Who is this Random Person Reviewing K-Pop and Why Does Her Voice Matter in the Cacophonous Discord that is the Internet?

    Much like a recipe blog, this K-Pop review blog depends on the path leading me to where I am at today to dictate my tastes and how I perceive the world. Unlike a recipe blog, I'm not going to start every review with fifteen pages of backstory to get to the good stuff that you would actually care about.

    You'll get the full fifteen (this is a joke, I don't think it's that long) pages up front, so you can decide for yourself if I'm worth listening to. There are a lot of voices out there. I'm merely one of them. Hopefully somewhat entertaining, but considering it took one of my friends four years to realize I was fun, I'm not holding my breath on that one.

    So, who am I, and why should you care? Because my story isn't extraordinary. Well, it is because it's mine, but there are at least thousands, probably millions of other stories like it. Maybe something about mine resonates with you. But I do like to think I have some credentials for music review despite this being my first foray into this particular sphere.

    My villain origin story is the most average I could possibly think of. Spent the first nine years of my life in rural Idaho, US, then we moved to Vegas because my mother is a lizard and doesn't like the cold. My grandfather died my senior year of high school, so after I graduated and went to college (as a sociology major), my parents moved to be closer to my still-living grandma and me. Like I said, average.

    The interesting parts are 1) that I didn't listen to pop, hip-hop, or rap until high school because I didn't like it and then was forced by exposure and friends to listen to them, and 2) that I *did* listen to country, golden oldies, 80's rock, musicals, and 90's boy bands. Three of those things primed me for my future as a K-Pop fan. I find it deeply ironic that when I was at the age for it, I also had no interest in the modern boy bands: One Direction, Jonas Brothers, etc. In the grand scheme of things, I don't think I've missed out. And despite listening to Taylor Swift since she was a country singer, I wouldn't necessarily call myself a Swiftie. My best friend did see her in concert early on, though, in like 2009. That's something I can brag about. I've been around for a long time. Actually, short funny somewhat related story, I got the Speak Now CD when it came out. I was super excited with my portable CD player that definitely skipped if I moved wrong, as they do. My parents and I took a road trip...probably up to my grandparents' house, which was ten or so hours away. I convinced my dad to let me put the CD into the CD player in the car. Better Than Revenge horrified him. I thought it was hilarious.

    A couple of years later, in 2012, the world for me changed, though I wouldn't notice for eleven years, and no, I'm not talking about the Mayan Calendar. Before that, a certain song exploded on the scenes, which only someone living under a rock or too young to comprehend what was happening could have failed to notice. 

    

    That's right. I'm talking about Face, the debut song by the K-pop group NU'EST.

    If you thought I was talking about Gangam Style, I tried my best to ignore it at the time. I was taking French because I can't speak Spanish and Japanese scared me. I did watch anime, but I needed it dubbed because I have the attention span of a gnat. Also, I was of the wholly incorrect opinion at the time that it was stupid to listen to music in a language you didn't speak because how could that help you. I didn't say it out loud, because that would be rude, but I definitely thought it while my high school was so obsessed with Gangam Style that I couldn't have escaped it if I tried. I would like to go back in time and yell at Past Me for being so stupid, because I could have gotten so much more time

    By 2014, I had friends who were listening to BTS, and I think I had heard of SHINee and Girl's Generation and Big Bang. It's possible I thought they were western groups, except for BTS, who I knew were K-Pop. For the record, somehow I knew the names of the BTS members, but knew literally nothing else about them. I apparently paid attention, but I don't remember paying attention. 

    Off to college I went. I switched majors three times and finally graduated with a degree in English literature. But the bouncing I did have gave me a strong foundation in music theory, film theory, performance studies, and literary theory and criticism.

    I got a job. I did all that boring adult stuff. Summer of 2023, my father convinced my mother to go on cruises, so off they went, leaving me to house and pet sit for them. The first one wasn't too bad, although I got bored of being alone and started watching Alchemy of Souls on Netflix, because I was paused too long on it and a scene from the second season started playing and I thought it was hilarious, so I decided to watch the Chinese show. (Keep reading. I can feel the outrage from here.)

    When Park Danggu shows up, my reaction was literally "WHAT IS THAT K-POP LOOKING BRO DOING IN MY CHINESE DRAMA?" So I backed out, looked at the names and went "Oh, it's Korean. Okay. Carry on." And then of course I realized that I recognized Korean names, had to pause and wonder why, but then moved on with my life of watching Netflix (dubbed of course, because again, attention span of a gnat) while I house sat. By episode four, I was so hooked that I'd stopped paying attention to my favorite video game of all time.

    At one point, I decided to look up the actors to my two favorite characters, see what K-Pop groups they were in (because I erroneously assumed all Korean actors were in K-Pop groups). The first, the guy playing Princey Boy (in my defense, his name is like, never mentioned and I SUCK with names in general to begin with) was NOT in a K-Pop group, but he is a model. And I was like "That tracks." But then I found out that his birthday is very, very close to mine and I was SUPER excited to be only a few days older than him. And then I looked up Yul, and was excited that his actor was in a group, and I made note of the name, and then was also incredibly excited to find out he was only a few months older than me. And then ignored the actual main actors because they were younger and it was so exciting for me to find people who were born around the same time as me on the other side of the planet.

    After Alchemy of Souls, I watched what I affectionately call my Chinese Soap Opera.

    The end made me miserable.

    So I went and looked up the writers of Alchemy of Souls to see if they had anything else on Netflix and I had two choices:

Hotel Del Luna

Korean Odyssey

    As much as I absolutely adore the concept of Hotel Del Luna, I had this whole Journey to the West obsession when I was young. Obviously, I had to pick that one. 

    A few episodes in, I was in love with one of the OST and had Google tell me what the song was. Lo and behold, it was the group that the Yul actor is in! What luck! What a coincidence!

    Oh, and even better! All but one is my age and one of them is only a couple of days older than me!

    Notice that I've already established my giant soft spot for my yearlings?

    And so, at roughly 2 in the morning on August 12, 2023, I watched the MV for Face for the first time. 

    And promptly laughed myself to tears because of their hair. It reminded me so much of middle school and high school, I completely forgot to figure out which one was 2012 Yul (hereafter referred to as Minhyun because that is his actual name). So I had to watch it again. And giggled. But figured it out eventually.

    That, as they say, was that.

    Shortly afterwards, I decided to start learning Korean because having to deal with translations (especially lack thereof for early NU'EST content) irritated me. And I've done research into the history of K-Pop because it irritates me that I don't know all the context, nor all the things that other fans of groups from around the same time as NU'EST know. Clearly, I'm fueled partially by irritation and spite, but also, I just enjoy doing research (linguistic or otherwise). Side effect of being a science focused English major. I'm still learning, still researching, still discovering. There is so much, even if we just start K-Pop at Seo Taiji and the Boys. Not only is it music where you can track trends and patterns and, my favorite, cause/effect within music and the companies, but the effects of historical events influencing and being influenced by K-Pop are also something that I'm fascinated by. There's so much to learn. I could continue rambling, but that's not what we're here for! We're here to talk about music! 

And so, here I am, humbly asking for your time and eyes. I hope I have convinced you to read my thoughts on the music. If not, well, thank you for making it all the way to the end of this long ramble.

~Brooke

감사합니다!!!!!