Blackpink's impact on K-pop, female empowerment and one Long Island superfan

Being a fan of the Korean pop group BLACKPINK means Sophie Blumenthal gets to be part of another family.

The 20-year-old Baruch College student is from Port Jefferson, and she is one of thousands of fans who will attend one of the group’s two sold-out concerts at Citi Field in Flushing, Queens, this weekend.

"Maybe I’ll be able to meet some new friends that have similar interests," she said. She will attend the concert on Saturday by herself, because her friend who likes Korean pop, or K-pop, cannot go, Blumenthal said.

BLACKPINK officially debuted in Korea in 2016, gaining traction in the United States during the summer of 2018. The quartet consists of singers Jisoo, Lisa, Jennie and Rosé.

Blumenthal said she first heard the group on the radio a couple years ago, and has been a superfan for about a year.

She also said she appreciated how the all-girl group empowers females, a theme the group promotes in their songs.

According to Yale University sociology professor Grace Kao, K-pop first started picking up steam in the United States in the late 2000s and early 2010s, with girl group Wonder Girls becoming the first Korean act to place on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2008, and Korean singer and rapper PSY reaching No. 2 on the Hot 100 with "Gangnam Style," which also became the first video on YouTube to surpass 1 billion views.

She said the K-pop groups that Americans generally think of consist of members who are trained anywhere from a few months to 10 years by entertainment companies.

The members of BLACKPINK reportedly spent four to six years being trained by YG Entertainment, the agency they are signed with as a group, though they do not have contracts with the company for their solo endeavors.

Besides voice and dance lessons, they also are given etiquette lessons along with language classes in English, Japanese, or "whatever other markets they’re interested in pursuing," Kao said. 

K-pop groups are well-known for their intense fandoms, or fan communities.

"The way K-pop works is that at least currently, and I would say probably starting with [K-pop group] BTS or maybe a little bit earlier, there was a sense of building a fandom even before the songs were released; that’s certainly true now," Kao, who has researched the impact of K-pop on Asian Americans, said.

Fans are introduced to group members through teasers and information about their personalities, she said, along with dance challenges, live videos, and extra material that fans can interact with.

This leads to more fans interacting and building their own posts off fan-made contact.

Although Blumenthal appreciates the strength of BLACKPINK's fan community, she said she had heard stories of fans who crossed the line; in February, BLACKPINK member Lisa opened up about having a stalker.

"There’s ... talk about parasocial relationships, where if fans are spending too much time following their favorite artists, that can also lead to unhealthy kinds of obsession," Kao said.

K-pop members are often referred to as "idols," Kao said, noting they are treated as such.

"Maybe I'm speaking more about Korean fans in particular, but fans feel some kind of ownership, that [idols are] supposed to behave in this idealized way," she said. She described how both their physical appearances and personalities need to be "perfect."

"There are many kinds of celebrities in the West and also in Korea, they don't have those expectations placed on them," Kao said.

After their Queens concerts on July 26 and 27, BLACKPINK will continue their world tour in France, with an Aug. 2 stop at Paris' Stade de France.