Longstanding Asian music platform Asian Pop Weekly celebrates their 15th birthday this August with the launch of anniversary e-zine titled “fluffy” and the soft launch of Asian women’s music collective “Fluffle” on the 19th August.
Established in 2010, Asian Pop Weekly has long cemented its place as one of the only English-language platforms that specialises in reportings on Mandarin popular music and Asian music, and has been featured by international news sites such as NPR (US), The Spectator (UK), Bandwagon (SG), The World of Chinese (CN) and more.
Their 15th anniversary will be celebrated with the release of an exclusive e-zine titled “fluffy” on the 19th of August. This year’s zine will focus on highlighting women in music, including content such as: an exclusive feature interview with Thailand art-ivist Pyra, a playlist of female producers curated by Dutch-Indonesian artist-producer Noé Solange, and a think piece on Japan’s women in music by Meg Tanaka featuring conversations with Otoboke Beaver’s Accorinrin, Luby Sparks’ Erika Murphy, and King Gnu/SIRUP sound engineer Asaka Suzuki.
The zine will have a spread dedicated the launch of Asian Pop Weekly founder Jocelle Koh’s latest endeavour, a women’s music collective called Fluffle which aims to fill the gap in support and discourse around women and fem-presenting individuals’ issues in the Asian music scene.
Of the motive behind the collective, Jocelle shares that the idea came together serendipitously as a natural extension of the work they have done at Asian Pop Weekly:
“Over the last 15 years, I’ve learnt as much as possible about various sectors of the Asian music industry, both in my capacity as Asian Pop Weekly and as a budding music executive. The spirit of Asian Pop Weekly has always been about filling a gap that is in equal parts demand and cultural significance, and Fluffle has felt like a very natural progression of that. I’ve learnt the hard way that unfortunately as a woman in music, it’s just not enough to be ‘good’ at what you do, there are still many unconscious biases and nuances ingrained into various Asian cultures that you have to navigate in order to succeed. Given the lack of support I’ve experienced within the Asian music industry, my hope is for Fluffle to un-gatekeep, demystify, and disrupt the industry so we can see even more women in music accelerate to new heights and take advantage of every possibility the Asian music scene has to offer them.”
Derived from the word for a herd of wild rabbits, the name was chosen as rabbits are historically polarising creatures; representing weakness and fragility in Eastern culture, but also fertility, rebirth and resurrection in Western culture. The name is intended to encourage women and fem-presenting individuals in music to embrace all parts of themselves holistically, turning all of it into unique strength. This is visualised in Fluffle’s logo, which pictures two rabbits in yin-yang formation designed by Hong Kong-Australian artist Jessie Hui.
Through upcoming initiatives such as creation of educational content and resources, establishment of support and mentorship networks, and creation of strategic partnerships, Fluffle intends to create a fertile breeding ground for creativity and empowerment that feeds back into a shared aim with Asian Pop Weekly - to encourage the growth of a more diverse and inclusive music scene for all.
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Asian Pop Weekly’s 15th anniversary zine ‘fluffy’ is now available for public purchase on Gumroad. Follow Asian Pop Weekly on IG/Tiktok/FB at @asianpopweekly. Join our Fluffle by following along on Instagram or signing up for our mailing list via our Website.
