Being a K-pop stan is no longer uncool In fact, the new Gen Z icons are proving exactly the opposite

There are hobbies that, for years, were synonymous with being «losers». Playing Magic: The Gathering, spending weekends at comic conventions, cosplaying, or writing fanfiction were activities that the internet had quickly filed away as the exact opposite of cool. Among all of them, the one that was always ostracized — even by its own kind — was K-pop. For years, being a stan of the Korean music genre meant carrying the stigma of being «terminally online», even within other nerd communities, to the point of becoming almost a caricature of stan culture. But then, something started to change.

Idols became regulars in the front rows of fashion weeks, while groups like BTS, BLACKPINK, and Stray Kids began dominating international charts, and Kpop Demon Hunters became such a success that it won two Oscars. The genre, in short, shed the aura of strangeness that had followed it for years. But being a K-pop fan still wasn't considered something cool. Or at least not until this year, when some of Gen Z's new icons — Chase Infiniti, PinkPantheress, and underscores — openly declared they had something in common: being K-pop stans.

Chase Infiniti made it to Hollywood thanks to her K-pop dance videos

If Chase Infiniti is today one of Hollywood's most promising new faces, part of the credit goes to K-pop itself. The actress, who stars in the best film at the 2026 Oscars, One Battle After Another by Paul Thomas Anderson, has never hidden her past as a stan. On the contrary, in an interview with Tom Power, she revealed that during the film's casting process she sent the director videos of herself performing K-pop choreography with her Duple Dance Crew, a Chicago collective she founded as a teenager. The passion is far from a thing of the past, as the actress continues to speak regularly about her love for K-pop and, in particular, for ATEEZ, the group she often cites as her favorite.

In recent weeks she even lived out every K-pop stan's dream, becoming the star of their latest music video. In one of the press tour interviews, when San (a member of the band) asked her whether Leonardo DiCaprio, her co-star in One Battle After Another, knew about her K-pop obsession, Infiniti seemed far more incredulous at the idea that ATEEZ had actually seen her film.

PinkPantheress once dreamed of becoming a K-pop idol

PinkPantheress was probably the very first artist to openly talk about her past as a K-pop stan. In a 2023 interview with NME, she revealed she had even cried herself to sleep when she realized she would never be able to become a Korean idol. It comes as no surprise, then, that throughout her discography PinkPantheress has interpolated nearly a dozen K-pop tracks, sampling or reinterpreting melodies from groups like EXO, f(x), and SHINee.

Today, her relationship with the Korean industry has gone well beyond being a mere «former stan»: in recent years she has collaborated with LE SSERAFIM and with Yves (a former member of LOONA), who also appeared on the remix of Fancy That, her latest EP featuring hyper-viral tracks like Stateside and Illegal. More recently, during her set at Primavera Sound last June, she included f(x)'s 4 Walls in her setlist. The definitive step, however, came when she revealed she had written a demo for Haechan of NCT, her ult bias — in K-pop parlance, the absolute favorite member, the one who surpasses all other groups and all other idols. Speaking with Capital Buzz, the British singer and producer admitted to having had a «meltdown» when she managed to meet him backstage at an NCT Dream concert.

underscores' YouTube channel dedicated to K-Pop

underscores is considered one of the most exciting rising talents in contemporary electronic music, a pioneer of sleazepop and the opener for Charli xcx on the upcoming Music, Fashion, Film Tour. Few people know, however, that much of her musical formation came directly from K-pop. Even before her career took off, she ran a YouTube channel called 2ndGenBias, which became a small point of reference for genre enthusiasts (including this writer, #RIP2ndGenBias). In her videos she analyzed the structure of songs, the production, the anti-drops, and even the choreography of her favorite groups. Launched in 2020, the channel surpassed 60,000 subscribers before she made all the videos private in 2025.

As she recently told Pitchfork, paradoxically 2ndGenBias had a far larger following than her music: «I wasn't making any money from those videos, since I was using copyrighted tracks — I made them simply because I wanted to convince other fans to appreciate the complexity of K-pop as much as I did». To this day, the producer continues to include K-pop tracks in her DJ sets. In the one she recorded for NTS last November, for instance, she featured tracks by TWICE, (G)I-DLE, and Girls' Generation, while her remix of Girls' Generation's The Boys went viral on TikTok, racking up nearly 700,000 views and over 150,000 likes.

The strength of K-pop lies in its community

K-pop probably only has so much to do with it. In recent years, many passions that for decades were confined to the label of «loser» hobbies have suddenly become acceptable, if not outright desirable. Gaming is now one of the largest entertainment sectors in the world, the Pokémon card market keeps growing, comic conventions are posting record numbers, and even online subcultures are beginning to shed the stigma that has followed them for years. The common thread, perhaps, is that all of them offered something that today seems increasingly hard to find online: a community.

It's no coincidence that when PinkPantheress, Chase Infiniti, or underscores talk about their past as K-pop stans, they almost always end up talking about the people before the music. PinkPantheress told Derrick Gee that she started listening to EXO at thirteen because her friends did and she wanted to feel part of something; then she stayed because she genuinely loved the music. Chase Infiniti, despite Hollywood, still carves out time to film K-pop dance covers. underscores spent years making videos she knew she couldn't monetize, simply because she enjoyed discussing musical structures and choreography with fellow enthusiasts. Perhaps that's also why saying you were a K-pop stan no longer sounds like an embarrassing confession. Instead, it speaks to a way of living on the internet that, before it was made of algorithms, AI slop, and paid memberships, was made above all of people sharing a common obsession.