If you’ve been following my blog, you would know that I was born and raised in America.

Therefore, growing up, I really only listened to American music – Jesse McCartney, Leona Lewis, Natasha Bedingfield, all those early 2000’s throwback artists.

It wasn’t until 6th grade that I realized there was a world beyond American music.

And that moment was when my Black friend told me I “had” to watch this music video. She whipped out her 3rd Generation iPod Touch, and opened up YouTube. 

All of a sudden, a bunch of Asian girls in matching outfits were onscreen singing and doing synchronized dancing. They all wore matching outfits, but with every new line they would sing, their outfits would change. It was incredible.

It wasn’t until half the song was over when I realized the girls in the video were singing in Korean.

            Me: “Whoa, are they singing Korean?”

            Friend: “Yeah, it’s called K-pop. Korean Pop music.”

I was so confused yet amazed to see music from Korea being shared so openly like this. And I quickly became a fan from that point onward. 

If you’re wondering what the video was that sparked my love for Korean music, it was “Gee” by Girls’ Generation – The BEST K-pop group of all time, fight me about it.

Anyways, I started listening to K-pop when it really started becoming a global movement. Therefore, it would be some Big Bang here and there, 2pm, 2am, Wonder Girls, 2NE1 – all the greats.

One day, one of my friends asked what I was listening to. And I’m pretty sure I told her it was My Boy by Sistar – a true throwback.
The conversation went something along the lines of:

            Me: “I’m just listening to some K-pop!”

            Friend: “What’s K-pop?”

            Me: “It’s like pop but from Korea.”

            Friend: “I thought only the FOB’s (Fresh Off the Boat) and people who are obsessed with

Asia listened to that sort of stuff…?”

From that point on, I realized that it wasn’t “cool” to listen to K-pop. And I realized my culture wasn’t “cool” enough to be normal.

Therefore, I started to shun K-pop too. I started to delete it from my playlists and dismiss it when someone would find it on my iTunes saying, “Oh, yeah I used to listen to K-pop, but it’s lame. I’m not one of those Asians...”

It’s funny. I tried so hard to be accepted that I was ashamed of my own culture.

It wasn’t until I was well into high school that I tried to re-embrace my culture.

I’m not sure what started it. I’m pretty sure it was when BTS started becoming a thing and one of my White friends came up to me and asked if I was a fan.

I kind of laughed to myself. It was SO ironic to me that K-pop was becoming mainstream. And it was acceptable to like it.

Now, BTS holds the record for the most-viewed video on YouTube. Blackpink appeared on James Corden’s Late Late Show and got this clip to 20 million views on Youtube. Red Velvet’s Wendy had a hashtag trending on Twitter wishing her to get well after she suffered a fall before a performance.

So yeah, I like K-pop. And so does the rest of the world.

Reflecting on my younger self: I wish I had more self-confidence to accept who I was. I am a Korean American. That means I should be able to embrace both sides of my identity. And I shouldn’t let society dictate what I should or shouldn’t do. And hopefully younger generations will have this realization faster than I did.