Wow, how could it be? Well… The K-pop group that we’re going to talk about might not be a K-pop group that you usually see on the Internet or TV. But what’s so wrong about it? Some of them are Koreans, they’re also boys. So they could be your Korean boys, right? Well, basically, they’re boys that are generally Asians. Or let’s just call them what they named themselves, Boys generally Asians, BgA. BgA consists of five Asian-American YouTubers, Ryan Higa from “nigahiga” channel, Philip Wong from “Wong Fu Production”, David Choi from the “David Choi” channel, Justin Chon from the “Justin Chon” channel and, lastly, Jun Sung Ahn from the “JunCurryAhn” channel. Some of you might have heard about then individually, and might be shocked to know that they all did a collaboration. Not only just a collaboration, but more like showing the world their potential to form a K-pop group. Well, enough with the intro. Let’s just take a look at BgA, from their profiles, how they formed, their debut song, etc. Be careful, you might want to put them into your bias list later!
BgA: Boys Generally Asian
Boys Generally Asian, or we can just call them capital ‘B’, with a lowercase ‘g’, and a capital ‘A’, BgA, is a K-pop group that was formed on May 14, 2016, when they released their very first song. You may have read that BgA consists of five Asian-American actors and YouTubers, but do you know that they also have their own stage names, just like the real K-pop groups? Besides, you might want to know them better and are wondering who the five guys that formed BgA are. Keep scrolling because we’re going to spill the beans about them!
R.O.P’s Profile
BgA Stage Name: R.O.P Real name: Ryan Higa Birth place and date: Hilo, Hawaii, June 6, 1990 Occupation: YouTube Comedian, YouTube Personality, Actor YouTube channel: nigahiga Instagram: notryanhiga
Facts About R.O.P
P-Dragon’s Profile
Real name: Philip Wang Birthplace and date: California, October 28, 1984 Occupation: Film Maker, Director, YouTube personality. YouTube channel: Wong Fu Production, pwangs Instagram: @philwongfu
Facts About P-Dragon
- Phil was one of the founders of Wong Fu Production from YouTube.
- He began Wong Fu Production, along with Ted Fu and Wesley Chan, unofficially since their high school days in 2001.
- Phil and the Wong Fu Production team were the directors for the two BgA music videos.
- He’s of Chinese decent but was born and raised in California.
- The first time Phil met Ryan was when they did a project together, making a film called “Agents Secret Stuff” on YouTube.
- Phil wasn’t considering being a director at first, he wanted to have a career in economics.
Daeyang’s Profile
Real name: David Choi Birthplace and date: California, March 22, 1986 Occupation: Singer, Musician, Songwriter YouTube channel: David Choi Instagram: @davidchoimusic
Facts About Daeyang
- David is of Korean decent but was born and raised in California. 2 His parents run a music store called “Grace Store”, and his father can play autoharp. These are some of the reasons why David wanted to be a musician.
- He hated music when he was a kid, because his parents always forced him to practice violin and piano 30 minutes every day. If he didn’t do it, he would be punished.
- David played classical and jazz music when he was a kid, because his parents signed him up in an orchestra class.
- He started to listen to and do pop songs after he listened to “All the Small Things” by Blink 182. He also liked Backstreet Boys, Boys II Men, and even J-pop.
- David has released three albums since 2008, starting with his debut album, Only You. After that he released By My Side in 2009 and released Forever and Ever in 2011.
- He also released two digital albums, called Stories of You’s and Me and The David Choi Christmas Album, which were released on iTunes and Spotify.
- David collaborated with Phil and the Wong Fu Production team in 2009, to make his music video.
J-Lite’s Profile
Real name: Justin Chon Birthplace and date: California, May 29, 1981 Occupation: Actor, director, YouTuber YouTube channel: Justin Chon Instagram: @justinchon
Facts About J-Lite
- Justin is the oldest member in BgA.
- He’s famous for playing the role of Eric, Bella Swan’s high school friend in Twilight.
- Besides acting, Justin also directed some movies, and one of them is a movie called “Ms. Purple” that released in 2019.
- Justin married his girlfriend, Sasha Egorava, in 2014, and had a daughter in 2017.
- Justin is of Korean decent; his father was an actor in Korea.
- He went to one of the top universities in Korea, Yonsei University, as an exchange student while he was in college.
- He started his acting career in 2005 and has already played in various movies and TV series.
- Unlike Phil and David, Justin just met Ryan for the first time in BgA.
Jeungri’s Profile
Real name: Jun Sung Ahn Birthplace and date: South Korea, February 18, 1993 Occupation: Singer, Violinist, Video Producer, YouTuber, Dancer YouTube channel: Jun Curry Ahn Instagram: @juncurryahn
Facts About Jeungri
- Jun is the youngest member in BgA.
- Unlike the other BgA members, he was born in South Korea and moved to the States when he was in elementary school.
- On YouTube, Jun does a lot of pop and K-pop music covers with his violin.
- He performed at KCon LA in 2014, as the opening act where he covered a song with his violin and also covered the dance for some songs.
- He is a K-popper and he is a fan of BTS.
- Jun released a solo song called Hold it Down. He’s done collaborations with a lot of musicians, one of them is Woodz, or Cho Seungyoun from X1.
- Jun chose to play violin because he said that the instrument’s sound matched his personality.
- During middle school, He once admitted that he wanted to be a chef because of his mother’s cooking.
Debut with Dong Saya Dae
BgA made their very first appearance on the Internet when Dong Saya Dae’s music video was uploaded on Ryan’s YouTube channel, higaniga, on May 16th, 2016. This is the first American K-Pop boy-band that consists of five Asian-American boys who can’t really sing, dance, or even speak Korean. Well, some of them are Korean, though. If you take a look at the music video, BgA shows us that they were formed because of the Korean hallyu wave that spread around the whole world, including the US. It made the five guys upset. As the story of the music video tell us, they can’t relate to the American K-popers, since their idols are Korean and the fangirls don’t even speak their language. However, since they were all Asian and boys, they decided to form a K-pop boy-band even though they can’t sing or dance. Take a look at the music video for Dong Saya Dae if you’re curious!
The concept of the song, the choreography, and the story in the music video are actually just a parody of K-Pop. You can tell because the lyrics of the song make no sense. The lyrics mainly talk about unrelated things such as potato, “I have no friends”, and even poop, but it’s all written in Korean. Ryan, as the only one who sings in this song, also uses auto-tune for most of the parts of this song, even though he was originally a singer and has a beautiful voice. Even when the concept of this music video was made to be a comedic thing, Ryan and David Choi put a lot of effort in making the music. Philip Wang and the crew in Wong Fu Production also directed the video perfectly. Let’s appreciate their hard work by giving likes and comments to the video! Do you know that Dong Saya Dae reached the top 2 K-Pop chart on iTunes? They’re so amazing, right? What do you think about Dong Saya Dae, their first debut song? Let’s take a look at some netizen’s reactions!
Netizen Reactions
If you think that people would get mad when an Asian-American makes a joke about K-pop and K-popers, well, you’re wrong! Almost all the reactions that BgA has received have been positive. Not just from the K-popers themselves, but also from non-K-popers who don’t listen to K-pop. They all enjoyed the music and liked the idea that BgA are so relatable and fun to watch! Here are some netizen’s reaction of BgA’s Dong Saya Dae! Who also agrees that Dong Saya Dae has the same style as Big Bang and has Big Bang vibes as well?? Even the Koreans can’t take it anymore.. this is way too funy and easy to listen to! Yes, totally! Even the non-K-popers like this music! And let’s see the reactions from some YouTubers. How do you think they will react to this?