so wait, it's xenophobic not to check out other idol groups if you like BTS, but it's not xenophobic to avoid other korean music that's not idols? because i'd bet large money most of the ppl on this site that stan k-pop artists don't give any other korean music a chance
if you're a multi and you stan BTS, and you say it's xenophobic not to give other k-pop groups a chance, i have to ask you; have you given any other songs by lee so-ra a chance? kim jong wan? younha? bc those are artists BTS has *actually collabed with*
i greatly enjoy a lot of idol music, many of my friends know that. i think it's harmful to act like it's all trash aside from BTS. but if it's not someone's interest or taste, that doesn't make them xenophobic. like at all.
are you xenophobic against dominican people because you don't love any bachateros, or do you just not like bachata music? how many of you listen to music from everywhere outside of america and korea?
now of course there's a difference between saying "i don't care to listen to other k-pop groups aside from BTS, it doesn't connect with me" and saying "all k-pop is trash except for BTS". the latter is ignorant, but even then--that's not strictly xenophobic.
what *would* be xenophobic is saying "all korean music is trash except for BTS". or deeming that BTS is good because of their qualities which would be considered "non-Korean", like "oh, BTS doesn't do all that *han* stuff". which, of course, would be completely untrue.
in fact, some would argue that disliking idol music is actually the opposite of anti-korean because idol music is mostly the least resemblant of traditional korean culture and ideas among all popular korean music genres--as opposed to ballads, or trots, or even k-rock
it's not the same as saying, for example "there's only one hip-hop artist that's good and the rest is trash" because the qualities that people associate with being "trash" in hip-hop are based in black american cultural traditions and communication.
additionally, hip-hop is an incredibly diverse genre--idol music isn't--and hip-hop has for years been most closely represented by & in dialogue with working class black people, especially age 40 and below, which is a huge age range--whereas idol music has always been "for kids".
You can follow @elliotsang.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: