On Friday, VIXX — a Korean all-male six-piece band recently assembled on another Asian reality TV competition, “Mydol,” — will become the first K-pop act to perform at Otakon, the annual East Asian fan convention held at the Baltimore Convention Center.

Victor Albisharat, a member of Otakon’s board of directors, says the convention is embracing K-pop more this year because organizers noticed the music’s rising popularity among fans of Asian culture. Once Otakon announced VIXX would play this year’s event, the feedback on social media websites was very positive, Albisharat said.

To American K-pop fans, the appeal — specifically its all-boy and all-girl groups — can be understood by comparing the successes of American groups such as One Direction and Mindless Behavior, Albisharat says.

“You have admittedly quite attractive men and women singing in groups,” he said. “It’s just like in North America, where we had and have boy bands and girl bands.”

While some Otakon attendees associate the convention with celebrating Japanese culture, it has always strived to appreciate Asian art as a whole, Albisharat said. To the organizers, highlighting K-pop was a natural expansion.

“It’s more popular on the West Coat and in the Northeast,” Albisharat said. “We see lots of discussion on Facebook and Twitter about it. Friends show me YouTube videos of different K-pop groups.”

Albisharat remains cautious when discussing K-pop’s rising popularity in America, even in niche circles such as Otakon.

“K-pop is aspiring to reach that point of really popular subculture” likeJapan’sanime, he said. “I think it’ll take 10 to 15 years to see if this thing will catch on.”

Erico Eaddy, a 21-year-old Community College of Baltimore County student, has taken to YouTube to expedite the process. His homemade one-man videos — which range from reviews of new K-pop songs to Eaddy singing his own covers a capella — have surpassed 500,000 total views. He also discusses K-pop beyond the music, including the groups’ outlandish fashions and the genre’s obsession with plastic surgery.

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