I know it's very overwhelming to actually get into the world of K-Pop and it took me quite some time until I was finally able to find sources on where to watch videos, where to get news etc. There are a few options for everyone who doesn't speak and write Korean fluently. My Korean is very basic, I still need subtitles to understand everything so going on Naver or any other Korean site isn't for me (yet). Because I want to help everyone who is new to K-Pop or who's just pretty clueless to get access to everything easily. This is by no means a complete list of all available sources, just some recommendations. 1. Blogs The first (and sometimes quite tricky) option is to stay updated via blogs online. Such as this one. Just kidding, I'm really bad at staying up to date because it takes a lot of time and effort and I'm really freaking lazy. So sorry for that. Some of the best blogs regarding K-Pop are Soompi and allkpop. Another one is KpopStarz. For all German speaking K-Pop fans who might want to read news in German, I would recommend KPOPmagazin. 2. Tumblr
3. Official Websites Either the bands have seperate websites or the company in general has one. They are mostly available in English and even if they're not, you can manage to find your way. You can get the official teaser photos and videos etc on the websites and a lot of time, a schedule for the band's appearances is available as well. Try googling the company or band name + official website. If the artists have extra websites, they are linked on the company site! (e.g. SM or JYP) 4. Twitter You can either check the official Twitter accounts from bands / members / companies or you check fan Twitters. For photos, I recommend going onto Tumblr and using the links on posts. All Tumblr blogs (usually) link back the account where they got the pictures from and it's mostly Twitter accounts. A lot of the Twitter accounts who post pictures of idols are run by Koreans, thus they tweet in Korean. But fear not! Twitter has a simple translate function and even though it's never grammatically correct or anything, it's enough to understand what's going on. Plus, you find the pictures without reading any of the Tweets. Make sure to link back the accounts, should you post the pictures somewhere on the internet! Also, some pictures can be edited while others forbid to do so. 5. Youtube The problem with Youtube is pretty obvious, you can only see MVs and teasers and don't get to know anything else. A few K-Pop Idols have Youtube channels and sometimes post vlog-type videos. There are BTS, BtoB's Peniel (POV) and f(x)'s Amber (WhatThePineapple!). I recommend checking the official Youtube channels from bands to see if they have vlogs up or generally do stuff like that. I know BtoB does it (or did). Also, there is the show After School Club - you can watch the full episodes (or clips) on Youtube and it's in English. The hosts of the show are native English speaking idols. Eric Nam used to do it for a long time but he recently did his last episode. Now there are U-Kiss's Kevin, 15&'s Jimin and Day6's Jae. 6. Variety Shows This is what initially got me obsessed with K-Pop. It's not only about the music but about the people in the bands as well. And believe me, as soon as you watch your idols on a variety show, you will be lost. Now, of course, the shows are in Korean. You mostly have to wait around a day for the episode to be subbed. You can watch most shows (also dramas) subbed on dramacool or kshowonline (variety shows only). Variety shows I can recommend are Infinity Challenge and Running Man. 7. Apps There are basically two apps I would recommend for fans to start using. First, LINE. It's a messenger and even if you don't have anyone to chat with, you can add official accounts of your favorite bands and get notified about birthdays, new releases, MVs, appearances and you get photos from shoots. There is also a version for your computer, so you can use it on your computer and on your phone. Second and more importantly, I definitely recommend everyone to get the V App. It's kind of like Youtube but only K-Pop and there are broadcasts and you can watch the MVs on it, the countdown to a comeback are broadcasted live on the app etc. You should see for yourself.
You sometimes have to wait for subtitles (mostly) but you can always re-watch videos as often as you like. There is also an online version (V LIVE) where you can watch all contents on your computer.
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Haven't posted on my "main" blog page in two months. Shame on me, sorry. I'm also sorry to myself because this post will mess up the order on this blog. But still, I want to just write for once and not follow my own rules for every post type etc. So, a little life update from me: Everything I have to do to go to China is keeping me quite busy and when I'm not, I mostly watch TV (I recently got addicted to Pretty Little Liars), read books or listen to music (at the moment quite a lot of not K-Pop like Panic! at the Disco, Selena Gomez, Twenty One Pilots and Pentatonix because I went to their concert last weekend and I had a blast and I kind of got obsessed with their music again). So I haven't really payed all that much attention to the K-Pop world for like two weeks and I'm kind of out of it. I don't know why though... I'll get back into it sometime, don't worry. (I might be talking to myself there.) Good thing the EXO comeback happened because now I'm listening to the new album on repeat but more on that later. Keeping this blog with all the comebacks that are happening is a lot of work and sometimes I just don't feel motivated to do a post or something. And because I am alone managing this blog, it doesn't get done at all. When I'm in China starting August of this year (don't know the date yet!) this blog will be on hiatus until I get back. Which makes me kind of sad... But I'll try to pick up on it when I'm back. The thing is though, I will be going to univeristy after my year abroad and I have no idea how much time I'll have then. But I'll keep this blog and write some posts now and then. Now... The EXO comeback... When I saw the news about the comeback, I was so freaking excited and just couldn't deal with it for some time. I didn't look at any teasers or anything and I put off watching the MVs for the entire day today because I don't even know why. I finally watched them tonight and I was awestruck and a little flashed. I forgot how much I love EXO... Especially Chanyeol and Baekhyun, those two just killed me... Can we talk about HOW FREAKING GOOD CHANYEOL LOOKS WITH RED HAIR?!?! And Monster is such a dope song! I'm not that into Lucky One but it's a nice song, too. I listened to the entire album of course and I have to say that Heaven is probably my favorite song out of all. Chanyeol singing just gets me exactly there - heaven. (What a bad pun, if it even was one...) Also Baekhyun singing the chorus just... *le sigh* And if I hear correctly, Sehun also has quite some lines and I'm in freaking love with it. Perfect song. (I need a bigger SD card, I don't have enough space for all the music I need on my MP3 player...) And now, I will spam you with some photos of my two biases. You can't look at these pictures and say they're not hot. They're literally everything. Heaven. Bonus: baby maknae. INFO
I will post the comeback summaries for the U-Kiss and the EXO comeback and whatever else will be missing as soon as I can manage! I will eventually, promise. |
AlinaI'm a 20 years old from Germany. I am studying Asian Studies and Korean at university and I fell in love with Korean music, television and culture (also the food) a few years ago Go to the NAVIGATION page to find the categories & an overview of companies / groups / members.
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November 2018
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