“K-Pop Dreaming” blends memoir, pop culture analysis and oral history to explore the rise and history of K-pop in the United States, as told from the point-of-view of the Korean diaspora in Los Angeles. Host Vivian Yoon takes listeners on a journey from K-pop’s origins in Korean trot music and American presence in post-war South Korea, to the 1992 LA Uprising and the booming global popularity of K-pop in the present day – all juxtaposed against Yoon’s own coming-of-age as a second generation immigrant in Los Angeles, struggling to fit in and come to terms with her own identity.
It is imperative that when we are covering underrepresented communities that we understand joy and the arts as important justice work in journalism. This project was innovative, refreshing and dancing on the intersection of joy and justice.
