It wasn’t until she discovered K-pop idol Kai that Stephanie Choi, a postdoctoral associate in UB’s Asia Research Institute, became a “true fan” of K-pop music. “Isn’t K-pop for teenagers?” she wondered about 10 years ago when her fellow graduate students at Wesleyan University raved about their favorite K-pop bands. Choi had enjoyed K-pop as an undergrad in South Korea, but her master’s program was focused on traditional Korean music. Her friends’ enthusiasm made her revisit K-pop, this time as an ethnomusicologist.