kpop

BTS's fandom — ARMY, 'Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth', named on 9 July 2013 — the largest and most organised fan base of the 2010s and 2020s, capable of moving a song to number one in a day, funding a charity match to the dollar, and replying to any critic in seventeen languages within the hour. The record's entry for the fandom that taught the internet what a fandom could do.

A performed cuteness — pouting, a squeaky voice, a small hand-heart — that Korean idols do on variety shows on request, and that international K-pop fandom named, catalogued and rated from about 2010. The record's entry for the word for cuteness that is, importantly, deliberate.

A person in a fandom who is against a character, a ship, or a celebrity — an anti — and, in fandom discourse, the side that believes some fiction should not be written. The record's entry for the opposition as an identity, filed for the word.

Performed superbly, with no crumbs left. Sometimes extended to 'ate and left no crumbs', which is the same thing said by someone who has not.

The K-pop group member who is not your favourite ('bias') but keeps threatening to become it — the bias wrecker — a term from fan forums around 2012 for the loyalty crisis of watching a second idol do something devastating on camera. The record's entry for the most affectionate treachery in fandom.

The accusation, thrown between fandoms since around 2019, that a number one was bought — bundles, remixes, a dozen vinyl variants, a discounted digital single at 69 cents, a streaming party with rules — and the record's entry for the Billboard chart as a battlefield where everyone is guilty and only the other side is charged. The record notes Billboard has changed its rules four times in response, and the accusations have not.

In K-pop, any new release by an existing group — the comeback — a Korean industry term for the promotional cycle of teasers, concept photos, music show performances and streaming goals that international fans adopted around 2009 and that now makes 'comeback' mean 'they were gone for four months'. The record notes Western fans use the word for artists who never left, and Korean fans find this hilarious.

Delusional, affectionately, about your own prospects. Delulu is the solulu; the rare slang term that is also a coping strategy.