SBS PopAsia branches out into television
SBS’s new music video show, PopAsia, brings a little taste of home to your Sunday mornings with K-pop, J-pop and more.
Foot in mouth: fooling around in the PopAsia studio
SBS television has launched PopAsia, a music video show to complement their insanely popular digital radio countdown show of the same name.
PopAsia, which airs at 8:30am on Sundays, plays the week’s hottest K-pop, J-pop, M-pop and C-pop clips (for those not in the know, that’s Korean Pop, Japanese Pop, Mandarin Pop and Cantonese Pop).
When the show premiered in September, it pulled six times the number of viewers SBS normally got during that time-slot, and the number keeps climbing.
The channel’s communication specialist Claudine Ellis says she’s been blown away by the reception SBS PopAsia has received.
“People have created a community around the program. They call themselves PopAsians. They feel like they have a place to belong to, and they are so welcoming, inviting all their friends to join in and introducing themselves to anyone who is new to the program,” she says.
“Right from the beginning, the show attracted more than just international students and Asian Australians. Plenty of viewers come from non-Asian backgrounds too, and are utterly obsessed with Asian pop.”
SBS PopAsia airs for two hours, playing Super Junior, B2ST, 2NE1, 2PM, SHINee, 4minute, T-ara, f(x), SISTAR, BIG BANG, Jay Chou and plenty of other artists.
In between video clips, the show streams the latest news on Asia’s pop stars and Tweets from PopAsians, as well as taking requests from Facebook and Twitter.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUTJXj7l_gw[/youtube]
“Every week, we try to broaden the scope of the music we play. We could just play the favourites all day, everyday, and most people would be happy, but we really want to broadcast the up-and-coming artists too,” Ellis says.
“The PopAsians are really dedicated fans and we love to let them be part of the show. They know their pop and they make great requests.”
As well as being a hell of a lot of fun to listen to, PopAsia is important in that it lets international students keep up with the music they love from back home.
The PopAsia website streams music 24 hours, seven days a week and has entertainment and gaming news, event updates and plenty of blog posts.
“It’s such a great feeling to be able to give [international students] a means to keep in touch with their culture, not to mention be part of a community that is as obsessed with Asian pop as they are. Plenty of international students hop on the forum and make new friends here in Australia too.”
And the Asian Pop obsession has rubbed off on Ellis too.
“I admit it’s pretty addictive. I love Girls Generation, and MBLAQ are pretty spunky, but my favourites have to be SHINee – they are pop gods.”
SBS Pop Asia airs on SBS 1 every Sunday from 8.30am to 10:30am.