How to Be a Non-Toxic and Responsible P-Pop Fan

As a crucial part of the music industry, fandoms are exceptionally welcoming places for music lovers. But with the recent issues surrounding P-Pop, here are three gentle reminders on how to be a responsible fan

Connecting with equally passionate and devoted fans who are deeply engaged with their favorite artists or groups can be immensely rewarding and valuable. There’s a desire to form a social identity around a music taste, a sense of belonging to a larger community of like-minded people, and opportunity to have in-depth conversations and enjoy media consumption together. 

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With social media, fans have greater visibility and power to shape the direction of the music, and a new level of engagement with their favorite artists on a more personal level. But while this dynamic between the artist and fan is evolving, there is a line somewhere—blurry as it may be. Here are three gentle reminders on how to be a responsible fan, especially with the rise of P-Pop today.

^{P-Pop fans and enthusiasts gathered around Araneta stadium for the P-Pop Convention last 2022}

1. Remember that artists have personal and professional lives. Those are two different things.

People tend to forget—an artist is a public figure, but they are a person first. Even though their private lives are more apparent and accessible now more than ever, and they choose to talk to fans on their downtimes as music performers, a fan is not entitled to whatever information about their lives that the artists do not share on their own. Whatever it is that they, or their entire team of management, curates for you to see, that is all you should have access to. Even though there is this emotional investment and the urge to want to know more especially when they take the time to personally talk to the fans, their private lives are their own. Do not disrupt that.

Because being an artist is also their job. It’s an occupation. It’s art, it’s a creative pursuit, but it’s also a business. The business side is also essential for the artists’ success, and large careers such as this that put you in the camera require large teams and resources. That’s why, in the P-Pop industry, artists have to maintain certain working relationships with other people. This may mean they’re not friends, just friendly enough to be professional and maintain this working relationship for the sake of their careers. 

^{BINI with their beloved fandom, Blooms}

2. Listener responsibility is valid, so call them out—without being cruel and without resorting to bullying.

In listener responsibility, fans feel an obligation to support artists or groups that align with their values. Music, in one sense, is also political—a lot of it is made for resistance, for a movement, for the belief in something. Music can be a platform to push forward a message or an advocacy that the group or the artists believe in that aligns with the fans’ values as well.

So when there are issues being raised, fans are rightfully in a position to call the artists or the groups out with fact-checked evidence when they make a mistake—they have a platform and influence, it is only right that they be held accountable for their actions and to learn from them. However, this thinking can lead the fandom to overstep or come down too hard on the artists or the group, and this heightened scrutiny can make overcoming mistakes challenging. Everyone stumbles once in a while, and public figures are no exception.

^{G22 and their beloved fandom, Bullets}

Celebrate the music, uplift the artist.

The world is seeing a rise in P-Pop, and the artists definitely deserve their spotlight in the global scene. But some fans tend to forget that the reason why they’re in the fandom in the first place is because of the music that they create. The music is what will pull bigger audiences, what will propel the artists’ careers into new heights. In stan culture, we sometimes forget what’s most important—love and celebration of the music. Enjoy being in the fandom. It’s supposed to be a cause for happiness and community, not stress and decreasing mental health.

^{Magiliws (ALAMAT’s official fandom name) at the group’s first concert last December}

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Photos and Featured Image: BINI, G22 (Via Instagram), RAPPLER, PPOPCONVENTION (Via X)

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How to Be a Non-Toxic and Responsible P-Pop Fan
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