Ever heard the saying “Music is my drug”?
Tuesday, December 25th, 2007안녕하세요! I’m Taliana, and a new member of this blogging team. Every Tuesday, I’ll be bringing you entries about the Korean music scene.
Music in general has always been a big passion of mine. I am almost always listening to music - while I’m travelling, while I’m studying, while I’m sleeping, while I’m just doing my usual daily things, while I’m reading… all the time! I’d even go as far as to say that I’m addicted to music since if I don’t listen to any for a few days, I get really restless and aggravated.
For several years now I’ve been interested in Asian music. Like most people I know, my interest started off with Japanese music, but over the past couple of years my interest has changed to Korean music. In fact, it’s almost all I listen to now. Sometimes I’ll put on something else, but 90% of the time if I’m listening to music then it’s probably something Korean.
Korea has a lot of amazing music to offer, and I really think that there is something for everyone, no matter what genre it is that you enjoy most. There’s pop, there’s hiphop, there’s R&B, there’s ballads, there’s rock - Korea’s got it all, and through these entries I hope to help spark an interest in other people for Korean music.
Although Korea’s modern music has been and still is heavily influenced by the trends of the Western world, their current music scene is still quite different from our own. I don’t pay too much attention to Western charts but from what I have seen, hiphop is the big thing these past few years. Although hiphop is also steadily gaining popularity in Korea, pop music still dominates the charts. One of the biggest names in the pop music industry is a label called SM Entertainment. SM Entertainment has produced some of Korea’s biggest pop music acts - bands such as H.O.T., S.E.S. and Shinhwa (신화), and in more recent years BoA, TVXQ (東方神起), Super Junior, The Grace and now SNSD (or Girl’s Generation).
Just like SM Entertainment is the bigger name in the pop scene, the other scenes also have a label or two that stand out more than the others. For example, JYP Entertainment, headed by Park Jin Young (박진영), has had a lot of influence over the R&B scene, producing artists such as g.o.d., Lim Jeong Hee (임정희), Rain (비), and in recent months The Wonder Girls. Perhaps the main rival in this scene is YG Entertainment who focus on hiphop and R&B, producing well-known artists such as Wheesung (휘성), Lexy, 1TYM, SE7EN, and more recently Big Bang. There are of course many other labels with many other artists worthy of a mention, but if I started listing everyone, this entry would go on forever! This is just to give you a bit of an overview, and in future entries we’ll definitely take a closer look.
It is quite interesting to note that many of the popular Korean artists are not only popular in Korea, but are also very popular in other Asian countries such as China, Singapore and Thailand, and most especially in Japan. BoA, for example, has been very successful in Japan and she has often been compared (favourably) to Japanese popstar Utada Hikaru. In the past two years, TVXQ have released 2 Japanese albums, and will soon be releasing their 16th Japanese single. Shinhwa also have a large Chinese and Japanese fanbase, and Rain and SE7EN have also been very popular in Japan although both men seem to have their sights set on the American market.
I think the fact that Korean artists are so popular outside of Korea just proves that music isn’t just about what language the words are in. Good music can and does transcend all barriers of language and country, and as cliché as it may sound it’s true that music brings people together.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this first entry! Whether you’re a fan of Korean music or not I’d love to hear your thoughts ^^ And if anyone has something Korean music related that they’d like me to write about, just drop me some suggestions!
Posted by Taliana in Korean Music |
December 26th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
Welcome to the blogging team!! Taliana!
I’m excited that you’re going to be writing about Korean music here. I’ll also help you in the comments on some details with whatever knowledge I have. Heh heh. Do you like 서태지 as well? He hasn’t been actively performing for the past few years so he might not be known overseas but to me he’s a hero. 
December 26th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Great first post. I am looking forward to reading more.
December 26th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Hi Taliana! Who is TVXQ? I was a big Korean music fan, back in the day, but I’m looking forward to reading your posts so that I can get back into it!
December 26th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
Hyunwoo: Thanks for the welcome ^^! I do like 서태지, as well as Seo Taiji & Boys (I’m not sure of it in Korean … 서태지와 아이들??). I wouldn’t consider myself a fan of him, but I definitely do enjoy! He’s got some awesome songs.
steved: 감사합니다! I was really nervous about my first post, but now I’m excited about writing more
Keith: Maybe you know TVXQ as 동방신기, or in Japan as Tohoshinki. But then of course, maybe you don’t know them at all XD! I guess it depends when you were into it, and what you were into.
December 27th, 2007 at 9:10 am
Aw, this is so cool! A music blogger about Korean music… I hope you can give some insight into other groups that are cool, but aren’t the ones my 12-16 year-olds are talking about at my school. If I only listened to them, I would think that the only Korean musical groups/artists right now are Wondergirls and Big Bang… and occasionally Rain.
I hope you can shed some light on some really cool Korean musical artists that aren’t just the ones who get the spotlight on those music TV shows!
December 27th, 2007 at 9:23 am
Don’t worry, Daniel, I definitely plan on talking about artists who aren’t the big trend right now! There’s so much great stuff out there that’s either older, or not as popular, and I definitely want to bring some of those to everyone’s attention ^^ So that’s what I plan on and hope to do over the next entries :3
January 8th, 2008 at 7:21 am
Congratulations Taliana on your first post! You did a GREAT job! Looking forward to reading more!
I’m a huge fan of korean music too!, So I’m so glad someone is writing about it here. I would say that 98% of the music i listen to is korean music.
I always try to watch all those music programs (Musicore, Musicbank, Inkigayo, M!countdown,etc) ^^ and i’m always looking to korean music charts as well. ^^
My interest didn’t begin with japanese music. I don’t really listen to japanese music.
My interest began after watching korean dramas, i started to like the dramas OSTs and then i discovered all these great popular artists.
So thanks to korean music, i developed a huge interest in learning korean, to the point where i practically abandoned the other languages i was learning.
Korean music is simply the best!
Keith: you don’t know who TVXQ are? what planet are you living? LOL ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Hyunwoo: 서태지 has some great songs!
March 27th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
It all started with TVXQ for me - I know they are “pop” but those guys can sing and are all round entertainment!, (good looking too!) I also like 비 and Se7en and I was recently introduced to 하동균 (Ha Dong Kyun) and was blown away by his voice!
Please note I am beginner at Korean and do not understand most of the words, however the music just speaks for itself! I would just like to say that since listening to Korean music - I now rarely listen to western music!
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:44 am
동방신기 was my first korean 사랑! =]
I listen to a lot of mainstream kpop but I like the underground too!
I hope you mention Epik High and SS501 too!
Also please mention new boybands that came out! Like Shinee 샤이니 =]
I’m so excited there’s a korean 음악 blog!
Taliana 화이팅!