Lightsticks are official merchandise and most likely a pretty good source of income for the artists and their companies. Compared to some traditional merchandise they’re fairly affordable and tangible and some even have collectors value as they are discontinued or are even concert specific variants. Some lightsticks are part of package concert deals – though this mostly happens in Japan. There is some market for customising and pimping your lightstick and there are even some non official lightsticks made by fans. Lightsticks are also part of the reason for groups having “official colours” – in the first generation of Kpop groups the different groups fans would be identified by the colour of their lightsticks.

… and The Black Ocean

The Ocean and the light sticks can however also be used for evil. It’s not unheard of that fans, to express their displeasure with artists other than their idols, turn off their lightsticks during multi artist events. It is assumed that fans from other “fandoms” keep their lightsticks lit even during other artists performance. This is seen as an expected courtesy. However in the inward looking fan world of Kpop an idol or a group will, any given Sunday, be the target of some fandoms (or severals) displeasure. This can be because of any strange infraction (some of which will be covered in this article series in the future) like looking strangely at your idol of preference, having resting bitch face or… well the reasons are actually impossible to keep track of.

This means that an artist or idol group can be greeted with a venue that suddenly, besides their own fans, goes dark. Instead of a warm sargasso sea of misdirected emotion, hormones and adoration the performers are met with what is called a Black Ocean or Black Sea (nothing to do with Red Sea/Blue Ocean model).

Fans making “Stank Faces”…

In fairly recent time there has been some of scandal around the conflicted and unlucky girl group Momoland – with members being booted by their management and one of their more popular members Nancy being accused of being “problematic”.
The Problematic epithet most often being code for someone reaching some level of popularity and then not conforming to, or being seen to conform to, Korean kpop fans sense of propriety. This can be not smiling enough, having some imagined wildly arbitrary flaw in your appearance or just not bowing enough.

What then happened to Momoland is sort of an example of the Black Ocean. Appearing on the same show as NCT, a Korean boy group, Momoland were not given the complete Black Ocean treatment, as the NCT fans didn’t turn off their lightsticks. The NCT fans did turn away from the performance ignoring Momoland for the duration of their performance.

Just look at those eerily illuminated faces turning away from the stage and apparently standing completely still and, according to other fans, making “stank faces”. Hilarious.

Also I learned a new expression. Next time I need to express my dissatisfaction with someones effort or contribution I will be utilising the “stank face” forcefully. Thank you Kpop.

Therapeutic Effect and Other potential uses

Waving a lightstick in time with other fans looks like a effective good self soothing process but it could also be argued that the repeated motion practiced alone in and of itself could have a good body-mind effect.

One of these kpop fans has a good lightstick and is content and calm, one is using a stick that isn’t his light stick  and another isn’t using his light stick at all. As you can see there is a clear co-relation between light stick usage and perceived well-being!

there you have it

As for meaningless hoarding and collecting lightsticks seem highly viable and right up there with things like plastic model robots, Italian performance jackets or Harry Potter Lego…. all of which I approve though may not have the time to indulge in. While I couldn’t see myself buying all of the typical Kpop merchandise I find the lightstick very appealing – it’s the fact that it’s just one self-contained thing. It’s pretty absurd and funny and it’s also quite tangible and something you could have a handful of, and also the light sticks make a pretty good story. Personally I think they could, if the strength of illumination isn’t too high, be used as portable night lights for my daughters, enabling them to go to the bathroom at bedtime without turning on all the lights, becoming hyper active and maybe kneeing me in the groin as a result. Incidentally my daughters favour the Cosmic Girls, Apink and Oh My Girl sticks – not unlike their dad!

In closing: light sticks are cool and a unique thing to Kpop. They make for great collectors items and could, for further value add, possibly be used as night lights too. The therapeutic effect of waving a light stick is not to be sneezed at, even if you never go to a Kpop concert, your endorphins and dopamine will probably be positively affected. Don’t however surprise anyone with one in a dark alley – results might be random.