Asia drives pop culture music and animation

K-pop is a  trend setting music style that originates in South Korea according to Los Angeles Film School. Despite its name, K-pop actually has a number of different influences such as pop, experimental, rock, hip-hop, R&B, electronic, and dance. There is quite literally a different style for every single group. The style also likes to sprinkle both Korean and English together in the lyrics. K-...

It seems simple, yet a common complaint for pop stars is the heavy auto tuning on their voices makes them sound like robots. Well, what if it went the opposite way? What if you were able to tune a robot to make singing sound more human? Well, that’s what Vocaloid is. Created in Japan, Vocaloid is a virtual singing synthesizer.  This allows the user to create a song using a synthesized voice, m...

One of Asia's most notable influences on American culture, anime is a Japanese style of animation that often focuses on high style and heavy over dramatization. Generally, anime is defined as an animated piece that originates from Japan.  Anime often focuses on art style and detail in order to make up for the lack of time spent on movement. Sometimes, anime makes it feel like more of a filmed...

One of my favorite Eastern inspired shows is Avatar: The Last Airbender.  Avatar: the Last Airbender is a Nickelodeon show created in 2005. It was heavily inspired by East Asian culture from the setting, the world, the characters, and the animation style. In the show, characters derive power from "bending" the four elements: earth, air, water, and fire. However, only the Avatar can bend...