On October 11, 2025, we had the privilege of seeing K-pop group SEVENTEEN’s [NEW_] World Tour live in the Tacoma Dome, at the first stop of their North American tour. SEVENTEEN, despite the name, has 13 members in the boy band that has been around for 10 years. This tour featured nine of the 13 total members, performing both solo stages and unit songs. Unfortunately, four of the members, Jeonghan, Wonwoo, Hoshi, and Woozi, were serving their mandatory military service in South Korea. Despite the absence of those members, the concert quality was still top-tier and delivered satisfaction to the 15,916 people who attended the concert, including Pia G. ’28 and Elina L. ’29. 

Moving onto the concert, SEVENTEEN opened their concert with the “Bad Influence inst.,” while revealing the performing members: S.Coups, Joshua, Jun, The8, Mingyu, DK, Seungkwan, Vernon, and Dino. On cue, their backup dancers brought the energy and the hype. After each member got the spotlight, they came together for the first song of the night — HBD from their studio album HAPPY BURSTDAY. Immediately after, they performed Thunder as a group, where the choreography was explosive and energetic, bringing the audience to match the energy. Sequentially, they formally introduced themselves and the tour. In fact, they introduced a new fanchant (chants fans use at concerts to express excitement and support for the group) — this increased audience interaction while making them feel more connected to SEVENTEEN. Once the members began to open their solo stages, the amount of work they put in was evident. Each move was intentional and powerful, with strong vocals. 

Despite fans’ love for SEVENTEEN, many people notice negative stereotypes surrounding K-pop. Of the music itself, Ekaansh B. ’27 says “all the music sounds exactly the same” and “all the bands are pretty much the exact same” when talking about stereotypes he’s noticed. 

When people assume the music sounds the same despite only having listened to the “viral” songs, they are unable to fully explore the genre. While this conception may seem like an opinion, it can cause harmful “snowball effect” stereotypes to generate from this belief. One example Eliza S. ’28 notices is that people assume fans are “obsessed,” K-pop becoming “people’s whole personality.” While Eliza herself enjoys listening to K-pop, including SEVENTEEN, she also likes to listen to a variety of other artists. In terms of her experience seeing SEVENTEEN live, she enjoyed getting to see one of her favorite groups, especially one which had been in the industry for so long. 

Through the lens of SEVENTEEN, we were able to experience the culture of different K-pop groups and fandoms, and to explore the stereotypes of each. Additionally, their music is constantly evolving and changing, experimenting with different concepts. For example, their solo stages differed from their older counterparts through melodies, lyrics, and beats, and their album HAPPY BURSTDAY highlighted each member’s talents through solo songs from all members. 

The songs each member performed allowed them to display their own unique style of music, highlighting the contrast between each song. S.Coups performed Jungle, a very energetic song, while Joshua’s performance of “Fortunate Change” was a very calm and happy song. Jun performed “Gemini” a gradiently electronic song, which had an amazing chorus. In contrast, The8’s performance of “Skyfall” (a personal favorite) mixed the ballad and electronic genres, which worked wonderfully. 

Next, Mingyu performed “Shake It Off”, an extremely bouncy and club-style piece, which was extremely different from DK’s performance of “Happy Virus”, which was Korean alternative rock. Finally, Seungkwan’s “Raindrops”, Vernon’s “Shining Star”, and Dino’s “Trigger” were so different from each other that they made each solo stage feel like a completely different concert. The solo stages actually resembled those of Stray Kids, another K-pop group, with each member also having their own special solo stage with different genres. These examples highlighted how the notion that all K-pop songs sound the same is false. These stereotypes stem from the lack of recognition of K-pop, as not many people may recognize that K-pop features many different genres.

Focusing on Lakeside’s K-pop culture, we notice there is more diversity in music taste in comparison to other schools; “It’s pretty inclusive. Last year during the assembly with LAPS and SAAG, one of the groups performed a K-pop dance,” recalls Ekaansh B. ’27. 

Personally, I’ve noticed a difference in reaction when speaking to non-Lakesiders about K-pop, compared to Lakesiders. Non-Lakesiders who don’t listen to K-Pop tend to be more radical, and express a greater change in perception compared to Lakesiders. Eliza S. ‘28 noted similar things, mentioning a more inclusive experience at Lakeside compared to her past school.

 In general, the Seattle area has a strong community of K-pop fans, as seen with SEVENTEEN performing at the Tacoma Dome, where over 15,000 people attended, with all of the seats being sold out in a record-breaking ticket sales time for both SEVENTEEN and the Tacoma Dome. Ultimately, through our experience seeing SEVENTEEN, we were able to experience the diversity in the music of a single K-pop group, while also being able to connect with others through the music.