Asian American Arts Zine - Volume 4

Recommendations

Info

P A G E 3 9E N T E R T A I N M E N T A N D R E P R E S E N T A T I O ND E M Y S T I F Y I N GM U S I C W I T HN I K O M H A L LB y S a m R i e d m a nNikom is the assistant general manager (GM) at Virgin Music (previously CarolineRecords), which is “an artist-development focused, full label services and distributioncompany, providing commercial, radio promotion, marketing, synch, branding,licensing and digital marketing services.” Virgin Music is one of the largest independentrecord labels and distribution companies in the world, representing over sixty labels.Their catalog is varied, “from ATO who have Black Pumas and Alabama Shakes toMexican Summer who are psych rock... 10k Projects who are like SoundCloud Rap, likeTrippy Red, ...Motown and Quality Control which is like Migos and Lil Baby, ...AstralWorks and a lot of electronic labels.”At Virgin, Nikom is the follow-through guy, ensuring that projects stay on track. Forexample, he handles reissues and compiles labels that can perform the reissuing.” Hisresponsibilities span company-wide from organizing showcases, to ensuringmerchandise orders are fulfilled, which allow him to learn how the company as a wholeoperates; “The bright side is that I get to learn so much about everything we do.Downside of it is that I don’t get the depth of knowledge to specialize in one particularaspect of the industry.”
N I K O M H A L LP A G E 4 0exhausting.” Because he worked in anenvironment saturated with whiteness, outof necessity “all the PoC’s there bandedtogether a bit. In the LA office, there wasone Asian American guy who took meunder his wing; he reached out for me tocome chat with him.” Working in such awhite, male-dominated space reinforcedthe importance of diversity and solidaritywithin a company.Prior to working at Virgin, Nikom honed hischops in the music department of one ofthe largest talent agencies in the world.“Working there felt like a big investmentbank on Wall St. but in the entertainmentworld. All the agents there thought theywere the shit, and made a ton of money,and screamed at their assistants. It wassuper cut-throat. It was a lot of whitedudes helping out white dudes.” Nikomstayed with the company for four years,where he felt like he was “constantlybombarded with white dudes. That energycompounded and was mentally exhausting."The draining nature of being a part of anethnic minority in a white majority spacemade his transition to his current positionat Virgin a breath of fresh air. “Then I comeover to a record label, and it’s like night andday. There are so many more women, thereare so many more PoC’s, and we arerepresenting other labels like Motown,which is an almost entirely Black company.It was just amazing to see. The reason isthat these people aren’t here to be all cutthroat,and they’re not there for the money.They’re there because they are involved inthe culture of the music.” Noting that “thestaffing at record labels and managementcompanies tend to be from where artistsare coming from. It’s much more in tunewith the artist that you're
Page 1 and 2: THEASIANAMERICANARTSZINEMarch 2021
Page 3 and 4: J A S M I N E L E EP A G E 2Her art
Page 5: K A T H E R I N E L E U N GP A G E
Page 8 and 9: P A G E 7F A M I L Y A N D I D E N
Page 10 and 11: P A G E 9F A M I L Y A N D I D E N
Page 12 and 13: P A G E 1 1F A M I L Y A N D I D E
Page 28 and 29: P A G E 2 7F O O DF O O D
Page 30 and 31: P A G E 2 9F O O D
Page 32 and 33: P A G E 3 1F O O DS I B E R I A NP
Page 35 and 36: C O L E C H A N GP A G E 3 4"Much o
Page 37 and 38: B R I A N N A M I T J A N SP A G E
Page 39: F A M I L Y A N D I D E N T I T YP
Page 43 and 44: N I K O M H A L LP A G E 4 2"Don’
Page 45 and 46: N I K O M H A L LP A G E 4 4While o
Page 47 and 48: C H U N B U M P A R KP A G E 4 6T H
Page 49 and 50: N I C K L E EP A G E 4 8N I C K L E
Page 51 and 52: N I C K L E EP A G E 5 0B y N i c k
Page 53 and 54: O S C A R B A U M A NP A G E 5 2Wha
Page 55 and 56: J A S M I N E L E EP A G E 5 4L E E
Page 57 and 58: J A S M I N E L E EP A G E 5 6"I am
Page 59 and 60: C U L T U R E , T R A D I T I O N ,
Page 61 and 62: J A M I E M A HP A G E 5 9J A M I E
Page 63 and 64: A N N I K A C H E N GP A G E 6 2The
Page 65 and 66: W E N C H I N G I N W O N D E R L A
Page 67 and 68: W E N C H I N G I N W O N D E R L A
Page 69 and 70: A C T I V I S MP A G E 6 8
Page 71 and 72: A C T I V I S MP A G E 7 0T h e C o
Page 73 and 74: A C T I V I S MP A G E 7 2L O S A N
Page 75 and 76: K O Y S U N T I C H O T I N U NP A
Page 83: K O Y S U N T I C H O T I N U NP A
Page 91:
K O Y S U N T I C H O T I N U NP A
Page 95 and 96:
S A M R I E D M A NP A G E 9 4P r i
Page 97 and 98:
L A U R A J E WP A G E 9 6B y L a u
Page 99 and 100:
L A U R A J E WP A G E 9 8U n t i t
Page 101 and 102:
S P I R I T U A L I T YP A G E 1 0
Page 103 and 104:
K A T H E R I N E L E U N GP A G E
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
E T H E L M A R T I N E ZP A G E 1
Page 113 and 114:
V I J A Y A L A X M IP A G E 1 1 2I
Page 115 and 116:
V I J A Y A L A X M IP A G E 1 1 4S
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
V I J A Y A L A X M IP A G E 1 2 0I
Page 123 and 124:
V I J A Y A L A X M IP A G E 1 2 2A
Page 125:
F O U R S E A S O N SP A G E 1 2 4W
Page 128 and 129:
P A G E 1 2 7S P I R T U A L I T YG
Page 130 and 131:
P A G E 2 9Z I N E S T A F FKATHERI
show all

Asian American Arts Zine - Volume 4

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?