ISU AfterDark is a late-night event that occurs three times per semester in the Memorial Union, typically on a Friday night, with activities ranging from karaoke to crafts to guest appearances.
Last Friday, at the first ISU AfterDark of the fall semester, the K-pop Club hosted a photocard decoration craft and friendship bracelet making from 9:00 p.m. to midnight in Room 3560 of the Memorial Union.
K-pop Club is a club for those interested in Korean pop culture. Many club members are fans of K-pop music or Korean drama TV shows called K-dramas.
During the activity, students gathered around tables with a plethora of stickers, markers, colorful beads and elastic. Music played through the room in the background, adding to the lively and welcoming atmosphere.
Standing at the door greeting everyone was K-pop Club President Elizabeth Schmidt, a junior majoring in forestry.
“As goes for AfterDark… this is our third time doing it here and it’s just been a really good success for our club. We’ve gotten like, five new followers on Instagram tonight,” Schmidt said.
ISU AfterDark allowed the club to connect with other K-pop fans and new students. The club’s journey started with two students looking to create a space for other fans of K-pop to share their interests.
“As a club, we started up around a year ago because me and my friend, Hannah, were wondering if there was a K-pop club,” Schmidt said. “There used to be a K-pop culture club, but, unfortunately, that died down, so we collaborated with the original leader of the K-pop culture club, and now we’re here!”
At the event, students had the opportunity to make beaded friendship bracelets with their own personal flair, as well as decorate a photocard holder and choose a photo to go with it.
A big staple of K-pop culture is photocards. These are collectible cards that feature different images of K-pop idols. Fans often collect, trade, or personalize their photocards.
“Photocards come in a lot of K-pop albums, so that’s basically the big chase for people to buy K-pop albums, to find their specific favorite member,” Schmidt said. “With that, we kind of wanted to integrate that into an activity that a lot of people would like, whether they like K-pop or not.”
The K-pop Club often incorporates photocards into its club meetings and activities, as it is a major facet of the K-pop fandom culture.
“We do lots of photocard show-and-tells at club, and we’ve done some trading, things like that. We love photocards. Lots of people who like K-pop love photocards,” Schmidt said.
Another defining element of K-pop culture is having a “bias.” This term in the fandom refers to a fan’s favorite member of a specific K-pop group.
“My favorite K-pop group is TWICE, and my favorite member of TWICE is Jeongyeon. She’s the second oldest, and she’s just very silly and very fun,” Schmidt said.
If you are interested in joining the K-pop Club or want to learn more information, click here.
