hmm...are we talking groups i was actively engaged with or just listened to their music? and does it count as lost interest if i've stopped following them closely but still look at their music/news updates?

i'll start by saying i think the big phases of my kpop fandom were sjm, exo, boyf, and then svt.

i lost interest in sj because, like i've talked about in the past, the entire group repeatedly demonstrates racist and sexist attitudes. the only person who i think doesn't really do this is the one person they kicked out of the group for getting married lmao. i've also said in the past i think problematicness is kind of a weird subject in kpop because 1. a lot of ppl are more focused on performative wokeness than actually caring about issues but also 2. i think it's true universally that the important thing is people learn from their mistakes. i still think that's the most important thing. but when people flaunt these attitudes in front of others, not only multiple times without apology but also in an entitled and aggressive way...i think the truth is a lot of times when people confront you at first your reaction is angry and defensive but slowly once that emotional tide runs over you figure out where you were wrong and try to improve. the complete lack of self awareness is super disappointing. but far be it from me saying you shouldn't stan sj...i was talking about this to some friends a little while ago that even tho we knew kyu could be a dick we were still endeared to him... (err, to be completely transparent, 90% of my closest internet friends are people i've known for close to a decade through qmi fandom lmao) disappointment...i think alissa said something recently about how a fan scorned is scarier than an anti? and i feel like that...i think it's like one thing to dislike someone and see their actions as in poor taste but it's super worse when someone you like continues to disappoint you over and over again...that shit lingers and festers.

and then exo...wow...exo was an Experience. exo made me quit fandom LMAO. i left exo fandom twice or three times...by the end of 2012 i'd lost interest in them entirely, i came back a bit in years after but never as interested as the first time. exo were primarily a fandom problem tho...and i have no idea how to qualify it even tho the phrase "exo fandom was so fucking toxic" has been said to its death. i just don't know how else to describe it. i mean, none of the terrible shit that happened to people happened to me personally but the environment that fandom fostered was so passive-aggressive, immature, competitive, etc. it just made it impossible for someone to breathe. just looking at tlist was constantly not just negative but brutal. it was so uncomfortable. i'm not the only person who thinks this lmao...but it was so stifling that i couldn't really enjoy them. interestingly, i mean svt fandom likes to sell itself as pure and whatever but i've had lots of Colourful experiences in svt fandom, things that happened to me personally, but even still it has affected me nothing like exo fandom affected me despite not having personally trying times there. the most concrete example i can give you is just this one time someone tweeted something like "you should see all the shit i say about you in my groupchat" about me and i outright laughed because exo fandom was just like an entirely different scale...svt fandom can try its best to wank me out but like i honestly look at everything with this kind of granny in a rocking chair manner now like nothing will faze me after what i've seen...

boyf...poor boyfriend... with them it was just bad timing i think. i was into them and a non-kpop fandom and the non-kpop fandom entirely drained me out. also, boyf kept getting sent to japan and not having korean promotions so it was hard to follow them. not to mention even in korea it's hard to follow them. they don't have the high popularity of the sm groups i followed so the kind of content availability is not there, slower subs, less fan-fan engagement. interestingly, i worked hard and got onto the private data boards for neverland (she's still a youngmin fansite!! my hero...) and i've never worked that hard toward paying attention to fansite activities before or after. but they were sooooo easy to be a fan of like their merch was cheap and plentiful, there were relatively few fans, no drama because no fans, the subbing teams worked so hard lmao it was just a really quiet fun experience for me after exo :DD i still follow all of youngmin's activities tho and download all their albums!!! boyfriend's entire discography is my fave kpop discography bar none. i love all their albums so much. shinee comes second for music but boyfriend is just jam after jam after jam.

those were my main ones...a bunch of groups i liked just disbanded or became inactive. i was very very briefly into bap (bad timing, exo came too fast), i caught onto girls day a bit late in the game and now they're not really promoting, f(x)...no promos..., i still like mingi after all this time lmao, but groups like csjh died, mblaq died, miss a died, rainbow died, rania died, the ark died, even ioi died...infinite didn't really die but they went on tour for a really long time and then they didn't come back for a really long time and their music imo really declined and then they lost a member so they kind of died...teen top for similar reasons kind of died...but all of these groups were also more side interests to me and i'll still listen to their new songs to see if they're good? but i think inactivity is what kills it for groups that aren't my mainstays. i don't really have anything else to offer...i think i had a 2 week interest into got7 in late 2016 or early 2017 until (see super junior), idk why nct didn't really take off for me...but i also have a long list of groups whose music i've always enjoyed and who i still pay attention to but it's not in great detail now just like it wasn't in great detail in the past? so i haven't really "lost interest" in most non-main groups it's just i only pay attention to them when they're active and most are now inactive lol.

anyway i've liked jun for 5 years now which is longer than i've liked anyone before in my life so we'll see where this takes us lmao. i really think of svt as my swan song even if i love the ip/9pc boys, jun is it for me, my last boy. if this ever ends...*poof* and like that, i disappear and can finally lay the nisakomi handle to rest.