It’s A Great Time To Be A K-pop Fan In The U.S. — If You Can Afford It

By Caitlin Kelley


Cash is the cornerstone of any parasocial relationship. You become emotionally attached to a famed stranger. Next thing you know, you’ve joined a collective that pools the rent on their bedazzled tank or their at-home luxuries. Nevertheless the intricacies of such a commercialized form of human connection translates to all kinds of financial situations. This year, among the K-pop idolsphere, one of the most fevered fan communities on the planet, tours in U.S. Are all of the rage.


K-pop fandoms work a little bit differently from those of Western artists. Given that idols often have to pay back their trainee debt, it’s normal knowledge that several Korean acts never make much cash if they haven’t attained the rarified stature of a top-selling categorize like BTS. Although, as with BTS, a group’s crossover success outdoor of Korea is more and more dependent on their fans’ efficiency as consumers. Accordingly, several international fans are saddled with heavier expectations in 2019 to help their preference idols break big.


A group’s tour efficiency can make or break their Stateside viability. BTS has incrementally leveled up since their first U.S. Tour in 2015, leapfrogging from concert halls to arenas to stadiums. However acts newer to the scene are beginning to prepare their own strides. Rookie boy musical group ATEEZ sold out a slew of 1,000-seat theaters in March, while vibrant girl sort Red Velvet sold out their Feb. 7 L.A. Stop in far less than a hour.


This year, a grand total of 20 headliners hailing from South Korea are building a splash in the States — with more being reported by the week — and their tour dates largely run via the opening half of the year: Winner, Oh My Girl, MXM, Red Velvet, KNK, Tiffany Young, ATEEZ, Sunmi, ASTRO, M.O.N.T., Epik High, SF9, BLACKPINK, BTS, TXT, VAV, NCT 127, Stray Kids, TWICE, and Monsta X. The variety of U.S. Tours in the initial half of 2019 has already outdone last year’s crop of stateside acts, once 18 artists trekked the States. In other words, we’re not even halfway by way of the year of our Lord 2019, and we’re all overwhelmed.


Alyson Luskey, 25, is a longtime fan who lives 45 minutes away from Dallas, a more and more regular tour destination for K-pop artists. She’s found a large surge in shows that are more local to her. Hip-hop trio Epik High was the only act to play the Texas city in 2015 — and the number has already ramped up to seven this year. “It’s very hectic, kinda stressful, especially any time whenever you know you’re budgeting on it,” she mentioned. “It’s nice, though. It’s nice to have that be focused, because I don’t have to worry about flying.”


The University of North Texas student wants to go to KCON — a multiple-day K-pop convention contained on both coasts in July and August — however she can’t reconcile the price with the reduced setlist for each act. (In 2018, KCON prices ranged from $50 one-night tickets to $1,500 "diamond" passes.) “I don’t think I might justify spending that much, especially any time they’re not playing all their songs. It’s just a couple of songs per group,” she mentioned. “It’s astonishing. I have no problems with it at all, it’s just not something that I can afford. And it’s not anywhere near me.”


Lily Dabbs, 21, is a Nashville-based superfan whose city’s barren tour schedule for K-pop acts means she’s often travelling to be able to see her preference groups. At the moment, she already has plans to be able to see BTS in L.A. And in Chicago and BLACKPINK in Dallas. She’s also hoping to prepare it to NCT 127’s aids in preventing in Dallas and Chicago. Earlier this year, she even flew out L.A. To be able to see Red Velvet. (Full disclosure: I met her at that show.)


The college junior feels the opposite about the bicoastal K-pop convention. “It might be more worth it travel KCON to be able to 10 groups rather than to be able to see one order that’s nearby,” she mentioned. “It might be the same amount, even.”


Dabbs lives three hours outdoor of Atlanta, where she occasionally drives for K-pop shows, like ATEEZ on March 22. Although even as tour dates spread farther across the States, the emphasis on major cities is still inaccessible for several fans. “It is still sort of hard because even if a crowd comes to Atlanta within a six month radius,” she mentioned, “that’ll be the only categorize that will come.”


Rookie sort ATEEZ perform in London in April 2019 as segment of their Expedition world tour


one of the primary challenges to the multifandom life — in which fans support countless groups — is the ticket prices. "Tickets for most K-pop concerts, even lesser-known or newer acts, length between $50-$350," according to a Forbes report. That’s because acts need to create enough cash to cover their hiked-up overhead charges while creating a worthwhile profit. Tour promoters like SubKulture Entertainment often have to pay for an act’s travel, lodging and venues — and K-pop groups can travel in packs as large as 13. Despite the insatiable appetite of K-pop fandom, it’s hard enough for touring artists to sell enough tickets to break even, which is a struggle that even KCON has faced.


Tiered pricing often makes room for added fan experiences like “hi-touch,” where fans can literally give their “biases,” or preference members, high-fives. Then there’s ticket resellers, who are known to drastically hike up the bills. Now, you could find scalpers selling BTS tickets on StubHub for $2,850 a pop — a far cry from the original price points.


Dabbs mentioned her most expensive buy was a trip to be able to see BTS perform at the American Music Awards. In total, her estimated bill was around $1,300 — including a $700 flight, a $400 ticket and $200 for lodging. “I don’t regret that I went,” she mentioned, “but I regret that I paid so much for it.” Then again, she ended up seeing the group’s appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show for free while in that same trip — and you can visualize her in the front row.


BTS take the stage at the 2017 American Music Awards on November 19, 2017


In another instance, the 21-year-old estimates that she dropped $1,300 for four shows in one morning as soon as BTS tickets went on sale last year. For those uninitiated, the race to snag concert tickets is real — soon considering that, the septet sold out their first Wembley Stadium date in 90 minutes this year. “We set up an operation room, and we purchased as several tickets as we could,” she mentioned. “And that was my entire tax return.”


Luskey points to one barrier for aspiring concertgoers: the abrupt timing for ticket sales. A lot of the time, K-pop acts put the tickets for sale only a week soon after announcing the tour. In some cases, the ticket prices aren’t even reported up until the day the sale goes live. “I understand that they have to get everything settled with the management and the venue,” she mentioned. “But it’s hard. I get lucky as the tickets go on sale right Whenever I get paid.” Fans with less-than-convenient payout schedules might not directly have the time to save for a show that will sell out. She mentioned this has only become more of a problem recently.


Indeed, if streaming parties are the domain of the jobless, the employed side of fandom has a leg up as soon as it comes to big-ticket items. Nevertheless this also means that concert demographics aren’t necessarily reflective of fandom at large. Attendance is decided by who can pay. In MTV News’ rather scientific sample size of Twitter respondees planning to attend a K-pop concert in the U.S. This year, almost each person had a job and saved money.


Stans can typically pegged as teenagers — and while there’s a lot of diversity among the age brackets, there’s some truth to that assessment. At the same time, only 17 percent KCON attendees were under the age of 17 last year. Fifty-four percent fit into the 18 to 24 age length, while 29 percent were over the age of 25. Adult fans have the upper hand at live events.


Blackpink perform at the 2019 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival on April 19, 2019


One K-pop fan named Susan Kelly, 26, splurges on tickets every so often. She lives in Long Island, so travel isn’t as much of a concern for her — although it tempts her to purchase more tickets. Her most expensive buy was a $300 ticket at EXO’s Newark stop throughout their The Exo'luxion tour in 2016. “I didn’t feel bad at all,” she mentioned. “I was like, ‘I’m doing it.’”


At the same time, she’s been getting a complimentary pass to KCON in New York each and every year. “I do a million different jobs, however my main job is I’m an artist,” she mentioned. “I do stained glass portraiture, and I do a lot of K-pop-inspired works.” Case in point, her fanart assists the maintain her fandom. She’s sold pieces for upwards of $400, and her Etsy shop already had over 50 sales this year. And though she attends KCON as a visitor, she right now runs several workshops at the event.


“It’s people looking from the outdoor in,” Luskey mentioned of the misconceptions about K-pop fandom. “At least In the United States, they visualize a boy musical group, and so they think, ‘Oh, teenage females that go crazy. They don’t recognize the income that the older fans — male or female or nevertheless they identify — that we bring in, at least for the Stateside stuff.”


Longtime fans know the struggle of being also young to travel. Dabbs fell into the K-pop rabbit hole any time while she unwittingly stumbled upon a Girls’ Generation song in 2009 at age 11. Yet she wasn’t able to prepare it to a K-pop concert up until 2017 any time BIGBANG’s Taeyang played Atlanta. “It fully affected me, because Once I may go to these [places], I maybe abused that power,” she mentioned. “Every time an audience comes, I’ll go."


To borrow an ancient phrase from the early 2010s, international fans are well-acquainted with the concept of “YOLO.” A heightened sense of ephemerality characterizes K-pop fandom in the U.S. “There’s certainly groups I’ve seen years back that have not been back since, and so they won’t be back,” Kelly mentioned. “So you never know what will happen.” Her all-time preference categorize, TVXQ, haven’t played the States since their SMTOWN efficiency in 2011.


Fans don’t know how long the K-pop craze will last in the States, and the longevity of groups is unpredictable. “I’ve had a lot of groups that I really like break up, and then I’ll really never visualize them again,” Dabbs mentioned. “So it’s urgent for me have the ability to see who I like.” That undercurrent of impermanence means that several are prepared to fork out a premium to appreciate what exists in the now.


At the end of the day, that’s the main thing that keeps fans coming back despite the costs: the happiness K-pop gives them. "I think that K-pop is such an enormous segment of my personality," mentioned Dabbs. "So it’s really critical for me to have those experiences and visualize those songs that are the soundtrack of my life at this point live."


"A lot of things go on [in life]," Kelly adds, nevertheless I can routinely plug in my earphones and look at pictures of Chanyeol and be like, 'I am at peace.'"