The last time I was this involved over boy bands it was more than 10 years ago, when I was in high school in Melaka. I remember the peak moments of my obsession was during the pre-PMR years of 1997-1999. Like any other teenage girls, I was into the usual pop groups; Backstreet Boys, Boyzone, Spice Girls and other random one-hit-wonders gracing the current MTV scenes back then. You could say I was a committed fan. I would save my school allowance so I could buy their cassettes (cassettes!) and numerous imported magazines like Smash Hits and Top of the Pops (which didn't come cheap). Together with my close friend, Rahah, we would make frequent visits to Mahkota Parade or Jaya Jusco to buy these goodies and then pore over every pages together and shrieked in delight if the issue came with the poster of our favourite groups.
I remember always having to buy batteries for my Walkman because I listen to my cassettes almost every day. With time I learned a few tricks, some are practical ones, like using Atuk's radio to rewind the cassettes so I can re-listen to the Side A all over again because rewinding drains the battery too much (one time Atuk saw me doing it and said I have to pay the electricity bill for this frequent activity of mine), others are not really grounded scientifically like placing my batteries under the sun in the hope that it'll last a little longer. I can't say the method really worked. When I put the batteries back into my Walkman and pressed 'Play', the previously melodious voice of my idol is now turning ... slow... and... sounding... like... an... old... man... singing.......
I bet the current generation have never heard that kind of sound out of their songs. If it wasn't for my frustration that I need to buy another set of batteries soon, I would find it almost funny.
When I went to a boarding school, the previous fangirling activities stopped. I still listened to music, but I wasn't really invested in the groups and singers anymore. I may know who sings which song but I wasn't interested in knowing more about them. My music taste had also evolves, with me graduating from mainly listening to pop songs to other genre of musics, liking indie songs and rock bands; being blown away by live performances of MUSE.
Fast forward to 2010. My friend, who I have always share everything with get caught in the K-Pop phenomenon that is Super Junior. She was roped into chaperoning her cousins to their first concert in Malaysia and since then has fallen to their charms. She kept giving me links to songs and music videos and I thought their songs are nice, but can't seem to understand the hype surrounding these boys. Until she gave me a link to one of the numerous variety shows that they were featured in. (Korean Variety Shows deserve an entry of its own, it is remarkably different from the format of reality shows of our local TV or from the Hollywood. Suffice to say it is not variety show if you don't end up holding your stomach out of laughter)
Intimate Note - the show that clinched it for me.
After I watched that show, the rest were history. I was caught, hook, line and sinker to their hilarious personalities, their mission to always try to destroy each others' image on television, and I grew to love their music too. They have three genuinely talented vocalists who sang haunting songs like this:
OST for Cinderella's Sister - It Has to be You. The song is one of the reason the drama was a top hit.
I tentatively forayed into the Super Junior fandom and my mind was blown with the amount of dedication and hard work the fans put through. The group, being based in South Korea but amassing a large amount of support outside of it must be credited to the non-exhaustive work of their fans. They translated lyrics, interviews, articles and even provide subtitles to the shows that the group were in. When they are performing in music shows there will always be kind souls that stream these shows LIVE from Korea. Three of the group members are also Radio DJs and almost every day there would be streaming of their radio shows, complete with the video of them in the radio studio. Last year, when they started their third concert series and was having their first performance in Seoul, a group of fans from China did a live streaming of the concert... by calling the cellphone of their friend who is attending that concert. Of course mostly we can only hear the screaming of fans, but I was really impressed nevertheless.
Super Junior's Sorry Sorry, the song that has taken Kesang Tua by storm. This was during their 'come back', the first time the song was shown on the music show. They then clinched number 1 spot three times in a row, received the Mutizen Award and couldn't compete anymore.
Internet has really changed how fans relate to their favourite musicians. The experience is much more richer, and there are so many things to immerse oneself in. Back in 1997, there were barriers, I never really feel close to any of the personalities I admired. This time around these idols feel like only an internet server away. There was this one time I was watching Heechul, one of the Super Junior members DJ-ing his radio show. During the playing of songs I saw him typing something with his phone and then suddenly my Tweetdeck popped up a notification of a tweet from him. I literally saw him doing that posting. And a few minutes later a translation of his tweet was posted. It all feel really surreal to me, being new in this kind of things.
Feeling very much connected makes it all much more difficult to disconnect. Fans get really emotionally invested, 'wars' between fans of different groups are commons. It is important to know their latest doings and activities, look at all their latest pictures, and stalk for every bit of news and information about them on the internet.
I could easily see my 13 years old self drowning in all this. It is a blessing then I only had cassettes, magazines, and Hitz's Rick Dees in the Weekly Top 40.
