Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.

allkpop recently started this “allkpop Fan Tournament” feature, which is basically a derivative of Ningin‘s “Kpop Idol-Off“, which is a derivative of every single fan voting bracket type thing done to generate page views. Soompi will probably copy this idea soon, and the derivative trifecta will be complete. Our very first tournament will be decided by fan vote on who ... Read More »

Your April Fools’ Day prank was lame. It was. I can write that because 99% of them are, so the odds are with me in saying that yours sucked. seoulbeats, however, came up with a prank that was quite amusing, releasing a flurry of dumb articles to troll allkpop and Soompi. ===== Nu’est’s Baekho Finds Sasaeng Fans Fascinating Jay Park ... Read More »

To begin, let me just say that I wholeheartedly agree with most of the article. It’s well written and worth the read. The Asian male is the most under represented demographic group in any form of entertainment. Shows have been created to feature gays and lesbians, black men and black women, heavy people, skinny people, nerds and geeks, but there ... Read More »

Sasaeng fans have been a hot topic in the K-pop world recently (even though they’ve been around forever), and because of their infamous reputations, they’re also a big draw for news sites. It seems Soompi has figured that out, as they are continuously running stories on them. Now I think that’s fine (smart, actually), as it’s a good wake-up call ... Read More »

On February 22nd, I wrote this article based on some of Asian Junkie‘s staff’s feelings on Soompi‘s seemingly anti-Japan bias. Then, by some amazing coincidence, Soompi ran this editorial explaining to their readers that Japan doesn’t hate on everything from Korea. It’s interesting timing, yet a bit confusing. Kim Tae Hee’s assertion that the islands belong to Korea got her ... Read More »

The most recent editorial written by allkpop addresses the topic of Korean idol relationships and whether or not the idols themselves are hurting everybody by keeping their love lives secret. The logic basically goes that the secrecy itself is what powers the insane reactions, as the fans feel betrayed by the secret lives of their idols. It’s reactions like this, ... Read More »

On February 14th, Soompi announced the integration of Image2Play into their site, a new bit of technology that was developed by their parent company, Enswers. Unsurprisingly, they hyped it up as an awesome new gadget that would improve the usability of their site. We are excited to announce the beta launch of Image2Play on Soompi! Image2Play is a service that ... Read More »

A few people on staff have been monitoring a disturbing trend for a while now, but it never became so apparent as it did when the controversy over 2PM‘s Nichkhun‘s Thai commercial was covered by both allkpop and Soompi. We were waiting for the story to be published ever since we saw it hit the top of the Korean portal ... Read More »

Ah, Soompi. This brings back nostalgic memories of trolling their forums for shits and giggles during my younger days. But that’s a story for another time. Today, I am here to critique Soompi’s layout. To keep things fair and in line with the Versus topic, I am using the same guidelines as I did for my critique of allkpop‘s layout. ===== ... Read More »

Don’t call it a comeback. Hey there Asian Junkie! I’m really enjoying the editorials on your site so far! Both troll and serious. I wanna fuck you too. Anyway, my question concerns 6Theory and Allkpop. What do you think of 6theory threatening to shut down it’s forums, and then completely revamping it in response to the “vulgarity” occurring on the ... Read More »

I previously wrote about my dislike for allkpop‘s new video player and the response was basically consensus agreement, so suffice to say the move was popular with basically nobody. In fact, it motivated a reader to e-mail me his solution to fixing the problem. Let me know if it works, I haven’t tried it yet. ===== Mozilla Firefox & Google ... Read More »

As things usually are in the K-pop fandom, the reactions to the news of T-ara‘s Hwayoung‘s nipslip were rational and reasoned. While most of my criticism has been directed at the mainstream media so far, there are times when the users need to be put in their place as well, generally because the same tendencies that cause me to make ... Read More »

Discussions about K-pop in the Japanese market are never dull, primarily because International fans are a passionate bunch with many having their loyalties already cemented. It’s been interesting for me to observe, because while I actually got into Korean music first, I got into Japanese entertainment prior to that, so I have a love and appreciation for both industries. Thus, ... Read More »

If you’ve been following along on Soompi‘s Twitter recently, you’d be hard pressed not to notice their drastic change in approach to the social media medium. They had previously used it similarly to how allkpop currently uses it, which is as a vehicle to tweet links to their stories, but Soompi has recently been trying to drive attention towards their ... Read More »

A few months back, allkpop changed their site’s design to what you see today. While the previous one was generally standard and effective, allkpop obviously wanted a drastic change in an attempt to reinvigorate their users and brand. It failed. So exactly what came up short and why didn’t it work? I’ll explain. ===== 1. Lack Of Visual Guide And ... Read More »