A WECB Show Profile: K-Pop Rookie and Senior
Photography by J. Faith Malicdem
by J. Faith Malicdem
Truth be told, hosts Jae Lee and Grace Hwang were difficult to get a hold of. Both of them have seemingly countless commitments on their plates, so I felt more than honored once I was able to snatch one of them up for an interview. Lee and Hwang reign the WECB studio from 2-3 PM EST each Friday, highlighting a new facet within the genre of K-Pop– beyond the rightfully renowned BTS world-takeover– on their show K-Pop Rookie and Senior. The sophomore Creative Writing major Hwang sat down with me in the Lion’s Den to discuss the show’s premise, its background, and most importantly, K-Pop.
How did the show concept come to be?
I know [Jae] started it during his second semester at Emerson. I think he was interested in bringing the aspect of K-Pop to the Emerson scene, which was when K-Pop was just starting to get big on an international level. Korea was just starting to get more recognition after Psy’s Gangnam Style was released.
Could you delve into the format of what a typical show looks like?
The show is focused on broadening the audience’s understanding and perspective of K-Pop and the industry as it becomes more popular. The show revolves around different comebacks that artists across K-Pop do, so we also include R&B, lo-fi, and hip hop– that sort of thing. K-Pop is generally used to describe non-traditional Korean music. We’ll have a news bit at the beginning where we go over the comebacks, and that’s just what the new albums are called.
Is that just in K-Pop?
Yeah, specifically for K-Pop! For example though, last week BTS released their new album, so we played one of their songs, talked about it for a bit, and then we’ll move on to different themes we have for specific episodes. Last week, we had the history of girl groups [as the theme]. We had mid-2000s groups playing, then talked about their background and some drama that happened, and how they molded the K-Pop industry-- which is how we model our episodes. With K-Pop Rookie and Senior, this season, we have a new segment at the end called “Korean Word of the Week… we just kinda explain how to say the word and how to use it in context.
How do you prepare for each episode?
We prepare a playlist to know what songs we’ll play. He and I meet for dinner before the show on Thursdays and brainstorm things to discuss during the show. Basically, the only thing we have set in place is the playlist. But most times, different conversational questions will pop up in the episodes, like “What do you think of fan relationships with different idols?” and “Do you think it’s healthy?”Again, idol is a K-Pop term.
What makes K-Pop Rookie and Senior unique?
We talk about different issues within K-Pop and we like talking about different groups within K-Pop that may not be as well known, so small boy bands or girl groups. As I said earlier, we’re very discussion-based, so it’s new material every week”
What propels you both to do this every week and keep the show running?
The logline for K-Pop Rookie and Senior is “K-Pop that’s more than just BTS,” and I feel like that’s a good spot to start just because BTS is so popular, and I love BTS and admire their dedication and hard work. But there is so much more to K-Pop than just the flashy stuff. I personally like to listen to Korean R&B in my free time. And I feel like, in that way where you can find certain things that you really vibe with, I think our show is focused on finding different aspects of Korean popular music and help people find different Korean pop culture that they like. There’s a thing for everyone, so if we just keep pushing ourselves to find new things and help others find new things, it’ll lead to more appreciation of Korean culture in general. K-Pop is getting so big at an international level and is something pretty significant. I think a lot of things will happen in the 2020s, so let’s see what happens.
Tune in to K-Pop Rookie and Senior on Fridays from 2-3 PM EST!