2 years ago, I began blogging on Hallyu Guide with one goal in mind. I wanted to help certain K-Pop artists, especially underrated ones, get more recognition. After all, the diversity and rapid pace of the Korean entertainment industry makes it incredibly easy for us to miss out on great releases.

Throughout the 154 posts I published, I received a lot of great feedback from the community which I am very thankful for. However, I wasn’t really satisfied with the direction my blog was heading. I started to drift away from my original philosophy and only talked about things I enjoyed. For this (and a few other reasons), I decided to stop blogging.

During my hiatus, I spent a large amount of time thinking how I could accomplish my original goal. Specifically, how could I maintain fairness so each group gets the same amount of exposure? Then, just like those good old cheesy cartoons, a light bulb moment happened and one word came across my mind: randomness.

After sketching a few designs in Photoshop and a few dozen endless nights of coding, I believe I have the perfect solution. I decided to turn HG from a blog to an enormous database that contains K-Pop songs ranging from various years, genres, and artists.

Discovering new music with Hallyu Guide is extremely easy, because all you have to do is click “shuffle”. Then, the site will randomly present you with a song, along with some of its basic information. Also, it will suggest similar tracks for you, so you will never stop exploring. I truly believe the fact that you have no control on the outcome is the best way to learn about a new song or group.

Currently, there are more than 500 songs in our database. And trust me, this number will grow exponentially in the upcoming weeks. By the way, did I tell you HG is running as a one-man team? This is why I need your involvement too! You also have the power to submit tracks to our database by simply completing the submission form.

I am so excited about the new changes to Hallyu Guide. More importantly, I really hope I can help you grow your K-Pop playlist. If you like the site, please share it with your friends and the rest of the K-Pop community. As always, I am open to feedback and suggestions!

Oh, and of course I won’t stop blogging. I still need a place to rant about how much I love Apink, Big Bang, Oh My Girl, etc. This site will be the new home for all my blog posts.