Now I don’t think there’s anything wrong with someone deciding they’re going to stream a song or an album. I also don’t think there’s anything wrong with people who like to constantly listen to the same album over and over because honestly I do that. When I really like a song I tend to overplay it but I’m trying to stop that because sometimes I overdo it and end up hating the song.

Also this post is mostly about kpop fandom culture. Seeing as I’m not heavily in western fandoms (music ones anyway) I don’t know if they are as crazy about streaming as kpop fans are.

Here’s the thing, if you decide to stream that’s your choice but having a go at someone who isn’t streaming or demanding people stream, stream, stream…? That’s not the one.

For one, what people do with their own time is their business. And some people don’t like to listen to one song or one album over and over again; it ruins their enjoyment of the music. They may prefer to listen to it once a day or twice a day, whatever, it’s their choice.

For two, people have jobs. You can’t expect someone to stream all day when they have work to do. Even if they don’t work, they have other things to do in a day. People have many concerns and responsibilities and interests.

For three, harassing people to stream doesn’t make them stream. Take my journey with Exo for example. Back in 2013 my friends hounded me to stan Exo and it was annoying. I was like, “I get it they’re popular but why are you telling me to stan every time we talk about kpop? I got it the first time.” And I did check their debut song (this was before Wolf) but I was reluctant to stan because I was still annoyed. The only reason I ended up stanning Exo was because of the music (Growl and Baby Don’t Cry) and as a group I thought they were witty and funny (still amazes me to this day that some people don’t find them funny). Even when I became a fan I still didn’t tell people because again, I found Exo fans annoying. However after a year that changed and the Exo fandom became fun and we’ve been through a lot together at this point so it’s almost like family (excluding the sasaengs).

So yeah hounding people to stan or constantly telling people to stream sometimes has the opposite effect.

For four, I feel like we’re not enjoying the music anymore. It feels like I can’t even enjoy a comeback or a performance because people are going on about streaming.

It ruins the comment section. One person will comment on what’s actually going on in the music video or the performance and then another person will respond like, “Yes, great comment but are you streaming?!?! Stream!!” It ruins the atmosphere.

To the point where these days I just don’t read the comments. The comments section, when healthy, used to be a nice place to discuss with other fans your likes and dislikes (if you had any) or just to talk about things you noticed in the music video. Now it’s kind of dead. (Don’t even get me started on the overuse of ‘no one…’ comments.)

For five, if a person doesn’t stream it doesn’t mean they’re a fake fan. Everyone has different ways of enjoying and listening to music. Also there are many ways to support your favourite artist. You can recommend them to a friend, you can buy their albums and yes you can stream. But it is not mandatory to stream and again streaming is not the only way of supporting your favs.

 

So I am kindly asking don’t shame people for not streaming, stop harassing people to stream and don’t get bent out of shape if people don’t stream because you don’t know how they’re supporting the artist at the end of the day. For all you know they may go to every single concert and they may take their friends and family with them each time, creating more fans in the process… you don’t know! (Ah concerts…)

So again if you want to stream, stream but don’t force others to do it and don’t shame them for not doing it, there are many ways to support an artist or artists.

 

Also if you don’t do this then this post doesn’t apply to you.

This was a slightly different post for music Wednesday (yes I have a theme for each day on my site) but it’s the only thing I felt like writing. At some point I want to talk about Queen and new kpop releases and old tunes but I’ve been low energy lately that I haven’t even written my musings posts yet.

So yeah, hopefully by next week I will feel better and ready to write.