I believe J-pop is better than K-pop. There are a few reasons why I think K-pop is worse than J-pop. Both K-pop and J-pop are extremely popular music genres. Each also focuses on different things. K-pop focuses on perfecting their idols, going global, and having synchronized and high production dances. J-pop focuses on supporting their idols by helping them grow, mainly targeting Japan as their audience, focusing on catchy tunes, and also individual vocal shine. These qualities make them absolutely loved by various people including myself. But there are a few concerns regarding K-pop.
Concern 1
There is a certain concern that I have with K-pop and it’s one of the few reasons why I like J-pop more. That concern is the way K-pop idols are treated. The way they are treated absolutely disgusts me. The entertainment industries they work for treat them as profit like they’re objects. They are put up against strict rules and very extreme beauty standards. For example when Stray Kids member Felix had to go on a “water diet” for 4 days in order to be ready for a fashion show . The heavy pressure they face from their industries often causes them to develop mental health issues, experience burnout, and sometimes in the worst case possible causes suicide. Yes, J-pop idols also experience similar issues like dating bans, financial exploitation, and strict social media rules. These rules also give J-pop a bad look. But there is another concern I have with K-pop: the fans.
Concern 2
Being fans of your favorite idol is completely alright. I don’t find a problem with it. But it’s certain K-pop fans that disturb me. For example, like that one time a crazy fan broke into a K-pop star Jungkook’s own home. This report from the BBC shows the disturbing side of K-pop fans. Fans breaking into idols homes that’s just plain disturbing absolutely no way to excuse that type of behavior. Fans support idols and help them grow. Well that’s what they’re supposed to do, just support and nothing else. But sometimes they can be the root of the problem. Fans can increase the pressure on the idol, which as said in the previous section can cause mental health issues. Sometimes fans of K-pop claim to “care” about their idols but when very concerning issues appear (as stated in the first section) they sometimes choose to ignore those issues. The fact that they ignore these issues really disturbed me. It seems to me they care more about the idols’ songs instead of the idols’ well-being. Yes, some J-pop fans do also care more about the idols’ songs instead of the idols’ well-being, but those types of fans are mostly seen in K-pop and very rarely seen in J-pop.
Question?
How did you hear about K-pop or J-pop? I was asked this question before. The answer to this question is one of my main reasons as to why I decided to write this article. My response to this question was “I only heard about K-pop, since I hear their idols get mistreated and exploited.” My own answer really alarmed me, since people mostly hear good things about music genres. It’s just the fact that the mistreatment of idols was the way I heard about K-pop seriously alarmed me, so as a J-pop fan it caused me to dislike K-pop. I’ve only heard good things about J-pop, hardly anything bad about it.
Conclusions
If you still believe that K-pop is better than J-pop after reading this whole article. Well it’s fine it’s ok to have a different opinion, but I can’t listen to or enjoy a music genre knowing that the idols are mistreated by fans and the entertainment industries they work for. To me it just feels wrong to listen to K-pop. Well then thanks for reading this article. J-pop all the way!
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