When I first saw the other day that the BBC had released a documentary on Burning Sun, I was a bit on-edge. If you're unfamiliar "Burning Sun" is a catchall referring to several interrelated sexual abuse and criminal cases in South Korea that were uncovered in
This is one of several mini notes, more intimate, random musings. The first music festival I ever went to, I left before the headliners played. It was 2008, and I was too cool (and dumb) for Panic! At The Disco's Pretty.Odd album. Instead, my friends and I
At the 2024 Met Gala, Stray Kids and Jennie represented the world of K-pop, showing up in Tommy Hilfiger and Alaïa, respectively. And, as most good things eventually are, the night ultimately became awash in drama over photographers acting inappropriately, racially stereotyping Stray Kids on the red carpet. A series
The last few days for K-pop have been historic ones, with Min Hee Jin and HYBE one-upping one another with press conferences and press statements. We’re in the era of she said-they said, with legal teams attempting their best to come out on top. It’s unclear based on
Hello, hello! I mentioned a few weeks ago on Linkedin that I was thinking of offering some sort of course or fellowship, and the interest really blew me away. I did some thinking, and ultimately decided to launch a summer fellowship for this newsletter to help two people looking to
More than any year, or even month, than I can remember, K-pop fans are following the money around the industry closely in Spring 2024. While there have definitely been other periods of interest for fans to pay attention to financial issues (like a company's hostile takeover) and/or
Nowadays, we live in a world where everyone is expected to perform all the time for social media, whether with awareness or unwittingly: you can wake up thinking it'll be a normal day, but by midnight your life can have changed because a video of you on an
On Thursday night, I saw Suga of BTS in concert. It was at a NYC AMC, and a recording of his Agust D-Day tour's final Seoul date. I had previously been in-awe of the theatrical, personal slant of the show when I saw it live last year, and
Everything I know about the Premiere League is based on Ted Lasso. So imagine my surprise a few weeks ago when a friend of mine told me her brothers were trying to decide whether they should keep their plans for a trip to the UK, or if they should sell
On April 1, YG Entertainment's newest act BabyMonster (aka Baemon or BABYMONSTER) released their latest single "SHEESH" and their first EP, BabyMons7er. It was promoted as their debut, even though they had ostensibly debuted with their single "Batter Up" last November, which was followed
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Incoming!!!! This is the first of a series for Notes on K-pop focusing on creatives who work within and around the K-pop sphere, featuring American multi-faceted producer Dem Jointz. I reached out to Dem Jointz, among a few other producers, last year to discuss why children's songs and