Karly Mejia, a second-year health education major, started dancing at the age of five. She said her love for dancing was one of the elements that had naturally drawn her to listen to K-pop. Now, she not only listens, but dances in two K-pop dance groups.
“For me, what was interesting was the quality of the music [videos] that you will see, like the cuts and all that, you don’t see that a lot with American artists [and] it has a lot of choreography,” Mejia said.
K-pop is short for Korean popular music and includes many styles and genres such as hip-hop, R&B, electronic dance and classical — all originating from South Korean culture.
Nanami Nakagawa (L) and Andy Poon (R) sing a duet in SF State’s Rigoberta Menchú Hall on April 7, 2023. (Tam Vu / Golden Gate Xpress) (Tam Vu)
The Japanese Student Association and K-pop Adventures co-hosted a karaoke night for the second year in a row. Rigoberta Menchu Hall, normally a quiet study space, turned into a place for the party, where those who attended could request any K-pop song they wanted to sing or dance to.
Mejia has seen the K-pop community on campus grow since freshman year.
“I think the big part is that there’s a lot of activities that people can do,” Mejia said.“Like if you’re a singer, there’s karaoke and if you’re a dancer, like I am, there’s a lot of dances you can do and even people just interested in anything related to K-pop, there’s something for everybody.”
Mejia says being a part of the K-pop community helped created friendships that she doesn’t think she would have found otherwise –– friends who love dancing.
“[I’m] the type of person who is very focused on my studies, I don’t play around with that. But, I like being free — enjoying life,” Mejia said. “I get to find people who love the same thing as I do, like dancing, [which] I’m very passionate about. I definitely wouldn’t have met any of my friends now if I wasn’t here.”
“G8K” is a K-pop performance team a part of K-pop Adventures. Shaina Butler, a second-year psychology and dance minor, joined the team in the fall 2021.
Butler said she loves performing, and that was one of the things that she was looking forward to the most during K-pop karaoke night.
“I get like a big adrenaline rush when performing in front of others and that’s something I love doing, just performing,” Butler said.
President of the K-pop Adventures group, Nicole Dodson, sings karaoke in SF State’s Rigoberta Menchú Hall on April 7, 2023. (Tam Vu / Golden Gate Xpress) (Tam Vu)
Nicole Dodson, a senior environmental studies major and K-pop Adventures president, has been listening to K-pop since she was 12-years-old.
“It happened accidentally, I think I was on SoundCloud and I saw this song till this day. I do not remember what it is, but I listened to it and my life was transformed,” Dodson said.“I fell down this rabbit hole and I started listening to ‘Girls Generation,’ I got really into ‘Ace of Angels,’ [and] I just fell in love.”
Dodson finds there is a strong K-pop community on campus, especially since COVID-19. As a leader on campus and a part of the K-pop community, she says it’s not just about growing the club.
“We have made it so that we have cultivated that [strong] kind of community,” Dodson said. “Our first priority is making sure that people feel comfortable, and making them feel like they can actually like K-pop openly because it is something that I personally [faced] in middle school and high school. ‘People like you like K-pop?’ I was like, ‘yes, I do.’ I have taken that pride and made sure that I have instilled that in other people.”.
After every song and even during dances and singing, attendees praised their peers. The cheers were loud, some even dancing and singing along in the back of the room.
Dodson found the energy in the room exciting.
“I love hearing people applauding and being excited to participate,” Dodson said. “There are people in the club who I know that are very quiet and reserved so to see them come out and be a part of this is what my heart loves the most.”
Destiny Walker (she/her) is the online editor for Golden Gate Xpress. She is majoring in Journalism and minoring in Labor and Employment. She is from Sacramento, California, born and raised. This semester her beat will be about sports, but when she is not writing about sports she’s probably playing them. She grew up watching and playing sports so she loves to be active, whether that's a pickup basketball game or adventuring the great outdoors.
Tam Vu (she/her) is a Vietnamese-American photographer for Golden Gate Xpress and Xpress Magazine. She is a fourth-year photojournalism major with a minor in Asian American studies. She originally entered SF State as a print and online journalism major, but switched to photojournalism in her second year after finding her passion for visual storytelling. Her special interests include Asian American identity and music journalism. In the near future, she hopes to make a video documentary on her parents' immigration story to highlight the generational impact that the Vietnam War has on many families. Outside of school, she loves to attend live music shows, find new music, and crochet.
