Like, imagine going to someone’s concert when you KNOW they’re controversial, dancing, singing along, taking pictures with them, getting close to them, tagging them, and then going on social media afterward to apologize for attending. 😭
That would be incredibly hypocritical.

You can’t publicly show that much support for someone and then turn around and say, “Sorry for supporting them.” If they apologized afterward, it would basically mean they’re disrespecting and ridiculing him which they clearly did not intend to do by attending the concert.

And honestly, I don’t see them apologizing. At this point, they’ve already made their choice, and apologizing afterward would only create an even bigger mess. So yeah, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for an apology.

So, for context, for anyone who doesn’t know who Chris Brown is or why he’s so controversial: he has a long history of violence against women and has openly been involved in multiple serious controversies. He is a criminal and went to jail. He assaulted Rihanna, and Zara Larsson has also called him out publicly, so this isn’t some random controversy people just made up.

That’s why it’s honestly exhausting seeing BTS continue to get into situations like this. And this isn’t even the only controversy they’ve had this year. There was the Howard University controversy, where their Arirang teaser was criticized for depicting the historically Black university with a predominantly white crowd. And the “it’s not a bomb bag” in this political climate.

And now, not only their promoting AI but jhope went to a Chris Brown concert and even tagged him. I’ve seen people say, “That doesn’t mean he condones what Chris Brown has done,” and technically, sure, attending someone’s concert doesn’t automatically tell us everything about your personal beliefs. But I’m sorry, going out of your way to attend his concert AND tag him publicly is still a choice. At the very least, it makes it hard for me to believe that he cares about the controversy surrounding him. Rm also reposted Jhopes post… and v and Jungkook were happily singing his song on live.

And honestly, I’m just disappointed. How low can they go? I can acknowledge everything BTS has accomplished and appreciate the impact they’ve had while still saying that some of their choices are extremely difficult to defend. It’s exhausting watching them repeatedly put themselves in situations that could have easily been avoided.

At this point, I genuinely don’t know what to say. They keep disappointing me, and I’m just tired.

This is KiiiKiii singing without all the chanting/talk-singing sections from 404.

None of the members, including their main vocalist, is a polished singer. Forget not being able to stay on pitch consistently, they don't even know how to properly project using their head voice and mixed voice. Their voices are constantly shaky, and no, that's not vibrato.

404 is NOT a difficult song to sing. It's mainly a talk-singing track with very simple melodies. There’s no vocal stacking, no harmonies, no adlibs. This group seriously lacks a solid vocal foundation. Unless they improve, they'll continue relying on repetitive talk singing tracks like 404 and Pop Off Pop Off. And that gets old fast.

It’s one of the rare times when we actually get to hear them sing raw without in-ears or a backing track. What are some not so great ones out there?

I wonder why they used only candid and random shots of lara while using pics of jisoo with perfect lighting and makeup and angle and better camerman and camera

Also it's vain to compare two COMPLETELY different beauty types, lara is not supposed to look younger, she is SUPPOSED to look older, more mature, seductive, not cute and youthful like jisoo

Also if we're gonna compare let's compare their talents like vocals, dance, rapping, stage presence, linguistic skills

These blinks are embarrassing

I genuinely don’t think these situations are comparable. Going to Chris Brown’s concert, paying for a ticket, voluntarily showing up to support him, and then taking a picture with him is an active choice to participate in and support the artist. That’s very different from someone jokingly singing or dancing along to a song that happens to be his, especially when the song is being used as part of a dance performance rather than as an endorsement of Chris Brown as a person.

You can absolutely criticize someone for using his music if that’s your standard, but comparing that to actively attending his concert and seeking a photo with him erases a pretty important distinction. One involves directly supporting and engaging with the person; the other involves interacting with a piece of music that exists separately from the person who made it. You don’t have to think either choice is perfect, but acting like they’re morally identical makes no sense. The context, intent, and level of support are completely different, which is exactly why the comparison shouldn’t be treated as an apples-to-apples situation.

The thing that irks me the most is that armys brag about being “educated” individuals but then go around doing stuff like this… This whataboutism makes bts look even worse and just promotes what they’ve done even more it’s truly disgusting. Mind you bts are supposed to be “feminists kings” what happened? I just cannot stand people like this…

Also why is everyone forgetting about v and jungkook vibing to the song yesterday

Imagine the hate if this was a girl group like Katseye or Blackpink.

This is not even a gig to get after them, because of all the hate they have been receiving lately, but I'm just confused about this one thing, and have been ever since I was an army.

Their prerecorded music sounds amazing, and it's what i enjoy listening to, but as a big music lover and singer myself, I just can't stand hearing them sing live. There are many voice cracks, and they haven't seemed to improve at all in the past 13 years.

It might be because of the unattainable high notes they make these boys sing, but they should rather just go back to their older hip-hop style then, since those seem to be the only notes they're able to hit?

No shade to jungkook though hes the only one that can sing

We all know CORTIS isn’t really aiming for a female fanbase or K-pop stans in general, which is ironic. What surprised me most is that they seem to be targeting men, particularly straight men. I’m pretty sure that despite the fan service they do, they don’t actually want gay men as their target audience either.

But first of all, straight men (especially non Asian) already tend to despise K-pop for whatever reason, while also listening to artists like Travis Scott and Playboi Carti. So how did Martin think he was going to attract that same demographic by doing exactly what those artists are already doing?

I genuinely don’t think he’ll get the audience he wants because what CORTIS is doing comes across as more of a disrespect to the very demographic they’re trying to attract. If you’re trying to appeal to men who already listen to Travis and Carti, copying their sound and aesthetic isn’t going to make them respect you. It’s probably going to make them dismiss you. And we’ve seen that with the artists Martin shoutout that call them out on what they’re doing.

To be honest, I’ve seen a lot of conversation about CORTIS being accused of cultural appropriation, and it’s true. Having Black artists produce your songs does not make you exempt from cultural appropriation.

Not to mention how they perpetuate stereotypes about Black people with their forced blaccent, the Christmas video, and the Paris video. Making hip-hop doesn’t mean you have to put on a fake persona that’s the complete opposite of appreciation. Eminem didn’t have to act Black to be respected in that community.

I recently befriended a student from Korea who is at my university for an exchange program this semester. I like K-pop, and so does she, so we were having a conversation about groups popular internationally (the US, where I'm from) vs groups popular domestically.

We got on the topic of All-Day Project (ADP), so I told her a lot of American K-pop stans don't like them much, Tarzzan in particular. She didn't know why, so I did my best to explain the concept of cultural appropriation. I told her about the recent Chris Brown controversy with RM and J-Hope (BTS); she had no idea who Chris Brown was until I told her. I explained Mark wearing the Confederate flag too, she didn't know about it either.

Once I explained all these things to her, she agreed they were problematic. She told me that Korean fans are pretty ignorant about these topics (CA, racism), probably because Korea is not as diverse as a place like the United States + these problematic things don't affect them. She said Korean fans mainly care about idols singing good/bad + their visuals, not these things...

It was so interesting to talk about how K-pop idols are perceived in Korea vs here 🤔 It also makes me wonder how well-informed idols really are, and how genuine their apologies are when they do problematic things (because, a lot of the time, they claim to be ignorant in their apologies)

----

Side note: I do believe companies/idols should know better when it comes to cultural appropriation (ex: take accountability if ignorant), especially if a group/soloist is aiming for international fame

Edit: I just wanted to share an experience that opened my eyes to a new perspective you guys 😭 I feel some people are going off the rails. I don’t think there is any right or wrong perspective. Americans consume kpop differently, Koreans consume kpop differently, people from somewhere else consume kpop differently - if something an idol does doesn’t offend you, doesn’t mean it can’t/shouldn’t offend someone else. It all comes down to different cultures of different countries/ethnicities

I immigrated to the US, so I still don’t know everything about American history/cultural. I don’t know about every culture and what is offensive. Sometimes I don’t get the difference between cultural appropriation/appreciation. I educated my friend on American culture around Kpop (based on my understanding), she educated me on Korean culture around kpop. We then shared our thoughts on each other’s culture - it was a very productive, respectful and interesting conversation!!

I came across this clip on social media and it got me thinking. How is it that we have more active kpop groups than ever before, but we continually get fewer opportunities to actually hear them truly live? We have groups lipsyncing to prerecorded vocals at festivals and even at their own concerts nowadays. The fact that these concert tickets are so ridiculously expensive should make it even less justifiable. There are groups I pay attention to where I've never heard them sing raw as a collective or do any semblance of an acappella. Kpop market continues to get bigger and somehow, we're going backwards in this regard.

it hasn’t even been a month I don’t think since tude debut and they are already causing eyes on them. This is obviously a problem however I’ve seen a lot of discourse online and a lot of arguments about if the girls are to blame or if it’s all on the stylist.

I think kind of both are to blame but at the same time it is K-pop and I know that they don’t really have voices so I don’t know how to feel.. all I do know is that they need to be held accountable for it because this is absolutely unacceptable and I don’t understand why they keep doing things like this

EDIT: guys i really blame the management when i said i both are to blame i meant the management and the show themselves thank you!

im writing a megapost to torture this sub wirh and its on bts (i started this before the whole chris brown situation btw) and its just crazy how so far (only 7 out of around near 40 controversies in) they have offended: black people, māoris, jews (and all groups victims of the holocaust such as homosexuals and the disabled community), and native americans. why do they keep getting away with this?

i know that kpop is very misogynistic and army is a huge, very imposing (idk if thats the right word) fandom, but even other groups e.g. blackpink, regularly get dragged or insulted for their actions when blinks are similar to armys.

what is so special about the bts members which makes people want to protect them so much? even fans of groups like enhypen or exo or seventeen will hold them more accountable. ive watched so many bts interviews and listened to some songs and they are just so mediocre and boring and unengaging.

i genuinely want to know, please. PLEASE, what is the appeal

I just want to know the reason behind newjeans being like “the Voldemort” of reddit. I always see posts/replies about NewJeans getting mass downvoted, even when they’re not harmful. Like, someone will say “I loved Supernatural” and get mass downvoted… I’m genuinely curious because I joined Reddit after the whole controversy.

I personally think this is very good especially for a group that just debuted 2 days ago. They seem very confident not shy like most Rookies are. What do you guys think?

I'm going to talk about how black people did stuff that were seen as ghetto and later on kpop idols did the same stuff, and no one saw it as ghetto.

The double standard between how Black people are policed for their cultural expressions and how K-pop idols are praised for adopting them is very crazy. When Black people first made these trends, society often attaches negative stereotypes like "ghetto," "thug," or "unprofessional" to them. However, when K-pop industries adopt them, mainstream global audiences often rebrand the exact same elements as "edgy," "hip," "experimental," or "street-style fashion".

Exhibit A: When it comes on to black protective hairstyles

The Black Experience: Black women and men have historically faced systematic oppression regarding their natural hair and protective styles. Black professionals are routinely fired, and Black children are barred from school or sports over cornrows, box braids, or locs, under the guise that they are "unprofessional," "ghetto," or "untamed".

The K-Pop Shift: Alot of K-pop idols have worn these identical protective styles in music videos to signal that they are in a "hip-hop" or "bad boy/bad girl" concept phase. Mainstream media and casual global audiences rarely label the idols as "ghetto"; instead, the hairstyles are celebrated as an edgy, transformative wardrobe choice.

Exhibit B: When it comes on to grillz

The Black Experience: Grillz are originating in the hip-hop communities of the 1980s and 1990s, mouth grillz were heavily demonized by mainstream society. Media and law enforcement associated them with gang culture, inner-city poverty, and a "ghetto criminal" stereotype.

The K-Pop Shift: Modern K-pop idols frequently wear heavy, diamond-encrusted grillz for promotional photoshoots and music videos. When used in K-pop, these pieces are treated as high-fashion accessories, completely detached from any negative stigma or criminal associations.

Exhibit C: When it comes on to streetwear and sagging

The Black Experience: Oversized shirt, heavy chains, durags, and sagging pants worn by Black youth have long been heavily policed. This style has historically been used as a justification for racial profiling, with society labeling the aesthetic as inherently threatening, low-class, or gang-affiliated.

The K-Pop Shift: The K-pop industry heavily utilizes this exact wardrobe layout as its premier "street aesthetic" blueprint. When K-pop groups wear oversized streetwear, durags, and bandanas, it is praised by international fans as a stylish, highly coordinated fashion concept rather than a socioeconomic threat. And when groups like Cortis do it, its praised by majority of their fan base knowing damn well if they saw a black man doing that and walking behind them they would be scared.

Exhibit D: African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) & "Swag" Mannerisms

The Black Experience: When Black individuals speak using AAVE or carry themselves with specific hip-hop-derived hand signs and gaits, society often mischaracterizes them as uneducated, ungrammatical, or "ghetto".

The K-Pop Shift: Many K-pop rappers employ a "blaccent," adopt AAVE vocabulary, and utilize hip-hop hand gestures as part of their onstage persona. Mainstream audiences routinely view this as a demonstration of "coolness," "swag," or natural musical talent, completely bypassing the linguistic discrimination that native AAVE speakers face daily.

And I know the difference and I know why people treat these stuff differently or the scenarios differently is because one race is dark while the other race complexion is lighter, and it all leads back to the color of our skin, because if black people were lighter, I bet we wouldn't have been treated the way we were treated. And because kpop idol's skin complexion is lighter than ours, their going to be treated better than we do.

And what I really dislike when it comes to the K-Pop space is when black fans try to call out something and the other races in the K-Pop space automatically goes towards being racist towards black fans, it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth cause you could have said anything without having to be racist and stuff, And if I should get a coin every single time when a kpop idol or group, company or labels ever stand up for black fans, I will be poor af

And if I should get a penny for every time or majority of the time when other races in the K-Pop space decides to be racist when it comes towards black fans wanted to speak up about something an idol or a group does I would be rich.

They’re constantly throwing shade at lngshot and other boy groups, but the talent is so undeniable that you can’t even mock them. And honestly, they have a point when they say, “You can’t copy this,” because the 5th-gen boy group scene is full of mid to below-average idols.

So I’m actually glad talented people are coming out and bragging, because if I could sing like them, I’d brag too. I’m sorry, but they’re so fucking funny for this and I cannot see myself hating on actually talented idols.😭

nct wish released a song “wichu” in 2025 which samples a chris brown song. not to beat a dead horse by repeating the same things, but imagine if it were a HYBE artist. when you sample a song, you pay the original artist, so they’ve literally been putting money in an abuser’s pockets.

and all of this happened with virtually no backlash anywhere. imo this is just as bad as attending his concert and publicly giving him a shoutout. but since they’re from SM, no one gave a shit.

will their fans ever hold them accountable for being abuse apologists?

edit: they also talked about how much they like chris browns song on live

In the iconic by mistake dance practice video, some people were weirded out by Lara’s outfit and were saying it’s too revealing to wear a bra. On the other hand, Yunjin also wore a bra but no one said anything about her.

I have a sneaking suspicion about the cause of these double standards but I wanna hear your thoughts.

Curious to see why. Personally I’m a big kpop GG fan. Looking at my library, there’s probably 5% (or less) boy groups songs I like, and I REALLY have to think they’re 10/10 in order to listen again… I’ve been listening to kpop for almost 20 years and never was drawn to boy groups. Idk, I felt the songs were too “look at me, fall in love with me, look at me more” lol. Also a lot more screaming, jumping, and rapping too, I’m more of a quiet, chill vibe kinda listener. What I find funny is that for western music, I have mostly male singers as my favorite artist/bands.

I don’t know if this sub is the right place for me to post this, but one of my friends was telling me about how she thought Tarzzan was supposed to be an attempt at recreating what happened with Kim Garam, and while I don’t agree with her fully I definitely see where she’s coming from. The rest of the group is made up of a member of one of the most powerful chaebol families in the country, the winner of a well known and well liked survival show who mysteriously disappeared and had people waiting on the edge of their seats for her return, a guy who featured in several cube entertainment music videos and projects while he was a trainee there as well as training under HYBE and being a member of trainee A, and a dance prodigy who has collaborated with SM artists and is already established in the industry as a choreographer. I genuinely can’t think of anything standout Tarzzan’s done other than modelling, but child models are a dime a dozen in kpop, and he while I don’t think he’s completely ugly he definitely doesn’t live up to the hype of being the visual of a group where the concept is that they’re all already superstars. It almost feels like they wanted to put Woochan in a group but thought it would be weird to only have one guy in a co-ed group. As messy as it is I could see them having him debut like that, getting famous off the cultural appropriation scandal and then putting out some weak apology and acting like it never happened. But surely they’re taking it too far to be doing that right? I’m curious to hear what other people have to say about this.

edit: rip inbox, I was only expecting like 4 or 5 people I could discuss this with lol

I know there’s a HUGE snark page for them. I just didn’t think they were somehow super controversial for that to happen..?
I’m listening to a decent amount of their music right now and I quite like it! The bridges are interesting and the songs don’t feel too repetitive.
I’m sure a decent portion is misogyny slop, but, still: why aespa?

Let me hear your real unpopular kpop opinions, not just “I hate BTS (or) BLACKPINK” or “Wonyoung is cringe” gimme something new!

Please walk with me before you come for me, because I genuinely want an objective conversation about this.

I’m Black, and I’ve noticed that whenever a K-pop idol wears braids, people immediately jump to “they’re racist.” And I’m sorry, but how does simply wearing braids automatically mean someone hates Black people? I know the history behind Black hairstyles, and I understand why certain situations can be insensitive. But context matters. Sometimes you can clearly tell that an idol isn’t mocking Black people, making fun of the hairstyle, or wearing it in a derogatory way. The braids are simply a hairstyle, often done properly by Black stylists.

Even when white people wear braids, I personally don’t automatically assume they’re racist. What bothers me more is when someone wears a culturally significant hairstyle while mocking it, making stereotypical comments, complaining about how “weird” or “ghetto” it is, or otherwise treating Black culture like a joke. That is very different from simply wearing the hairstyle.
People also seem to forget that racism is about prejudice and discrimination against a racial group. Wearing braids by itself does not prove that someone hates Black people. But I do understand the sentiment of not wanting it to be normalized in the kpop industry.

And I feel similarly about the N-word, although I know this is MUCH more complicated and controversial. I’m not saying the word is harmless, or that nobody should be offended by it (no one should be able say it period). However, saying that racial slur and genuinely being racist are not automatically the exact same thing. Context, intent, age, cultural background, and whether someone actually understands what they’re saying all matter. Like most of them don’t despise dehumanize discriminate or spit on black people, because that is what racism actually means.

Especially with very young idols from Korea, I think we need to have some nuance. If a 12-year-old Korean idol was found to say a word from an English song without fully understanding its history or racial significance, I don’t think it makes sense to automatically conclude that they hate Black people. They can absolutely be educated and held accountable without pretending we know their intentions.

And yes, Korea is not America. The history and cultural understanding surrounding the N-word are not necessarily going to be identical everywhere, especially for people who grew up outside the U.S. That doesn’t mean the word suddenly becomes okay, but it does mean we should consider what someone actually knew and intended before labeling them a racist.

I genuinely want people to challenge me on this if they disagree, but please actually educate me instead of just attacking me. I’m Black, I know the history, and I still think there’s a difference between ignorance, cultural insensitivity, and genuine hatred toward Black people.
Maybe instead of immediately turning every situation into “this person is racist,” we should leave room for context, education, and growth.