Blog Post #1

1. How were you introduced to Asian popular culture?

I was first introduced to Asian popular culture by watching Sailor Moon when I was a little kid. She was my favorite superhero and became one of my favorite shows because it was different than American cartoons at the time. The expressions Sailor moon and her friends would make were cute and over exaggerated which made it funny to me when I was a kid. Sailor Moon led me to watch other Japanese anime and I found myself watching and getting hooked on many different series. Because of anime, I started listening to Japanese songs. When I was around 14 years old, there was an anime I watched that had an ending song I really liked and I discovered it was sung by BoA, a Korean artist, in Japanese. I began researching online for her songs and other Korean artists’ songs and music videos and slowly got into Korean music and eventually dramas.

2. What aspects of Asian popular culture do you enjoy? For example, what are some of your favorite films, dramas, groups, etc., etc.?
3. What happens to you in the process of watching/listening/engaging in (different types of) Asian popular culture? How is it different from watching/listening/engaging in American popular culture?
(Going to incorporate #2 and #3 together)

Korean music appealed to me the most because it had addicting catchy beats, beautiful ballads, amazing vocals, eye-catching choreography, and I’m not going to lie but there is the hot factor :] Another reason why I like Korean pop culture and Asian pop culture is because growing up in America, Asians are barely represented in American movies, music, and entertainment besides martial arts which made me used to think if Asians were good at singing, dancing, and acting. It was hard to have an Asian idol/role model to look up to in America until I got introduced to Asian culture and realized there are so many talented people in pop culture. Some of my favorite K-pop artists are Super Junior, 2PM, 2AM, F.T. Island, Girls’ Generation, SHINee, f(x), 2NE1, Big Bang, Wonder Girls, DBSK, SS501, KARA, C.N. Blue, MBLAQ, BEAST, Epik High, Younha, 4minute, Taegoon, Fly to the Sky, Brown Eyed Girls, and tons more I can’t think of right now. Being the fan girl that I am, I had to see them perform on music shows also and I got into watching Korean music programs such as Inkigayo, Music Core, and Music Bank. I realized how music programs in Korea were different than how it is in America. In America, there would just be MTV and a countdown of music videos and once in a while the artist would perform on TV. They would usually just promote their songs by going on tour. However in Korea, there are three music programs airing each weekend from three different stations (MBC, KBS, SBS) and every Korean artists that’s currently promoting their song would perform. And at the end of the show, they would announce who the winner is for having the highest album sale, song popularity, etc. Because of this, I would get to watch Super Junior, 2PM, etc perform every week which fed my addiction even more.

Wanting to know more about my favorite artists, I would get into watching Korean variety shows. They all usually involve celebrities telling private stories of their life and/or playing random games, missions, and challenges and also showing different talents. It is different and refreshing to me than American reality shows. Some of my favorites are X-Man, Love Letter, Man Won Happiness, We Got Married, Intimate Note, Star Golden Bell, Exploring Human Body, Star King, etc.

I like watching Korean dramas compared to American dramas because of the storyline always leaves me wondering what’s going to happen next, the complicated relationships, the sympathy and relation I feel for some characters, and the cute and sweet affections between the main characters such as the littlest thing they do for each other can make me smile rather than having intense making out and bed scenes shown on American TV. I tend to like light hearted funny/romantic comedy dramas such as “You’re Beautiful” instead of super sob fest dramas.

4. What are some Asian popular culture blogs and sites you have found fun, helpful, or informative? Please provide links if possible.

The site I go to for drama recaps are dramabeans.com. I also use soompi.com/forums for information about music and dramas. Allkpop.com is another site I go to for news about music but I hate their biased comments but they usually have the fastest news so I just look for that. To watch dramas, I use mysoju.com and viikii.net and crunchyroll.com.