Your Parenting Guide to K-Pop: How to Balance Support and Concern for Your Children’s Hobbies

Pop music and adolescents are two entities that always go hand-in-hand. During the 60s, you have the Beatlemania phenomenon with the famed boyband. Later on, the ’90s saw Backstreet Boys & NSYNC, the 2010’s Justin Bieber and One Direction. From the year 2020 onwards, K-pop emerged as the most popular music genre.

Preference for pop music is relatively common among pre-adolescents and adolescents alike. Now, there’s a difference between music preference and being a fan. Being a fan is more than just listening to your favorite singer. Nowadays, it also includes doing extra projects such as non-stop streaming, buying various merchandise, and constantly checking the latest news online. With this new height of fan efforts, there’s a changing trend in fan culture as well. 

Fan culture is very normal. But these days, it’s crossing more boundaries than ever before. With various celebrities using and connecting on social media, many fans develop a parasocial relationship with their favorite celebrities. This one-sided relationship can further manifest into negative behaviors if not addressed properly. 

Therefore, it’s important to actively understand the telltale signs of excessive fan behavior so that you can differentiate when to support or address your concern. 

This article aims to serve as your parenting guide to K-pop in balancing your concerns and support for your little K-pop fan. But before that, you need to understand what being a K-pop fan means. 

Understanding K-pop and its appeal

Korean pop music, more commonly known as K-pop, is a form of pop music that originated in South Korea. The music style is influenced by many genres of music from around the world, creating its unique sound. 

This subgenre of pop music started to become popular in South Korea during the 1990s with famous local bands such as Seo Taiji and the Boys, Sechs Kies, SES, Shinhwa, and many more. These bands are often cited as the early figures in the K-pop music industry. 

K-pop became a worldwide phenomenon in 2012, with the popularity of PSY’s Gangnam Style. After that, K-pop acts only became more popular with its many generations of artists.

Key elements of K-pop culture

The unique sound of K-pop music is not the sole reason for its popularity. If you want to help, you must first learn what makes up K-pop music culture. 

Idol culture

Inspired by the idol culture in Japan, K-pop undergoes a rigorous selection process and years of training before debuting. This process also creates an image of a hardworking dreamer that many fans can identify with. 

Inspired by their idol’s hardships in reaching their dream, fans become more motivated to strive for personal growth.  

Diversity in music sounds and style

K-pop music tends to draw inspiration from various subgenres of music, such as the combination of pop, hip-hop, rock, and others, creating its unique sounds. 

This also means that K-pop groups experiment in more genres outside of their usual pop signature sounds.

Polished and trendy dance moves

Another thing that sets K-pop singers apart from regular singers is dances. The steps range from easy-to-follow to professional-level performance. 

Lately, it’s also becoming a trend for K-pop singers to make their dance challenges available for fans and even non-fans to join in on TikTok (Example: Zico ‘Any Song’). Many teens on TikTok participate in fun challenges to be affirmed by others. It’s even proven to improve their confidence. 

Conceptual themes and storytelling in their music

There is often a hidden lore or storyline in a K-pop artist’s music videos. This kind of lore is often easy to miss for somebody who wasn’t part of their regular fanbase. 

Themes and storytelling in music videos aren’t necessarily something new, but the continuous plot keeps fans guessing. This offers fans a chance to decode their music videos with discussion among fans alike, resulting in a heightened sense of belonging.

Fan engagements

Last but not least, K-pop singers are generous with fan engagement, whether through social media or face-to-face meetings. 

They often host live sessions online, open for everyone to join to ask questions and generally just have a good time with their fans. This activity provides a level of engagement with fans without common barriers such as money or distance.

Benefits of being in a K-pop fandom

Being a K-pop fan is almost the same as being a fan of Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, etc. 

However, there are main differences that make being a K-pop fan unique from other celebrities’ fandom. Various research on K-pop fans has conjured up interesting benefits of being a K-pop fan, such as the following.

Increased psychosocial outcomes

According to a study, K-pop fanship is associated with positive psychosocial outcomes, such as increased happiness, self-esteem, and social connectedness. Being a part of K-pop fandom allows your children to be a part of a group that shares the same interests, giving them a sense of belonging. 

Enhanced self-expression and personal growth

A study conducted in Malaysia reveals that K-pop fans believe their hobby helped them discover their talents, which include creativity, artistic talents, and organizational skills.

So, besides improving one’s sense of belonging and happiness, being a K-pop fan also increases one’s creativity and life skills, which will benefit them in the future. Unfortunately, there are also potential disadvantages to becoming a K-pop fan.

Potential disadvantages of being in a K-pop fandom

Being a fan of a celebrity is normal. But when taken to the extreme, it could cause many disadvantages. That is when a fan’s attachment to their idols goes beyond boundaries, and individuals start to worship their idols. This phenomenon is referred to as ‘celebrity worship’, and its strongest phase is during early adolescence.

What risks does celebrity worship bring for your children? Here are a few ways that a fan’s supportive behavior could manifest into celebrity worship behaviors. 

High spending

K-pop fans often invest a significant amount of their money to buy K-pop merchandise, albums, and concert tickets. 

Some K-pop companies also organize an event that awards a lucky album buyer to a fan-meet session. This, in turn, influences many K-pop fans to buy bulks of the same albums to increase their chances of winning. This kind of behavior sets your children to be wasteful and impulsive. 

Poor mental health

A study discovered that adolescents who practice excessive celebrity obsession reported experiencing increased levels of anxiety and depression, with lower self-esteem. 

The possible explanation is that individuals with lower self-esteem often use celebrity worship to seek gratification to fill something they felt was lacking in themselves. 

Body dissatisfaction

A study finds that individuals who maintain a parasocial relationship with their favorite celebrity are more likely to endorse plastic surgery. 

Another research found that higher celebrity idolization is related to a higher rate of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating behavior in both adolescents. This could be due to the desire to be like one’s favorite celebrity. 

Navigating the K-pop fandom

Now that you know some of the benefits and disadvantages of being a K-pop fan, you have more knowledge about your children’s hobbies. Below, you’ll find tips on how to balance your support and concerns.

Addressing celebrity worship

Being a fan of a celebrity is a normal phase for all ages, but not when it’s done excessively. Here are a few ways you can help your children encounter the risks of celebrity worship. 

• Try to find out what your children think of their favorite celebrities.  Whether your children think of them as role models, simple admiration, or something more similar to celebrity worship.
• Keep watch on your children’s behavior.  Try to always look out for any drastic changes to your children’s behavior. Children who have higher celebrity worship focus all of their energy on looking up their favorite celebrity instead of their friend group.
• Address the issue without berating them. If you find your children starting to display some changes in their behavior, you can ask them about it. And remember, don’t berate them; instead, listen and try to give your perspective on it.

Read more: Recognizing and Addressing Mental Health Issues in Family Members 

Preventing isolation from non-fans

It can be easy to lose oneself in following up with the updates of one’s favorite people, but this shouldn’t prevent them from interacting with friends who don’t share the same interests. As a parent, here are a few things you can encourage your children to avoid losing themselves in idol worship: 

• Encourage them to join school activities they enjoy. For example, if your children like dancing, encourage them to join a school or local dance group. This could help to grow their confidence.
• Get to know your children’s idols with them. Ask your children directly about their idols and what songs or dances they like. This could improve your bond with your children.
• Set rules about phone usage. This might seem simple, but setting rules about phone usage in some situations that require it could help your child avoid becoming addicted to social media, especially if it’s related to their favorite K-pop idol.

Encouraging critical assumption

Celebrity worship is often also associated with problematic internet use, where it’s not just the amount of time your children spend on social media but also their inability to control their usage, which later on manifests into psychological distress. 

If your children are K-pop fans, you can help them by asking them to think critically about all the information on the internet. For example, you could teach your children that there is a difference between a celebrity’s personal life and what their company or agency tried to portray them as.

With this knowledge, your children are less likely to worship their idols excessively as they know to think more critically whenever there is a scandal or news about their idols.

Supporting safe online engagement

With K-pop artists relying heavily on social media presence, this requires you to educate your children about online safety. You could teach them to use social media more wisely, such as knowing when to stop and always being thoughtful about their privacy, especially regarding their private information. 

Addressing peer influence and peer pressure

With many K-pop fan communities often supporting their favorite idols by buying multiple versions of albums and merchandise, it could be easy for your children to be influenced and buy excessively as a show of support. As a parent, you can teach your children about the difference between ordinary support and excessive support.

Starting from you, educate your children about the value of money and teach them how to save up if they want something to support their favorite idols. Instead of limiting or banning them, educate them instead about financial responsibility and healthier spending habits. 

Read more: The High Cost of Celebrity Worship and Mindful Strategies for Better Spending Habits 

In conclusion

Similar to many of its predecessors, K-pop music fan culture promotes a large community. From being a niche to one of the most popular music genres right now, K-pop is only getting bigger each year. 

Being a K-pop fan has proven to have some beneficial outcomes. But it also comes with its downsides if done excessively. This behavior could set your children to be overly dependent on their favorite K-pop idol and even disrupt their mental health. 

As a parent, you ought to be concerned with your children’s media consumption. But your concern should also be balanced. Have a good understanding of what your children like about K-pop music so you can still be their safe space. Balancing your understanding and concern ensures that being a K-pop fan will be a positive experience in their lives.

If you would like to see more resources on celebrity worship, check out the Parenting Science Labs. The lab uses the research of the Institute for Life Management Science to produce courses, certifications, podcasts, videos, and other tools. Visit the Parenting Science Labs today.

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