What kind of fan are you? According to a Korean media outlet, the characteristics and culture are often observed in a K-pop fandom. In an article written by The JoongAng, the Korean media outlet cited K-pop fandom's culture as one of the factors for the industry's growth globally.

Collective Culture: K-pop Fandom's 'Fan Chants,' Lightsticks

ALSO READ: K-pop Fandoms And The Beautiful Meaning Behind Their Names

The first feature of K-pop fandoms is the concert attendees who somehow became a part of the group's performance as well.

Usually, these are the fans who sing along through "fan chants," also known as "group cheer."

Another culture you can see inside the concerts is fans who bring lightsticks and balloons that symbolize their fandom colors. Through this, fans feel more connected to their favorite groups and co-fans.

Streaming Culture: K-pop Fans Stream MVs and Songs to Help Favorite Group Chart High

The second characteristic observed in K-pop fandom is that fans encourage each other to stream to make their favorite singer top the local and international charts.

"When the artist's comeback time approaches, K-fandom systematically moves and starts streaming. "

There are three types of streamers: (1) the one who stream on music sites to increase the ranking of the singer's songs after purchasing streaming sites; (2) there are also MV streamers who watch the artist's music videos on YouTube to increase the number of views and (3) the mix of the two aforementioned.

Most of the time, Korean fans also help global fans access music sites exclusive to Korea by lending IDs or accounts.

Album Bulk Buying Culture: K-pop Fandoms' Fansign, Photocard Collectors

Another characteristic of fandoms is album bulk buying, where fans buy several albums simultaneously. One of the reasons is to increase the sales of a group, an indicator of a release's success. Another reason is to increase the chance of a fan to enter fan signing events held by the company or of a K-pop merch online market.

Under this is an emerging culture called "탑꾸" (tab-kku), where fans collect album photo cards, put them inside top loaders, and decorate them. In context, pc/poca are small versions of postcards where selfies of idols were printed. In K-pop's BNS community, the rarer the pc, the more expensive it is.

K-pop Worldview, Terms Used by Fans

The culture of interpreting the artist's worldview is also exclusive to K-pop.

As if enjoying the Marvel Universe, fans constantly communicate with each other by sharing their interpretations of the overlapping worldviews of their favorite groups.

Lastly, there is also a derivative effect of cultural exports; global fans started terms exclusive to K-pop such as "maknae," "age-line," "SBN (sunbaenim)," and more. Those international fans who also learned Korean languages and culture are also part of this group.

"Just as Korean parents naturally learned English and Western culture through pop songs and foreign movies in the past, there are many foreigners who fell in love with K-pop and studied Korean."

READ MORE: 7+ K-pop Terms & Meanings New Fans Probably Don't Know: Stan, ULT, More!

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Written by Eunice Dawson