Frank Kogan

The writing requirement doesn't help things, as any of the more introspective posts that need that extra time to hammer out nuances and check details and double check arguments are either pushed back for more froo-froo easy to write pieces, or the research and self-reflection is dropped for time and the original strong opinion is slammed down in rant form and no thought for the potential aftermath of publication. Yet it is that steady stream of release that makes them such a popular site in the first place.

For a long time I used to think that the snsd_ffa community (and before that, greywing's journal) was the only place that examined Kpop critically from a fan's perspective. (The Grand Narrative is all good and well, but trying to speak for a fan's motivations never quite captures the truth in its entirety, and to a certain point, the greatest expert on a subject is/was a very devoted fan of it) And a lot of the things that Seoulbeats covers concerning idol culture are things that veteran Jpop fans have worked through in much greater depth, but have done so so long ago that there isn't a need to put it out there. So you get new fans looking for that critical discussion, and SB seems to be doing so, but they're only scratching the surface of things, and the conversations that went through to the heart of issues happened piecemeal buried in forum and comment threads on long defunct sites or private email/PM chains, chatroom sessions not archived, etc. Places that a new fan could not ever know where to look, and some that will never be accessed again, as they've been deleted as some said veteran fans, having explored all idol issues to their conclusion, move on from fandom entirely and delete their online history.

And what's left are the shallow musings of new fans still full of the fires of first love, continually reinventing the wheel.