11 September 2014

My K-Pop Adventure in Gangnam

A few days ago, it was my roommate's birthday. So, given that we are both hardcore K-Pop fans, we decided to spend the day tracking down the headquarters of some of the biggest labels in K-Pop!

Now, given the size of Seoul, we deemed it impossible to visit all the K-Pop buildings in one day (and thank God we came to that conclusion early), but thankfully there are 4 main K-Pop buildings in Gangnam which seem to have been designed for a fangirl's convenience. Take a look at my video below to get your head around the size and scale of Cube Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, FNC Entertainment and SM Entertainment.


It was amazing standing right in front of these buildings and it was kind of silly how star-struck I was by them. As you can tell from the video, the streets were quite deserted thanks to the national holiday 'Chuseok' (추석), so it was very fortunate that we decided to go on that day. Yes, there were fangirls, but I cannot imagine that there would be any less fangirls on a regular day.

In fact, we met a lady in front of the SM Building who told us that on a regular day, there is usually a line of fangirls outside the building and that they will stay there all day in the hope that they might catch a glimpse of their 'oppas'. We asked her if it was common to see the stars arriving or leaving and she said that there will be large black vans coming and going without fail every day. Unfortunately, the tinted windows mean that it is unlikely the wait will be worth it (although we probably cannot speak for the teenage fangirls, whom I imagine would crave a window-tinted oppa).

We hope to return soon to the buildings, in order to conduct a comparison between the K-Pop streets of Gangnam on a national holiday VS. a working day. We also will soon be visiting some of the other big labels in K-Pop so, stay tuned!

Signed in Seoul,

Kristin

Kristin is supported by the Australian Government through the Australia-Korea Foundation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

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