K-Pop Hysteria - Jungkook of BTS Arrives at Incheon

As I was departing customs at Incheon airport I was greeted by a number of TV cameras. In addition to that, there were well over 100 young girls all gathered to greet me as I entered the arrival Hall. I could tell they were in a bit of a frenzy and was very excited to see me. I was so flattered as I had no idea they even knew I was coming. Surely they had been readers of this blog and just wanted to see the face behind this creative wisdom.

Ok, back to the real world. Although the first part was true, the part involving me was just a dream. But I knew something big was happening and I further knew the person they waited for was on my plane. I had to google later to find out who it was. It was Jungkook from the band BTS (I have no idea who that is), and he was just returning from the USA.

As I was flying in business class (there was no first class) he must have been in my section, but I had my own Qsuite on the plane and was oblivious to others. I have a draft post on my Qsuite I'll post soon.

I regret I didn't start taking pictures and video sooner as the real hysteria preceded my documentation. But it all happened so fast. He exited the Arrivals Hall within 20 seconds to the massive screams of the crazy girl mob. I read later that he even ran from the area (I didn't witness that) because the mob got too close and was in his face.

I was near the exit door when it occurred but got out my camera phone after the girls started running for the doors to get a second glimpse of him being driven away by chauffeur.

Blurred photo of girls running to wave as he drove by.

After I saw the rush of all girls (I didn't see many boys), I followed after them. I figured the male population should be represented by at least a little bit more.

What I saw was the K-Pop star go by flashing the peace symbol. A bit blurry in this shot:

I've discussed the K-Pop phenomenon before in this post of the all girl band in Thailand:

https://www.kirkstravelstories.com/post/k-pop-at-icon-siam-bangkok-thailand

K-Pop is short for Korean Pop band. It could be all girl or all boy. It's kinda like the all boy band craze we had in the USA back in the 90's. But that fizzled out about as fast as Disco did in the 70's.

But Asia is a couple decades behind us in the music scene. This will die out too, but for now it's a huge craze.

When I was young I went to a few concerts to watch the bands I liked. But it was mostly to be with other like minded rock fans that enjoyed the music. I never understood the hysteria to be close to the group and idolize the people behind the music. But then again, I don't understand a lot of things.

I doubt any of my half dozen or so readers ever heard of this guy. But maybe one day in the future a reader will stumble on this post and educate us in the comments section as to why this guy is so popular.

Here are a couple of videos that captured the tail end of the craze. Most of it happened before I started filming when he first arrived;