Hugh’s first Kpop concert! We were given some tickets for Block B so it was the perfect opportunity for him to go (he always complains about ticket prices other times I’ve tried to get him to come). Luckily Block B is considered a cool enough group… haha… especially since member Zico was a producer on the popular Rap elimination TV show ‘Show Me the Money’. Bobby from iKON was also a previous winner on that show, for those who want to know how rap and Kpop and ‘Show me the Money’ is all related.

Something I also said in the video, but was edited out because of length, was that this stereotype of Kpop stars just being guys with pretty faces who are not talented and can’t sing so are just auto-tuned, is not really that true. It is for some groups. But the groups that make it really big aren’t like that. They have to be super talented, they have to be able to write and produce. The title of “Kpop” can be really damaging to a lot of groups because of that dismissive way people talk about it. Especially because it’s popular with teenage girls (and we all know how much people want to shit all over teenage girls). G-Dragon has even made the point recently, that all music from Korea gets labelled as Kpop and can have those negative associations, but he doesn’t feel that BIGBANG necessarily fits into that label. I think in recent years especially, there has been more of a push for creative control for Kpop stars. There will always be completely manufactured groups churning out crap for a certain audience, but most really successful groups that last the distance are hardworking, talented, and capable of writing and producing.