On episode #3 of the My American Meltingpot podcast, we’re doing a deep dive into the world of K-Pop. Korean popular music has taken the world by storm, and 2018 was the year K-Pop went mainstream in the United States. On this episode, I’m joined by Billboard K-Pop columnist, Tamar Herman and teen K-Pop fan, Esai Malia-Tharps. We discuss everything from K-Pop’s biggest stars, to its biggest controversies. We also discuss why music from South Korea is so appealing to Black and Brown kids in America?
Resources
Even though this episode is over 40 minutes long, there is still so much to learn about K-Pop. So, I’ve compiled some resources to further your education
1.To understand the origins of K-Pop, read this comprehensive article called Factory Girls from The New Yorker.
2. To Understand what makes BTS the hottest K-Pop group in the United States (and beyond) check out this handy guide of 10 Things You Need to Know about BTS from EOnline!
3. To see K-Pop group, Super Junior and Dominican singer Leslie Grace team up for a song that’s sung in English, Korean and Spanish, check out “Lo Siento.” Tamar Herman mentioned this song in the episode.
4. One of the hottest female K-Pop groups is BackPink. Tamar Herman actually wrote an article for Billboard titled 10 Things to Know about BlackPink, which is the perfect primer to get to know this increasingly popular girl group.
5. An article from Remezcla that connects the dots between K-Pop and their Latino fans.
Just for kicks and giggles, enjoy this video of the BTS song, Waste it On Me.
To stay up to date on all things K-Pop, follow Tamar Herman on Twitter.
If you enjoyed this episode, and I hope you did, please consider leaving a rating or a review on iTunes or Stitcher or wherever you listen to your podcasts. It really makes a difference and helps others find us. Thank you in advance.
And speaking of thanks, I would appreciate it so much if you could find it in your heart and wallet to donate to our Kickstarter campaign to help us finish funding the first season of the podcast. Every little bit gets us closer to our goal. And we only have until January 2, 2019.
Peace!
