Roundtable: 2012 K-pop Resolutions

A new year, a new set of goals for K-pop. Even the most inconsequential things in our lives need a little direction and planning, right? This week, we asked our writers about their goals for their 2012 K-poppin’ adventures.

Young-ji:

• Stop staying up all night catching up on K-dramas just because the guy lead looks good on screen
• Stop saving pictures of Kim Hyun-joong…I have an issue
• Start watching music videos in full length before dismissing it as “crap”
• Stop pondering why english lyrics in K-pop are bad and start enjoying them
• Learn the names of the SNSD members…it’s about time I know

Amy:

• Listen to full albums and mini-albums all the way through, and really start to judge groups based on their musical ability as exhibited by albums and mini-albums instead of watching them promote title songs
• Stop watching so many dramas — or at least, if I do pick up dramas, don’t drop them out of pure impatience
• Stop worrying so much about the future of K-pop. Maybe it’s not meant to be taken that seriously, haha

Patricia:

• Expand my K-pop horizons and watch Music Core on a weekly basis…which is practically marriage, but a year’s worth of expecting good things from SM and getting nothing tells me that I need to reevaluate my loyalties
• Stop watching bad dramas all the way through out of imaginary obligation. Paradise Ranch was the last one. After that, NO MORE
• Remove myself entirely from organized K-pop fandom. I’ve found that it does bad things to my blood pressure
• Wean myself off my giant Henry crush
• Stop sucking at Korean. My current dependency on English subtitles is probably enough to make my Korean professor cry

Johnelle:

• Give K-pop rookies more of a chance to wow me than their debut song
• See Big Bang live in concert
• Visit the ROK
• See a poll at Seoulbeats with Jaejoong on it where he doesn’t win (I like him, but come on — let’s get real here)
• Out-snark Subi

Fannie:

•  Stop marathoning entire dramas in a single day (or a sleepless night)
• Actually look up the lyric translations to new songs
• Actually give some of the rookie groups a chance
• Not crush on anyone younger than Taemin (I feel enough pedo-noona guilt as it is)
• Stop zeroing in on Junho‘s butt whenever I see him on variety shows. Nah, who am I kidding…

Gil:

• To give more bands a chance, even if their title song sucks.
• Watch a drama without fast forwarding and stop choosing dramas based on the lead actor and his prettiness.
• Stop yelling at the drama actors in Tamil
• Listen to more K-indie
• Stop staying up to watch K-pop idols make cute faces/flash abs/dance in the rain, etc.

Jessie:

• Watch a drama to completion.  I haven’t done this since “You’re Beautiful” but I’m eyeballing “Love Rain” & “Fashion King“
• Find one rookie group to like from the very beginning instead of waiting until they are already insanely popular
• Start watching variety shows again
• Actually listen to the ballad disc whenever I buy those compilation CDs with a dance disc and a ballad disc
• Stop getting mad when hardcore DBSK fans refuse to call Yunho and Changmin anything but “Homin”
• Buy chibi socks!
• Go to every K-pop concert held in LA this year, big or small.  All in the name of journalism, of course :D

Maddie:

• Start listening to more Korean indie bands and Korean rappers
• Stop focusing so much on globalization

Megan:

• Pay attention to MBLAQ and B2ST. Yes, they’re not exactly riveting, but they’re talented and it’s not fair to just ignore them whenever they release something just because their last song was boring
• Stop being such a closet case fan. It’s okay to be shameless once in a while
• Get rid of my Jonghyun picture file. It’s getting a little excessive
• Sit through one full episode of a variety show. I’ve never done it; it’s time that I tried. All the juicy gossip seems to stem from those

Nabeela:

• Get in shape and look like a perfect ten when I track down Dongwoon whenever Beast’s world tour hits up my town so that we can finally fall in love
• Learn how to sing 2NE1‘s “Lonely” and “Ugly” without sounding like a dying parrot
• Actually finish a K-drama
• Give U-Kiss an honest chance
• Watch the first season of We Got Married

Ree:

• Get more in touch with K-indie bands
• Start blogging more frequently whilst somehow still managing to get good grades (I’m not sure this is actually possible for me, so don’t hold me to it)
• Resist the urge to bias the maknae of EXO out obligation just so I can finally know how it feels to be a noona fan.
• Stop praying that the maknae of EXO is younger than me.
• Stop staying up late at night watching variety shows.
• Stop following so many JYJ blogs on Tumblr — my dashboard gets spammed whenever one of them uploads a picture of their cats.
• Force myself to reblog at least five hipster-ish shit a day on Tumblr rather than pretty K-pop idols, so I can somehow pretend I have shame.
• Will not angst-tweet when Yesung and Jungmo go to the army. Will not angst-tweet when Yesung and Jungmo go to the army. Will not angst tweet when Yesung and Jungmo go to the army.
• Will not cry when Yesung and Jungmo go to the army ;_;
• Since DBSK and SuJu are becoming obsolete I will — and I cannot believe I’m saying this — try and force myself to stan SHINee. I’ve already watched almost all of their shows and variety guestings, I follow them, and I love their music. I adore Onew. I think Key and Jonghyun are cool. I sort of think Minho is cute. The presence of the creeper/serial killer/vanilla monster/chainsaw killer/Taemin is unfortunate, admittedly. But I love his voice, so I can live with him. I’m all set to go, but I can’t get into them. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?

What are your 2012 K-pop resolutions? Let us know in the comments.

Related Posts

• Roundtable: Magic Numbers
• Roundtable: Going International
• Roundtable: Three’s Company
• Roundtable: Boys and Girls
• Roundtable: K-pop Around The World