2020 was a pivotal year for the K-Pop industry, witnessing BTS become the first Korean artist to achieve No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the first ever to be nominated for a Grammy. For Wooseok Ki, currently a student at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a 1.5-generation Korean-American who grew up balancing Korean and American identities, 2020 became the year he set out to write a comprehensive book on the complexities of the K-Pop phenomenon.

K-POP: The Odyssey – Your Gateway to the Global Phenomenon provides readers with the opportunity to learn more about the global success of K-Pop while also helping them understand its socio-cultural elements. Wooseok was one of the kids who grew up dancing to K-Pop and enjoying it simply as a music genre, but now he hopes to contribute to the global discussion by helping readers become more aware of the complexities of K-Pop that have made it so successful today.

Wooseok Ki is a J.D. Candidate at the University of Pennsylvania Law School who seeks to further bridge the gap between the East and the West as an Asian-American entertainment attorney. As a legal scholar, leader, and mentor, he has experience working with the technology, music, and legal industries. Wooseok is also a graduate of UC Berkeley and a former competitive dancer who led the award-winning K-Pop dance team KPG Cal. He takes pride in his ability to balance his creative side with a professional outlook and aims to both inform and entertain.

Before discussing your book, can you tell me a little about your childhood and how you first became interested in K-Pop?  
I was born in Seoul and moved to New Jersey when I was eight years old because of my dad’s job, where I graduated from elementary and middle school. Living in the suburbs, most of my friends were white or Asian-Americans born and raised in the States, so I didn’t have a chance to really understand Korean culture until then. I was first introduced to K-Pop by a friend who showed me videos of TVXQ and Epik High, which opened my eyes to the lively music scene happening in Korea. When I returned to South Korea to attend an international high school, I became more in touch with Korean pop culture. Since I was always interested in creative hobbies, I became more engaged in music and dance. After high school, I went to California to attend UC Berkeley, where I devoted my time to dancing as part of the K-Pop dance group. Basically, growing up, K-Pop was always a big part of my life.

You enjoyed K-Pop as a hobby, like many people do in their youth, but what motivated you to think about the topic on a deeper level?  
A pivotal moment for me was in 2012, my freshman year in college, when Psy’s “Gangnam Style” blew up. That was also the year I returned to the States from Korea, so it was fascinating to see Americans singing along to a Korean song. That was when I began to see K-Pop as something bigger than just music or entertainment, but as a socio-cultural movement. I realized it was a significant step for more Asian representation in global media.

I heard that you also wrote your law school application essay on “Gangnam Style.”  
After graduating college, I got the opportunity to work at YouTube headquarters in the copyright department. Meanwhile, I was preparing to apply to law school and wanted to write an essay that stood out. I decided to write about the influence of “Gangnam Style” through my experience working at YouTube, which was the medium through which the song reached a worldwide audience.

Can you tell me about the process of deciding to write your book, K-POP: The Odyssey - Your Gateway to the Global K-Pop Phenomenon?  
In December of 2019, I was approached by a Georgetown professor who contacted me through LinkedIn. He was organizing a program to help people publish books and asked if I was interested, but before then, I had never thought of writing and publishing my own book. However, I was intrigued by the opportunity to approach the topic of K-Pop in a creative way. Another factor that encouraged me to write the book was the chance to network with people in the Korean entertainment field through my research. As I began my research, I realized that compared to the volume of K-Pop content available online, there aren’t enough books on the topic. There were a few written by professors or journalists, but not many Korean writers discussing it, which I found strange. Since I am neither a professor nor a journalist, I decided that I could take the opportunity to write a book for people like myself who simply enjoy K-Pop and want to learn more about it. I wanted it to serve as a gateway for those interested in understanding K-Pop as more than just a music genre.

How did you come in contact with the interviewees for your book?  
In my book, I wanted to provide insight from influential people currently working in the field, so I made a list of everyone I hoped to contact. These were people I would never have been able to reach out to if I weren’t writing a book. I began contacting these individuals last year, and I was surprised by the number of people who agreed to talk to me. It was a process of slowly expanding my network, but eventually, I got to speak with record producers, executives working in major entertainment companies, and even K-Pop star Henry Lau. One of the people I talked to early on was Hyuk Shin, a multi-platinum record producer. When I told him about the book, he was very eager to help, and we had a phone call that lasted a few hours. I remember reading about Shin in high school as the first Korean songwriter to rank on Billboard with Justin Bieber’s “One Less Lonely Girl.” He was one of the first people to show me that Koreans can break into the American music industry. I also spoke with Peter Chun, a former YG Entertainment director, and Gyu Tag Lee, one of the most renowned scholars discussing K-Pop today.

What specific audience did you hope to target in your book?  
I discuss important themes such as music, entertainment, business, and fandom, but K-Pop has many complex elements that cannot be covered in just one book. As I mentioned, there are some professors or journalists who have written about K-Pop, but at the beginning of my book, I state that it is not an academic work. Instead, I hope to make K-Pop more approachable to readers who are curious about this phenomenon. K-Pop is a hot topic being discussed in new ways around the world, and people argue over whether it is a music genre or a socio-cultural phenomenon. There are people who know nothing about K-Pop and fans who want to learn more about its cultural aspects, so I aimed to write a book that can make that information readily available. Interestingly, I have also received feedback from American songwriters who thanked me for educating them on the cultural aspects of K-Pop. This shows that learning about Korean culture is a pivotal aspect of understanding the phenomenon as a whole and being able to enjoy it even more.

Mom&i is a family magazine, so we are also curious about your relationship with your parents. How did they support your academics and interests along the way?  
My parents were very supportive of my creative hobbies and ambitions growing up. They let me take drum lessons when everyone else was doing violin or clarinet, and take dance lessons while I was studying for the SAT. My parents were always supportive of whatever path my brother and I wanted to take. It was actually my own desire to pursue a legal career because I was genuinely interested in it. I am where I am today because they allowed me to balance my academics with creative activities.

Lastly, can you tell me how you hope to pursue your interest in the entertainment industry through your career in law?  
I will be graduating from law school in May of this year, and after that, I will be joining a New York law firm to do more general corporate work. However, my ultimate goal is to focus on entertainment law, which is a very small field. Although there are many Korean lawyers, there is a very small number of Korean or Asian entertainment lawyers for some reason. Especially in this generation when K-Pop is becoming popular in the States, these artists need lawyers who fully understand K-Pop to represent them. I hope to become a point of contact for Asian and Asian-American artists because there aren’t enough people interested in that specific industry in the field of law. Currently, I’m always in discussion with business professionals in both law and entertainment to learn about the various aspects so I can represent K-Pop artists in the future.

Cindy Park has worked in the Korean music industry as an editor and radio producer. She loves to find the latest trends in the music industry and enjoys writing in her free time.