The five member all-girl Asian American group “AzN Pop!” is making a splash with its music and satire-taking jabs at K-Pop (Korean Pop) and J-Pop (Japanese Pop) and delivering a message about the Asian American experience.
AzN Pop! is the first female Asian American group to perform at the Upright Citizens Brigade, which was founded by Amy Poehler and includes alumni Aziz Ansari and Kate McKinnon, PBS reports.
The girl group consists of Angel Yau, Anna Suzuki, Maya Deshmukh, Ann Marie Yoo, and Iliana Inocencio. Each member represents a different Asian country: Japan, India, the Philippines, South Korea, and China.
AzN Pop! takes inspiration from J-pop and K-pop to create comedic performances. One song titled White Guys parodies the notion that Asian women prefer dating White men such as Guy Fieri and Joseph Stalin.
“We just watched a lot of the K-Pop and J-Pop videos and that was the thing we saw — nonsensical cuteness,” said Iliana Inocencio who represents the Philippines and also known as “Baby Rice.” “The first iteration of our show was that, like over-the-top, but to the point where I don’t know if people knew it was satire.”
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Each member represents and portrays the issues that each community face. One part of the show displays someone questioning the “Asianness” of Maya Deshmukh, or “Brown Rice.” Deshmukh then shows a map of Asia pointing to India’s location and emphasizing how certain countries are excluded from conversations about “Asians,” which is mostly centered around East Asians.
#aznpop is gr8! It has awesome character work, pop song parodies, dark humor, geography, and more!!!
— Maude Critic (@maudecriticnyc) May 25, 2017
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Azn PoP is one of the best sketch shows I’ve ever seen! Go support these amazingly funny and woke AF ladies!! ?????????? #diversity https://t.co/B0lxO5gvWO
— Jen Kwok (@jenkwok) August 7, 2017
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The gags brings awareness about the nuances of being Asian American and biracial, and blows up stereotypes of Asian Americans.
AzN Pop! will perform at UCBT in Los Angeles, according to PBS in the fall.
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RE: Asian american All-Girl Comedy Group Satirizes K-Pop/J-Pop “Nonsensical Cuteness:” I respect their satire on Nonsensical Cuteness of Kpop and Jpop. But I don’t get their position on it, I personally don’t care for Kpop or Jpop, but their comedy is too close to that genre and is like Kpop rejects more than comedy. It reminds me of William hung of American Idol. I’m sure its entertaining though. Hope Asian Americans can be more FOR something than AGAINST it all.
Japanese-American Tribal Roots Music and Art Movement.