TGIF FEATURE NO. 2: KCON 2015 USA is happening this weekend!

SUMMER IS over half over and your starting to thing about school. Hold on! If you're in the L.A. area, hurry on over to the Staples Center to check out KCON 2015 - LA, a three day festival of K-POP -- full of high-energy artists and workshops. Tickets and information here.

Normally the TGIF FEATURE will showcase an event or artist but this event is HUGE! so we couldn't go further into the weekend without mentioning it, in case you're wondering where your teenagers have disappeared to this weekend. 

From their press release:

KCON USA is the original convention dedicated to bring “All Things Hallyu” to the American fan base. With three years of successful concerts and conventions under our belt, we strive to make each year bigger and better than the last, and we hope to exceed last year’s record of 43,000 fans in attendance.

Our goal is to bring even more of what makes KCON the most exciting fan convention in North America.

KCON is the only place you can interact with your favorite stars and fangirl in-sync at spectacular concerts, stimulating panels, and dynamic workshops– only at KCON!

KCON is also becoming a valuable platform for industry professionals to connect with their audience, create content, and expand the Hallyu community. It’s the one place where every element of Hallyu, from food to film to fashion, can be experienced and celebrated.

Have a great weekend!!!! Bring earplugs.

The KPop concerts are on Saturday and Sunday with a full slate of entertainment. Here is a sampling of the L.A. lineup:

AOA

Block B

GOT7

MONSTA X

Red Velvet

SHINHWA

Roy Kim

SISTAR

Super Junior

Zion.T & Crush

"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.