Connected Through Music: How a HBCU Helped Shape Korean Cultural History
Any fan of K-pop would be able to tell you that the fundamental foundation of the music is directly related to Black American R&B, and HipHop. SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo Man, known as the Godfather of the K-pop, admitted that Black American music and the trainee system used by Motown Records founder Barry Gordy […]
My Opinionated Rant: Expectation vs Reality: Arirang and BTS
On March 20, 2026, BTS most anticipated comeback with their 5th studio album Arirang was released. This would be their first studio album in more than 6 years following a pause due to the 2020 global pandemic, and then an official hiatus due to compulsory military service. In between the two, they released a string […]
Clothing Beyond Fashion: Aligning Outside of Your Culture
There has always been a greater conversation about appropriation vs. appreciation, a conversation that I find to be important, yet exhausting. There are instances where there is a clear line of what can be considered an inappropriate representation of someone else’s culture. Whether it is to mock or cosplay to appear cool or hip is […]
A Journey into Becoming ARMY and Beyond
Author Talk: A Conversation with Elondra Birchfield author of Purple Hearts: Maya’s Journey With BTS We all have an origin story of how we started our journey as fans of K-pop and Korean culture. For some, it was a way to connect to a culture and community that we were already familiar with. The journey […]
Korea and Pride: Queer Culture in the Background
Starting in the United States in 1999 and adapted globally over time, every year June is recognized in most parts of the world as Pride Month. For those of you not familiar, Pride is a global celebration and recognition of the LGBTQ+ community. However, Pride is not as widely celebrated in some countries. If it […]
The Saga that is Ticketmaster
For you K-pop stans this Ticketmaster kerfuffle has been an on going issue for more than a decade. However more recently Ticketmaster and their questionable practices have only been exacerbated by the pandemic and loosely regulated standards of practice for the ticketing industry. In addition with the use of “bots“, a computer program that runs automated tasks […]
Soul From Seoul: The Underappreciated Genre of Korean R&B
On July 12th I had the opportunity to finally check off an item on my music bucket list and see Korean R&B artist and Voice Korea 2020 winner Kim Ji-Hyun, better known as G Soul (aka Golden). I discovered his beautiful soulful voice in 2018, when I was going through my Korean R&B journey. Out […]
Here Me Out: Unpopular Opinion-Can extreme fan support be detrimental.
As I listen to J-Hope’s new solo album Jack in the Box and read English translations, something occurs to me. What if all the accolades, the number one albums and singles, all the chart topping and record breaking, history making was just too much. What if all the excessive album buying campaigns and purposely purchasing […]
My BTS Story
Let me start first by saying I am a multi group fan. I do not just support just one group, listen to just one group or talk about only one group. With that being said BTS, them Bangtan Boys, are without a doubt my ultimate group. They were not the first group that started me […]
Black Creatives in the Korean Music Industry
In the United States, the entire month of February is observed as Black History Month. Stating in 1926 as “Negro History Week”, Black History Month evolved into an entire month celebration and achievements of African Americans in the U.S in 1976. This Black History Month, I wanted to shine a light on some Black creatives […]