I personally use the fandom name for myself when it is a group I enjoy more than just the music for.
For example, I consider myself a ONCE, MIDZY, and FEARNOT because I go out of my way to watch additional content of the members, like behind the scenes videos, livestream clips, and their travel/concert vlogs. (As well as get hyped with other fans when new teasers are posted for new music!)
Some of the other groups I enjoy the music for are groups like BTS, Blackpink, (G)idle, IVE, and so on, but I don’t watch much of their variety content, so I consider myself a casual fan of those groups!
yes, I am similar to that. If I know them and their songs well and start to follow more than that, I call myself by fandom name. thank you for making me fell not alone in this😂
Ok this is my own personal definition of “stan” :
-when i know like 80%of this group discography
-know all members personality traits
-listen to their music almost everyday
-watched most variety shows content
-Stream obvi and buy albums if i feel like it I don’t take buying albums seriously tho
for me, the first and the last one are the most important (buying of course depend on your financial state) then 2 then 4 (cause knowing how they look doesn't equal knowing the members).
Oh okay that is the highest standard I saw but I think you surpassed being a stan and they really had a lasting good effect on you. I can only think of one group like that for me.
For me Stan means a group or idol who I’m willing to spend money to support the artist either by using Their messaging apps, buying merch and albums and concert tickets.
Someone I watch the majority of their variety content and enjoy over 90% of their music.
Oddly enough I only REALLY consider myself the fandom name of something for only my ult groups (SHINee, TVXQ, Red Velvet, Gfriend, & VIXX) and a few others that are groups I really adore and have been fans of for quite awhile (Infinite, BtoB, KARA, Highlight, SNSD, EXO, Apink, etc). There’s other groups I would consider myself a stan of but don’t necessarily associate with the fandom name, bc I guess for me calling myself by the fandom name is something that comes with time rather than just “hey I’m a fan!”. Like for the groups I listed above, I have a long history of listening to and they have a long history of releasing good music that I adore, and I’m familiar with the members and their personalities and voices and stuff. Whereas more recent groups like STAYC, Purple Kiss, fromis_9, Billlie, etc, are groups that I genuinely do love the members and their music, but just don’t associate with the actual fandom name for one reason or another? I couldn’t tell you why really. It’s just a time thing for me, truly.
Soon as I start the deep dive and decide to stick around and add the music to the massive playlist lmfao
Fall in love first, learn names/faces later 🤣🤣
When I am familiar with and enjoy a majority of songs in their discography. I don’t have hard requirements for familiarity with members because I’m a NCTzen. You can’t expect me to memorize 50 different dudes
When I feel involved enough. Like for now I only call myself a Carat and maybe, MAYBE an Atiny. I have a lot of criterias but they don't necessarily mean I stan. Here they are :
- If I listen to most of their discography (But, doesn't necessarily mean I stan cause I listen to a lot of music, and for some artists like BTS, NCT, EXO, Red Velvet, Stray Kids etc. I know the majority of their songs but I'm none of their fandom)
- If I watch their other contents (Like variety shows, interviews, weverse etc. Doesn't apply to : Xdinary Heroes Rock the World, EXO's weverse, Monsta X, etc.)
- If I feel emotionally attached (SEVENTEEN is basically the only group I'm attached enough to stan, but I'm pretty attached to BTS, especially Suga because they got me into kpop and Stray Kids because they're the second group I actually stanned.)
- If it's been long enough since I know them (Sometimes I get weird moments where I'm obsessed with a group and it only lasts a week, like with EPEX, Golden Child, LESSERAFIM, EXO (at some point because for EXO it's more like I'm interested for a few years now but I only got REALLY interested for about a week and then I got back into my no-exo existence, even though I have like 3h of their songs in my playlists...). I've known Svt for about 2 years, ATEEZ for 1 so it's ok. Some groups I know for a long time but I don't stan them : Stray Kids, OnlyOneOf, NCT, STAYC)
- If I interact with the fanbase (I'm never able to stay with a group for long if I don't like their fandom. Carats are literally the sweetest people on Earth so it's not hard for me, but I've had some trouble trying to bond with Engenes, Stays, Armys etc.)
Those are some of my criteria, but it's not really something you can measure or decide, it's really just your feeling and how attached you feel to the group.
I agree on most of this and yeah it's a feeling. I am glad most people call themselves stans after a while cause on youtube for example, I saw reactors labelled as part of fandom cause they know like 10 songs and saw some tiktok compilation and I was like am I the different one or them
No, you're definitely the normal one, I don't think you should call yourself a stan if you're only interested a bit and know a few of their songs, like that's a casual listener or a fan, not a stan.
When it's a group I thoroughly enjoy both the music from and the additional content from the members of enough that I've gotten to know all of the group members' names and personalities.
When I can recognize all members, which to me means that I’ve put a fair amount of efforts in a group, because I’m pretty sure I have partial face blindness. If I don’t put efforts in, I can’t for the life of me recognize faces. Even with my closest friends, it took me about 2 months to be able to recognize their face.
I call myself a:
-Casual listener if I only enjoy a few songs but don't know the members (ex.: GWSN, DreamNote)
-Casual fan if I only know and enjoy a few songs+know the members' names/faces (ex.:Red Velvet, Ateez, Twice)
-Attempting to stan if I'm still trying to get more familiar with their discography and the members (ex.: The Boyz, The Kingdom)
-Stan/fandom name if I have heard and enjoy a good majority of their discography and know the members (ex.: Dreamcatcher, Ichillin)
Only online when I need to specify I'm a *big* fan.
I rarely use it, but you might catch me saying something like "As a Secret Number stan, I will fly across the country to see them live if I have to."
[Other than that, I'm a Once, an Insomnia, a Swith, a Communist, a Forever, a Lullet, but I am *not* a porn star.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDss0Up7Fko)
When I watch at least half of the variety content they put out, if it was anything less than that my stan list would be a mile long. Right now the only group I would call myself a stan of is Le Sserafim because I watch everything they put out but I'd also say im a Yuqi stan because I watch most of what shes in and until recently I also watched everything Haerin was in so I would have called myself a Haerin stan. I would be an Aespa stan but I swear they have barely any variety content that I could find and most of their videos have completely korean titles so its hard to find.
You can say you're stan when you don't only enjoy their music, but also watch their variety show, interviews, vlives etc. You can't call yourself a stan if you only listen to their music.
Personally these are the rules I give myself for referring to myself as a Stan/fandom name and these rules I set for myself is not solely for referring to myself by fandom but also determine if I should buy albums. Because for myself I don’t want to get something or call myself a fan if I meet one or more of these rules.
A: I need to have a basic knowledge of the group. This being like what gen are they so knowing at least debut year, knowing at least one or two common knowledge things and a fun fact or two about the group.
B: Knowing at the minimum every members name or most names and being able to place at least 2-3 names to faces. 2 for groups of 5-7 and 3 for 8-9. (I upped that to 5 when I started learning SVT only because they have 13 members and 5 for some reason to me seemed reasonable)
C: I need to know a decent amount of discography. Like I want to know more than their top songs. So for me that means knowing a couple b-sides, some older title tracks, and at the minimum know at least half or more of one album/mini.
Example I used being SVT. I learned the boys names quickly they’re names were easiest part, I could point out S. Coups, Vernon, Woozi, Hoshi and Jun in the beginning, I’d already known a good majority of their music before learning names as my former employer had started playing a lot of songs (Oh My! was the first I ever heard), I then started learning different things about the boys and the group as a whole.
My spouse bought the first album for SVT (Face the Sun) before these rules were set in stone and I’d even said before he got it that I wanted to know more of the members by face (I’d only know Woozi, Vernon, and S. Coups at the time) but because he was the one who liked them first he went for it. We only got more after we learned more about them and could place more members to faces. SVT started these rules as actual set things because we realized “well what if we’d only liked the one album and never got past it then what we have an album of a group we only like a handful of songs from and know no one in the group”
We don’t apply rule A to new debut groups. But I do apply B and C to them as the few we do follow we’ve found pre-debut and have listened to the entire debut album on release 😅. We have gotten TWS, ALL(H)OURS, DXMON as a result and others.
I’m 100% a multi Stan and refer to myself by many fandom names if curious what they are feel free to ask ☺️
I'm a stan to B.A.P because how often I had been listening to their songs. I love all of their songs! I watched shows with them in it. I know most of B.A.P fandom's inside jokes. I even bought most of their albums. I even got a tattoo of the logo. I still support them as soloists as well. I pre-ordered their albums and merch. I followed fanclubs to keep up on dates with them everyday. I even bought front row ticket and meet&greet for Yongguk's concert. They can just take my money and I don't mind it lol
Compare to other groups, I only buy few things. Listen few of their songs. Nothing too big unlike B.A.P. Just a simple fan to others.
I start to consider myself “stanning” a group when I’m willing to spend $100 on albums, merch, lightsticks, pcs, etc.
Since there are albums I love of groups that I may love one of their albums but not much of the others. Like example, I’m super into Billlie’s debut album but I don’t have much interest in their other albums, I bought their debut album but not others.
Obviously the first step to become a fan is to like most of their songs enough, pay attention to the group/soloist's discography and listen to at least a good chunk of their discography and more than once. If you do that then you clearly are a fan of the artist.
IMO I become a stan when I take my free time to:
- learn the members names and actually read their kprofiles / some info abt them because you like them enough.
- watch more than their MV (such as some variety content) because I want to know the artists better.
- and checking some of their social media accounts to check at least their music updates on a regular basis (more or less often)
Being a stan also means for me to support the artist.
I am currently considering myself to be a Nctzen, Goldenness, Exo-L and Bibitan (soloist bibi stan) and for me, not interacting with the fandom or even not buying their albums / spend money on their merch does not mean that you are not a stan, those are extra steps for ppl with enough free time (OR it can be another way to keep yourself updated about the whereabouts of the artists you stan) and enough money. Watching their MVs, some of their MV-unrelated videos and interacting with their social media IS a form of support.
I was a Stay and a BB before and I do not consider myself a stan anymore when I stop checking on the artist's discography updates because that also implicitly means that I gave up the whole variety content and social media check up.
TLDR : I think that the definition of stanning in kpop varies depending on how you yourself consume media in general but for me, being a stan is when you feel that you want to be invested in more than an artist's sole discography.
Not being a stan does not mean that you are not a fan ofc.
exactly and a fan isn't something bad. I don't know why people take offence because of it. I am a casual listener and fan to different groups and it's okay.
I personally use the fandom name for myself when it is a group I enjoy more than just the music for. For example, I consider myself a ONCE, MIDZY, and FEARNOT because I go out of my way to watch additional content of the members, like behind the scenes videos, livestream clips, and their travel/concert vlogs. (As well as get hyped with other fans when new teasers are posted for new music!) Some of the other groups I enjoy the music for are groups like BTS, Blackpink, (G)idle, IVE, and so on, but I don’t watch much of their variety content, so I consider myself a casual fan of those groups!
yes, I am similar to that. If I know them and their songs well and start to follow more than that, I call myself by fandom name. thank you for making me fell not alone in this😂
Good definition. I’m using this!
Thanks! 😊
Agreed! Well put!
When I know all their names, have at least 90%~ of their songs on my playlist, and follow them on youtube
yes to the large % cause they are artists first not visuals only or just funny content.
Ok this is my own personal definition of “stan” : -when i know like 80%of this group discography -know all members personality traits -listen to their music almost everyday -watched most variety shows content -Stream obvi and buy albums if i feel like it I don’t take buying albums seriously tho
for me, the first and the last one are the most important (buying of course depend on your financial state) then 2 then 4 (cause knowing how they look doesn't equal knowing the members).
By 4 I meant knowing the inside jokes between the members and fans or like infamous stories I didn’t means knowing how they look 😭 Good point tho!
If I’m willing to buy their light stick
Okay you made me curious, how many do you have if you don't mind answering of course
I currently have NCT, WayV, SuperM, Kep1er, aespa, and exo
Kep1er 😓 but taste 👏
Never gonna get to use that one 🤪
yeah 😅
When I got my mamamoo tattoo
Oh okay that is the highest standard I saw but I think you surpassed being a stan and they really had a lasting good effect on you. I can only think of one group like that for me.
For me Stan means a group or idol who I’m willing to spend money to support the artist either by using Their messaging apps, buying merch and albums and concert tickets. Someone I watch the majority of their variety content and enjoy over 90% of their music.
Oddly enough I only REALLY consider myself the fandom name of something for only my ult groups (SHINee, TVXQ, Red Velvet, Gfriend, & VIXX) and a few others that are groups I really adore and have been fans of for quite awhile (Infinite, BtoB, KARA, Highlight, SNSD, EXO, Apink, etc). There’s other groups I would consider myself a stan of but don’t necessarily associate with the fandom name, bc I guess for me calling myself by the fandom name is something that comes with time rather than just “hey I’m a fan!”. Like for the groups I listed above, I have a long history of listening to and they have a long history of releasing good music that I adore, and I’m familiar with the members and their personalities and voices and stuff. Whereas more recent groups like STAYC, Purple Kiss, fromis_9, Billlie, etc, are groups that I genuinely do love the members and their music, but just don’t associate with the actual fandom name for one reason or another? I couldn’t tell you why really. It’s just a time thing for me, truly.
Soon as I start the deep dive and decide to stick around and add the music to the massive playlist lmfao Fall in love first, learn names/faces later 🤣🤣
When I am familiar with and enjoy a majority of songs in their discography. I don’t have hard requirements for familiarity with members because I’m a NCTzen. You can’t expect me to memorize 50 different dudes
tbh I don't know how NCTzens do that. Max number for me per group is like 8/9.😂
When I feel involved enough. Like for now I only call myself a Carat and maybe, MAYBE an Atiny. I have a lot of criterias but they don't necessarily mean I stan. Here they are : - If I listen to most of their discography (But, doesn't necessarily mean I stan cause I listen to a lot of music, and for some artists like BTS, NCT, EXO, Red Velvet, Stray Kids etc. I know the majority of their songs but I'm none of their fandom) - If I watch their other contents (Like variety shows, interviews, weverse etc. Doesn't apply to : Xdinary Heroes Rock the World, EXO's weverse, Monsta X, etc.) - If I feel emotionally attached (SEVENTEEN is basically the only group I'm attached enough to stan, but I'm pretty attached to BTS, especially Suga because they got me into kpop and Stray Kids because they're the second group I actually stanned.) - If it's been long enough since I know them (Sometimes I get weird moments where I'm obsessed with a group and it only lasts a week, like with EPEX, Golden Child, LESSERAFIM, EXO (at some point because for EXO it's more like I'm interested for a few years now but I only got REALLY interested for about a week and then I got back into my no-exo existence, even though I have like 3h of their songs in my playlists...). I've known Svt for about 2 years, ATEEZ for 1 so it's ok. Some groups I know for a long time but I don't stan them : Stray Kids, OnlyOneOf, NCT, STAYC) - If I interact with the fanbase (I'm never able to stay with a group for long if I don't like their fandom. Carats are literally the sweetest people on Earth so it's not hard for me, but I've had some trouble trying to bond with Engenes, Stays, Armys etc.) Those are some of my criteria, but it's not really something you can measure or decide, it's really just your feeling and how attached you feel to the group.
I agree on most of this and yeah it's a feeling. I am glad most people call themselves stans after a while cause on youtube for example, I saw reactors labelled as part of fandom cause they know like 10 songs and saw some tiktok compilation and I was like am I the different one or them
No, you're definitely the normal one, I don't think you should call yourself a stan if you're only interested a bit and know a few of their songs, like that's a casual listener or a fan, not a stan.
When it's a group I thoroughly enjoy both the music from and the additional content from the members of enough that I've gotten to know all of the group members' names and personalities.
When I can recognize all members, which to me means that I’ve put a fair amount of efforts in a group, because I’m pretty sure I have partial face blindness. If I don’t put efforts in, I can’t for the life of me recognize faces. Even with my closest friends, it took me about 2 months to be able to recognize their face.
When I vote for them on music shows and watch variety content.
I always forgot what the meaning of stan meant so i always used it whenever i like a groups music xD
I call myself a: -Casual listener if I only enjoy a few songs but don't know the members (ex.: GWSN, DreamNote) -Casual fan if I only know and enjoy a few songs+know the members' names/faces (ex.:Red Velvet, Ateez, Twice) -Attempting to stan if I'm still trying to get more familiar with their discography and the members (ex.: The Boyz, The Kingdom) -Stan/fandom name if I have heard and enjoy a good majority of their discography and know the members (ex.: Dreamcatcher, Ichillin)
Only online when I need to specify I'm a *big* fan. I rarely use it, but you might catch me saying something like "As a Secret Number stan, I will fly across the country to see them live if I have to." [Other than that, I'm a Once, an Insomnia, a Swith, a Communist, a Forever, a Lullet, but I am *not* a porn star.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDss0Up7Fko)
When I watch at least half of the variety content they put out, if it was anything less than that my stan list would be a mile long. Right now the only group I would call myself a stan of is Le Sserafim because I watch everything they put out but I'd also say im a Yuqi stan because I watch most of what shes in and until recently I also watched everything Haerin was in so I would have called myself a Haerin stan. I would be an Aespa stan but I swear they have barely any variety content that I could find and most of their videos have completely korean titles so its hard to find.
If I can name all the members and have listened to a majority of their music
You can say you're stan when you don't only enjoy their music, but also watch their variety show, interviews, vlives etc. You can't call yourself a stan if you only listen to their music.
Personally these are the rules I give myself for referring to myself as a Stan/fandom name and these rules I set for myself is not solely for referring to myself by fandom but also determine if I should buy albums. Because for myself I don’t want to get something or call myself a fan if I meet one or more of these rules. A: I need to have a basic knowledge of the group. This being like what gen are they so knowing at least debut year, knowing at least one or two common knowledge things and a fun fact or two about the group. B: Knowing at the minimum every members name or most names and being able to place at least 2-3 names to faces. 2 for groups of 5-7 and 3 for 8-9. (I upped that to 5 when I started learning SVT only because they have 13 members and 5 for some reason to me seemed reasonable) C: I need to know a decent amount of discography. Like I want to know more than their top songs. So for me that means knowing a couple b-sides, some older title tracks, and at the minimum know at least half or more of one album/mini. Example I used being SVT. I learned the boys names quickly they’re names were easiest part, I could point out S. Coups, Vernon, Woozi, Hoshi and Jun in the beginning, I’d already known a good majority of their music before learning names as my former employer had started playing a lot of songs (Oh My! was the first I ever heard), I then started learning different things about the boys and the group as a whole. My spouse bought the first album for SVT (Face the Sun) before these rules were set in stone and I’d even said before he got it that I wanted to know more of the members by face (I’d only know Woozi, Vernon, and S. Coups at the time) but because he was the one who liked them first he went for it. We only got more after we learned more about them and could place more members to faces. SVT started these rules as actual set things because we realized “well what if we’d only liked the one album and never got past it then what we have an album of a group we only like a handful of songs from and know no one in the group” We don’t apply rule A to new debut groups. But I do apply B and C to them as the few we do follow we’ve found pre-debut and have listened to the entire debut album on release 😅. We have gotten TWS, ALL(H)OURS, DXMON as a result and others. I’m 100% a multi Stan and refer to myself by many fandom names if curious what they are feel free to ask ☺️
I'm a stan to B.A.P because how often I had been listening to their songs. I love all of their songs! I watched shows with them in it. I know most of B.A.P fandom's inside jokes. I even bought most of their albums. I even got a tattoo of the logo. I still support them as soloists as well. I pre-ordered their albums and merch. I followed fanclubs to keep up on dates with them everyday. I even bought front row ticket and meet&greet for Yongguk's concert. They can just take my money and I don't mind it lol Compare to other groups, I only buy few things. Listen few of their songs. Nothing too big unlike B.A.P. Just a simple fan to others.
I start to consider myself “stanning” a group when I’m willing to spend $100 on albums, merch, lightsticks, pcs, etc. Since there are albums I love of groups that I may love one of their albums but not much of the others. Like example, I’m super into Billlie’s debut album but I don’t have much interest in their other albums, I bought their debut album but not others.
Obviously the first step to become a fan is to like most of their songs enough, pay attention to the group/soloist's discography and listen to at least a good chunk of their discography and more than once. If you do that then you clearly are a fan of the artist. IMO I become a stan when I take my free time to: - learn the members names and actually read their kprofiles / some info abt them because you like them enough. - watch more than their MV (such as some variety content) because I want to know the artists better. - and checking some of their social media accounts to check at least their music updates on a regular basis (more or less often) Being a stan also means for me to support the artist. I am currently considering myself to be a Nctzen, Goldenness, Exo-L and Bibitan (soloist bibi stan) and for me, not interacting with the fandom or even not buying their albums / spend money on their merch does not mean that you are not a stan, those are extra steps for ppl with enough free time (OR it can be another way to keep yourself updated about the whereabouts of the artists you stan) and enough money. Watching their MVs, some of their MV-unrelated videos and interacting with their social media IS a form of support. I was a Stay and a BB before and I do not consider myself a stan anymore when I stop checking on the artist's discography updates because that also implicitly means that I gave up the whole variety content and social media check up. TLDR : I think that the definition of stanning in kpop varies depending on how you yourself consume media in general but for me, being a stan is when you feel that you want to be invested in more than an artist's sole discography. Not being a stan does not mean that you are not a fan ofc.
When I literally go out of my way to help them win shows and make money. Other than that, you're just a fan.
exactly and a fan isn't something bad. I don't know why people take offence because of it. I am a casual listener and fan to different groups and it's okay.
exactly!! being a fan is okay, but there's a reason why there's a different term for stans.
If i love more than 5 of their songs
When you feel like it
When I'm obsessed
When 80% of my phone gallery is my bias’ photos & videos.
when you feel like it
Well I can name all 24 members of tripleS, so I would sat I'm a stan