Alright, hi everyone. I'm Fai and this is Wired's K-Pop Support.
Today, I'll use the power of Twitter and answer some questions about K-Pop a person may have.
Alright, the first tweet comes from Ayrie. Clearly they're a very curious person because they asked four questions but don't worry, I'll answer them all.
How does one define a K-Pop star?
Everyone defines it differently, some say that if you've trained in Korea and debut then you're a K-Pop Star. Some say if you just dance and sing in Korean then you're a K-Pop star. I don't know, everyone has their own definition that they can make up on their own as they go one.
Do they have to specifically be from Korea?
No. Especially lately the has been a large variety of nationalities that have been debuting. As you can tell from my accent, I'm Australian. There are Canadians, Americans, Japanese, Chinese, Thai stars. So I think...that doesn't matter as long as you look the part and you're able to fit in with the rest.
Do they have the same fanbase that uses similar terminology? Or do you just need the same aesthetic?
Umm, I'm not the knowledgable in how fanbases work, but from what I've noticed personally. All fanbases use the same slang and generally, they do the same things, but the ways they do it differ from different fanbases because they all set goals so they obviously have to use different methods to achieve them.
Anyways, words are made up and we are specks in the universe.
Ayrie, I agree.
This one comes from Daisy, such a pretty name.
I don't understand all these giant K-Pop groups. When there's so many of you, how the F do you get along?
Well, I'm a soloist so I can't speak from my personal experience but I can speak about what my friends tell me.
There are groups that have seven members, nine members, thirteen members and even twenty-something members, but that group has sub-groups so that doesn't really matter.
Anyways I think it would be hard to get along with everyone at first, but slowly as time progresses they get along obviously and they become family. Like with family, you're not close with everyone but you still love them and are able to get along with them.
They have the same goal and they respect each other. It's really not a big deal honestly.
Moving on, Cheryl, also known as @wyoungsn... Alright whatever. They ask,
Yo, does anyone know how K-Pop concerts work? I'm planning on attending some, but I've never been to one. Like, do they have acts that open for them like American ones do? Or not?
Cheryl, also known as wyoungsn, I sure hope that you are coming to my Flourishing Tour in North America. Unfortunately, the tickets are sold out but I hope you managed to get a ticket or else I'll be really sad.
Anyways, regarding your question about concerts, they vary. More often than not, if we're speaking pure K-Pop and not categorising the idol music with K-HipHop or K-R&B, then no we don't have opening acts. They run for two hours, and then we have an additional encore segment where we can have fun with the audience and get more personal with them during our encore.
People have this misconception that all K-Pop concerts are the same like we just sing and dance. But honestly, they're all so different and interesting in their own way. I'd recommend you guys to go check out some concerts if they ever come by you'll have fun.
Moving on, Cafe Universe asks,
Does anyone like know how K-Pop stars get their custom outfits made? Like do they outsource them or do companies have in house designers?
My company has in house stylists, so they're the ones who buy my clothes and style me alongside the other artists in my
company. They come in and measure every single part of my body, like my head, my legs, waist, everything and buy clothes suiting out concepts. They also work with designers outside of the company, specialists, who can make our custom clothes but those custom pieces are pretty much limited to important performances and concerts. That's it.
From Meridith,
How do K-Pop stans learn Korean?
No clue, I guess since they're really interested they just learn it. From our songs or other content we release. Love makes you want to learn.
Emmi asks, her @is luMarkbot by the way, I think they're a fan of NCT because I can see Mark's name there and he's in the profile picture. Woah, he looks so good in that picture. Anyways, they ask,
Ummm how do K-Pop stars keep their hair looking so good even after dying it so many times?!
I'm not going to lie, our hair isn't the healthiest but it isn't as bad as people make it out to be.
I think people have this misconception that we use box dyes for our hair, box dyes are really bad for your hair I don't recommend it at all. We go to actual hair professionals that know how the chemistry behind hair dyes work and they make the dye on their own. The key is to use semi-permanent dye because it washes out quicker and causes less damage, also when it washes out you can just move onto the next colour quicker.
I think a lot of people have this misconception that we bleach our hair a lot, but bleaching East-Asian hair is a long process and it's also very resilient. I'm going to shock you, but you can strip hair colour from hair without using bleach, there are colour reducers and strippers you can use. The actual stripping process may take a while but the dye takes 30 minutes because that's how long it sits for.
Today my hair is purple, next week I'm going for a red colour then I'm going to let that washout for a while then I'll go for a different colour, it's the easiest thing to do especially since I'm oversees.
Actually, when I released my last album I had Grey and Purple hair. A lot of people thought I had a good hair dye, but in reality, my hair was actually just grey, they just used a temporary spray for the purple. In the music video, I wore a wig.
Surprisingly, my hair is honestly not even that dead like if you touch it, it's still soft, people who haven't dyed their hair before comment on how it hasn't become rough and brittle like a straw after everything I put it through. But I have my secrets. When my hair is dyed, I use more conditioner than suggested and I let that sit for five minutes before rinsing it out. After I towel dry my hair I use a stay-in cream at the ends and when it's dry I use a spray mist conditioner.
Also we a lot of expensive conditioners, treatments, serums, hair masks. Smoothing sprays and shine enhancers that make it look healthy for the camera. We're fine, don't worry.
This person doesn't have a name but their @is, starlightore
I'm curious, what got you into K-Pop? What was your motivation to becoming an idol?
Personally, I always knew K-Pop existed because my mom would listen to them. In 2012, my cousin debuted in a group called EXO, you may have heard of them. I wanted to support, him so I watched some K-Pop. I then became really into Shinee and F(x). So a mixture of my family and those two groups got me into Kpop.
As for my motivation, I really loved to dance, I've been dancing since I could walk. I saw a Shinee concert which really made me want to perform on a stage like theirs. So naturally, those two led me on this path.
What are your top 3 K-Pop music videos of this year?
BTS, Boy With Luv featuring Halsey. Tomorrow by Together, Crown. NCT Dream, Boom. I'd recommend you to check them out because they're really aesthetically pleasing. Okay maybe mine too, I have four music videos out this year just go on Youtube and enjoy them.
And finally, Mia asks.
What's your favourite Kpop lyric?
Umm.. If you translate it to English that would be. "Passing by the edge of cold winter, until the days of spring, until the days of flower blossoms. Please stay there a little longer."
That's Spring Day by BTS, not to brag or anything but I wrote that song.
This was Wired's K-Pop support, I hope you found it helpful. Feel free to tweet out more questions and hopefully I, or an other K-Pop idol will answer the question.
Once again, I'm Fai, I'm touring around North America for a bit and I also released a full length album last June called Flourishing I think you might enjoy it. Thank you for having me Wired!