SHINee Reminds Us About That One Thing We Love About K-pop

The Chemistry between K-pop artistes and their fans leaves both non-kpop stans and even K-pop stans awed. While the concept of “fandom” is not explicit to K-pop idols, it is undeniable that K-pop has advanced the art of fandoms.
Through Album sales, song streams and music video views, Photocards and merch, publicity and promotion, K-pop fans are known for their intense passion and the extreme, obsessive support of their idols.

It is safe to say the first characteristic you’ll notice in a K-pop fan is the strong and devoted commitment to their idols in time, money and resources in whatever capacities.
Although there are many times when fandom behaviours have been toxic towards idols, there are just as many Heart-warming moments that greatly portrayed the love and support fans give to their idols, especially, in redirecting cyber hate on social media platforms and encouragement to their idols.

Few days ago a particular fandom that demonstrated an encouraging act of fan love has garnered attention with a trend tagged #NoMakeUpWithOnew on Twitter. Onew, is the leader and main vocalist of the 15-year-old influential 2nd generation Kpop group SHINee. About 2 weeks ago, the idol released his first solo Album with the title track Circle debuting at #1 on worldwide iTunes in 30 countries, and two other tracks from the album ranking 4th and 13th respectively on the Billboard Hot trending songs powered by Twitter for the week that ended on March 18th.

While fans took to different social media platforms to celebrate the artistry of the idol he furthered the journey by holding two fully packed concerts in Japan. On returning to Korea for a music show performance, Onew’s pure interaction with some fans as he waved and smiled heartedly, was recorded.

However, it was a surprise when some took to dragging the idol for “looks” in the video, on Twitter due to a random article. It would seem Onew, who was on his bare face wearing no makeup, had broken a sacred rule. But, the loyal fandom of the group, dubbed SHINee WORLD (Shawol, in contracted form) was ready in full fan protection squad mode to defend their idol.

To counter the mean Twitter trolls and tweets with mean comments on the Idol’s looks, and show solidarity and support the idol, Shawols around the world began posting pictures of themselves, bare-faced with the tag #NoMakeUpWithOnew.

While this may look like a trivial action, it is not. As beauty standards are placed on people in most places and seemingly higher in the K-pop industry, these fans were brave enough to, in many cases, push back on their shyness, and openly show their faces on social media just to support the artiste. In similar fashion, many fans applauded Onew’s carefree action as it inspired them to join the trend and take another step towards body positivity, self-love, and appreciation. This 2-way, mutual encouraging relationship between idols and their fans, is a contributor to driving K-pop forward.

As more fans joined not only was the #tag trending in the K-pop section but also in the Fashion and Beauty section on Twitter. What strikes me as amazing is that in the middle of this, the fans still took time to get on the online voting to help Onew win his first Music show award as a solo act. And more fans joined the #NoMakeUpWithOnew trend in celebration of the artiste’s win, spicing the trend with both a defensive and celebrating vibes all for the kpop artiste.

From creatively defending their idol against the undeserved hate, to helping his first win and generally supporting each other beyond barriers of language and locality, and also being live attendees and virtual supporters at another group’s member— Minho’s solo fan meeting in Japan, it surely was a long day of noble fight for Shawols.

Nevertheless, this fandom’s acts once again prove why fandoms are a cool thing— when it comes to supporting their artists, true K-pop fans are never off-duty.

Labels
#2ndGen #2ndGenerationKpop #SHINee #Kpop #Kpopgroups #Onew #Kpopfandoms