K-Pop Dreaming - Secret Fan
California Love
LAist Studios
4.5 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 23 February 2023
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Growing up in Koreatown during the 90s and 2000s, host Vivian Yoon was an emo-listening teenager who embraced American pop culture. At least that’s what it seemed from the outside. But at home, by herself, what she listened to was K-Pop. How Vivian's hidden love for the music is propelling her to explore the connections between K-Pop and her hometown.
(Originally published February 23, 2023)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is Larry Mantle. This year marks the 40th anniversary of my program air talk. On the show, |
| 0:06.1 | we've discussed the biggest topics and events of the day from earthquakes to elections. Please |
| 0:10.8 | join me for the biggest conversation in Southern California for 40 years. Hi, I'm Samin Nasrat, |
| 0:17.8 | author of Salt Fat, Acid Heat. I'm doing a special live event co co-presented by show and tell and LAIS on October 18th at the United Theater on Broadway. |
| 0:26.5 | Get tickets now at laist.com slash events. LAS Studios |
| 0:43.1 | Growing up, I was a huge tomboy. |
| 0:48.4 | Throughout middle school and most of high school, |
| 0:51.0 | I wore oversized shirts and sweaters, |
| 0:53.4 | Dickies, skater shoes. I was a five-foot-two |
| 0:56.4 | Korean-American girl with a clear skater boy aesthetic. And I listened to music that matched. Like the first |
| 1:02.6 | two CDs I ever bought with my own money were Jimmy Eat World's Bleed American, and Weezer's Green album. |
| 1:15.3 | And that's how I wanted people to see me. |
| 1:18.1 | As an MTV junkie who shopped at all the cool places, |
| 1:21.5 | like Paxon, Vans, Volcom, you name it, I was shopping there. |
| 1:27.1 | I wanted to be a rock aficionado, who wasn't just into the current stuff, but could also sing along to Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Cream. |
| 1:36.0 | It was like I was always ready for a pop quiz on the history of American rock that just never happened. |
| 1:41.4 | Which is so middle school, right? |
| 1:43.7 | Preping for imaginary tests on coolness that just never happened, which is so middle school, right? Preping for imaginary tests on coolness that just never happened. |
| 1:48.6 | And all of this is why, when I told my friends from back then that I was going to host a podcast about K-pop, this was their reaction. |
| 1:57.3 | You know K-pop? |
| 1:58.7 | Yeah, that was my response too. |
| 2:00.6 | I never knew you listened to K-pop. |
... |
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