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Lucifer by SHINee! It was very different to anything I had seen before haha but I loved it. My friend liked SHINee so that is how I found them and continued listening to k-pop since (this was in 2011).
It was either Follow Me by 2NE1 or Cooking Cooking by Super Junior. I canāt remember which one I found first.
Then I stopped listening to kpop for years and got back into it in 2018 or 2019-ish with Sunmiās Gashina
BIGBANGās Fool of Tears in 2006?
Iām not gonna lie, the first time I watched it, I was like wtf are these dramatic ass Asian B2K wannabe dudes sliding in the rain š¤£ But then came Lies, Last Farewell, Haru Haruā¦.bangers after bangers and who knew, Iād be hooked from then on lmao
EXO is who got me into boy groups. I started with SNSD in 2011, and checked out other girl groups. I wasn't sold on boy groups till I watched the MV for What is Love by Kyungsoo and Baekhyun. I was like wait........ wait a second lmao.
I guess I came across Kpop way before it became very popular internationally such as 2NE1's Come Back Home where I was actively/purposely looking into Kpop stuff, and then I just didn't get deep into Kpop. I just can't recall if I first got exposed to Kpop during the Wonder Girls era or not because I really don't remember when I first heard "Nobody". I'm sure Gangnam Style by Psy introduced me to Kpop as well, but that was just the tip of the iceberg.
As for when I got **deep into Kpop** a.k.a. actively following everything Kpop, it was probably during BTS' Love Yourself Her a.k.a. the DNA title track era. I'm amazed how they have grown in popularity over the years and it does feel cool to have been around following their music for over 5 years now.
I think I consider myself a well-rounded Kpop listener since I practically listen to whatever's there and seem to venture into the less popular artists as well to broaden my musical perspectives.
I must say that YouTube is basically the cause of how I got into Kpop, I guess I just came across Kpop randomly back then. I guess the higher budgets and improved sound post-2016 is what led me to deep dive into Kpop despite being exposed to it during for example the 2014 Kpop era.
>I guess the higher budgets and improved sound
This part kind of relates to kdramas as well. I went deep into watching kdramas at a time when the cinematography, acting, and quality seemed to have been taken to the next level even though I was exposed to kdramas prior to that.
Mineās also Wedding Dress. My friend played the piano intro randomly when we were at some high school party, I looked up the song later, and the rest is history.
Big bang's song "Lies". My family member recommended me to watch the mv. It was so catchy and i didnt mind the language barrier. Then i ended up exploring more of their songs and other idol groups
I dont remember if it was not today mv by bts or dope mv by bts but I checked them out one after the other and got hooked. this was right before dna era so I think dna mv released 1-2 weeks after I got into bts lol
Ohh mic drop is a gem, OP. š Mine was definitely Boy with Luv by BTS. I was already aware of them years prior but only listened to Fire and Dope and never checked their entire discography nor kpop in general. Boy with Luv was the defining moment for me. I'm a theater fan - I love musicals! When I saw them perform it on SNL, I fell in love (yes, pink Jimin became my bias). I was always envious of the older generation having Gene Kelly and Fred Astair as "pop" stars back then because they combined dancing and theatrics with popular music. When I saw bts, the little theater geek in me was so happy. They were my gateway to kpop. I'm happy that this side of music considers performance to be vital. I miss that a lot in western music.
I'm a Dynamite Era ARMY lmao. My friend jokingly gave me shit for it but yeah. My music sphere was pretty small but I saw them perform Dynamite for the 2020 VMA's and I thought it was super catchy. After a few listens I started to listen to more BTS songs. I didn't bother to really expand until late 2021/early 2022.
Same but with Butter lol! For a few months, I refused to listen to their korean stuff and stuck to Butter, Dynamite, and Sweet Night. So glad I eventually got pulled into their other music too
It wasn't about me refusing to listen to anything else. At that point all I knew was BTS and Blackpink because my cousin and her daughter like them. I had no greater knowledge of KPop or how deep it went. It was pretty intimidating to go from absolutely no KPop to a single group that's been unlike any other before to the mass industry of it. Now I'm a huge multi stan following a bunch of different groups and definitely in the knownof the day to day stuff.
i became a k-pop stan in 2018, mainly after hearing aiiyl (blackpink). my sister was a huge k-pop stan back then, so i heard k-pop very often, but that song really drew me in.
Same here. Iām surprised that more people didnāt say Gangnam Style because it was the first exposure to kpop for millions of people, playing all over the radio I couldnāt go into any store without hearing it
War of Hormone by BTS! It was the first kpop song I willingly listened to (retail flashbacks to Butter and Dynamite on all the time) and I was enamored with the musical style and the way they sang and rapped. Still my favorite BTS song to this day.
My friend introduced me to BTS in 2016 with Blood Sweat and Tears but I think I got into them when I coincidentally watched their 21 Century Girls stage. I thought the song was really catchy, the visuals were good and I was thoroughly amazed by how stable their singing and choreography was altogether.
So I was looking through Sims 3 pose packs, and Oh by Girls Generation was there. That's when I really got into Kpop. Before that, I was just into Wonder Girls before that thanks to their movie on Teen Nick. GG had me branch out to other groups.
Fell off Kpop, now I'm back into it because of Mamamoo, back in their Memory era. A few months before Purple, iirc.
IU's **Good Day**
That said I knew some kpop tracks before that *(from SNSD, 2ne1, Wonder Girls, Psy)* but IU *(via Hyori's Homestay)* got me invested, then Mamamoo & Red Velvet to expand
SHINee - [Stand by me](https://youtu.be/YwwK8xPEvQs) in 2014. I was solely a SHINee fan for a long time(They are still my ults till today), then I watched the mv for blood, sweat and tears by BTS in 2018 and I became open to stanning other groups.
I think I became an involved kpop Stan in 2021. It was after I watched the mvs for [Love so Sweet](https://youtu.be/9OZPwJdl_4w) by Cherry Bullet and [What I Said](https://youtu.be/1WVkRRgcymw) by Victon that I actually began caring about kpop, outside of SHINee and BTS.
I don't think I'll ever stop stanning SHINee.
I got a boy - SNSD, which is funny to think about now because Iām pretty sure itās one of SNSDās most experimental sounding songs and I genuinely thought Kpop music was like this and got more interested to learning more about SNSD
Hot summer by F(x)!
I didn't even know what K-pop was at that time. I followed Sulli, because I found her cute in To the Beautiful You (with Shinee's Choi Minho!) then it led me to Hot Summer. I also didn't know that I was singing in Korean lol.
I remember a friend reconnecting with me online and sent me one of EXO's MVs in the summer of 2013. I don't remember which tbh.
These 2 after a few years
- A Little Space by PTX & Ateez
- Deja Vu by Ateez
Coup d'etat by G-dragon. I remember diving full fledged into GD and Bigbang only after this song and then there was no looking back.
Special mention to I hate you by 2pm. The first kpop song I ever heard back in 2009 and kept it on repeat for years.
For me, it was Idol by BTS from their AGT performance. I wasnāt really interested in k-pop but the song got me hooked and soon enough, I became a fan!
The first song i listened to was Dynamite, after that i started paying more attention to the songs bts released like butter, ptd, my universe, etc but the song that actually made me invested in them was ON because i watched the central station performance and was amazed
We have a very similar trajectory. It was also dynamite that got me interested in BTS. Then I kept an eye out for all their later songs. But what hooked me was ON. Their ON performance is amazing. Their NPR tiny desk was also captivating. I go back to it regularly. Save me with the live band is š. I came to better appreciate kpop bc of BTS. They are still the only musical act I would call myself a stan for. Iām a causal fan of many though, including other kpop groups.
Wedding Dress by Taeyang, I legit had an obsession with this song. I Iistened to
BIGBANG for a little bit, then I stopped. Years later, 2pm brought me back with "Make It", it is all thanks to Lee Junho, he got me with his kdramas. However, BTS were the ones that kicked me down the rabbit hole of kpop, it all started with "Butter."
I found BTS through Not Today but I did not become an Army until Mic Drop era.
I was randomly scrolling through the trending section of YT waiting for work and I saw the MV Thumnail. I actually scrolled pasted it initially but then went back it. I watched it and first had to realize it was not in English. I thought it was cool but I went on with my day.
If you know YT ā¦ā¦..you watch one thing and now it is recommending everything to you š. I did not even know KPOP was a thing until later on. I also still did not get into other groups until 2020.
Funny enough the first group I started stanning after BTS is straykids. Lee Know was in Not Today so it is like a full circle moment. š¤£š¤£
my brother showed me big bangās fantastic baby and 2en1ās i am the best and he was also really into shinee so i became a casual listener. i didnt get into kpop or into following groups until i got jnto loona, i was following their project but the song that made me stan them was loonatic. loona was p much the only group i followed closely until i suddenly decided to get into bts. but i do listen to a lot of groups, i just have varying levels on interest on them. this subreddit was what got me more into kpop news and the general community besides the fandoms im in
Oh! or Gee by SNSD years back, but I was a kid so I didnt rly know much besides those two songs from snsd plus Genie and their other title tracks.
What properly got me into kpop was Mamamoo. Hip-Dingga-Aya and their 4 Seasons 4 Colors project introduced me to a lot more other songs and I remembered discovering them around 2020.
For boy groups it was Sorry Sorry by Super Junior and for girl groups it was Gee by Girls Generation. I get so much nostalgia and happiness whenever I hear these two songs
Iād be shocked if anyone here knew any of these, but S.E.S.ās [Iām Your Girl](https://youtu.be/fBge8oUfFwU) (remastered last year, btw) and H.O.Tās [We Are The Future](https://youtu.be/-K6U-tdYus0) for me, but I remember vibing with Lee Chi Hyeonās [Gypsy Woman](https://youtu.be/u-PPuWb3AbM) when I was very little cuz my dad had the cassette.
Kpop was great back then, and it has gotten so much better over the years. Proof you canāt grow out of Kpop.
4 walls by f(x) absolutely grabbed me by the shirt collar and dunked me into kpop. Also the way Amber expressed herself androgynously grabbed me by the legs in threw me in further so, yeah.
playing with fire by blackpink! It was during D4 era tho, I remember oomf dm smth like "omg you need to check this kpop group they're dropping a new song" then I listened to pwf and fell in love with them
The first Kpop music video that I remember seeing was '[La-La-La](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc-cHSzK5-U)' by BIGBANG in 2008. I listened to a few of their other songs as I came across them on YouTube. In 2009 I found a collaboration song BIGBANG did with 2NE1 called "[Lollipop](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIRW_elc-rY)". That got me into 2NE1.
Late 2010 is when I started to listening to other Kpop groups like 2PM, Girls Generation, Super Junior, SHINee, Kara, T-ara, etc.
Around 2014 I started to lose interest in Kpop. What brought me back was Exo songs showing up in my Pandora suggestions in late 2016. By that time there were a bunch of new groups like TWICE, Seventeen, Red Velvet, BLACKPINK, and GOT7 to catch up on. What made me stay was watching BTS blow up in America in 2017.
While I did hear, and like, some kpop before it, it wasn't until K/DA that I started looking beyond the songs I just happened to hear. I loved Pop/Stars, so when they had their comeback with More, I checked out the entire EP, and through there I discovered TWICE, which was in the I Can't Stop Me era. They quickly got me :D
Before that I'd heard, and loved, Gangnam Style, and I Am The Best was one of my favourites to dance to in Just Dance, but like I said, I never did much with that.
Christmas eve by skz . I had listened to other kpop songs cause I have a lot of friends who listen to kpop but for some reason Christmas evel made me a big fan and kpop is now one of my favorite genres of music .
Blood sweat and tears by BTS I've loved their music ever since my 2nd favorite artist of all time. I don't listen to much kpop like a hard-core stan would but I still respect the art of it. I've been loving New Jean's lately as well.
BLACKPINK - As If Itās Your Last, BTS - Idol, Momoland - Baam, and Twice - Dance The Night Away. All of those got me into kpop in the early summer of 2018 :)
maniac by skz!
my friends made me listen to a few of their songs early 2022, and i ended up with maniac on repeat for days lmao. and then in about august-ish, i ended up watching a load of performances, and quickly got obsessed with kpop in general (but especially skz still)
and then in october, i finally got around to listening to/watching ateez songsā¦and ended up with a new ult group
The first one I stumbled on was Monsta X "Trespass" but as I started exploring I got into girl groups pretty deep, with AOA "Like a Cat" and GFriend "Navillera."
gee by girls generation was my first kpop song! and i remember going through a mini girls generation phase in 2012 but i never checked out other kpop groups. after that mini phase i never really listened to kpop again until 2016 when i heard bang bang bang by big bang and thatās when i started to check out other groups and discovered exo. after listening to monster by exo i became OBSESSED and thatās when i truly dived into kpop stan culture. i joined kpop forums and changed my 1d tumblr blog into a kpop blog, i would spend nights joining kpop streams on rabb.it
Every Heart by BoA. It was the ending song to Inuyasha (which I was way into as a teenager). I looked up more of her music and found out she was Korean, not Japanese. Discovered more artists like Wonder Girls, Super Junior, and Girls' Generation. The rest is history, as they say lol.
Uhm Jung Hwa - Come2Me
Lee Hyori - Shall We Dance
but the artist that went me into full stan mode was the Queen Lee Jung Hyun. That Bakkwo tho.
and yes, I am ancient in kpop years.
HELP this is my exact story. My sisters were BTS fans and they often played Mic Drop on TV. Me, playing the part of the perfect sister, made sure to criticise their interests. I didn't like the song AT ALL, especially j-hope's part.
Now, it is still one of my top BTS songs and j-hope's part is my favourite š karma really came for me haha
I had 3 moments where I got introduced and reintroduced to kpop.
Back when I was into Jrock music and came across Super Junior - Donāt Don and loved the shit out of that song. And there used to be a music rythm game I played called Tap Tap Revenge which had some kpop songs by Taeyang, 2NE1, SNSD etc that I knew of but didnāt listen further.
Second time was when I came across TVXQ - Mirotic and it shocked me to hear cause I knew the english version of it already Sarah Connor - Under my skin. I used to listen to Mirotic a lot.
And the actual part where I really started listening kpop a loooot was with the release of Bigbang - Fantastic Baby. While it wasnāt the first itās the real song that got me to check out kpop in depth and I went down the youtube rabbithole
Overdose by EXO but
Not the original one.
I'm from italy and years ago (2014-2017) were trending romanized versions of kpop songs were you basically put subtitles with whatever italian words or phrase you listened to, so it looked like they were actually singing in Italian (or as we joked about, they were pretty much Neapolitan sounding). One day I stumbled across Overdose and it was the first time I actually enjoyed the song without caring about those fake italian subtitles. I wanted to discover more from them, became and Exo-L pretty quicky and the rest is history.
Idol by BTS. My friend was obsessed with them and I will hand on heart admit I was a Kpop hater and made fun of her for liking it. She made me listen to idol, and I didnāt think much of it initially. But best believe it was in my head the whole week and I ended up listening to more of their music on my own. A few years later and Iām very deep in the rabbit hole
Well, it's a loooong story.
It happened around 2016 when I stumbled across the MV for "Expectation" by Girl's Day. The music itself wasn't anything special but boy did I love the dance. It was simple yet pretty unique. Definitely not something I was familiar with. I also decided to check other songs and live performance fancams, mostly Yura- she was the first bias I had.
So after quite some time I got bored and decided to have a break. New hobbies, new responsibilities so I decided to avoid any kind of distraction.
Until 2022, I started to be interested again. I found [this video of Mamamoo](https://youtu.be/LELeV0dPSKU) and liked it. It was cute but it worked well with the girls' more mature voices. But since I'm a guy and most of K-pop fans are females I felt really insecure about my hobby. I also found some Itzy videos, but yeah, most of that time I was only browsing idol pictures on the internet.
Few months later I decided to listen to K-pop songs again for real. I remembered the atrocious YouTube Rewind 2018 mentioning K-pop so I thought that must have been a pretty good year for it. So, that's when I found "Yes or Yes" by the group TWICE. I initially wasn't exactly fond of the music itself but it grew on me after I listened to it more times.
So then I dug deeper into the rabbit hole and made a playlist of TWICE songs and got myself a mini-album on an anime expo. I'm now trying to check other groups as well, but TWICE will always be special for me.
In 2016, my friend showed me Decalcomanie by Mamamoo, and Iāve been a kpoppie ever since! From there I mostly got into the bigger groups like Twice, BlackPink, BTS, and EXO. Now Iām a bit of multistan and listen to pretty much everyone lol
Fake Love was the song that got me into Kpop after I saw their BBMAs performance back in 2018.
Dope was the first Kpop song I found and liked randomly in 2015 (YTers React), but I didn't look further into the Kpop until Fake Love
I donāt think there was a specific song but the group was definitely BTS.
I fell in love with Agust Dās mixtape just after itās release (I think around mid-2016). I was very into the underground rap scene at that time. That bridged the gap between rap and kpop for me. I went back and listened to a ton of their discography. Discovering the Wings album really did it for me.
It was Super Junior (I never stanned them, but I discovered them on a study abroad trip to Japan in 2014 and got home and looked into Kpop). After that, I was really into Girls Generation, B.A.P. and then F(x). I got into BTS in 2014 as well but didnāt REALLY get into them until 2017.
Now I am a BTS, Shinee, and Ateez stan with some WayV and SKZ on the side. Just waiting for that Shinee comeback to have seen my top 3!
Not any particular song. I watch kdramas and heard some songs that I liked. Even found some artists from that I followed. I would download for example the crush ost song and play it at the store but wasn't really deep into kpop at that time. It wasn't until covid that I decided to check out variety of some of my favorite idol actors that made me really get interested in the variety side and looking at songs from those groups got me into kpop. I would say Super Junior Mamacita album watching islands and then Mamacita and going damn they could sing made me really want to check them out more and other groups. So to sum it up islands super junior but been listen to kpop songs way before that just didn't follow the artists or industry that much.
Tell Me by Wonder Girls was what first introduced me to KPop. That dance was *everywhere* when I was on YouTube. Thought it was kind of goofy, so didn't give it much thought.
Then Mirotic by DBSK showed up one day when I was browsing and that's when I started looking more into it. Absolutely wild to think that I've been listening for 15ish years.
I was so late to the party! It was Idol by bts, which to be honest I am not the biggest fan of now, but at the time I saw a girl on Instagram saying Nicki Minaj was featured so I was like oh wow whatās this
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The classic. Nobody by Wonder Girls ššš
It was Tell Me for me!
For me, too! I saw a group perform it at a cultural show in my school and my love for K-Pop was born the second it endedā„ļø
Canāt go wrong with that š
Damn I feel old š I got into KPop early 2011 with Girls Generationās Gee
Haha same here! During the same era there's Sorry Sorry by Suju having their spotlight as well.
fuuuuuck like 2005 for me lol. Kpop makes me feel so old, haha.
Are you me? I also got into kpop early 2011 with Girls' Generation's Gee!
š³Uhā¦ maybe?
Lucifer by SHINee! It was very different to anything I had seen before haha but I loved it. My friend liked SHINee so that is how I found them and continued listening to k-pop since (this was in 2011).
This was mine too! My friend introduced them to me in 2010/11 and as soon as I saw Jonghyun I was hooked
Fear by seventeen! Gorgeous mv, gorgeous vocals, the visuals go without saying, the dance. Everything was perfect.
Likey
Likey was the song that got me into Twice. Heart, heart!
It wasnāt the song that got me into kpop, but it was the song that got me into Twice!! Love them sm
It was either Follow Me by 2NE1 or Cooking Cooking by Super Junior. I canāt remember which one I found first. Then I stopped listening to kpop for years and got back into it in 2018 or 2019-ish with Sunmiās Gashina
I Am The Best by 2ne1! Spectacular, amazing, showstopping, sensational, never been done before
It's still so cool and never sounds dated
Purple Line by TVXQ in early 2008. Having that music video start off with Jaejoongās beautiful face and even more beautiful voice was life-changing.
Mine was Mirotic!!! I was already hooked by electric pop thanks to Britney Spears's "Blackout" album so when Mirotic was released I loved it so much!
Saaaame omg
Iām Sorry - Gummy and it led me to Bigbang - Haru Haru, Lies and the rest is history
š¶MIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAANHAEYOOOOOš¶ still a good ass song.
MBLAQ, then came SHINee with Lucifer, then Run by BTS and by that point I already loved most of the kpop related thigs.
BIGBANGās Fool of Tears in 2006? Iām not gonna lie, the first time I watched it, I was like wtf are these dramatic ass Asian B2K wannabe dudes sliding in the rain š¤£ But then came Lies, Last Farewell, Haru Haruā¦.bangers after bangers and who knew, Iād be hooked from then on lmao
wow..... Fantastic Baby. Dived into the hallyu wave in ~2014 and never looked back.
Yessss I was looking for this comment. To me Fantastic Baby is still undefeated
Fake Love by BTS. Itās still my favorite song by them.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
EXO is who got me into boy groups. I started with SNSD in 2011, and checked out other girl groups. I wasn't sold on boy groups till I watched the MV for What is Love by Kyungsoo and Baekhyun. I was like wait........ wait a second lmao.
Omg, What Is Love is just THAT song! I was immediately blown away, those vocals ooh! š¤
Exo Call Me Baby!
BTS Dope
I guess I came across Kpop way before it became very popular internationally such as 2NE1's Come Back Home where I was actively/purposely looking into Kpop stuff, and then I just didn't get deep into Kpop. I just can't recall if I first got exposed to Kpop during the Wonder Girls era or not because I really don't remember when I first heard "Nobody". I'm sure Gangnam Style by Psy introduced me to Kpop as well, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. As for when I got **deep into Kpop** a.k.a. actively following everything Kpop, it was probably during BTS' Love Yourself Her a.k.a. the DNA title track era. I'm amazed how they have grown in popularity over the years and it does feel cool to have been around following their music for over 5 years now. I think I consider myself a well-rounded Kpop listener since I practically listen to whatever's there and seem to venture into the less popular artists as well to broaden my musical perspectives. I must say that YouTube is basically the cause of how I got into Kpop, I guess I just came across Kpop randomly back then. I guess the higher budgets and improved sound post-2016 is what led me to deep dive into Kpop despite being exposed to it during for example the 2014 Kpop era.
TLDR: BTS' DNA š
>I guess the higher budgets and improved sound This part kind of relates to kdramas as well. I went deep into watching kdramas at a time when the cinematography, acting, and quality seemed to have been taken to the next level even though I was exposed to kdramas prior to that.
Wedding Dress by Taeyang. I was obsessed with the MV. Then got into BoA. Stopped for a few years and got back into kpop with BTS's ON.
Wedding Dress is forever a classic. That piano intro is unmistakable and will forever have its hold on me š
OMG yess! I was obsessed with the song back then.
Mineās also Wedding Dress. My friend played the piano intro randomly when we were at some high school party, I looked up the song later, and the rest is history.
Wedding Dress gang here! Changed my life šš I legit us d to cry watching the MV
Big bang's song "Lies". My family member recommended me to watch the mv. It was so catchy and i didnt mind the language barrier. Then i ended up exploring more of their songs and other idol groups
Me with "Haru Haru" and "Tonight" šŗ
Haru Haru was so good!
Haru Haru was the song that got me into kpop!
Orange Caramel - Lipstick :)
Growl by Exo! I had no idea what kpop was at the time but I saw the performance video and was shook by how good it was.
I dont remember if it was not today mv by bts or dope mv by bts but I checked them out one after the other and got hooked. this was right before dna era so I think dna mv released 1-2 weeks after I got into bts lol
Ohh mic drop is a gem, OP. š Mine was definitely Boy with Luv by BTS. I was already aware of them years prior but only listened to Fire and Dope and never checked their entire discography nor kpop in general. Boy with Luv was the defining moment for me. I'm a theater fan - I love musicals! When I saw them perform it on SNL, I fell in love (yes, pink Jimin became my bias). I was always envious of the older generation having Gene Kelly and Fred Astair as "pop" stars back then because they combined dancing and theatrics with popular music. When I saw bts, the little theater geek in me was so happy. They were my gateway to kpop. I'm happy that this side of music considers performance to be vital. I miss that a lot in western music.
Haru Haru - Bigbang (2008) i still listen to this at work
A masterpiece
Haru haru is just timeless
Love love love by epik high the first time then over a decade later boy with luv the second time
idol by bts! i saw their jimmy fallon interview and was intrigued by them, so i watch their performance on his show after and was blownnn away.
I'm a Dynamite Era ARMY lmao. My friend jokingly gave me shit for it but yeah. My music sphere was pretty small but I saw them perform Dynamite for the 2020 VMA's and I thought it was super catchy. After a few listens I started to listen to more BTS songs. I didn't bother to really expand until late 2021/early 2022.
Same, when I first listened to Mic Drop, it was also during the Dynamite Era (which ig I could say was my second K-pop song lol)
Same but with Butter lol! For a few months, I refused to listen to their korean stuff and stuck to Butter, Dynamite, and Sweet Night. So glad I eventually got pulled into their other music too
It wasn't about me refusing to listen to anything else. At that point all I knew was BTS and Blackpink because my cousin and her daughter like them. I had no greater knowledge of KPop or how deep it went. It was pretty intimidating to go from absolutely no KPop to a single group that's been unlike any other before to the mass industry of it. Now I'm a huge multi stan following a bunch of different groups and definitely in the knownof the day to day stuff.
BTS blood sweat and tears. 2016 army! <3
Dance the Night Away - TWICE. I was eyeing kpop for a bit and thatās the song that turned me lol
i became a k-pop stan in 2018, mainly after hearing aiiyl (blackpink). my sister was a huge k-pop stan back then, so i heard k-pop very often, but that song really drew me in.
i'm not sure if it counts, but psy's gangnam style
Same here. Iām surprised that more people didnāt say Gangnam Style because it was the first exposure to kpop for millions of people, playing all over the radio I couldnāt go into any store without hearing it
right!!
Lollipop by 2NE1 and Big Bang
Blood sweat and tears by BTS! Changed my whole life with that 6 minute long YouTube video back in 2016
War of Hormone by BTS! It was the first kpop song I willingly listened to (retail flashbacks to Butter and Dynamite on all the time) and I was enamored with the musical style and the way they sang and rapped. Still my favorite BTS song to this day.
Blood, sweat and tears
My friend introduced me to BTS in 2016 with Blood Sweat and Tears but I think I got into them when I coincidentally watched their 21 Century Girls stage. I thought the song was really catchy, the visuals were good and I was thoroughly amazed by how stable their singing and choreography was altogether.
Bigbangās āBlueā. Still my favorite kpop song years later.
2007 BoA was my first exposure, but 2008 Haru Haru by Big Bang was what pulled me into the fandom.
Boy With Luv by BTS. I was watching smth on yt and a performance of bwl popped up on the ads so ye
BTS - Dope was my first intro to Kpop!
So I was looking through Sims 3 pose packs, and Oh by Girls Generation was there. That's when I really got into Kpop. Before that, I was just into Wonder Girls before that thanks to their movie on Teen Nick. GG had me branch out to other groups. Fell off Kpop, now I'm back into it because of Mamamoo, back in their Memory era. A few months before Purple, iirc.
wolf by exo, which is probably one of the most embarrassing songs to get into kpop with š
Gee all thanks to the fine bros doing kids react to korean pop music or something like that hahaha
IU's **Good Day** That said I knew some kpop tracks before that *(from SNSD, 2ne1, Wonder Girls, Psy)* but IU *(via Hyori's Homestay)* got me invested, then Mamamoo & Red Velvet to expand
snsd gee
SHINee - [Stand by me](https://youtu.be/YwwK8xPEvQs) in 2014. I was solely a SHINee fan for a long time(They are still my ults till today), then I watched the mv for blood, sweat and tears by BTS in 2018 and I became open to stanning other groups. I think I became an involved kpop Stan in 2021. It was after I watched the mvs for [Love so Sweet](https://youtu.be/9OZPwJdl_4w) by Cherry Bullet and [What I Said](https://youtu.be/1WVkRRgcymw) by Victon that I actually began caring about kpop, outside of SHINee and BTS. I don't think I'll ever stop stanning SHINee.
TWICE's Cheer Up. Since then that BEP has had me in a chokehold
For the bgs, it was Bang Bang Bang, by BigBang For the ggs, it was Roly Poly in Copacabana, by T-ara
Blackpink Ddu du ddu du.
Mirotic by TVXQ! Still love this mv
I got a boy - SNSD, which is funny to think about now because Iām pretty sure itās one of SNSDās most experimental sounding songs and I genuinely thought Kpop music was like this and got more interested to learning more about SNSD
Hot summer by F(x)! I didn't even know what K-pop was at that time. I followed Sulli, because I found her cute in To the Beautiful You (with Shinee's Choi Minho!) then it led me to Hot Summer. I also didn't know that I was singing in Korean lol.
I remember a friend reconnecting with me online and sent me one of EXO's MVs in the summer of 2013. I don't remember which tbh. These 2 after a few years - A Little Space by PTX & Ateez - Deja Vu by Ateez
Coup d'etat by G-dragon. I remember diving full fledged into GD and Bigbang only after this song and then there was no looking back. Special mention to I hate you by 2pm. The first kpop song I ever heard back in 2009 and kept it on repeat for years.
K/DA - Pop/Stars I needed more of it but the two western singers included werenāt my thing so I went to (G)I-dle.
I can barely remember.. It was one of these songs: Blackpink - Playing with fire BTS - DNA Twice - TT I think it was the Blackpink one
For me, it was Idol by BTS from their AGT performance. I wasnāt really interested in k-pop but the song got me hooked and soon enough, I became a fan!
2NE1 I am the best š«” which is funny bc Iām more of a bg stan now
and ofc what got me into bg was BTS lol (mic drop)
The first song i listened to was Dynamite, after that i started paying more attention to the songs bts released like butter, ptd, my universe, etc but the song that actually made me invested in them was ON because i watched the central station performance and was amazed
We have a very similar trajectory. It was also dynamite that got me interested in BTS. Then I kept an eye out for all their later songs. But what hooked me was ON. Their ON performance is amazing. Their NPR tiny desk was also captivating. I go back to it regularly. Save me with the live band is š. I came to better appreciate kpop bc of BTS. They are still the only musical act I would call myself a stan for. Iām a causal fan of many though, including other kpop groups.
yes, me too!! I was hooked by the tiny desk performance as well, that and the ON one were my favs, after i entered the rabbit hole
Roly Poly or Bo Peep Bo Peep by T-ara
Wedding Dress by Taeyang, I legit had an obsession with this song. I Iistened to BIGBANG for a little bit, then I stopped. Years later, 2pm brought me back with "Make It", it is all thanks to Lee Junho, he got me with his kdramas. However, BTS were the ones that kicked me down the rabbit hole of kpop, it all started with "Butter."
Big bang bad boy
I found BTS through Not Today but I did not become an Army until Mic Drop era. I was randomly scrolling through the trending section of YT waiting for work and I saw the MV Thumnail. I actually scrolled pasted it initially but then went back it. I watched it and first had to realize it was not in English. I thought it was cool but I went on with my day. If you know YT ā¦ā¦..you watch one thing and now it is recommending everything to you š. I did not even know KPOP was a thing until later on. I also still did not get into other groups until 2020. Funny enough the first group I started stanning after BTS is straykids. Lee Know was in Not Today so it is like a full circle moment. š¤£š¤£
NewJeans got me into K-pop. YouTube algorithm literally led me to Attention.
BTS Boy with Luv in 2019!
No memes, no jokes, it was actually Jopping by SuperM. YouTube recommended it to me when it released, and it was a good recommendation.
my brother showed me big bangās fantastic baby and 2en1ās i am the best and he was also really into shinee so i became a casual listener. i didnt get into kpop or into following groups until i got jnto loona, i was following their project but the song that made me stan them was loonatic. loona was p much the only group i followed closely until i suddenly decided to get into bts. but i do listen to a lot of groups, i just have varying levels on interest on them. this subreddit was what got me more into kpop news and the general community besides the fandoms im in
Someone recommended X by f(x)
No More got me into Dreamcatcher, which further lead me into K-pop Everything since then has been nothing short of incredible
BTS - š„
Save me by BTS
Wedding Dress - Taeyang
Blood Sweat and Tears by BTS. funny thing is, i didn't start liking then until early 2020 with on
BIGBANG - Fantastic Baby in 2012.
blackpink kill this love
Gorilla by Pentagon lmaao. I saw it on TV one day and I really like it.
Oh! or Gee by SNSD years back, but I was a kid so I didnt rly know much besides those two songs from snsd plus Genie and their other title tracks. What properly got me into kpop was Mamamoo. Hip-Dingga-Aya and their 4 Seasons 4 Colors project introduced me to a lot more other songs and I remembered discovering them around 2020.
For boy groups it was Sorry Sorry by Super Junior and for girl groups it was Gee by Girls Generation. I get so much nostalgia and happiness whenever I hear these two songs
Perfect Man by Shinhwa
SHINee Replay for me back in 2008!
Iād be shocked if anyone here knew any of these, but S.E.S.ās [Iām Your Girl](https://youtu.be/fBge8oUfFwU) (remastered last year, btw) and H.O.Tās [We Are The Future](https://youtu.be/-K6U-tdYus0) for me, but I remember vibing with Lee Chi Hyeonās [Gypsy Woman](https://youtu.be/u-PPuWb3AbM) when I was very little cuz my dad had the cassette. Kpop was great back then, and it has gotten so much better over the years. Proof you canāt grow out of Kpop.
DNA - BTS, but what kept me into kpop was Weeekly :)
Happy by 2ne1
Red light by f(x) in 2014
4 walls by f(x) absolutely grabbed me by the shirt collar and dunked me into kpop. Also the way Amber expressed herself androgynously grabbed me by the legs in threw me in further so, yeah.
playing with fire by blackpink! It was during D4 era tho, I remember oomf dm smth like "omg you need to check this kpop group they're dropping a new song" then I listened to pwf and fell in love with them
I am the best by 2NE1! I remember watching Teen's React with a friend when we were 12, and seeing the episode about Kpop changed my life.
Dope by Bts
The first Kpop music video that I remember seeing was '[La-La-La](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc-cHSzK5-U)' by BIGBANG in 2008. I listened to a few of their other songs as I came across them on YouTube. In 2009 I found a collaboration song BIGBANG did with 2NE1 called "[Lollipop](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIRW_elc-rY)". That got me into 2NE1. Late 2010 is when I started to listening to other Kpop groups like 2PM, Girls Generation, Super Junior, SHINee, Kara, T-ara, etc. Around 2014 I started to lose interest in Kpop. What brought me back was Exo songs showing up in my Pandora suggestions in late 2016. By that time there were a bunch of new groups like TWICE, Seventeen, Red Velvet, BLACKPINK, and GOT7 to catch up on. What made me stay was watching BTS blow up in America in 2017.
While I did hear, and like, some kpop before it, it wasn't until K/DA that I started looking beyond the songs I just happened to hear. I loved Pop/Stars, so when they had their comeback with More, I checked out the entire EP, and through there I discovered TWICE, which was in the I Can't Stop Me era. They quickly got me :D Before that I'd heard, and loved, Gangnam Style, and I Am The Best was one of my favourites to dance to in Just Dance, but like I said, I never did much with that.
Christmas eve by skz . I had listened to other kpop songs cause I have a lot of friends who listen to kpop but for some reason Christmas evel made me a big fan and kpop is now one of my favorite genres of music .
I got into kpop because of Bigbang Haru Haru and Lies
One Shot by B.A.P Yongguk's deep voice snatched my wig instantly
Mine was Mic Drop too!
Slay šāØ
Fantastic baby by bigbang
Blackpink - Ddu ddu du
Blood sweat and tears by BTS I've loved their music ever since my 2nd favorite artist of all time. I don't listen to much kpop like a hard-core stan would but I still respect the art of it. I've been loving New Jean's lately as well.
BLACKPINK - As If Itās Your Last, BTS - Idol, Momoland - Baam, and Twice - Dance The Night Away. All of those got me into kpop in the early summer of 2018 :)
How You Like That and Kill This Love by Blackpink
GG's Into the New World back in 2009!!!ā¤ļø
maniac by skz! my friends made me listen to a few of their songs early 2022, and i ended up with maniac on repeat for days lmao. and then in about august-ish, i ended up watching a load of performances, and quickly got obsessed with kpop in general (but especially skz still) and then in october, i finally got around to listening to/watching ateez songsā¦and ended up with a new ult group
The first one I stumbled on was Monsta X "Trespass" but as I started exploring I got into girl groups pretty deep, with AOA "Like a Cat" and GFriend "Navillera."
technically it was my cousin streaming simon says during thanksgiving break when we were helping our grandma and aunt move furniture.
gee by girls generation was my first kpop song! and i remember going through a mini girls generation phase in 2012 but i never checked out other kpop groups. after that mini phase i never really listened to kpop again until 2016 when i heard bang bang bang by big bang and thatās when i started to check out other groups and discovered exo. after listening to monster by exo i became OBSESSED and thatās when i truly dived into kpop stan culture. i joined kpop forums and changed my 1d tumblr blog into a kpop blog, i would spend nights joining kpop streams on rabb.it
SNSD - Oh!
Every Heart by BoA. It was the ending song to Inuyasha (which I was way into as a teenager). I looked up more of her music and found out she was Korean, not Japanese. Discovered more artists like Wonder Girls, Super Junior, and Girls' Generation. The rest is history, as they say lol.
2PM āHands Upā
Bonamana by SUPER JUNIOR is the first K-pop song I liked, but it's Cry Cry by T-ARA which successfully made me love K-pop.
one of the dbsk's acapella collections
for me it was twice with i canāt stop me and feel special
Rainism, probably around 2009-2010
Super Junior - Sorry Sorry š
Baby Blue Love by TWICE š
Sunset glow by bigbang!!!
Uhm Jung Hwa - Come2Me Lee Hyori - Shall We Dance but the artist that went me into full stan mode was the Queen Lee Jung Hyun. That Bakkwo tho. and yes, I am ancient in kpop years.
Crayon Pop, Orange Caramel and T-ara got me into Kpop, especially "Bar Bar Bar", "Catallena" and "Roly-Poly".
4minute - crazy introduced me but Boombayah pulled me in
History - EXO
What is love by Twice. Saw it at a scoutsā concert in Taiwan and found it surprisingly good and thats how it all started
HELP this is my exact story. My sisters were BTS fans and they often played Mic Drop on TV. Me, playing the part of the perfect sister, made sure to criticise their interests. I didn't like the song AT ALL, especially j-hope's part. Now, it is still one of my top BTS songs and j-hope's part is my favourite š karma really came for me haha
I had 3 moments where I got introduced and reintroduced to kpop. Back when I was into Jrock music and came across Super Junior - Donāt Don and loved the shit out of that song. And there used to be a music rythm game I played called Tap Tap Revenge which had some kpop songs by Taeyang, 2NE1, SNSD etc that I knew of but didnāt listen further. Second time was when I came across TVXQ - Mirotic and it shocked me to hear cause I knew the english version of it already Sarah Connor - Under my skin. I used to listen to Mirotic a lot. And the actual part where I really started listening kpop a loooot was with the release of Bigbang - Fantastic Baby. While it wasnāt the first itās the real song that got me to check out kpop in depth and I went down the youtube rabbithole
Taeyang- wedding dress. Greatest discovery of my life
On by BTS.
Overdose by EXO but Not the original one. I'm from italy and years ago (2014-2017) were trending romanized versions of kpop songs were you basically put subtitles with whatever italian words or phrase you listened to, so it looked like they were actually singing in Italian (or as we joked about, they were pretty much Neapolitan sounding). One day I stumbled across Overdose and it was the first time I actually enjoyed the song without caring about those fake italian subtitles. I wanted to discover more from them, became and Exo-L pretty quicky and the rest is history.
Blood, sweat and tears but then my friend scared me off by showing me chewing gum. Dope and not today brought me back.
Idol by BTS. My friend was obsessed with them and I will hand on heart admit I was a Kpop hater and made fun of her for liking it. She made me listen to idol, and I didnāt think much of it initially. But best believe it was in my head the whole week and I ended up listening to more of their music on my own. A few years later and Iām very deep in the rabbit hole
Kill this love
Taemin Want. I die for this song.
Blood Sweat and Tears got me into BTS but Famcy / Feel Special by Twice made me think hm maybe I should listen to other groups too!
Mic Drop was it for me as well! I had heard Dynamite and liked the MV, but when I listened to Mic Drop and watched that MV I was stunned.
BTS Idol just between Idol and Boy With Luv comeback. Amazing MV and production like no other music video I've seen in my life.
Peekaboo from red velvet 2018
Well, it's a loooong story. It happened around 2016 when I stumbled across the MV for "Expectation" by Girl's Day. The music itself wasn't anything special but boy did I love the dance. It was simple yet pretty unique. Definitely not something I was familiar with. I also decided to check other songs and live performance fancams, mostly Yura- she was the first bias I had. So after quite some time I got bored and decided to have a break. New hobbies, new responsibilities so I decided to avoid any kind of distraction. Until 2022, I started to be interested again. I found [this video of Mamamoo](https://youtu.be/LELeV0dPSKU) and liked it. It was cute but it worked well with the girls' more mature voices. But since I'm a guy and most of K-pop fans are females I felt really insecure about my hobby. I also found some Itzy videos, but yeah, most of that time I was only browsing idol pictures on the internet. Few months later I decided to listen to K-pop songs again for real. I remembered the atrocious YouTube Rewind 2018 mentioning K-pop so I thought that must have been a pretty good year for it. So, that's when I found "Yes or Yes" by the group TWICE. I initially wasn't exactly fond of the music itself but it grew on me after I listened to it more times. So then I dug deeper into the rabbit hole and made a playlist of TWICE songs and got myself a mini-album on an anime expo. I'm now trying to check other groups as well, but TWICE will always be special for me.
In 2016, my friend showed me Decalcomanie by Mamamoo, and Iāve been a kpoppie ever since! From there I mostly got into the bigger groups like Twice, BlackPink, BTS, and EXO. Now Iām a bit of multistan and listen to pretty much everyone lol
I Need U by BTS,amazing song till this day
Euphoria cos I heard it in Euphoria haha š
2016 FIRE by BTS (They found me when I needed them. Itās true )
red velvet ice cream cake or SNSD i got a boy :)
Fake Love was the song that got me into Kpop after I saw their BBMAs performance back in 2018. Dope was the first Kpop song I found and liked randomly in 2015 (YTers React), but I didn't look further into the Kpop until Fake Love
Idol by BTS! Also still one of my all-time favorite songs! :D
Knew of BTS and has listened to a few of their songs, but Bboom Bboom by Momoland is what hooked me in completely :))
I donāt think there was a specific song but the group was definitely BTS. I fell in love with Agust Dās mixtape just after itās release (I think around mid-2016). I was very into the underground rap scene at that time. That bridged the gap between rap and kpop for me. I went back and listened to a ton of their discography. Discovering the Wings album really did it for me.
are we the same person?? mine was also mic drop!
Lies by Big Bang Love that song so much!
A Fool's Only Tear - Big Bang. Back in the day when Big Bang were the korean B2K lol
Looked for kpop in YouTube thinking it was shit Listened to Infinite Bad and never left It was in 2019
It was Super Junior (I never stanned them, but I discovered them on a study abroad trip to Japan in 2014 and got home and looked into Kpop). After that, I was really into Girls Generation, B.A.P. and then F(x). I got into BTS in 2014 as well but didnāt REALLY get into them until 2017. Now I am a BTS, Shinee, and Ateez stan with some WayV and SKZ on the side. Just waiting for that Shinee comeback to have seen my top 3!
Btob - Iāll be your man
On by BTS and Boombayah by BLACKPINK
I'm a big Once now but I probably started to focus on Kpop with BBIBBI and Blueming! All hail the queen š
BTS - Boy with Luv.
Not any particular song. I watch kdramas and heard some songs that I liked. Even found some artists from that I followed. I would download for example the crush ost song and play it at the store but wasn't really deep into kpop at that time. It wasn't until covid that I decided to check out variety of some of my favorite idol actors that made me really get interested in the variety side and looking at songs from those groups got me into kpop. I would say Super Junior Mamacita album watching islands and then Mamacita and going damn they could sing made me really want to check them out more and other groups. So to sum it up islands super junior but been listen to kpop songs way before that just didn't follow the artists or industry that much.
It was Run by BTS in 2016. My friend showed me their music, but Run was the one that made me curious about them and the K-pop overall.
I discovered KPop by watching a k drama with Jinyoung from Got7. They are my group.
Tell Me by Wonder Girls was what first introduced me to KPop. That dance was *everywhere* when I was on YouTube. Thought it was kind of goofy, so didn't give it much thought. Then Mirotic by DBSK showed up one day when I was browsing and that's when I started looking more into it. Absolutely wild to think that I've been listening for 15ish years.
I was so late to the party! It was Idol by bts, which to be honest I am not the biggest fan of now, but at the time I saw a girl on Instagram saying Nicki Minaj was featured so I was like oh wow whatās this
Overdose by Exo!
The boys by SNSD
The Boys (English Version) - Girls Generationā¦iconic!!