August 10ᵗʰ to August 12ᵗʰ was the popular Korean convention, KCON, came to LA and along with it came a lot of talent and many discussions.
InRage Entertainment hosted one of the most successful panels at KCON this year: “Black American Music & K-Pop” panel moderated by InRage Vice President Ebony Rae Vanderveer, with InRage CEO and Sony/ATV writer and producer Bruce “Automatic” Vanderveer, featuring panelists Dr. Crystal S. Anderson and Miranda Larsen.
August Brown of the LA Times covered the panel as one that hit a lot of hot button issues within K-Pop community. It got people conversing about a not-so-credited, yet major influence in K-Pop; Black American Music. As the LA Times states, “‘Black American Music and K-Pop’ finally addressed what had been a running thread in the genre — much of it is indebted to U.S. black music and culture, but rarely do the artists say so openly.” The LA Times goes on to talk about other moments that happened throughout the panel, such as the video examples shown comparing black american artists songs to their seemingly parallel K-Pop songs.
Read the article here!