Let's leave it in 2025 sis ~ KPOP Edition

Hi guys,

This is my list of things I want to leave in 2025. KPOP edition.

1. too many album releases. It pisses me off because I just stumbled upon an announcement for a very visible Kpop group that read, "This person's coming out with their second full album," and I was likeee , "Bitch, I haven't had a break from you for the last how many months? I'm exhausted. What do you mean only your second album?" I looked further into it, and they were talking about a full albums and not a mini album. Because as we know, mini albums are released so fucking often. I'm grateful…and exhausted. 

I love the K-pop space and all this content, but girly, is it just me? It can't just be me, because even as queen of escapism, I'm exhausted from the onslaught. Now imagine how it feels to be the artist or the crew who are constantly behind it. 
What I’m getting at is, I want to be excited again. I want our artists, and the staff behind it all, who we love and care for, to have long breaks. Call me toxic, but I want to forget my artists a little bit more when they’re taking a break. And then I want the announcement for the new album to come out, and for me to be really excited, like, "Oh my god," and put it in my calendar. We just need to space it out more. 

At the same time, business-wise, I totally understand. Labels have to be concerned about  fans forgetting about their artists or moving on to a newer group or a competitor, but everyone's exhausted from too much. Too much content, too much choice, too much everything. So much of everything, all the time, always. And I'm not just talking about art, I'm talking about life in general. Everyone is just doing the most. Who came up with this idea that it has to be every fucking day of the week we get new content? It's not meant to be sustainable. But again, we know the answer: it's so the businesses can make more money. Nothing wrong with that but I wish it was kinder to the humans behind it all. They are not robots in a meat suit, they are people.

I’m technically in the business space, but don’t worry babes, I’m not going to be upselling anything outside of my devotion-wear. My ethos, when it comes to what I publish for you here or on The Orchard that is ‘OldGal FanGal’ is, that I NEVER create from a place of scarcity, but from a place of wanting to share my thoughts and love of a new show, new artist or a veteran artist whose work I fell in love with. On a side note, ‘my darlings, my small, small followers, all 513 of you, how are you today? Thank you so much for following me’ . Some of you might be following me from my shorts, and some of you are probably following me from my videos where I talk about BL and K-dramas. Okay talking about, is a bit of a stretch because it's mostly me gushing over really cute moments or sexy actors and actresses - you know, typical bottom-of-the-barrel goodness.

2. elitism, homophobia, internalised misogyny, racism, colourism, eugenics, cultural appropriation and spouting white supremacist dogma. I understand this sounds like a big ask, but it’s in this space and we are all tired. These are all really loud in this space and unnecessary. And baby, now that the world is in its right wing come conservative era, people are showing their asses. It sucks the joy out of something that should really just be about enjoying the work’s that’s been made for us. Let's leave the isms to the pits of hell and judge people by their character and their work. So many times we just want to enjoy a piece of art and then instead, without a by-your-leave, we are slapped in the face with isms and downright hostile sociopathic rhetoric, commentary and or content where we where we didn’t automatically expect to find it. Even if it's not directed at us or people we know. I'm literally like, what the fuck?!  This goes worldwide as well, different countries, so many artists and celebrities have histories of foul behaviour come out, and worse still, its explained away with apologies spoken through gritted teeth with no or barely any accountability. We’re all exhausted by the injustice of it but also for various other reasons. And it really doesn’t help when other ‘fans’ though I’m not convinced most aren’t bots, flood spaces to defend criminal behaviour. But I think, we are, to some measure, glad this stuff came out because fuuuuck, supporting monetarily, anyone who's harming people.

3. bitches who were cancelled somehow finding their way to other groups that I like and enjoy, and then in a too-soon period doing a challenge with people I didn't have a problem with. Now I'm not only side-eyeing the cancelled party, but the one who went and made content with them so soon. I’m like, nope, done, we're finished, you lot. That's an endorsement, essentially, because no, I'm too grown. I've seen that. I see what you’re doing. Goodbye.

I kind of hate talking about it because I just get pissed off all over again, but basically, one of my favourite R&B artists who was in Kpop, that I’ve loved for years and then literally not a week later they were doing a fucking challenge with this fucker I cancelled. So I just cancelled both of them. I was like, you know what, mate, it's really not that deep, and I’m not ashamed to say I'm just bootlegging at this point. If you're cancelled, but it’s a pattern of asshole behaviour then I do it. But if the artist is extremely foul and it pisses me off so much I can't even enjoy your music anymore? I’m done, your work? dead in the water for me - completely. 
If you're cancelled, if you've been a problematic bitch, just stay over there. The worst part was I didn't even lose just the one other safe person to listen to, another motherfucker of another group I was just getting into also indirectly supported them in this scandal. I know you're in a group with other people, but all of them are now tarnished as well so, we're done. I don't love you that much anyway, like, you're gone, goodbye. I was just getting into them as well. I know it's a small world and people have different experiences with different artists, but I was like, I'm done, I'm over it, goodbye. I didn't even like them that much because I didn't even save your shit, do you know what I mean? So, yeah, you bitches just do what you want, but for me, I've decided what I'm going to do or not do. If you're cancelled for valid reasons and there's proof, I'm done. If I'm done-done, that's okay…cancelled. I’ll bootleg or not, depending on how much I can stomach your work after whatever you did.

4. too many markers of success/pointless metrics. This person has this many pre-saves; that's a new one, that's now a metric. Oh, this person has this many ad endorsements. This person got this many streams after one minute and 80 seconds, they have the biggest streams. Bro, what? It's just getting out of hand now. I'm tired. Just pack it in.

5. Queer baiting concept but not supporting the community, just pretending and playing into it for a buck. How are you as a company, or c*ntiest of c*nts be extremely LGBTQ-coded and then turning out to be so homophobic. Are you okay babes? Imagine being such a loser.

6. sexualising minors or too grown concepts for minors. Sometimes when I'm doing the fresh-off-the-teasers shorts and come across photos, I'm like, yo, that person looks like they are 14. Then you look at the general concept of how they're dressed and posing, and it's just a bit—it's not a bit, it's heavy on the "this ain't right." That's a schoolgirl, she should not be sexualised. This has been a topic of conversation for a long time.

7. adopting harmful cultural norms and enacting them in comment sections against others to defend professionals who don't even want it like that or give a fuck about you. It’s giving fat shaming, elitism, lookism, colourism, obsession with thin-ness and white supremacy dogma. People are really up in these comments being like, "Oh my god, she’s bigger, what happened?” the whole time the girl is a size four. Casually fat-shaming someone who's a size four. I know it's been common in certain spaces, but it's gotten out of hand because people from the West, who know better, are now in the comments playing into that shit and talking like that. It's so alarming. The cognitive dissonance is out of this world too, because the commenter spouting this nonsense, on the occasion they use their real account, typically turns out to be overweight, less talented and incapable of taking even light criticism. Like dude, what the actual fuck. 

8. Group disbandment. I feel so, so, so sad when groups disband. When you look at the time they've been active and then the announcement comes out, it's just so sad. Even if I didn't know the group, when I see a group disbandment announcement, I genuinely feel like crying sometimes. These people worked so hard, beat a bunch of people for a spot, finally debuted, went on to make a small name for themselves, and then bam, didn't work out, goodbye, on to the next. It's business, but those are people. The entertainment industry isn't very kind by most measures; it's hard shit, mentally and physically. For it to take all this time and effort, then you finally get on the other side, beating the odds, and then you just end up having to go home because it didn't work out. Some are lucky to make a comeback in a different group, but that's not the norm, and that's what makes me sad. 

9. The veteran groups… honey, some of the comebacks, honestly, just feel like barely thought-out concepts and hand on my heart, a cash grab. The quality does not match pre-first contract. Then, the buzz, the anticipation, only for the single or album to come and go with nary anything good about it. Flop town. Obviously, this doesn’t apply to all veteran artists but I’ve got an eye for it now. I know from just looking at the teaser photos if they’ll be releasing a cash grab album with barely any effort. I always wonder what's going on there? These lot have the talent, and you as their label helped them make really good albums, so how is it, that the last two projects that came out were trash, trash, trash? Please get it together.
If the label of the artists don't want to be doing this anymore, just give it up, man. Let them do variety shows or something else and sell us nostalgia, rather than ruining the memory of why we loved you musically.

10. product endorsements in general. I'm bored of seeing the same twenty faces. I would love so much if it wasn’t predominantly artists from the big four entertainment companies. There are so many other little companies with idols who have the most unconventionally attractive faces, personality and talent that are missed out on. I would love to see more minor idols getting ad space - not too small, because the client paying for the ad has to make money. Like when NewJeans first came out and the album was pretty damn good, or Kepler, fromis_9. We need variety. Currently it's boring and I feel like we’re being sold to more than being introduced products to. There are so many idols with more to offer from small but very talented groups, with a good enough fan base that would be so interesting to give endorsements to, because they've got a certain look that's fresh compared to the usual, traditionally good-looking. Give us more interesting people, even if it's like, I don't know, one eyelid or something that's different. No, but genuinely, there's so many idols we could pull from, personality-wise, looks-wise, vocally, talent-wise. Make it diverse and interesting - give us more DEI. Obviously, the idols getting the majority of the endorsements are there because they did what they had to do, and no one's going to give you the top spot, but I just think we are in dire need of new and fun and fresh, but from a pool of smaller labels and small groups, who are then given a chance to actually take up space.

11. I know we have some big girl groups, but compared to the boy groups, sometimes I just want more girl groups that are solid and set. Ideally, half and half, but the Vivi of me right now for 2026 wants to see eight out of the top ten groups be girl groups, because we're living in the era of men and I'm tired. I'm kidding, I'm kidding…mostly. It’s a personal preference, I just want more girl groups to be more successful, because most K-pop, K-drama, J-drama fans are women, and I would love it if women benefited the most from that. Not just because they're women, but because there are so many talented ones flying under the radar. The Vivi of 2026 wants more girl groups and female artist dominance, is what I'm saying. 

So, I think that's what I wanted to bitch about. Thank you so much, guys, for sticking around and supporting me and my little channel. I'm really proud of the 500 followers, because boy, that was my target two years ago, but I finally made it. I'm so, so excited. Again, these are just my casual opinions. I didn't mention any names because does it matter? Not really, because you can apply most of this shit to a lot of different companies, groups or business entities rather than individuals…well, except for that one about bitches who were cancelled and I wish would stop ruining other artists for me.