While most never heard of K-Pop, more and more Americans are hearing about it. I had a conversation with a Canadian who wasn’t Asian and she said that an industry professional advised her to audition for a K-Pop singing show.  Even though I told her that she would not quality because she wasn’t Asian – she still wouldn’t give up.  At that point I began to dig deeper into the world of K-Pop.

First, K-Pop or Korean pop is based out of South Korea. Secondly, it’s growing fast. Third, K-Pop is a culture, it’s not a genre. The biggest K-pop act are BTS. You probably never heard of them. It’s difficult for a K-pop band to break into the U.S. You generally need top 40 radio to break in America and the K-Pop artists don’t sing in English, although they are very popular on YouTube.

Most Americans vaguely remember South Korean PSY who came out of South Korea but he isn’t really K-Pop. In fact, South Korea which is one of the smaller countries are supplying the pop hits for over a billion Asians. South Korea is a music power player.

The main suppliers farming out the K-Pop idols are companies like JYP, SM and YG. These are hybrid companies which  more or less resemble old Hollywood Studios in the way they do business with talent. They are all in one -record labels and management companies. They are training stars for a long time that includes acting, singing, dancing – teaching them foreign languages, training them physically, and even plastic surgery. These companies hold yearly auditions searching for the next K-Pop stars and up to 50,000 teens show up. CONTINUE READING

Julia Church releases the slow-tempo electro track Square 1 – I really feel the low-fi production. She’s been featured on international dance hits and charted in South African Charts with Crazy White Boy and Goldfish. The songwriter-producer worked on a one-on-one songwriting session with Paul McCartney.
Streaming: a million+ plays with SoundCloud covers
Shows: Ronnie Scott’s on June 25th in London

Selena Gomez – one the most followed singers on instagram with 152 million followers said the social media platform made her depressed. In a time when big tech has come under fire, Gomez says she doesn’t even have the instagram app on her phone.

“It’s just become really unhealthy, I think personally, for young people including myself, to spend all of their time fixating on all these comments and letting this stuff in, and it was affecting me,” Gomez said. “It would make me depressed. It would make me feel not good about myself, and look at my body differently, and all kinds of stuff.”

The Nashville based 21 year old Kat Saul releases the track Compromise along with a video. The pop track was produced by all female writers and producers -Kat Saul, Paige Blue, and Megan Redmond. The 21 year old has worked alongside the who’s who of the industry including John Rausch (Taylor Swift, P!nk),Evren Goknar (The Killers, Snoop Dogg and John Lennon), and Prince Fox (Hailee Steinfeld)
Playlists: Spotify New Music Friday, Amazon Music Weekly One artist of the week
Press: iHeart, Popdust and Pop Justice
Streaming: Over 500k cumulative Spotify Streams.

The Jonas Brothers comes back strong. In fact, they are looking to score a #1 album and they may have the biggest debut of the year edging out Ariana Grande.  Their latest documentary ‘Chasing Happiness’ reveals the rise and fall of the band and offers a glimpse of the Jonas story that could attract new fans. Not all successful acts come back with strong numbers but the Jonas Brothers are beating expectations. They are back on top 40 radio, playing sold-out arenas, while their latest single Sucker has over 300+ million Spotify streams. Sure, Nick Jonas is married to global celebrity Priyanka Chopra but they proved there is a demand for the band. I also believe the older fans want to be apart of their journey. The NJ boys always stayed positive and gives a sense of escapism to an audience that is exhausted from the political vitriolic society. Chase happiness and expect great things.