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I used to laugh whenever my friends would mention their obsession with Korean bands like BTS, Girls’ Generation and EXO. The colorful hair, the dated beats and the quirkiness of East Asian pop culture all stood in stark contrast to what I had come to expect from pop artists. In retrospect, the most foreign aspect of it all was the fact that the Katy Perrys, Justin Biebers and Taylor Swifts of western music were replaced by faces like my own.

Somehow, even I got sucked into this strange K-pop universe. Sure, the quality of the music is sometimes debatable. I’m not going to try to tell you that nine women dressed up in tight yellow skirts singing about their love for “Mr. Taxi” is some sort of brilliant artistic feat.