Four K-pop bands will make their US debuts at KCON in Los Angeles this weekend. Bangtan Boys, IU, Jung Joon Young and SPICA are all well established in Korea and hope to make a triumphant landing on America soil this weekend at KCON.
It takes place at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena both today and tomorrow. Now in its third year, the crowd has grown significantly bigger each year.
“Our numbers have doubled each year,” says Angela Killoren, chief marketing officer of the event told CNN. “We had 10,000 fans at the first KCON 2012, 20,000 in 2013, and expect 30, around 40,000 to 50,000 persons overall enjoying the KCON experience this year”
As blogger Jeff Yang puts it, Korean is cool.
“The difference between cool Korea and earlier Asian pop culture waves is that Korea has been working to make this happen for almost two decades,” said Euny Hong, author of The Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation Is Conquering the World Through Pop Culture. Korea is cool because it decided to be cool — it’s the first country in history that has made being cool a massive policy priority, backed by the Korean government to the tune of billions of dollars.”
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You can read Yang’s thoughts on Asian cool and how it became in vogue on CNN.
You can check out the groups making their US debuts at KCON below.
