"I hate this, it's repulsive!"
"Want another?"
"Yes!"

That was basically my thought as well. I don't think I'd love Bob's Burgers even half as much as I do if it weren't for the excellent voice acting.

Didn't Shinhwa start in the 90s? Or were they just very early 2000s? Or, alternatively, was their early stuff just much different from their current output?

Hah, nice to meet you :) I know what you mean about it being weird to end up a kpop fan. Most of my life people have thought of me as "that guy who listens to German punk," so becoming obsessed with kpop is kinda jarring even to me, sometimes.

I love how you complain that 3/5 of the groups listed in the article are SM groups, yet 2/3 of the ones you list are SM. The simple fact is, as the Evil Empire of kpop, SM is by far the biggest and most popular. I'd guess that SM grosses as much as the other 2 members of the Big 3 combined. Though with the rumors…

Very cool, I'll have to read it more closely when I get off work. Good selection there, too!

Are you new here? This is a Gateways to Geekery article. The point of the article is to talk about various geeky interests and how someone would go about dipping their toes in the water of said geeky interest. Which is what this article did.

I'm pretty sure that not understanding the lyrics has been instrumental in my attraction to kpop. All through my life I've been violently opposed to pop music on the grounds that the lyrics usually make me want to kill someone. At least with kpop I can't understand the lyrics enough to know if they're banal and…

G-Dragon lost all credibility when he decided to be friends with Justin Bieber. All the plagiarism accusations against him don't help matters, either.

Could make a Pandora station like mine: start with EXO and mix in some Block B, T-Ara, and Brown Eyed Girls. Should get you a nice sampling.

Yes! I love that video. I've been trying to get all my friends to watch it for a few weeks now. One of the things I've come to love about kpop is its ability to be simultaneously super sexy and super ridiculous.

It doesn't help that despite being such a badass rapper, Amber is also known for being just an incredibly nice person. So yeah, I can see a lot of girls developing crushes on her.

It's called "aegyo" and it's basically just a cutesy thing, as others have mentioned.

I'm quite partial to Bo Peep Bo Peep and Day by Day. Doesn't hurt that the video for the former is super sexy, and the video for the latter is just cool.

I agree with you about Miryo. She's amazing. Granted, there are a lot of really talented kpop girls (HyunA, for instance). Miryo's definitely my favorite, though.

After Boys Over Flowers, I'd suggest either Coffee Prince or Rooftop Prince. In fact, I'd say both are fare superior to BOF. Secret Garden is pretty good as well, but the two I mentioned are my favorites.

Hi all, long-time lurker here, finally registered to comment on this. So… I've been a kpop fan for about a year now. My sisters have been huge fans for years and they finally convinced me about a year ago.