How to Cover K-pop Fandom With the Seriousness It Deserves
People want to understand K-pop stans after their contributions to the Black Lives Matter movement. The first rule: They are not a monolith.
On Monday, the Korean boy group Tomorrow X Together (TXT) was interviewed by Good Day New York anchor Rosanna Scotto about their upcoming performance at the KCON:TACT festival. Toward the end of the exchange, Scotto posed a question that seemed to catch them off guard:
“Do you know anything about that whole movement of TikTok users and K-pop fans getting tickets to President Trump’s rally and then not showing up?” she asked.
After the five members of TXT traded wide-eyed, befuddled glances, one of the bandmates, Yeonjun, responded diplomatically in his non-native English: “Yeah, we don’t know anything. We’re just preparing for KCON:TACT, and, yeah, we were practicing.”
Scotto was quickly criticized by fans and concerned onlookers for asking a group of young musicians to answer for a larger political moment in which they were not involved. But her question represents part of a massive issue, one in which mainstream media has by and large overlooked the realities of K-pop and stan Twitter and now appears ill-equipped to address or report on…
