Wednesday, March 11, 2015

"Make It Pop" features a trio of Asian American actresses

K-pop musical comedy makes debut in April

Make It Pop stars Louriza Tronco as Jodi, Megan Lee as Sun Hi and Erika Tham as Corki. Look hard, even in the background shots, do you see any Asian guys?
WITH ALL the attention given to Selfie and Fresh Off The Boat, gone almost unnoticed is a new TV show starring three super-duper energetic Asian American teens in the leads of Make It Pop. They're cute, squeal a lot, and they sing ... K-pop ... typical leads for a Nickelodean series.

The official synopsis: "Randomly selected to room together at boarding school, bookish Corki, fashion-forward Jodi and social media maven Sun Hi meet and bond over music. With the help of fellow boarding school classmate and DJ hopeful, Caleb, the girls grow from roommates to bandmates as they become a school-wide sensation and compete for a place in the upcoming school musical." Sounds like Glee with a K-pop beat.


The "K" in K-pop stands for "Korean," a form of music out of South Korea, - duh! - light, positive, not too heavy lyrically, musically not too complicated but with a catchy, very danceable beat.  It speaks to what some people think appeals to young girls: boyfriends, popularity standing, status, fashion. (Please note: I emphasize, "some people!") Think Psy's "Gangnam Style," which surprisingly became a worldwide hit. I'm almost certain that description will catch some heat.

The show is not without its critics. Hard core K-Pop fans (is that an oxymoron) have started an online petition to stop the airing of the show because they feel it bastardizes the genre - their music. "There are already enough people who are ignorant about Korean culture, we don't need more," reads the petition.

'Asian guys in my show, not gonna happen'

Personally, though, is that Asian guys get the shaft again. When Cannon at a press conference was asked if Asian guys would appear in the show, he jokingly responded, "Nope! Never! Asian guys in my show? Not gonna happen!" which elicited nervous laughter in response. 

C'mon now. It seems incongruous considering that half of the K-pop artists are Asian men, how could a show about a style of music that was born in Asia, is populated by Asian characters not have Asian men represented. 

Are Asian males forever relegated to comedic stereotypes and portrayed as unattractive - even to Asian women?
UPDATE: Original version of this post had comments from an Asian American producer which has been deleted.
Nick Cannon
Nick Cannon, who seems to have a knack for the pulse of the young teen set, is one of the executive producers. Nickelodeon has ordered 20 episodes. Cannon is the host for America's Got Talent and is a performer in his own right. He recently divorced from Mariah Carey. 

You would think that Cannon, an African American, would be more sensitive about racial matters, especially since the vast majority of the K-pop artists are Asian and at least half of them are guys. 

There will be original songs with every episode. The Nickelodeon talent factory has produced a plethora of young stars including Emma Roberts, Ariana Grande and Jessica Alba. Note that none of the stars are Asian American. Maybe Make It Pop's young actresses will break out.

Based on the trailer (below) and the clips online, I'm pretty sure I'm not in the target audience's age bracket) but wouldn't it be great if it caught everyone by surprise and it became the hit TV series we hoped Selfie would be. Sure - it doesn't appeal to everybody but it does show off another facet of Asian Americans that  most Americans don't normally associate with Asians.

Just like not all Asians dig rap like Eddie Huang of FOtB, not all Asians like classical music and play violin and piano, either. Our musical interests range the wide gamut of genres ... including K-pop.

And if the girls squeal too much? Well, ...  they're 12-13-14 years old, what do you expect? But, com'n Nick Cannon, give us Asian guys a break, already!

If you want to encourage Cannon to introduce some Asian male characters, here's his email contact




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