2 Years of Pop Reviews Now

As this is published, I'm most probably on a bus with a choir of 30+ and another 10+ adult staff, pulling my hair out because I'm part of a group of junior staff - on the way to a 5-day intensive choir camp. Oh well, I gotta do what I gotta do. *sigh*

Two years ago on this very day, at the age of 13, I published my first review - Westlife's Everybody Knows. I've matured so much since that review but to be honest with you, I never thought this day would come - NEVER.


I can't believe it's been 2 years since I started PRN, but that also means that it's been 2 years since my passion for writing reached it's peak. PRN went from a sideline to serious business - if I want to I can actually earn money from this, but I choose not to.

When it comes to blogs, I'd never been able to commit to one for longer than a year, but PRN has changed everything. Never has there been a time when I wanted to shut PRN down and never was there a time when writing for PRN didn't make me happy, no matter how stressed or annoyed I was. The entries here are more than just reviews, they're reflections of me and how I've grown over the years (yes, I can say yearS now!).

My first year was spent laying down foundations - I blogged about artists I liked, built a solid body of works and introduced myself to a circle of bloggers I now call friends. This second year though, I learned how to think. Gone were the days of me trying to get my blog noticed by legendary bloggers - I had already gotten them to acknowledge and know of my presence. Because I didn't have to focus on promotion or reviewing music I knew people would want to read about, I was thinking up crazy but 100% true theories and analyzing parts of pop music I could've and would've never done before.

I was taking my reviews a step further and turning them into critical writings on a type of music people often take for granted - I think it's safe to say that I've given some resemblance depth to pop music. I've also reinforced the fact that this is truly what I want to do forever, and PRN has given me a reason to keep doing it.

I ventured into a new music industry in this second year and even at this early a stage, PRN is one of the few critical Kpop review blogs online, if not the only. I used everything I knew and learned from blogging about Western pop and applied it to kpop - I took the critical thinking, the analysis and the ideals that made a good song and I was able to really get to the bottom of some of the biggest kpop hits of 2009.

Of course, none of this would've been possible without the people who I've met and talked to on Twitter because of PRN. To the bloggers, Ken, Paul, Mel, Aaron, Jio, Mike, J. Mensah, PPG - thanks for sticking with me through my kpop phase, even if I know some of you don't really like it. But to Mel in particular, I GOT YOU PROPERLY ADDICTED TO DBSKKKKKK! yesss. To the people I've met through kpop - Jinhee, AA-chan, Rome&Adio, Sheng and all my spazz-mates, oh dear. Thanks for all the spazzing sessions on Twitter and the sometimes intellectual discussions. But Sheng and Jinhee in particular, you two wouldn't believe how big an impact you've made on me. : )

But more than anything, PRN has opened an infinite amount of doors for me. Because of PRN I was introduced and 'inducted' to a new circle of kpop bloggers and I'm so thankful to Jinhee over at Babelpop for giving me the chance of a lifetime - literally. PRN got me an editorial position at OMGKPOP (which I've now resigned from), got me another editorial position at Virgin Music, and has now gotten me an offer for a feature editor position at POPSEOUL! which I've turned down - none of these would've been possible without the people from these influential sites seeing Pop Reviews Now. I'm doing what I love, more and more people are reading my work, and for that I'm just so damn honored.

That was kinda like an acceptance speech. But anyway, point is, Pop Reviews Now is 2 years old today and thank every single one of the 111,000+ readers who've visited it during this short span - I have big things planned for year 3, just wait!