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Crowstep  11mo ago (mattlakeman.org)   2661 thread views

A Deep Dive into K-pop – Matt Lakeman

mattlakeman.org

Submission statement: Eternally interesting blogger Matt Lakeman goes on a (very) deep dive into K-pop. He covers the history of Korean pop music, obsessive fans, gruelling popstar cram schools and the corporate machine behind it all.

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One of my all time favourite writeups and one of the most blackpilling things I have ever read. K-Pop is, and could only have been, the product of a country with 0.78 birthrate. Its worldwide popularity is illuminating as to the sort of future the developed world might inherit.

K-Pop is, and could only have been, the product of a country with 0.78 birthrate.

Really, how? What is your point? I don't mind reading the "This is all explained by birthrate/IQ/dialectical materialism/energy ROI/etc" takes, but for god's sake flesh them out a bit.

In a society that isn't demographically imploding, young people either have children, or are in committed relationships which will produce children in the near future, so they don't have time and energy to invest into braindead stuff like K-Pop fandom.

I don’t think we need to solve the mystery of why people would produce and listen to particularly popular pop music featuring skilled good-looking young people.

That aside, if anything, the causal relationship goes the other way. The koreans are so committed to achieving the ‘best education’ and the the catchiest tune, that they don’t have the time and energy left for any more children.

They actually use their conformist, delayed gratification, high effort system to achieve physical and dancing perfection, test-taking skills, and Starcraft excellence, but they theoretically could do the same for fighting a war, making great art or going to mars. I think it’s a little more complicated than “they don’t have children and therefore do stupid shit.”

Indeed it's more complicated. Generally I think that demographic collapse is a vicious circle i.e. when children are generally scarce, it erodes one's inclination to have children.

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