Reactions to "Kids React: K-pop Edition"

While perusing through the world of K-pop via the Internet, I came upon this video “Kids React To K-pop.” As some background info on the the show, “Kids React” is a popular YouTube show in which kids react to various things on the Internet. Curious, I clicked on it and watched it. This was the first “Kids React” video I’ve ever watched and honestly, I thought it was hilarious. But when I watched it, it was before this video blew up in the K-pop sphere, in which it garnered a lot of disapproval and hate from many ardent K-pop fans.

I’ll admit that some of these children did act pretentious and were small-minded, but the comments in response were markedly worse. What better way to point out the narrow-minded comments of others than with narrow minded comments of your own? Physically threatening the children because of their criticisms of your favorite music groups is childish, and quite frankly, worse than the conceited comments some of the kids made.

That being said, I will agree that some of these children made comments without thinking it through. One little gem was William, who claimed that K-pop would ruin society and how he wished to return to a better time — the 1980’s, which was filled with mullets, crazy hair, and regurgitated rainbows in the form of fashion.

Personally, one should not take offense to this video at all because the videos shown to the children aren’t actual representations of K-pop itself. Yes, “Gee” has become the official anthem of K-pop, but it’s not the only song under the K-pop umbrella; you have groups like the Brown Eyed Girls, Infinite, and others that are different. They also showed “Bonamana” by Super Junior, and as popular as “Bonamana” was, it’s far from being K-pop’s defining song. They also showed old pictures of SNSD and Super Junior from several years ago, and there were some funky things going on during those times.

That being said, I can understand why some fans were upset. Some of the comments towards the tweens (yes, the most ignorant comments made were the ones made by the elder members) were a bit unwarranted, such as the rather memorable comment claiming that K-pop was Korean Rebecca Black.  Another popular sentiment was that the songs were in a different language, which is why they disliked it. And that’s definitely a narrow-minded comment: just because we no longer live in a world where someone is ignorant of other nations, rapid globalization is nonetheless taking place, and we should start expecting “foreign” things to hit our shores. But at the same time, lyrics are a huge part of music, and I can understand why some people would prefer listening to languages they understand. But to write off something because it isn’t in English is narrow minded.

What many failed to see, was that this show was a window into how K-pop is perceived in the U.S.  2NE1 is heralded as one of the K-pop groups that can make it into the U.S. because of their westernized music style, attitude, and “girl-power” concept. But what comments do they receive? “They’re like Lady Gaga,” and “Aaaaah.” Time to rethink that statement.

I thought this video was enlightening and amusing, mainly because it showed how K-pop is perceived by non K-pop fans. There were some negative kids who thought K-pop (of all things) would ruin society forever, but there were also kids who liked it and were open to it. But in no way is this video deserving of death threats so it’s time for y’all to relax. So someone doesn’t like K-pop? There are plenty of others who do, and hating someone because they disagree with you is a childish thing to do. Before we look at the comments made by others, its time to look at ourselves.

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