Korean hip hop history book8/23/2023 ![]() It’s a point emphasised by Korean stars such as Lizzy, formerly of K-pop girl group After School. You need to have a nice appearance, be good at dancing, and you have to attend to the audience and to marketing – it’s like being a supermodel or a goddess.” On the other hand, the more niche trot or ppongjjak market (Lee uses the terms interchangeably) “is a place where people who just want to be a good singer or a good musician can focus on the artistry”. Lee explains that the “idol” industry of mainstream K-pop stars is “very restrictive. But the trot industry has also become attractive for singers and musicians harbouring big career ambitions. Some corners of the press see this revival of trot interest as merely part of the “newtro” (a portmanteau of the words “new” and “retro”) trend: a youth culture phenomenon characterised by vintage fashion, throwback graphic and interior designs, and the popularity of period K-dramas such as Mr Sunshine. But Lim’s popularity is undeniable: he has more than 1.3m subscribers on his YouTube channel, his face currently occupies a 10-storey video billboard in the thriving university district of Hongdae, and he’s as ubiquitous as BTS in the souvenir stalls of the market district Insa-dong. Listening to mega-hit single My Starry Love by Mr Trot winner Lim Young-woong, I can’t help but be reminded of Gareth Gates’s take on Unchained Melody from the first series of Pop Idol. But trot never went away, and in the late 2010s an unexpected revival was catalysed by the debut of an X Factor-style television talent show in which contenders perform in the traditional, sentimental style – one of its episodes was watched by more than one-third of the total Korean TV audience. The fresh sound of K-pop – influenced by dance, R&B and hip-hop from overseas – pierced the zeitgeist. Debate endures over whether trot’s sorrow – typified in the themes of famous songs such as Yi Hae-yeon’s Heartbreaking Miari Hill and Nam In-su’s Busan Station of Farewell – makes it inherently Korean, or whether the style is derivative of the Japanese enka (a genre perhaps most recognisable to westerners from its use in the Kill Bill soundtrack).īy the 1990s, young Koreans were feeling increasingly optimistic and there was little place for the melancholy music associated with the older generation. But it has also been condemned on multiple occasions since the late 1960s, as various governments attempted to eliminate Japanese influences from society. A famous trot singer, Sim Soo-bong, was even present at the assassination of President Park Chung-hee in 1979 she had sung for the military dictator at the banquet held that evening. It was responsible for Korea’s first pop idols, including Nam Jin and Na Hoon-a, during the genre’s heyday in the 1970s. ![]() The genre has navigated a convoluted history ever since. As the ruling class opened large dance halls across the country (partly inspired by those found in Blackpool and other UK cities, says Lee), the native Koreans combined it with the traditional music of the working people – and trot was born. The two-beat dancing style was introduced to Korea by Japan as part of “a cultural phenomenon influenced by the jazz age in America” in the 1920s. Trot was derived from the foxtrot, says Alex Taek-Gwang Lee, a professor of cultural studies at Kyung Hee University. Neither experts nor amateurs can agree on whether they are, in fact, the same thing or merely different strands of one genre – but either way, the roots of ppongjjak can be traced to the early 20th century, when an undivided Korea was occupied by Japan. ![]() A local music video producer, Kim Kyuseo of Spire production agency, casts the respective qualities of trot and present-day ppongjjak in Shakespearean terms: “It’s like tragedy and comedy,” he says, emphasising the emotive vocal performances more characteristic of the former, and the lunatic beats of the latter. The sentimental lyrics and happy-sad melodies, meanwhile, embody the emotion of han – a term describing a feeling of shared sorrow or lamentation. It’s dressed with straightforward melodies that make it easy to sing and dance to, with higher vocal tones delivered in a technique known as kkeokk-ki (which means to flex, or break, the voice). ![]() The name comes from a simple rhythm that underpins the music: ppongjjak is an onomatopoeic term that imitates the repetitive one-two beat, with the first syllable signifying a bassy thump, the second a whipping snare. The in-crowd … Fans of South Korean trot singer Lim Young-woong.
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