Introducing California Love: K-Pop Dreaming, from LAist Studios

California Love

LAist Studios

Music

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2023

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

K-pop disrupted pop culture in South Korea in the early 1990s and quickly the new and electrifying sound found fans across the world.

One of those fans was a kid growing up thousands of miles away in Koreatown, Los Angeles.

In K-Pop Dreaming, the second season of the acclaimed California Love podcast, host and writer Vivian Yoon takes listeners on a journey to learn about the history behind the music that had defined her childhood.

From an occupied Korea in the 1930s and a small hip-hop club in 1980s Seoul to the 1992 LA Uprising and the music’s booming popularity today, the surprising story of K-pop is juxtaposed against Vivian’s own coming of age as a second-generation immigrant, struggling to fit in and come to terms with her own identity.

The series premieres on February 23, 2023.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today, K-pop groups sell out stadiums all over the world.
0:25.8	But when I was growing up in Los Angeles's Korea town, I couldn't imagine how big K-pop would become outside of Korea.
0:35.8	And seeing the world suddenly embraced this genre has been kind of shocking.
0:41.8	K-pop is K-pop.
0:45.8	But why? And how could the music from my home live?
0:48.8	Very real is the joy it brings millions of fans around the world.
0:54.8	I'm Vivian Yoon. I'm a Korean-American actress and writer from Los Angeles.
1:03.8	K-pop came up in the early 90s. The same time I was a kid in Korea town.
1:09.8	In a way, the music and I grew up alongside each other.
1:13.8	But I never spent a ton of time thinking about it.
1:16.8	Now, K-pop is a cultural juggernaut.
1:19.8	The first K-pop group ever to perform on Saturday night.
1:24.8	It is a multi-billion dollar industry.
1:27.8	Through the South Korean stock exchange with its initial public offering.
1:31.8	And it's also this ever-evolving art form that is so important to so many people.
1:37.8	Oh, BTS!
1:39.8	Oh, my God.
1:41.8	Thank you for saving my life.
1:43.8	So, what does this cultural shift mean for Korean-American kids like me?
1:48.8	And where do I even begin to try and understand K-pop's rich and complicated history?
1:57.8	My search into this question led me to some surprising places.
2:02.8	Like this tiny underground club in Seoul that was created for black American soldiers.
	...

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