Thread by @p8stie

THE REASON WHY K-POP IS FOR LOSERS: a thread

Before visiting Seoul, I thought K-pop was some niche music genre enjoyed by a few weird girls I went to high school with.

I could not have been more wrong.

K-pop is a deeply flawed, hierarchical, and sinister worldwide industry/SCHEME worth BILLIONS of dollars... read on

First of all, the entire K- pop industry is just a Korean RIPOFF of western music from the early 2000s. There is NOTHING creative or different about it, besides that it’s in Korean

Everything from dances to music is a modified version of 90s stuff like NSYNC or the Spice Girls

K-Pop gets away with this insane copying legally by doing something called MUSICAL INTERPOLATION- where corporate songwriters STEAL most notes of a melody but change just 1-2 beats so that it sounds different enough to not get sued.

And it’s not just one song, it’s ALL of them

Just as an example, in Pink Venom by Blackpink, we hear

-Get Money by B.I.G
- Pon De Replay by Rihanna
-Kick in the Door by Biggie Smalls
-Talk Dirty to Me by Jason Derulo
-Pimp by 50 Cent

All that stealing in just in ONE SONG? Listen 4 urself

The music, however, is not the only thing about K-Pop that was made in a laboratory

Everything fans have access to is the result of corporate production aimed to keep people hooked and make MONEY

The starts are NOT artists, they're actors, and their EVERY move is a show

One of the major issues for the K-pop stars, besides their lack of artistic freedom, is that many performers are signed to extreme and exploitative slave contracts that can put them at the mercy of record labels for up to 20 years.

Many times, the idols contracts are so INVASIVE as to prohibit them either by contract or by company rules from "smoking, drinking, doing drugs, clubbing, gaining weight, engaging in political discourse, taking breaks from performance schedules, living anywhere other than in… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

One of the only notable differences between western music and K-pop, besides obviously the language and clothing, is the strong presence of Korean beauty standards which are radically different from what I personally am used to.

In contrast to what we see in western pop, there is very little overt sexuality

The men are beautiful, clean, never aggressive, and wear makeup

The women are childish and demure. They wear clothes no skimpier than I would wear out 2 a party

Both genders are SLIM and PALE

And don't get me started on the plastic surgery. Almost all stars, men and women have it.

Most have been through an unbelievably painful procedure in which the jaw is broken and shaved into a V-shape. This is intended to make them look more like an anime character.

The craziest thing about all this is that the fandom is JUST as wrapped around the industry's finger as the stars.

On twitter & online in general, K-pop fans are obsessed. Entire websites and accounts with thousands of followers are dedicated to bands and stars

If someone speaks out against the industry or the fans, the K-pop fans are known for aggressively harassing, arguing, and doxxing. The k-pop culture revolves around keeping the names of the stars clean and unblemished.

The fans are the K-pop industry's PERFECT instruments

How did the fans get that way? Well, the industry manufactures the fans experience with k pop to be maximally parasocial. There are many ways for fans to connect with stars... It’s a simulated relationship, fans don’t just worship from afar, they take an active role..

Fans want their idol to be more famous, they run promotional campaigns for them, they organize charity drives, and pay for billboards.

Fandom websites compete for market dominance by trying to further organize and motivate all these fans into a cohesive mass on social media