So the new semester has started here at my University in Long Island. And It's great to see all the returning students come back into the swing of things greeting each other in ample excitement, because for us 3 months of not seeing one another is just too long. We love each other. And while new faces pop up within our residence dorms we upper grads take special interest in getting them feeling like this is their new home.
But with new comers always comes a certain measurement of uncomfortableness, unfamiliarity. Because right now you don't know how each person is going to judge or make opinions based on the things they perceive mixed with their own experience or inexperience. So how would a recently graduated high school boy from the Bronx, whose just been admitted to college, come to a sense of understanding me? A white American K-pop and Korean cultural enthusiast, who makes aims to move to Korea to teach English? How could I even make someone who is straight out of Korea understand me?
See, being a K-pop lover, I love to play my music where ever it is I am. Be it my room, the main (and very much so, Busy ) lounge in my building, the dining cafes, walking about with my mp3 player or wherever. And being that I flash this music about wherever I go because it is a huge part of me, remember K-pop is a lifestyle not just a genre of music, there comes with it this certain vulnerability.
Let's take a step back here. If I was listening to normal or what Americans perceive as "normal" pop, r&b, rap ect. most people wouldn't take much notice. Unless it was a favorite artist of theirs, but in any such case would just say a simple "oh hey, I like this song too" or "Isn't this rock band the best?" and that would be the end of the conversation. With K-pop it doesn't go unnoticed, people don't just let it pass without needing to find out more. Which where questions are asked means judgments will be shaped depending on the answers given. It's a natural human concept.
Last night even, I was in the lounge of my building where a new student, I'm guessing from china, asked me "what language is that?" When I told him it was Korean, he just sat there silent looking at me. So I preceded in telling him it was K-pop music. He nodded his head and continued on playing his game of chess. But it didn't stop there. Throughout his game of trying to score a checkmate, he interjected questions and statements here and there between turns. "The only K-pop band I know is SNSD." So I took the liberty and queued the song "Run Devil Run" for him in my spotify account. He continued on talking about how this was actually the only song he knew, then he made a statement about them stealing the song from Kesha. *Rage Moment.* I corrected him telling him how the song was composed by neither Kesha nor SNSD, it was composed by a third party in which at about the same time Kesha and SNSD took it and made their takes on it. (Listen to Kesha's version here.) But in the end it was SNSD who bought out the rights to the song.
Another blank look from him. Sheesh... way to go Jazz, way too look like a complete crazy.
In honest, I think he was just curious about the music and more so about me, because I'm a white American who loves music that comes from not American produced entertainment. I've gotten harsher reactions, some snickers or laughs, negative comments. It's cool. Eventually most people come to accept it as a part of who I am and I've even made some close friends while gaining brownie points from Koreans because of it. In fact my roommate Ashley, she came into my life because she would hear me playing Big Bang, SHINEE or some other K-pop group, in my room from down the hallway and making it a habit each morning she'd come in to say "hey" and sing along with a song or two. So K-pop has done it's service for me in showing mostly positive results. But its always those first moments of exposure that make me feel a little on edge. Like what I'm doing is wrong or weird. I don't know, hopefully I'm not alone on this topic.
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