Idol Cast Mission Statement
Now that I’ve reappeared on social media I thought that I should probably post a mission statement for my writings and my podcast because I think that my work has been deeply misunderstood (deliberately or not) by a very loud section of Kpop fandom.
Here are some things that readers/listeners need to understand about this project:
* I make no money from this project nor do I intend to monetize it.
* I am not interested in a media career and have no intentions to leverage my small platform to that end.
* I have no contact with and no ties (financial or otherwise) to any company.
* I fundamentally disagree with use of numeric metrics as a measure of artistic value.
* I have favorites but I do not “stan” nor do I care about or participate in fandom wars.
The Idol Cast Podcast is the culmination of years and years of time and research that I’ve put into understanding the Asian idol subculture. When I saw that the subculture was gaining mainstream media attention in America I decided to try and share what I have learned with the rush of new fans coming into contact with the genre.
Long time followers of my work know that I have a deeply rooted skepticism of western journalists and critics attempting to engage with Asian pop culture in general and with Asian pop music specifically and here I am going to out myself as the author of the top rated review for Julian Cope’s book Japanrocksampler on Amazon.
The problem that many of these journalists and critics run into is that they are reliant on sources available in English and there is very little of substance available in English on Asian pop music. So what has happened, especially in Kpop circles, is that a skewed narrative is presented in English language sources which then takes root as others report on it as absolute fact and it then becomes common wisdom. Trying to speak against these narratives when the “official” media has given the seal of approval is like shouting against the wind. I have witnessed native Korean speakers harassed and sent threats for trying to give additional points of view on topics or for attempting to clarify misunderstandings of Korean culture.
The received narrative from the small pool of “official” English sources is that strong.
But it doesn’t make it true.
I have spent the last 20+ years deeply engaged with Asian pop culture and have become very familiar with the English-language pop culture media culture that has built up around it. I’ve spent years observing the clickbait media cycle and watching fandom battles; years wrestling with tricky cultural questions and learning to step outside of the western cultural lens to view foreign cultural products as a domestic audience would see them.
The example I always use is this Bollywood film called Dil Se (1998) which I watched when I was first beginning to watch Bollywood films. The hero in that film turns down a marriage to a beautiful woman approved by his family because he’s become obsessed with a woman who is a freedom fighter-slash-terrorist (pick one). When I first watched the film, I thought the contrast offered by the family-approved woman was that of materialist splendor and extravagance compared to the homespun freedom fighter. It wasn’t until revisiting the film a few years later that I realized just how badly I had misread it. What I had seen as extravagance was actually just a mundane middle class wedding. The contrast was a normal life offered by a mundane wedding to the romantic death wish of the freedom fighter. Maybe I should have added above that I’m not afraid to admit when I am wrong either.
My goal with the Idol Cast project to take this art on its own terms, to strip away the western lens, break from received wisdom, and simply enjoy this art for what it is. I enjoy writing and researching and I do this purely for fun. I would love it if you joined me in but if you do not like my point of view, please just move along. I am no threat to anybody’s oppa and would hope that you can accept that.