Ask Me About Kpop

It's an age old question, and we're not really going to definitively answer it lol. But we ARE going to talk about 10 different idol groups and soloists that are not of Korean descent who tried to take a shot at being Kpop idols. What did their music sound like and how were they received by the public? Is this a trend that will continue to grow? Or will people always want their idol groups to be m...

Today is the official TEN YEAR anniversary of the day that Shannon first discovered Kpop. So we're celebrating with a super specific time machine episode looking at this exact week of Kpop in 2013. We'll take a look at the top songs on the Gaon chart, who won the music shows, what idol variety was airing on tv, the week in news and gossipy rumors, as well as a general look at where Kpop fans hung...

Shawol has waited two long years, and Alikes have waited another week longer to hear all about SHINee's incredible 8th album, HARD! So this week we're running down all the best parts of this excellent comeback so far! We're starting with thoughts about the SHINee World VI concert, going into the excellent JTBC comeback special. And then it's time to talk about the album track by track without gush...

It's time again to finish out MBC's hit stage flashback from 10 years ago! The 2013 Kpop fashion reigns strong in these stages, and we get a little bit of whiplash from some of Latte's ordering choices. What was your favorite song from this stage compilation? This is the full version with the video already playing underneath, but if you want to still watch along with the video, it can be found her...

It's time again to finish out MBC's hit stage flashback from 10 years ago! The 2013 Kpop fashion reigns strong in these stages, and we get a little bit of whiplash from some of Latte's ordering choices. What was your favorite song from this stage compilation? This is the full version without the playing underneath, so you can watch along with the video found here: https://youtu.be/qQ3HtE-rSeQ Host...

Let's see if we've actually learned anything in the last 251 episodes. Shannon dug into the archives of some random quiz websites to find some 'general Kpop knowledge' online quizzes created from 2010 - 2023 and we did our best to conquer them. But it's gonna be a challenge as we run into tiny pixelated pictures, idols we've never heard of, completely wrong (and distressing!) information, and ever...

This week on the pod, we are thrilled to welcome Brittany Press and Tiffany Bae from Helix Publicity! Helix is a PR firm that represents so many great Kpop artists like FIFTY FIFTY, EPEX, Omega X, VAV, and Secret Number just to name a few! Tune in to get to know Tiffany & Brittany's personal Kpop origin stories, learn exactly what public relations is, discuss the joys and the challenges of pro...

It's the 250th episode of Ask Me About Kpop!!! Wow!!!! And just like we did 50 episodes ago, we're celebrating with a song battle! With the help of our Patreon patrons we ranked 10 different songs with the title 'Stay With Me' in the hopes that all you lovely people will stay with us for however much longer this ridiculous podcast continues. Thanks for listening!!! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/p...

We wanted to make a short episode to acknowledge our recent loss of Astro's Moonbin and offer some support and sympathy to all of our listeners who may be navigating this type of loss for the first time. We will share some beautiful things about Moonbin, and try to read some words from those closest to him, and just talk out our thoughts and feelings in the hopes that it comforts someone. This epi...

So excited to welcome new friend of the podcast and author, Lily Chu to AMAK! Her new book, The Comeback tells the story of a hardworking Toronto lawyer who finds herself falling for her roommate’s cousin who is on a hiatus from his work in Seoul. Little does she know, he’s one of Kpop’s hottest stars! And their whirlwind romance may be more than she bargained for… We sat down with Lily to discuss...

Good morning! Let's wake up with some great Kpop! This week we asked our Patreon patrons to give us a Kpop song that they use as an alarm. We've got a pretty great range of songs that you might want to work into your wake up routine. Whether you need to be risen very gently, or screamed at to get your butt out of bed, we've got options for you! Then, a super long random game and an extended recomm...

This week we're revisiting one of our oldest and most oddly controversial episodes. We've made an updated, chronological list of some Kpop companies who have made an impact over the years, discussing who started them, who they represent, and what makes each company unique. Perhaps, it's better than last time, but maybe it's not. Try to count how many times we say the phrases "We'll see" and "I don...

Oh goody it's time for another 20 year flashback episode! This time it's 2003, and from our perspective Kpop is in a weird transitional moment before the 2nd gen really and truly kicks off, but the good news is, everyone is MUCH better at singing than they have been previously. Tune in 6ish months from now to hear about the rest of 2003! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's time for MARCH MADNESS!!!! And since we've exhausted every possible option for SHINee tournaments, we're turning to the group that causes the most madness in us... EXO of course. Angelica carefully ranked and seeded 16 top EXO title tracks and we're gonna battle them against each other to find the 'ultimate' EXO song. Some of these matchups were SO PAINFUL. So EXO should reward our effort wit...

On this special bonus episode of the show, we're introducing you to LAist's podcast 'California Love: Kpop Dreaming' available now wherever you get podcasts. Kpop Dreaming tells the story of Kpop as woven through the childhood memories of an LA native Korean diaspora, and we think you will really like it. Tune into this bonus episode where we took a field trip to Choice Music to speak with the pro...

This week's episode is brought to us by a lovely listener! They sent in an emoji puzzle guessing game and we played it! And then when we finished their slides, we tried to make some more up on the spot! It was really hard and really fun! Thanks so much Jules! If anyone else ever wants to send us a game to play, please do!!! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's been more than 25 years since SM debuted their very first girl group, S.E.S. And since all things y2k are the hotness of the moment, why not look back at who was the hotness during the actual time period. Learn all about the members of S.E.S. and what they've been up to for the last 25 years. Then get into their trendsetting style and 'New Jill Swing' music that swept the nation for the 5 sho...

It's a back to basics episode as we try to figure out how and why Korean song and album charts work the way they do. There's even vocabulary words!! Shannon walks us through the history of song charts, which ones exist, where the data comes from and how they maybe only mean whatever you want them to mean. Ending with a super special surprise guest star popping up in our random game video! Check ou...

It's that time of year again to watch the first part of MBC's hit stage flashback from 10 years ago. And this time it's extra special cause it's OUR YEAR!!! And this one is relentless in just how many important stages it hits us with!! This is the full version with the video playing underneath, but you can still watch along with the video found here: https://youtu.be/ZYds7MMsY3s Hosted on Acast. S...

It's that time of year again to watch the first part of MBC's hit stage flashback from 10 years ago. And this time it's extra special cause it's OUR YEAR!!! And this one is relentless in just how many important stages it hits us with!! This is the commentary version meant to be synced with the video, found here: https://youtu.be/ZYds7MMsY3s Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informati...

It's a very special episode today, because our guest is ONEUS!!! We're starting out with a quick rundown of ONEUS' career so far and an intro to the members. Then we're recapping our night seeing ONEUS on their Reach For Us tour stop in LA, and hearing from some listeners who saw them in other cities. Followed by our interview with ONEUS themselves! Learn each members origin story, favorite tour m...

We're back with another spotlight onto a producer who has made oh so many Kpop songs we love, BUMZU! Meet the man behind basically every Seventeen and NU'EST bop, starting with his time as a reality show competitor and solo artist. Followed by his very prolific tenure as a Pledis vocal trainer and songwriter. He's done so much and he's just getting started!! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...

We're still floating on clouds from our incredibly fun birthday party, so we just wanna play games today!! But first, a couple of very exciting announcements that were made during the live show that we needed everyone to be in the know about. Then, we're playing a super classic game, Password!! And we're pretty good at it!! If you have games to submit to the pod, send em in anytime!! Hosted on Aca...

We've probably mentioned and discussed this show in more than 20 episodes at this point, but it still needs one of it's own!! So tune in for a rundown of all things MBC's Weekly Idol, a weekly idol variety show that is legendary for laughs in Kpop. Learn all about the show format, the many hosts over the years, the idols who have guested the most, and some of the most viewed segments of all time....

Oh boy it's a new year!! ...but first we need to talk about all the perfect things we saw at the end of last year. Come along for lots of screaming and fawning over all our favorite Gayo stages, and our personal favorite stages from Kwangya New Year. Then we touch on a few recent news items, including the death of VLive, a surprising survival show contestant, Dispatch couple reveals and more. What...