not existed yet. Their songs actually did not really impress me at the first time I listened to it, but as time goes by, it grew in me, and I started to hum or sing the songs without realized it, and compare to other boygroup or girlgroups at that time, their songs are much better (according to my taste of music of course).

That was how the beginning I became the Kpoper. Not long after that, BigBang became more and more famous, more fans, more songs, more promotion, the beginning of VIP and their signature of lightstick, I was overwhelmed by their popularity, then I quitted. I mean I still listening to their music to these days, but I just no longer talk and promoting their music in my social medias platform (like I used to do XD) and no longer following their updates as much as before. I do not know why, but I think it just my thing to not longer support an-already-famous-and-popular boygroup/ band. I used to fangirling them because they were came from a "different" company which focusing on talented individual rather than their physical appearance to become an idol; they also wrote, composed their own songs, hence I fell in love to this whole package boygroup from South Korea.

Years after I no longer fangirling over BigBang, I started to fangirling other boygroups even girlgroups, the Kpop songs also became more and more familiar to my liking. There were many other groups that I am following up to now, but I am no longer that hardcore fan like I used to be. As I grow old, the generation of the kpop idols also changed, more young idols which created age gap with me. Nowadays, in my 30s age, I just following the general updates of the Kpop idols through Kpop news on website portals. I do not have much interests toward younger idols, but sometimes when the released good songs, I will still listen to their songs. However, BigBang will always special place in my heart as the first boygroup that introduced me to Kpop. It has been almost 12 years now, and I hope they will still thrive and do lots better and produce great musics in the future. :)

-Ratri Kelana- UK, 2021