K-Pop fandoms have been quite abuzz recently, thanks to Mnet announcing the nominees for this year’s Mnet Asian Music Awards, or MAMA. It’s not unusual to see fandoms begin to set up their game plans for the voting period, as well as creating content in support of their faves before, during, and after awards season.
But, there’s just one thing that all fandoms and K-Pop fans can’t ever get away from during this time, and are pretty much infamous for it: fandom wars. These petty fan wars are pretty much inevitable because as we all know, not everyone can share the same sentiments as others.
And that shouldn’t be a bad thing—it’s okay to have different opinions on different matters because it’s based on our own preferences (that aren’t too political or too serious if I may add). But apparently, not everyone thinks that way.
Some often take things a little too far, hurling insults at others as a way to try make them believe that they’re wrong. Most of the time, some do these to people just harmlessly stating what they feel about a certain thing. Of course, not everyone responds to these things calmly and collectedly.
Take a look at how K-Pop stans have been reacting to the nominees of the different categories in the awards show. As you may have already expected, some takes by some people aren’t taken in by fans lightly.
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As a K-Pop fan myself, I too was anticipating the nominees for this year’s MAMA awards. I don’t really have any opinions on the nominees, aside from wanting my faves to win in their specific category. But, as part of the discourse on the “Best Vocal Group Performance”, I did say an opinion of mine, which apparently offended some ENGENEs.
im not hating on polaroid love but how is that worthy of the "best vocal group performance" normination at the MAMA 2022
— gel ( ˙▿˙ ) (@gelpnalosa) October 25, 2022
Then, the quote retweets and replies under it were just a sight to see. Well, that’s typical fan behavior, but seriously? Why does this toxic kind of behavior prevail most especially during this period?
Awards show season in the K-Pop community honestly serves as a breeding ground for fan wars—both serious and unserious in nature. Sometimes, it even begins even without the intention of doing so.
While we can all agree that awards show season is like another world war upon us, it shouldn’t stop us from having the freedom to express what we want and feel towards the nominations. Yes, we’re all here wanting our faves to win in the category they were nominated in, but do we have to go so far just to rely on those awards for the artists’ validation as the musicians they are?
Our favorite artists do not create music or work as hard as they do just to reap and sweep awards at the end of every year. Their aim, as I’m pretty sure they’ve mentioned in their interviews, is to just make music for their fans and as a part of their dream. Accepting awards is just a part of their journey as artists and should not be the sole identifier for their growing careers.
True musicians do not rely on awards for validation, their fans’ support is already enough. And besides, if our favorites saw how we dealt with other fandoms online, would they be proud of us starting fan wars when they’re just there to make music?
Also, can we not take these “hot takes” and all that so seriously? We’re all just talking about music and artists, not the next 6 years in our political system sheesh. If we were talking about the latter, then maybe we could dog show each other all we want.
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