Think about international artists such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Even though the bands were formed 60 years ago, today’s young music fans love their music. However, K-pop fans have no interest in the rich legacy of Korea’s popular music. Their enthusiastic support is limited to a particular generation of musicians. Why is that? This web animation starts from the question that we, Koreans, don’t know much about the root of K-pop despite its global appeal. Under the title of [Hyundae-Eumryul, Tracing K-Pop’s Roots], the director tries to examine the separation between the past and present of Korea’s popular music through three significant musicians in Korea’s music history. The project is an effort to bridge the gap between the past and the present and start a conversation. The three artists include HAN Dae-soo, Korea’s first singer-songwriter and avantgarde musician who initiated Korean modern folk music; KIM Soo-chul, also known as “little big man,” who became a superstar with “A flower that didn’t bloom” in the 1980s but turned his path toward promoting Korean traditional music to the world rather than pursuing an easier way of a pop musician; and KIM Hyun-chul, the godfather of Korean city pop. Of course, every person has different musical tastes and assesses historical values of music with other criteria. You may feel disappointed that the list doesn’t include musicians you think much significant. However, you can the name of IM Jin-mo, a well-known music critic, in the end credits, which means that the director must have made a considerate effort to make a well-grounded list that people can approve.
The title, [Hyundae Eumryul], which means “modern tune,” seems like coming from the first line of “Dance in the Rhythm,” a song by KIM Wan-sun, a K-pop diva in the 1980s. The lyric goes like this. “In the modern tune, visible in the moment…” HAN Dae-soo returned from the United States in the late 1960s with his long hair. He started leading folk music and youth culture in Korea and was praised as a K-pop wonder. One year after his debut, he held his first concert at Namsan Drama Center in 1969. In terms of stage and performance, the concert was phenomenal. He used extraordinary instruments like a gong and a saw. A famous anecdote is that another popular artist, SONG Chang-sik, was shocked by HAN’s concert and started writing his own songs. The director alludes that the concert was a light in the dark age in the history of popular music and socio-culture. The musician’s face in the opening is from the self-portrait cover of his debut album taken by the artist himself, who was a musician and photographer.
Episode 3 on KIM Hyun-chul is the most impressive of the three episodes. He made a debut with “A Train to Chuncheon” in 1989 and is recognized as the godfather of city pop. When he started his music career, Korean people weren’t familiar with the genre of city pop. It was a Japanese music genre largely tied to the life and sentiment in big cities that quickly developed during the rapid economic growth of the 1970s and 1980s. Some Koreans, who enjoyed Japanese city pop, tried to find the tradition of Korean music similar to Japanese city pop and started categorizing the genre of Korean city pop. KIM Hyun-chul was on the top of the list. Though the artist felt awkward to be called a city pop musician, he released more city pop songs and contributed to making the genre rooted in Korea.
An interesting point of Korean city pop is that the discourse on the new genre was formed through the interaction between fandom and musician and the dialogue between the past and the present. Director KWON Minji traced the history of Korean popular music up to the late 1960s when HAN Dae-soo first appeared on the music scene. In the end, she concluded that K-pop is the legacy of Korea’s contemporary, modern music. I hope that her project goes on much further and more profound.
MAENG Soojin (Programmer, Jecheon International Music & Film Festival)
[Information]
- Title: Hyundae-Eumryul, Tracing K-pop’s roots
- Director: KWON Minji
- Synopsis:
An animation series on three important musicians in the history of Korean popular music, their stories and interviews. The musicians are HAN Dae-soo, the pioneer of folk music in the 1970s; KIM Soo-chul, the artist devoted to Korean rock and traditional music in the 1980s; and KIM Hyun-chul, the godfather of Korean city pop.
- Director’s Statement:
I was always amazed by old Korean songs, especially their lyrics and melodies, different from contemporary K-pop songs. I had questions. Paul McCartney of The Beatles or The Rolling Stones still performs for enthusiastic fans in their teens and twenties. However, Korean bands and musicians are limited to a particular generation. I hoped that her peers would understand the roots of K-pop through musicians in the bygone era. The work will bring more interest and pride in K-pop among musicians, music fans, and the general public.
- Link:
