K-Pop museum to open in Koreatown

Pop culture phenomena generally have to wait a few decades before being enshrined in museums. But such is the power of K-Pop that “hallyu” culture is about to get a dedicated museum in L.A.’s Koreatown.

SM Entertainment, the K-Pop conglomerate responsible for breaking Girls Generation, BoA and Super Junior among many others, plans to open an “SMTOWN Museum” at 6th Street and Oxford Avenue in the heart of Koreatown, as noted by Curbed L.A.

“We’ve been planning for a long time to create a place where residents in Hollywood could experience hallyu, but we decided that it was more meaningful to bring U.S. residents and tourists who were interested in hallyu to L.A.’s Koreatown,” the company said in a statement to the K-Pop network MWave.

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The exact details are still scant, but plans for the space include a museum of K-Pop music, videos and fashion (a genre whose roots go back to the ‘90s), a Korean restaurant and -- most delightful -- some kind of hologram room.

The museum will be just a few blocks from SM’s L.A. offices on Wilshire Boulevard, and it could be a new beachhead in K-Pop’s adventures in America’s entertainment establishment. We do hope to someday visit its vast, spectacular Seoul offices, but we’ll take this museum for now.

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