~ Episode 0 : Let's gather some clues! ~

Hello everyone, and welcome to this brand new section of the blog! You might have noticed that the "K-news" section disappeared from the menu. Don't worry, the articles that were in there did not disappear, you can still look for them in the search bar. However, I decided to create a new section that would englobe all the aspects of the Korean Music industry I wanted to talk about through concrete examples such as: The good part of Kpop (passion, love, friendship, strong ties etc.), the dark side of the industry (harsh working conditions, unfair treatments, lawsuits, etc.), the various stakeholders within the industry (agencies, artists, fandoms), and many more. 

I decided to call this series "Clueless", because some people have absolutely no clue about what the bigger picture looks like, and only limit themselves to what they hear on the news or read on the internet. There's also this board game called Cluedo, where you have to gather clues to find who is the murderer, where the crime happened and what was the weapon used, so the name of the series was also inspired by the board game.

One day, I watched a video I HIGHLY recommend that was done by two talented French YouTubers on the channel called "Veryfrenchtrip" and that is entitled: "Kpop fans: A toxic community?", bringing on the table subjects like the "sectarian" aspect of fandoms, the extremes some fans would reach, the mass streaming, but also the bright side of things such as the strong ties between an idol and their fans. You can watch the video by clicking right here, it's in French but there are English subtitles. 

After I watched that video, I thought to myself: That's what I wanted to actually do through the K-news section, but wasn't able to because I was limiting myself to actual events, while I should've started by tackling the broader topics and illustrate them by examples. And I realised that there were so many things to talk about when it came to the Kpop industry, whether it was about the idols themselves, or the fans, or the entertainment agencies, or even the industry as a whole. I just had to find a way to organise all these thoughts into something. That's how "Clueless" came to life. 

I just want to clarify something: I'm not trying to send a message to the people who don't like Kpop by telling them "hey there, you're stupid and I'm going to educate you". Not at all. The objective of this section is to give useful and structured information to people who are looking forward to understanding the Kpop phenomenon, and who have so many unanswered questions and wish to find answers. This section could also help some newcomers who are still not very familiar with some concepts and wish to dive deeper into the mechanisms of the Korean Music industry. 

Lastly, just like for the K-news section, this isn't a gossip room. I will decide which topics to tackle and I will do my best to provide useful information from trustworthy sources. I hope that this section will help you guys be less clueless and gather more clues to get the bigger picture!

Take care and I'll see you soon for the first episode of Clueless.

Love, Swan