from daydreams to screen time

If there is one thing you can know about me, I have a wide variety of interests and always have them when I was a kid. It ranges from technology, films, the arts, and most especially the music. I have always had a strong bond with those even up to now and some of them has shaped me into who I am today and been told to appreciate what you have. I especially have a deep love for music, a variety of music genres, actually, and have been since I was little. The music I listen to daily is mainly Tejano, pop, rock, and occasionally metal. But ever since my mom got me a laptop of my own, I was pretty much opened to much more variety of music and it was mainly because of YouTube. I was introduced to K-pop, J-pop, and Japanese rock and since then they have become my most favorite music genres and if I hadn’t stumble upon on one of the music videos from various of musicians like SHINee, Miyavi, Girls Generation, Miku Hatsune, the GazettE, etc., I think my life wouldn’t be as colorful as it is now and I’m pretty thankful on stumbling on them when I was scrolling through YouTube one day.

If there’s another thing I can say is that I’m a K-pop fan through and through since 2010, and yes that is quite a long time to be a fan on a music that is on a completely different language. I did have some people come up to me or online asking me things like “how are you able to understand what they’re saying?”, and I just do you know? It’s really by the emotions in their voices and how they express when they dance and you can just really understand. There was an interview awhile back that a K-pop soloist, Chungha, had when she attended the SXSW festival that was held in Texas, the interviewer had asked her on “why does a lot of people love K-pop even if they can’t understand the lyrics?”, Chungha responded saying that “other Koreans do not understand English, but still listen to Western music anyway.” She also said “Music all blends into one,” and the interviewer said “good music transcends.” In other words the music itself is the language. There is a quote from the legendary CL of 2NE1 (of the 2^nd generation of K-pop), saying that you can just enjoy music without understanding it, music is a universal language. 

If you’re wondering which K-pop generation I started on, I started listening to them when they were still in the 2^nd gen and about to enter the 3^rd gen. It’s confusing I know, but it’s also really interesting as we get to see more groups coming. Even though they are musicians, they’re also human beings, to me and to the fans at least. With groups like SHINee from the 3^rd generation, Stray Kids and ENHYPEN from the 4^th generation, some of them, in my opinion, have given up their youth for the futures they are in today. Each group is successful on its own, and I’m glad to witness something like that as a K-pop fan. Again, I’m a K-pop fan through and through and I think the more I have these classes help me become a journalist in this area and the music has more recognition in smaller towns in each US state, I genuinely think I can do it, especially with my knowledge of it. Even though K-pop is widely popular, it’s still growing. Slowly but surely.

Here is one of the interviews that ENHYPEN did last year when looking back on how far they have come:

• On the growth and confidence of the team: “I think all the confidence and all that skills, like visions, everything… the stages, it all came from our time, like five years… it’s just time.” [02:00]
• On the universal power of music: “We sing songs in Korean and everything, but I feel like it’s not about the lyrics. It’s about the music itself that really connects everyone in the world.” [04:16]
• On representing Korean culture globally: “We really want to reach out and just show this amazing Korean culture, you know, and just show our music, showcase our music, showcase our performance, and that has always been our goal even from the start.” [06:02]
• On the bond between the seven members: “If I’m feeling a bit, you know, down or you know just a bit tired, I know that someone has my back. I think that’s a really strong and positive feeling.” [09:04]