Episode 51: Block B Dot Com

I was joined in this episode by the wonderful Mary Sisson of BlockB.com, My Other Blog (Block B, Kpop, Kpop Business), and MarySisson.com (her fiction). We talk about Block B, the business of Kpop, marketing, scandals, and some fan foibles. Some things we mention include Tablo and the plot to pretend he never went to Stanford which resulted in jail time, Lance Bass’s boy band documentary, the original JYJ lawsuit against SM Entertainment which set some landmark Kpop labor law, the lawsuit saying trainees cannot beat each other, the East Light case where the trainees claimed to be severely mistreated, the post from my former guest Monia about insider fans, the incident with Park Kyung and the allegations of sajaegi, the reveal of who leaked Park Kyung bullying allegations, the article about the executive arrested in Japan, the incident with the CJ ENM executive, the Korean Pension Fund rescuing BigHit’s stock price, the normal investors who got screwed, Zico and J-Hope doing promo, the infamous “ice cream” thread (now deleted), and Winner reading their NamuWiki (including the “report and downvote” bit).

Songs played are:

1. “Mental Breaker” by Block B

2. “Her” by Block B

3. “Latata” by G(Idle)

4. “Come Back Home” by Seo Taiji and Boys

5. “Dead President” by Zico

6. “Bubble Pop” by Hyuna

7. “BTBT” by B.I.

8. “Instant” by Park Kyung

9. “Go Back“ by Mino & P.O. (cover of Dynamic Duo original and their present cover)

10. “It’s Not Over” by Block B (predebut lineup)