Chaos & Introspection At Mark Lee Lookalike Contest

I never in my entire life thought I’d die at 33 in Washington Square Park, but for a brief second on Friday afternoon around 2PM I thought it was a possibility. I tripped, and really imagined for a split second that I might get trampled as Mark Lee was

Emotional Support K-pop Gift Guide

2024 has been a rather tumultuous year, whether Mini Note #7: The Reason I Became a Witch or in the K-pop realm. Inspired by that, this year's Notes on K-pop gift guide is built around the ideals of finding comfort for yourself and those around you, and making

NewJeans Never Die vs. The K-pop Paradigm

What a timeline we’re living in. This year has been full of great music from the world of K-pop, but all of the hits have been simultaneously awash in drama and messiness. Rosé being asked in an interview about NewJeans’ situation while promoting her upcoming album really honed in

Everything is AKB: A Convo with Patrick St. Michel

If you're a K-pop fan, or someone interested in the world of K-pop and therefore reading this newsletter, you probably know a bit about the world of J-pop, and likely know the brand name "AKB48," and know that some K-pop acts and companies have taken nods

Mini Note #7: The Reason I Became a Witch

For many years when I went to karaoke/noraebang with friends, one of my go-to's was a song called "The Reason I Became a Witch" by NS Yoon-G/Yoon-ji, now known as actress Yunjee Kim. It's an intensely 2010s song that's very

Hybe's Burn Book Culture

I was out with a few industry folks last week, celebrating the release of my friend Ilana Kaplan's book on Nora Ephron. A bunch of entertainment and music journalists were there, and someone who I had never met before heard that I covered K-pop for about a decade

Notes on K-pop interview: Isabel Jones

Taylor Cross (who also writes under the name Carmen Young) is one of Notes on K-pop's summer fellows. She is a Bay Area-based freelance writer and Crunchyroll News contributor with a passion for K-pop, K-dramas, and intersectional pop culture conversations. She previously wrote a guide for getting K-pop

Who Protects K-pop stars?

Bonus newsletter for the week! Because I may not have a chance to write next week, but also because I have a lot of thoughts on my mind. This question, "who protects K-pop stars?" may seem facetious: K-pop stars, at least the ones at the top of the

The power of locality even when K-pop aims for "global" reach

On October 11, it was announced that RIIZE's Seunghan would return to the group after nearly a year's hiatus, and would perform again for the first time in November. On October 13, he withdrew from the group permanently. The shocking speed of things is somehow not

Here come the career regrets

A little trigger warning right here that Tamar Is Getting Very Personal in this Newsletter. Feel free not to read. I'll be back with normal, a bit more fun programming, next week (hopefully!) In my email to myself about a month ago, I wrote, "Eaj, Elul, and

Tips for the Lovecraftian Horror that is K-pop concert ticketing

Taylor Cross (who also writes under the name Carmen Young) is one of Notes on K-pop's summer fellows. She is a Bay Area-based freelance writer and Crunchyroll News contributor with a passion for K-pop, K-dramas, and intersectional pop culture conversations. Tamar: As we all know, ticketing is absolutely

A reading list to clean up my life

And by life, I mean my phone and computer. I'm infamous among my friends and peers for screenshotting my computer to reveal a hundred-plus tabs open on my browser. What most people don't realize is that I actually have two browsers open (Chrome for general use,