When Spotify users opened the app last week, they were greeted with the music streaming service’s annual personalized wrap-up, summarizing their most-listened-to music and providing a bevy of stats. The service also provided a location where other users have similar tastes, and for fans of Korean pop music, or K-pop, that location was “Davis, USA.”
“Who the hell is Davis from USA,” a tweet that has been seen more than 2 million times asked in response to a Spotify Wrapped graphic showing Davis as their “Sound Town.”
Several replies pointed out that Davis was a “where,” not a “who,” while others quickly Googled the city’s demographics.
Chancellor Gary S. May got in on the fun, responding with a photo of him holding a photo of Jihyo, lead vocalist of the South Korean group Twice, during a commencement ceremony.
, some 6 million Spotify users got Davis as their “Sound Town.” Berkeley, Jakarta, Indonesia, and Cuiabá, Brazil, were among the 1,300 cities chosen for users, .
Jokes and serious discussion of the K-pop community in Davis (and ϲϿ Davis) spread across social media. ϲϿ Davis students , and when students and staff in the Office of Strategic Communications , they got hundreds of song suggestions.
K-pop is a fixture across campus, and there are at least two student dance groups who perform routines popularized by South Korean groups. Last week, of students performing a dance routine in front of the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, with shown prominently. has earned nearly 3 million views for SoNE1 (pronounced “so anyone”).
Nicole Tran, a fourth-year psychology major and director of SoNE1, called ϲϿ Davis’ K-pop community “actually pretty large” and said she often hears the music in public spaces on campus where students pick the playlists.
“I also see students with K-pop tour merch of their favorite groups (like Stray Kids, Twice and Blackpink). I also see subtle merch that I am able to detect as a K-pop stan,” she said, using the word for an enthusiastic fan of a genre or subculture.
She said the size of that community isn’t necessarily caused by ϲϿ Davis attracting the type of people who listen to K-pop — it’s that the university is diverse and welcoming, which encourages people to be open with the unique things that make up their personalities.
“One thing I like about the school is how welcome the students are with each other and how open-minded we are,” she said. “It makes people more likely to express their interest in K-pop compared to the past, because I know people used to make fun of K-pop.”
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Cody Kitaura is the editor of Dateline ϲϿ Davis and can be reached by email or at 530-752-1932.