Senior Adam Bolivar Stone showing his disdain towards the famous K-Pop singer IU. Photo courtesy of senior Juan Martinez
Some San Luis Obispo High School Tigers listen to Korean pop music, k-pop, and act like it’s the one true music compared to others. K-pop, a music sung by mainly koreans which is where the K comes from, is a loud, mainly electric type music that is in both English and Korean, switching between the two.
Those who like the music usually care more about the singers than the songs. Thanks to their over the top beauty standards they are made into what we call “beauty standards.”
The men are made to become dolls to look at more than singers to listen to.
“All kpop songs sound the same to me and none of them are very good,” said junior Leila Dragomir.
There seems to be a lot of repetition with the music they put out to their audience.
“In my view, the rise of k-pop is perpetrating unconventional beauty standards across east-asia. K-pop band members are almost exclusively pale and light-skinned, this even further exemplified in the Philippines where BTS copy-cat groups have the same unnatural skin tones that the many K-pop groups have. In these countries skin-lightening is an increasingly more common and dangerous way to obey western and asian beauty standards,” said freshman Aidan Field.
The singers themselves, just sing and show off their body. Their entire gimmick is showing off their abs and hip thrusting into the crowd while singing their mediocre music to their mainly younger audience.
“With male Kpop idols, I do think they’re physical attributes are their main selling points and it’s their way of getting their views and money” said senior exchange student Malibu Uzunlar.
Though they do work for their looks, they go through vigorous workout routines to look the way they do. They watch what they eat like a hawk going through multiple tests before they can even hope to eat it.
“It shows their dedication to what they do, not only in their singing but also exceptional dancing abilities,” said strong supporter of Kpop and sophomore Bryan Razo.
