Madness of a Korean Disposition

Seats were lined up all the way down the beach. Luckily,
Ashley and I got special seats reserved for foreigners.

On Friday I went to my third concert of all time and my first ever K-Pop concert.

Some crazy guy trying to hit on Ashley bought us glow
sticks. Seemed pretty cool until his favourite bands came
on stage: then he screamed like a little girl. We were almost
too terrified to wave our glow sticks. Almost.

K-Pop is madness. But it’s the kind of madness I can get behind: systematic, addicting, and exceedingly well-dressed. And there’s dancing. Lots of it. If V is right and a revolution without dancing is not worth having, than I suggest we begin said revolution in South Korea and invite Taemin, Minho, and the rest of Shinee.

And Big Bang.

And maybe 2PM.

They’re prominent (advertisements, dramas, movies), they’re pretty, and best of all, they’re prolific. For a book nerd who spent all of her childhood saying goodbye to characters she loved for three books (four, if she was lucky), this is a dream come true.

Guys dancing in suits will never get old.

In fact, K-Pop is an entire culture devoted to what teenage girls want. And unlike in America, it’s not degraded. The majority of Americans groan when they see a Justin Bieber poster and pretend to puke if Twilight is mentioned at all. But in Korea, much of society revels in these staples of girl world rather than ridicules them. The boys in my classes are just as likely to have seen the dramas, gone to the concerts, and memorized at least one k-pop dance by heart as the girls are.

Even more bizarre is how for once it’s not the women who are being ogled, but the men. Of course, there are girls’ groups, too, and they are very popular. But we have those in the States. What we don’t have are billion-dollar companies devoted to making groups of five boy/men look beautiful. Whole lines of clothing are devoted to bands, and each member of the band has to have his own “look,” his own “angle.”

Couple of fangirls bundled up on a crowded Gwangali Beach
to watch some K-Pop. Free outdoor concerts are awesome.

I ogle.

Mostly, I like anything that feeds my inner fangirl. I don’t know why that part of me exists, but I can’t deny that my heart didn’t squee! when I realized just how many Korean dramas and K-Pop bands there are. It’s like that moment when you read the first page of an five-book series, or you watch the very first episode of The West Wing, knowing there are still seven whole seasons left to go.

It’s not something that will stop me from reading my books or writing my stories or playing soccer, but K-Pop is a delicious way for me to indulge in a little madness.

My new favourite group:

The one with the bizarro green thing on/around his head? Wicked good dancer. How do I know?
Maybe because I've watched this video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovztfpWPo5M]
 a hundred times.