Beyond Hallyu

[Interview] Zandari Festa returns to Hongdae with bigger lineup than ever

Korea’s top indie showcase festival Zandari Festa is back once again in Hongdae next weekend. This year 140 acts will be playing across 10 music venues between Friday 29th September and Sunday 1st October.

Established names in Korean music including Galaxy Express, Idiotape, 3rd Line Butterfly and Neon Bunny will be joined by a long list of local up and coming acts as well as a huge variety of…

SM makes idols like Samsung makes phones: K-pop as culture technology

This is the second part in a series on the meaning of K-pop as a genre. Apologies to everyone for the huge delay.

Step 1: Casting

Step 2: Training

Step 3: Producing

Step 4: Marketing

This is the 4-step process founder Lee Soo-man laid out describing how SM Entertainment develops its artists in front of the audience last year at the SM COEX Artium – six floors of retail space converted into a…

DEAN is so popular in London they’ve put on a second date

Turns out R&B singer DEAN (or is it DΞΔN?) is so popular in the UK, concert organisers have put on a second date in London after the first one sold out.

Tickets are on sale for the gig at KOKO in Camden on Saturday the 24th June and DEAN will be playing with Club Eskimo crew members Miso and 2xxx! with opening provided by SAAY.

He’ll also be playing Paris on 22nd June and Berlin on 27th June.

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HIGHLIGHT and EXID to play London Korean Festival in July

Looks like this year’s London Korean Festival is back with a bigger K-pop lineup than ever. HIGHLIGHT (or the artists formerly know as BEAST) and EXID are headlining joined by KNK and SNUPER on 8th July. But unlike when f(x) and a host of Korean indie acts played in 2015, this time the groups will be playing an indoor ticketed concert following the day’s open air festival events.

The event’s…

[Interview] Say Sue Me bring the Busan sunshine to chilly Glasgow

It was a fairly sunny and warm evening in Glasgow (at least for a early May evening in Scotland) when I headed over from Edinburgh to see Say Sue Me play their sole Scottish date in their UK tour. The venue chosen, the CCA in the city centre is known for attracting a pretty diverse and open minded audience and I immediately noticed a wide range of ages from people in their late teens up to one…

Will a new Korean president bring forward improvements in LGBT rights? Unlikely.

There’s just something about April in Korea. Alongside the annual cherry blossom bloomings and yellow dust warnings, the month also tends to bring threats of war from North of the border and challenges for the country’s increasingly visible LGBT population.

The Korean Queer Culture Festival is once again facing threats to its annual Seoul event, this time because anti-impeachment protesters have…

GFRIEND, Korea’s hidden camera problem and when fans cross the line

“Hidden camera glasses” started trending on Korean twitter earlier when a video emerged of Yerin from GFRIEND removing the glasses of a man at their fansign after suspecting they contained a camera.  At around 40m 30s in the video you can see Yerin politely ask the fan about the glasses and then inspect them for herself.

Yerin’s…

The Barberettes and Sultan of the Disco to return to the UK

Indie retro girl group The Barberettes and funk quartet Sultan of the Disco are both making the return to the UK to perform as part of KCCUK’s K-Music Showcase. The two groups will be performing at The Forge in Camden on the 22nd May while both groups take on the festival circuit.

The Barberettes played in front of a packed house at the Forge back in 2015 and this time they’ll be back with new…

Paper-dols and how K-pop (and K-pop fans) normalises impossible body ideals

Recently, Dispatch released yet another borderline horrifying article titled “As light as a feather: 9 ‘paper doll’ idols”(part of its ongoing list series “Girl Story” which focus on idols and often, specifically, their diets like this one) about several female idols and their less than 45kg bodies.

One of the comments on the first article says ‘Krystal isn’t as skinny as I thought’ because…

Koreaboo, Kim Hyun-joong’s ex and how bad translation seriously misleads K-pop fans

As part of their ongoing legal battle, Kim Hyun-joong’s ex-girlfriend is set to stand trial in March accused of manipulating evidence and defaming Kim Hyun-joong. Yesterday, before she was actually charged, Korean news outlet OSEN published an “exclusive” leaked report detailing the prosecutor’s evidence and what she was due to be charged with. There could be arguments over whether it is…

Block B to play London in March as part of 5 date European tour

Block B are coming to London as part of 5-date European tour starting in late February 2017. The group’s UK date on the 5th March is the last day in the tour which kicks off in Amsterdam on 24th February before heading to Lisbon, Helsinki and Budapest.

The rest of the details have yet to be released but we will bring you more updates as they happen. https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=h…

SNL Korea fails to heed to its own advice on sexual harrassment at work

The cast and crew of SNL Korea have been in hot water lately after videos emerged of some female cast members groping male guests (with the jeering support of their colleagues) as part of a bizarre pre-recording hazing ritual. And when I say “emerged” I mean it was posted on the show’s official Facebook page for the world to see because apparently uninvitedly grabbing idols’ crotches is…

Do K-pop music show wins matter? Not at all, unless they matter to you.

Another week, another round of promotions; every K-Pop fan knows that every Thursday marks the beginning of the weekly music show circuit. Many fans see music shows as pure entertainment, and a chance to see their favourites perform. However, for some fans music shows are a lot more important than just entertainment. They value music shows for the competition aspect – and, more importantly, the…

Box Office smash Train to Busan to be shown ahead of London Korean Film Festival

  The biggest film of the year in Korea is getting a special screening ahead of this year’s London Korean Film Festival. Train to Busan is playing at Picturehouse Central on Shaftesbury Avenue on 6th October.

The film which stars Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi and Ma Dong-seok and was directed by King of Pigs director Yeon Sang-ho has been so popular in Korea it’s sold over 10 million tickets and there are

Block B announce European tour stops including London

Block B have announced the locations for their European tour in October including a stop in London.

The group have been working with concert crowdfunding platform MyMusicTaste asking fans to vote for where they want to see the boys.

In a video, the members of Block B announced where they will be going: London, Budapest, Amsterdam, Lisbon and Helsinki.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?hr…

Korean mothers tell people at Seoul Pride: “I love you just the way you are”

After the awful news coming out of Orlando today, we had to share a lovely, heartwarming moment from Seoul Pride yesterday. By all accounts this year’s parade was a success with an estimated 50,000 people turning out. That’s apparently almost twice as many as last year which faced various setbacks with interference from police and protesters and the MERS outbreak.

The general consensus on social…