Welcome to About Kpop, a series where I introduce a number of different kpop related ideas, terms, and systems, and explain them in a way where a new fan, or maybe an entirely new kpop listener can understand them easily. In today’s article I’m going to explain the idea of biases, and I’ll follow up with a pair of articles across the next two days talking about my own group and individual biases.
I do want to note that I have written this article 4 times, and I have been unhappy with it every time personally, it never quite works the way I want it to, and the topic is so complex that I just can’t really get it to be simple without being too simple, or complex without being too complex. So this is just the draft I’m finally deciding to go with, and I really am not confident that this article truly reflects the quality of work that I think this website deserves, but I do think it’s important for the next two articles I want to write, so I need to have it done. This is also why I didn’t post last week, as I just repeatedly failed to write an article I thought was worthy. I do hope I am wrong about this article and that you find it to be an interesting and educational read, but just know that if you really don’t think it works, that I have struggled mightily with the topic and just don’t know how to do it justice at the current time, and I may revisit it again when I have more experience as a writer in this format, because I do want to do it justice.
Let’s start with defining the idea in a general sense. So what is a bias? This is really a very simple concept, a bias is your favorite in a category, your favorite group, your favorite member, your favorite idol across all groups, or whatever constraint you want to use. You may see some people say that they are dual or multi biased, which just means they have more than one group or idol that they mark as their favorites. Another term you may see is ult, or ultimate bias, for most multi biases, they have one bias that stands above the rest, their ult, but some people also use ult to designate their cross group bias as well. You will also often see the term “stan” which is a reference to the Eminem song of the same name, where he reads letters from a crazy fan who is so engaged in Eminem’s music and life that he does horrible things claiming it’s out of love for his favorite artist, I do not support the use of this term, as I think connotations are far too extreme when bias is perfectly serviceable.
So, that’s pretty simple, that’s all there is to it, right? Yes and no. Yes it is in the simple sense, but no, because kpop fans care a lot about their biases, this is an extremely engaged form of music, and media in general. I think the idea of being a big fan of an artist or band in a lot of western cultures does accurately show what it looks like to hold a bias in kpop, partly because kpop, while being a music genre, is more of a cross media experience. The closest thing in the west to this concept is the nerdy super fan, one who is so engaged in what they love that it becomes less of a hobby and more of a lifestyle, or in the extreme sense, the “stan” idea that I introduced before. I will add that some people do bias just like they would fan over western artists, just enjoying the music and/or the music videos, I do not want to gatekeep people from calling themselves biases of their favorite artists, everybody can bias in their own way. I’m primarily looking at entrenched kpop fans, who have started consuming media beyond the music.
Often, when a fan biases a group or idol, they will start to engage in that artist in more ways than just enjoying the music and music videos, and even watching a variety show with a group in it does not necessarily mean that somebody biases that group, although usually it does start leaning that way. A fan will watch the live streams their artist puts out, they will buy and trade in order to get their photocards, or at least really actively wish for their favorite’s photocards when they do open up a new album. Speaking of albums, a fan is likely to buy a fair amount of albums from their favorite artist, and maybe buy into the fanclub, as well as buy their light stick, or non-album photobooks if their group produces them. They will also tend to seek out communities of like minded people beyond the general kpop communities, ones that follow their bias group, or bias idols.
Before moving on to the last part of this article I do want to summarize what I typically imagine somebody who calls a group or idol their bias, such as somebody might do in the comment section of a kpop video. I imagine that they enjoy the artist’s music for the most part, probably watch a decent amount of the non-music content that the artist puts out, variety show appearances, maybe even their dramas if they are an actor or actress. I imagine that they probably buy an album or two from them at least, although money is a factor to this, so never judge people buy this metric because it’s entirely unfair to do so. I also imagine that they might go to seek out the artist’s livestreams, watch their music show performances, and hope to go to a concert for that artist if they come to their area. This is my general picture, although, again, some people are just happy to listen to their bias’s music, and watch their music videos, and that’s totally okay too, I just find that on average, when somebody has a bias they go a little deeper, even if it’s just watching compilation videos occasionally.
So the last thing I want to look towards is the dark side of biasing, which is more or less the dark side of fandoms in general. Idols have a constant eye of scrutiny, including from people that hold them up as their biases, and will come under flak for any amount of drama or controversy, including doing something so scandalous as dating somebody. That’s right, in the kpop ecosystem dating is oftentimes poorly received, because the fans see the idol as belonging to them, which sounds extreme, but dating scandals are the most common trouble you see an artist get into. Fan wars are also extremely common in the kpop sphere, although, thankfully, they have become much less common in my 8 years as a fan. That said, antis, a term for anti-fans, or haters, often choose to manifest their love for their favorite artist as hate for competitors, and this is easily seen with popular groups like Twice, who have a legendary amount of haters called Thrice, a parody of their real fandom called Once. This is often fueled by jealousy, as they perceive other groups having more popularity than their own as undeserving, and unfairly at the top. They actually may be right in some cases, the system isn’t necessarily fair, and depending on what metric you think is valuable you can easily say some groups do or don’t deserve more popularity. That said, you can easily look at the metrics in a way that shows the opposite is true too, so instead of hating other groups, just support your own, it’ll make life more fun for you and other fans. Some crazier fans have even gone so far as to try stalking their favorite idols, finding their homes, their phone numbers, and even getting plane seats near them, this is entirely uncool, and in my opinion goes beyond having a bias and being a fan and just is stalking, don’t be this way.
So that’s all you need to know about kpop biases, it’s a very simple concept, and although I do think there are things that tend to mark a fan who has a bias, it truly does look different for every fan. This isn’t a guide on how to bias, just what traits often look like for a fan who has bias, so do it whatever way you want, just don’t go to the dark side, there’s a reason that paragraph is huge, it is one of the worst things in kpop, hate does not show love, and all kpop fans are in it together, and the groups tend to all like each other well enough behind the scenes, so don’t do things in their name that don’t represent them well. Check in over the next two days for articles talking about my biases, and I’ll talk a bit about what I do in regards to the groups and idols I bias, so you can see a range of the traits I’ve talked about in this article.
