K-Pop Acronyms and Why They Are Kind Of Ridiculous
When entering the world of K-Pop, it feels like everyone is speaking another language. Terminology gets thrown around, and using context clues isn’t always the easiest way to figure out what the terms mean. With a majority of fandom spaces taking place online, it makes it that much harder to define fandom vocabulary. This is because a lot of K-Pop terminology is actually acronyms. From group names to year end award ceremonies, these acronyms have become a common part of K-Pop stans’ vocabulary.
End-of-the-Year Award Shows
These can be sorted into two categories; the first being award names and the other being the award shows themselves.
Award Show Names
Every year, more award shows are added to the end-of-the-year awards season craziness. However, these are the main shows that happen every year.
MAMA: Mnet Asian Music Awards
MMA: MelOn Music Awards
GDA: Golden Disc Awards
AAA: Asian Artist Awards
SMA: Seoul Music Awards
KMA: Korean Music Awards
KPMA: Korean Popular Music Awards
Awards
While each award show has a different name, the awards they give out share the same names. Although most awards will be referred to by their full names, these four awards are almost always discussed by their acronyms.
SOTY: Song of The Year
AOTY: Artist of The Year or Album of The Year
ROTY: Rookie of The Year
Buying and Selling
When buying K-Pop merch online, there are a handful of acronyms thrown around to help dictate the exchange of goods. It shows if they are buying, selling, or trading their items. Here are the main ones to look out for:
WTB: Want to Buy
LTB: Looking to Buy
WTS: Want to Sell
LTS: Looking to Sell
WTT: Looking to Trade
WWT: World Wide Trade
WWS: World Wide shipping
Depending on the region of the buyer or seller, here are some other acronyms that may pop up on a listing:
LOC: Location. This is usually where the buyer is located and where they would be willing to ship.
MOP: Method of Payment
MOD: Method of Delivery
Social Media Shorthand
Due to the limited nature of character counts, here are some acronyms that fans may stumble across on social sites. These are usually seen in feeds but can appear in bios as well.
LRT: Last Retweet. This usually denotes a tweet that is in connection to the latest retweet on your account. Some people are uncomfortable with quote retweets so this allows for people to interact with content while giving space to the original poster.
FUB Free: Follow Unfollow Block Free. This is usually in bios of people who are not really focused on their follower count and want people to interact with the ways they see fit.
CC: Curious Cat. It’s a question asking platform that has the ability to send anonymous messages. It is often a place used to spew hate at account owners.
DNI: Do Not Interact. This is usually followed with an age range. With platforms having such a vast array of ages, this is a way for people to tailor their experience and to inform people if they are under or over a certain age to not follow or interact with their content.
Bonus: Group Names That Are Actually Acronyms
Everyone knows BTS is an acronym for either Beyond the Scene or the Korean translation of Bulletproof Boy Scouts, but did you know many of your favorite groups' names are actually acronyms on their own? Here are some of the good, the bad, and the downright ridiculous acronyms that K-Pop companies have made for groups.
TEEN TOP
Teenager Emoboy Emotion Next generation Talent Object Praise
BTOB
Born To Beat
UP10TION
Unbelievable Perfect 10 members Teenagers Idol Open Now
BAP
Best Absolute Perfect
2NE1
New Evolution of the 21st Century
NU’EST
New Establish Style Tempo
VIXX
Voice, Visual, Value in Excelsis
CLC
CrystaL Clear
EXID
Exceed in Dreaming
DIA
Do it Amazing
Final Thoughts
While not all of the acronyms are ridiculous, some of them make you question the point behind them. Once you catch on to the more common ones as new ones emerge, they will be a piece of cake. Are there any that we missed? Tweet us @KrazeMagazine on Twitter and let us know.