There are K-Pop fans across the globe who share the same passion. But on online platforms, it is hard to know about each other’ stories and K-Pop life. Even if we are in the same fandom, it is hard to get to know each other. So at Kpopmap, we started the Kpopmap Fan Interview Project to get to know more about K-Pop fans from different countries: more about their K-Pop life and tastes and to give them the opportunity to share with our readers about their favorite group(s) and bias. Pooja is the next fan to answer our questions. She is from India and is a fan of ASTRO! Check out how she entered the fandom, the songs and content she advises to new fans, and much more! Can you introduce yourself? Where are you from? Hi, I am Pooja, an AROHA from Bangalore, Karnataka, India. I love ASTRO a lot and really enjoy supporting them in anything and everything they do. How and when did you enter the fandom? I first go to know ASTRO through Cha EunWoo when I saw his drama" My ID is Gangnam Beauty" in the year 2019 and started looking up about him on the internet and realised he is a K-Pop idol and belonged to the K-Pop boy group ASTRO. Since I was really into him and searched about him a lot on YouTube, the app began showing me some suggestions related to the group and that’s when I tumbled upon their song ‘BABY’ and I was really interested to know their music style and began listening to it and within few seconds I was already hooked to the song, the tune, the beat, the dance moves, their voices, everything mesmerized me so much that I started looking into the individual member profiles on the internet, began following them on every Social media app possible. As a person who loves watching K-Dramas but wasn’t into K-Pop at all, ASTRO totally changed my life making themselves the first K-Pop group I would stan. I entered the fandom during ‘Blue Flame’ era in 2019 and now love and feel happy to be an AROHA. What are the reasons why you love your favorite group? The main reason why I love ASTRO is because of the member’s personalities. They give their fullest of efforts in anything and everything they do and expect nothing in return. They always blow my mind with their versatility, be it choreography, composing lyrics, rap making, acting on web dramas, singing Japanese OSTs and making an appearance on TV commercials, you name it and they are good in everything. I also love their down to earth personality. They take care of AROHA so well, constantly reminding us and telling us that everything will be okay and give us good pieces of advice whenever possible. Who caught your attention at first and why? EunWoo was the member who caught my attention first and as I mentioned earlier, just like most of the AROHA I too was curious to know about him and his group, and today I am here, loving all six equally and not knowing whom to pick as my bias as all six are equally amazing. Who is your bias, and why? My bias right now in ASTRO is all the six, I don’t think I can really choose one cause all the six are so uniquely different inspite of being in synchronisation most of the time. Each one has their own charm and it’s really hard to choose one member as a bias. Can you recommend a title track and a B-side track for new fans? The ASTRO title track that I would recommend to new fans is ‘Knock’ from the album “Gateway”. ASTRO has always produced back to back hit songs with their albums but this album remains close to my heart as I have a lot of memories attached to this album in particular. The ASTRO B-side that I would suggest new fans would be ‘When The Wind Blows’ from the album “Blue Flame”. The song makes your heart feel light and happy. Can you recommend a fancam, V-Live, cover video, cover dance, or individual content video of your bias to our readers? My favourite fancam would be that of Rocky. All his fancams for the song ’ ONE’ in particular are my favourite. I really enjoy watching his fancams and the other member fancams as well. All V Lives of ASTRO are super chaotic but to choose one, in particular, would be the 4th year anniversary live where they had to microwave their Frozen cake.
My favourite cover video is JinJin, Rocky, and SanHa covering BTS’s ‘Idol’ along with the other groups like PENTAGON. They did a really great job. To add on, I also enjoy watching Rocky’s ‘YYY’ series of dance videos on ASTRO’s YouTube channel where he dances to many English and Korean artist’s songs. New fans will also have fun watching ASTRO’s web dramas like ‘To be Continued’, ‘Soul Plate’ and their fun reality shows like ‘ASTRO Zone’ and individual member appearances on web dramas such as ‘Find Me If You Can. The V Live series ‘ASTRO project - Asia’ is also a much watch. Their concert, fan meet, and fansign videos are also great mood Busters to watch out for. Can you also do the same type of recommendation for the group? All their V Lives, their videos since pre-debut, all the ASTRO “DDOCAS”, “ASTRO Plays”, individual member cover songs and dances on ASTRO’s YouTube channel are the ‘go to’ watch list for me. Apart from these I really enjoy watching ASTRO’s appearance on the show ‘When The Manager Falls Asleep’ and the series of videos where they are very funny and jolly. The videos of them appearing on various radio shows and many other shows during their album promotions are also fantastic to watch. Can you share with us one of your favorite lyrics? “Even if I reach the limit I am not going to halt, even if the wind doesn’t push me anymore, I would still fly high by my own, in my own direction” - These lines from the song ‘Butterfly Effect’, a B-side by ASTRO from the album “All Yours” is my favourite. Are there any words from the members you would like to share? Words by every member of ASTRO is very encouraging. But my personal favourite is when JinJin, the leader of ASTRO said “of course AROHA love ASTRO a lot but I really want all of you to discover what you truly love for your dreams and aspirations are really important, I really want AROHA to know what they really love to do in life and do them with great enthusiasm.” What is your favorite group/bias’ influence on your daily life? ASTRO has really influenced the way I think. They always tell us to love ourselves a little bit more, to do the things we love, to prioritize ourselves and take care of ourselves better. Any content from ASTRO, be it their posts and videos on Instagram, YouTube, and the Universe app, their tweets and hashtag parties on Twitter, everything they do just brings in a huge smile on my face. What is your favorite side of fangirling/fanboying? My favourite side of fangirling is how I get to learn new things every single time the group or the members make a comeback, starting from how to vote and stream to doing fan arts, writing poems and essays for the members on the fancafe or anywhere else, getting to know their likes and dislikes, the language and culture, seeing co - AROHAS posts and edits on Instagram and Twitter it’s like I always keep learning something everyday from the fandom and the band. Fangirling has given me the privilege to make many more AROHA friends from across the globe, that now it’s hard to imagine a life without them and ASTRO. Do you feel there are any misunderstandings, things that are not well known, or any prejudices about your favorite group from other fans (non-fans)? Some misunderstandings are that ASTRO is still not well recognized but I would rather say a ‘NO’ cause they are gaining recognition with every comeback and looking at them try different concepts every comeback makes me feel really proud of how versatile they are to pull off any type to concept you give them, be it soft concepts dark concepts, jolly and refreshing concepts they pull off everything with great ease. This just shows how hard they have trained themselves and worked upon their skills to readily pull off any type of concept from the past 10 to 12 years since their trainee period. You can also add a message to your bias or show it on a message scrapbook. A message to ASTRO: “ASTRO, you are doing a great job, I will always love and support all your activities, once an AROHA always an AROHA, there is no exit. We are not normal and we are not seeking to be normal. Thank you for existing. I love you beyond words .” Thank you for answering our questions, Pooja. If you are interested in joining Kpopmap Fan Interview Project, please get in touch with us at [email protected] Everyone is welcome to participate.
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