The Korean Music Wave
Hello again everyone. Today, instead of featuring an artist, I decided to write about the Korean music scene.
KPop, short for Korean pop, almost seems synonymous to “Korean music”, because people hardly ever hear or read “KRock” or K(insert genre here). While most mainstream artists shift between genres often while still remaining in the “pop” genre, it is still true that when many foreigners think of Korean music, they think of either ballads or catchy songs with matching dance steps.
But just how diverse is the (South) Korean music scene? In the 70s and 80s, there was a small movement of rock music, mostly motivated by political and social awareness. By then they already had a fairly established pop scene, which was actually influenced by the Western “foxtrot”. This kind of pop music (called Teuroteu from the Korean pronunciation of ”trot” ) slowly faded away, as influences from other Western artists lead to the soft rock-type ballad.
In 1992, one group revolutionized the Korean music scene, and its name was Seo Taiji and Boys. They mixed other elements from Western music, such as rap, rock and techno, incorporating dance routines into their performances. Since then, rock music has been slowly making its way into the mainstream, with bands such as Cherry Filter, Nell, and The TRAX, though the latter is more popular in Japan as rock is more accepted in the country’s mainstream.
Though rock music and hiphop still have their marks in Korean pop culture, society more readily embraces themes such as love, life and having fun. So socially and politically-motivated songs mostly remain in the underground, regardless of whether they are good or not.
An example of such is The Movement Crew, a group of Korean rappers consisting of artists like Drunken Tiger and Epik High. DT was founded because of supposed racism against Koreans in the US, and even the rest of the crew focuses on themes relating (or retaliating) to ideas like this.
Korean pop music is primarily commercial. Pop groups forming and disbanding in a matter of a few years is common, and many artists have switched companies for better contracts. To many people in and out of South Korea, this is the main problem of the music industry there, because for many it is not about talent or the quality of the music, but about looks and marketing.
Still, this is not to deny that there are many very good groups and solo artists from Korea. For this reason, among others, the “Hallyu” is born. This literally means “Korean Wave”, and refers to the rising world interest in Korean pop culture. Aside from Korean dramas taking the world (especially Asia) by storm, the wave brings with it the interest in Korean acts, not only for their image but for the talent the world is starting to see in Korean acts.
There are many Korean artists that are currently trying to penetrate the US market. Unfortunately, the US does not seem to be ready for this, and regards most of these acts as merely “asian artists”. The underground scene may never take part in this wave (which is also mainly commercial). Despite these setbacks, there may come a day when Korean music will be readily accepted in the world’s mainstream music industry.
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