50 Most Influential K-Pop Artists: 35. Song Dae-Gwan/Tae Jin-Ah

With these two towers of trot, we conclude the "Tier 4 - Notable" section in the top 50 ranking.

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[Series Index]

35.  Song Dae-Gwan [송대관]

Years of Activity: 1975-present

Discography:
(Regular albums only; "special" or "best" albums are too numerous and disorganized to trace.)

Sunrising Day [해뜰날] (1975)
The Looks [모습이] (1976)
20 Songs from Song Dae-Gwan [송대관 20곡집] (1976)
Song Dae-Gwan Solo [송대관 독집] (1977)
Me [나] (1977)
Myeongdong Vagabond [명동 나그네] (1978)
If You Go [당신이 가신다면] (1978)
Mi, Where are You [미야 너는 어디에] (1979)
With the Wife [아내와 같이] (1979)
Because of Jeong [정 때문에] (1989)
Who Are You To [네가 뭔데] (1991)
92 Song Dae-Gwan [92 송대관] (1992)
93 Song Dae-Gwan [93 송대관] (1993)
The Wife's Birthday [아내의 생일] (1994)
Song and Life [노래와 인생] (1998)
Memorial Album for Best Artist Award [최고 가수상 수상 기념] (2000)
Collection of Jo Dong-San [조동산 작품집] (2001)
Sorry I Loved You [사랑해서 미안해] (2005)
New Beginning [새출발] (2006)
For a Long, Long Time [오래오래] (2008)
Good Vibe [분위기 좋고] (2009)

Representative Song:  Four Beats [네박자] from Song and Life

네박자
Four Beats

니가 기쁠때 내가 슬플때 누구나 부르는 노래
When you are happy, when I am sad, the song that everyone sings
내려보는 사람도 뒤를 보는 사람도 어차피 쿵짝이라네
A person looking down, a person looking back, after all they are all koong-jjak

쿵짝 쿵짝 쿵짜자 쿵짝 네박자 속에
Koong-jjak, koong-jjak, koong-jja-ja koong-jjak, in the four beats
사랑도 있고 이별도 있고 눈물도 있네
There is love, there are partings and there are also tears
한구절 한고비 꺾고 넘을때
Each refrain, each peak, as it is repeated and climbed over
우리네 사연을 담는
Carrying the stories of us
울고 웃는 인생사 연극같은 세상사
The crying and laughing matters of our lives, the matters of the world like a play
세상사 모두가 네박자 쿵짝
All the matters of the world, just four beats koong-jjak.
쿵짝 쿵짝 쿵짜자 쿵짝 네박자 속에
Koong-jjak, koong-jjak, koong-jja-ja koong-jjak, in the four beats
사랑도 있고 이별도 있고 눈물도 있네
There is love, there are partings and there are also tears
짠짠 짜라라라 짠짠짠 짜리 짜리라라 짜라짠
Jjanjjan Jjararara Jjanjjanjjan Jjari Jjarirara Jjarajjan

나 그릴울때 너 외로울때 혼자서 부르는 노래
When I am longing, when you are lonely, this song that we sing alone
내가 잘난 사람도 지가 못난 사람도 어차피 쿵짝이라네
A person who's so great, a person who is not so, after all they are all koong-jjak

쿵짝 쿵짝 쿵짜자 쿵짝 네박자 속에
Koong-jjak, koong-jjak, koong-jja-ja koong-jjak, in the four beats
사랑도 있고 이별도 있고 눈물도 있네
There is love, there are partings and there are also tears
한구절 한고비 꺾고 넘을때
Each refrain, each peak, as it is repeated and climbed over
우리네 사연을 담는
Carrying the stories of us
울고 웃는 인생사 연극같은 세상사
The crying and laughing matters of our lives, the matters of the world like a play
세상사 모두가 네박자 쿵짝
All the matters of the world, just four beats koong-jjak.
쿵짝 쿵짝 쿵짜자 쿵짝 네박자 속에
Koong-jjak, koong-jjak, koong-jja-ja koong-jjak, in the four beats
사랑도 있고 이별도 있고 눈물도 있네
There is love, there are partings and there are also tears
짠짠 짜라라라 짠짠짠 짜리 짜리라라 짜라짠
Jjanjjan Jjararara Jjanjjanjjan Jjari Jjarirara Jjarajjan

Translation Note: Koong-jjak is an onomatopoeia for the sounds of a drumbeat. It has no meaning otherwise.

Interesting Trivia:  Song Dae-Gwan's grandfather was Song Yeong-Geun, a registered Independence Movement Patriot recognized for serving as a regional leader in the March 1 Movement in 1919. He was imprisoned and tortured by Imperial Japanese authorities, and died a few months after he was released from prison.




35.  Tae Jin-Ah [태진아]

Years of Activity: 1982-present

Discography:
(Regular albums only; "special" or "best" albums are too numerous and disorganized to trace.)

Gyeong-Ah's Love [경아의 사랑] (1982)
Tae Jin-Ah 2 [태진아 2] (1989)
Tae Jin-Ah 3 [태진아 3] (1990)
Tae Jin Ah Vol. 4 (1991)
Tae Jin-Ah Vol. 5 [태진아 Vol. 5] (1992)
93 Tae Jin-Ah [93 태진아] (1993)
95 Tae Jin-Ah [95 태진아] (1995)
97 Tae Jin-Ah [97 태진아] (1996)
98 Tae Jin-Ah [98 태진아] (1998)
2000 Tae Jina (2000)
2002 Tae Jin-Ah [2002 태진아] (2002)
Fool [바보] (2003)
2004 Tae Jin-Ah [2004 태진아] (2004)
2005 Tae Jin Ah [2005 태진아] (2005)
Good Woman [착한 여자] (2005)
Ajumma [아줌마] (2006)
2007 Tae Jin-Ah [2007 태진아] (2007)
2008 Tae Jin Ah (2008)
Love is Better than Money [사랑은 돈보다 좋다] (2010)

Representative Song:  Okgyeong-i [옥경이], from Tae Jin-Ah 2

옥경이
Okgyeong-I

희미한 불빛 아래 마주 앉은 당신은
You, sitting across under the dim light
언젠가 어디선가 본 듯한 얼굴인데
The face seems familiar from somewhere some time
고향을 물어 보고 이름을 물어봐도
Try asking her hometown, try asking her name
잃어버린 이야긴가 대답하지 않네요
Might be a lost story, she does not answer

바라보는 눈길이 젖어 있구나
The gazing eyes are moist
너도 나도 모르게 흘러간 세월아
The time that flowed away without you or me noticing
어디서 무엇을 하며 어떻게 살았는지
Where, what, how have you lived
물어도 대답없이 고개 숙인 옥경이
Asked, but Okgyeong hangs her head without an answer

바라보는 눈길이 젖어 있구나
The gazing eyes are moist
너도 나도 모르게 흘러간 세월아
The time that flowed away without you or me noticing
어디서 무엇을 하며 어떻게 살았는지
Where, what, how have you lived
물어도 대답없이 고개 숙인 옥경이
Asked, but Okgyeong hangs her head without an answer

Translation Note:  Okgyeong is an old-school woman's name. It is actually the name of Tae Jin-Ah's wife.

Interesting Trivia:  Tae Jin-Ah is a stage name constructed by taking one letter from three prominent trot singers -- Tae Hyeon-Sil, Nam Jin and Nah Hoon-Ah.



In 15 Words or Less:  The twin pillars of trot that kept the genre alive.

Maybe they should be ranked lower because...  How much does trot mean in the K-pop scene today? Is it any more than a novelty act?

Maybe they should be ranked higher because...  Longevity counts when it comes to influence. There might be only one or two other artists who had a 30+ year run of success like these two.

Why are these artists important?
As discussed previously in this series, trot has an awkward place in Korean pop history. It has very obvious roots to Japan's colonization of Korea, which evokes many bad memories. The music itself is thoroughly unoriginal, with its cheesy lyrics, unimaginative use of the same instruments (punctuated by the dreadful beats from mechanical drum boxes,) and the same goddamn one-two beat that just does not change no matter how many different songs are "composed." Instead of an expression of artistic endeavor, titles of trot albums read like an automobile model. ("Have you heard the 2005 Tae Jin-Ah yet?")

Young K-pop fans who follow the pretty faces like DBSK or SNSD consider trot to be decrepit. The too-serious K-pop aficionados (the Korean himself included) consider it to be hackneyed, stale, unoriginal. But the haters of trot must face this inevitable, uncomfortable truth that in Korea, trot simply refuses to die. One can talk about all the flaws of trot as a music until one's face turns blue, but trot fans of Korea will only turn up the volume.

So forget all your high-brow theories of what makes music great. Forget all the bullshit about conveying wrenching emotions or using innovative new sounds. And just listen to the music. Better yet, watch a performance live. Then you can understand why artists like Song Dae-Gwan and Tae Jin-Ah survived as celebrities for more than three decades. The one-two beat may be overused, but it's still catchy as hell. The lyrics are cheesy, but they still contain a sharp bit of satire or a maudlin piece of melancholy. It is so easy to bop your shoulders, so natural to sing along. (And another thing -- look at their clothes. They're pimps! Is there any other K-pop genre that comes with such surreal, over-the-top fashion sense?)

In fact, surviving is the perfect term to describe the career of Tae and Song. Korea in the 1970s and 80s was a very, very different place from Korea today. People liked different things back then. Yet Song Dae-Gwan and Tae Jin-Ah somehow churn out seemingly the same music year after year for more than three decades, and they keep showing up on TV while the younger, prettier faces change every month. And Korean people of 2010s are still attending their concerts, still buying their records. Even the younger generation is slowly returning to the fold, as Song and Tae act as a producer for a new generation of younger trot singers. Say what you will about their music, but there is no denying their influence.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Swing a dead cat to hit a Kim

Dear Korean,

Why do so many Koreans have the last name of Kim? What's a "high" Kim and what's a "low" Kim?

Walter H. Sakai
Professor of Biology, Santa Monica College

Dear Professor Sakai,

There really are a lot of Korean Kims. Kim is the most common last name in Korea, making up roughly 20 percent of the population -- which makes it about 10 million Kims. According to Los Angeles Times article that spoke about racial diversity in Los Angeles County, Lopez and Kim were two examples of ethnic last names that were more common than Smith. Other very common last names are Lee (15 percent) and Park (10 percent). Kim, Lee, and Park put together is about 45 percent of the Korean population.

Why so many Kims? Kim was the last name for the oldest and longest dynasty of Korea, namely Silla Dynasty, born in 57 BC and perished in 935 AD. In the early period, Silla had three rotating last names for kings -- Park clan was the one that started the Dynasty, then Seok clan, then Kim clan. Over time, Kim clan became the most powerful, and eventually all Silla kings were from the Kim clan for over 700 years. Since Kims were royalties and noblemen, their population was bound to become large.

There is not exactly a "high" or "low" Kim, but Kims (just like all other last names in Korea) are divided into a number of clans and subclans. The largest Kim clan is Gimhae Kims, which has more than 4 million members. There are certain last names that used to only belong to lower-class people (e.g. Cheon, Bang, Ji, Chu, Ma, Gol, Pih). But the significance of family lineage has greatly diminished in the modern era; frankly, no one but old coots care about last names in Korea anymore.

Got a question or comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@hotmail.com.

Technical Proficiency and Creativity

The Korean always enjoys reading Anthony Tommasini's take on classical music on the New York Times. His recent article regarding the increasing technical ability of classical musicians (specifically pianists) is quite interesting:

Ms. Wang’s virtuosity is stunning. But is that so unusual these days? Not really. That a young pianist has come along who can seemingly play anything, and easily, is not the big deal it would have been a short time ago.

The overall level of technical proficiency in instrumental playing, especially on the piano, has increased steadily over time. Many piano teachers, critics and commentators have noted the phenomenon, which is not unlike what happens in sports. The four-minute mile seemed an impossibility until Roger Bannister made the breakthrough in 1954. Since then, runners have knocked nearly 17 seconds off Bannister’s time.

Something similar has long been occurring with pianists. And in the last decade or so the growth of technical proficiency has seemed exponential.

But will this focus on technical proficiency kill creativity and expression? No, Tommasini says -- just the opposite:

But more recently younger pianists have not been cookie-cutter virtuosos. Technical excellence is such a given that these artists can cultivate real personality, style and flair: artists like the Ukrainian pianist Alexander Romanovsky, whose 2009 recording of Rachmaninoff’s “Études-Tableaux” for Decca is wondrously beautiful, or the highly imaginative Polish-Hungarian pianist Piotr Anderszewski, an exceptional Bach interpreter.

...

Martha Argerich can be a wild woman at the piano, but who cares? She has stupefying technique and arresting musical ideas. I would add Krystian Zimerman, Marc-André Hamelin and probably Jean-Yves Thibaudet to this roster. There are others, both older and younger pianists. Again, lovers of the piano can disagree about the musical approaches of these tremendous artists. But that they are all active right now suggests that a new level of conquering the piano has been reached.

Virtuosos Becoming a Dime a Dozen [New York Times]

This conforms with the Korean's long-standing belief about true creativity:  to be truly creative, one has to be really, really technically good at something first. Only after there is a foundation of ability to actualize one's vision can there be a materialization of creativity.

(More after the jump.)

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

50 Most Influential K-Pop Artists: 32. Patti Kim

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[Series Index]

32.  Patti Kim [패티김]

Years of Activity:  1958-present

Discography:
(Patti Kim did issue albums prior to 1969, but the information online only traces back to 1969.)

Stereo Highlight Vol. 3: The White House [스테레오 하이라이트 Vol. 3: 하얀집] (1969)
Patti Kim Stereo Vol. 5 [패티金 스테레오 Vol. 5] (1970)
Patti Kim '70 (1970)
Patti Kim '71 (1971)
'74 Bronze Medalist in the Third Tokyo World Music Festival ['74 제3회 동경 가요제 세계대회 동상 수상] (1974)
Wind [바람] (1974)
Patti Kim Greatest Hit Album Vol. 5 (1975)
Stereo Lifetime Vol. 1 [스테레오 일대작 제1집] (1976)
Patti Kim Sings Love [사랑을 노래하는 패티김] (1978)
Unforgettable by Patti Kim [패티김의 못잊어] (1978)
Homecoming Grand Concert [귀국 대공연] (1978)
Love that Left Autumn Behind [가을을 남기고 간 사랑] (1983)
Patti Kim '84 (1984)
Light and Shadow [빛과 그림자] (1985)
Hit Song 1 [힛송 1] (1986)
Patti Kim (1990)
Patti Kim (1991)
Life is a Small Boat [인생은 작은 배] (1994)
Love is the Flower of Life [사랑은 생명의 꽃] (1997)
Patti Kim (1999)
The One & Only (2008)
Friendship [우정] (2009)
Patti Kim Golden Best (2009)

Representative Song:  Love that Left Autumn Behind, from Love that Left Autumn Behind.

가을을 남기고 떠난 사랑
Love that Left Autumn Behind

가을을 남기고 떠난 사랑
Love that left autumn behind
겨울은 아직 멀리 있는데
But the winter is far away yet
사랑 할수록 깊어가는 슬픔의 눈물은
The tears of sorrow that deepens as I love
향기로운 꿈이었나
Were they a fragrant dream
당신의 눈물이 생각날때
When I recall your tears
기억에 남아있는 꿈들이
The dreams remaining in my memory,
눈을 감으면 수많은 별이 되어
When I close my eyes, will turn into countless stars
어두운 밤 하늘에 흘러가리
And flow in the dark night sky


아 그대 곁에 잠들고 싶어라
Oh how I wish to sleep by your side
날개를 접은 철새처럼
Like a migratory bird with folded wings
눈물로 쓰여진 그 편지는
The letter written with tears
눈물로 다시 지우렵니다
I will erase again with tears
내 가슴에 봄은 멀리 있지만
Though to my heart, spring is far away
내 사랑 꽃이 되고 싶어라
How my love wishes to be a flower

아 그대 곁에 잠들고 싶어라
Oh how I wish to sleep by your side
날개를 접은 철새처럼
Like a migratory bird with folded wings
눈물로 쓰여진 그 편지는
The letter written with tears
눈물로 다시 지우렵니다
I will erase again with tears
내 가슴에 봄은 멀리 있지만
Though to my heart, spring is far away
내 사랑 꽃이 되고 싶어라
How my love wishes to be a flower

Translation Note:  The words "migratory bird" loses all poetic meaning in English and turns into a clunker that weighs down the romance of the song.

In 15 Words or Less:  Korea's first pop star.

Maybe she should have been ranked higher because...  Patti Kim debuted in 1958. Just think about how old your parents were in 1958. And she is still going strong to this day as a septuagenarian.

Maybe she should have been ranked lower because...  Did she do a single musically special thing that lived beyond the prime of her career?

Why is this artist special?
For people who like to indulge in imagining a post-apocalyptic world, Korea in the 1950s was a close approximation. Korea began the 20th century as an extremely poor and backward country, followed by 36 years of brutal and exploitative imperial rule. After a short-lived run after the liberation, it would enter into a civil war that was as much a total war as any other war in modern history.

When the Korean looks at Patti Kim's career, a single number arrests his sight and does not let go: 1958. Only five years after the war that leveled everything and killed or wounded around four million people. Four million lives. Can you even imagine that? Just for a frame of reference, right now Japan is (rightly) receiving an outpouring of international support after its horrific earthquake, which had a toll of around 25,000 dead/wounded/missing people. In the wake of an utter, total destruction, how does it make sense to hope?

More pertinently, how does it make sense to hope that one would make a career as a singer? Remember, "pop stars" did not exist in Korea in the 1950s. Heck, "pop culture" did not exist in Korea. There were some popular singers, but their status was roughly equal to clowns at a traveling carnival in modern day America -- entertainers, yes, but not rich and not respected. Few Koreans of the 1940s grew up dreaming to be a star. Most probably did not know what that meant. Which makes Patti Kim's artistic career all the more remarkable.

Born as Kim Hye-Ja, Kim began her career as a singer for the U.S. military stationed in Korea. She took the stage name of "Patti" for Patti Page, one of the hottest names in American pop music scene at the time. In fact, they bear a fleeting resemblance to each other:

(Source) (Source)

Kim continued her career by becoming an exclusive singer for the club at what is now the Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul. Since then, Patti Kim's career was nothing but pioneering and trailblazing. She was the first Korean pop singer to be invited by NHK broadcasting studio of Japan for a concert. She was also the first Korean pop singer to hold a concert at the Carnegie Hall. She appeared on Tonight Show by Johnny Carson. And she continues to chug along, still holding concerts at 72-year-young. Although she did not really break any grounds as a musician -- someone else composed nearly all of her songs -- her stage presence is reported to be legendary.

Given the strength of Korea's pop culture worldwide, it is amazing to think that its roots trace back to a USO show or a dark nightclub of a hotel. But that is so, and Patti Kim was in the middle of it.

Interesting trivia 1:  Patti Kim's song Parting [이별] is rumored to be one of Kim Jong-Il's favorite songs.

Interesting trivia 2:  This turned up in the Korean's research and he couldn't not share.

Look at that scandalous cleavage!! In Korea of 1960s!! (Source)

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Taxonomy of Korean Drinking Places

Dear Korean,

I recently stayed in Seoul for a while and was looking for a place to have some wine. However, my Korean friend told me I should careful about where I step into, because there are many different kinds of 'clubs' - there's the normal dance clubs for young people, and then there's hostess clubs/ host clubs, there are dallan jujeom  for businessmen only, then there's all the "bangs," like noraebang, PC bang, DVD bang. Could you give me a glossary of the different kinds of 'clubs' or 'bars' that's available in Korea, so I don't wander in by mistake? I saw a shop named "Bacchus" and wanted to go in for wine till my friend told me that it was "errm... for guys.... to sleep....."

Wandering Female in Seoul

What better way to come back after two weeks than talking about drinking?! 

Let's get right into it. Koreans drink, and they drink in all kinds of places. Here is a taxonomy of places where you can enjoy adult beverage in Korea. Like every attempt to categorize human society, the categories below are not hard-and-fast but are generalized groups.

Tier 1:  Hangouts with Alcohol

There are places in Korea where one can drink, but alcohol is not the main attraction. For example:

- Restaurants:  Nearly every restaurant in Korea sells alcohol, although one would primarily visit a restaurant to have a meal. The selections are usually soju and beer, and sometimes makgeolli. This is a very broad category that is particularly susceptible to a sliding scale. That is--some restaurants are closer to eating places, while other restaurants are closer to drinking places. Where a restaurant falls on that scale depends largely on the types of food it serves. Seafood restaurants, for example, would fall closer to the "drinking place" end of the scale.

- Convenience Store:  Korea does not have the silly public drunkenness laws that most places in the U.S. has, which means it is possible to drink virtually anywhere in Korea. One of the popular hangouts is the plastic table/bench in front of a convenience store. You simply purchase your choice of alcohol and food from the store, and plop your butt down on them chairs. Most convenience stores, in fact, sell packaged foods that are popular with drinkers.

Just like this.
(source)

Certain parts of Korea (e.g. Jeolla-do, or southwestern Korea) takes this concept to an entirely new level. Not only can one drink in front of storefronts, one can even order relatively high-quality cooked food. 

- Outdoors:  Outdoors? Yes, outdoors. TK means it: you can really drink just about anywhere in Korea. At the beach? Yes. On the river bank? Yes. While hiking on a mountain? Hell yes. In fact, if the weather is warm enough, there will be mobile vendors selling drinks while walking around those places.

- Sports Venues:  Simple enough. Baseball, soccer, bowling, pool--none of these places would be as fun as they are without alcohol.

(More after the jump.)

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

SXSW Interview: Smacksoft

(source)

Smacksoft, led by frontwoman Whang Bo-ryung [황보령] (known in the U.S. market simply as "Bo",) is one of the few rock bands in Korea that are indisputably led by a woman leader. Smacksoft has been critically acclaimed for its colorful music that translates well to audiences of different cultures.

The Korean met Smacksoft at the lobby of their lodging. The interview was conducted in Korean; the translation is the Korean's own.

TK:  Please say hello to everyone.

Hi people, my name is Bo-ryung Whang. I'm the vocal and I play guitar.

Hello, I'm Smacksoft's drummer Seo Jin-sil.

Hello, I'm the bassist Shin Gee-yong.

How are you, I am Rainbow 99, the guitarist.

Hi people, I am Hanul. I play the synthesizer.

TK:  How did Smacksoft start?

Bo:  I have been playing as a solo since 1998. We held an audition for members, and Smacksoft began in 2007.

TK:  How would you describe Smacksoft's music?

Bo:  It's post-punk. It defies categories, mostly based on rock, alternative and electronica.

TK:  This is your first SXSW. How are you enjoying it?

Seo:  This is way too much fun.

Shin:  It's really different from Korea's rock festivals. In Korea, you play before a single, huge crowd. Here, each bar and club has its own, small show. The whole city is involved. I wish Korea would have something like this, too.

Rainbow 99:  It's so much more fun than expected. It's fun to watch the people here too.

TK:  Any artist at SXSW that you want to see in particular?

Bo:  We are a bit too busy to follow a particular band.

Hanul:  The lines are too long for big names anyway. I just want to stroll and watch a lot of different acts.

Bo:  There was one young woman band who does hardcore rock. I wanted to see her.

TK:  Who would you call as your musical influence?

Bo:  J.S. Bach. You know, Johann Sebastian. Velvet Underground. Bauhaus. Red Hot Chili Peppers. The Cure. Simon and Garfunkle, Bob Marley, the Pixies. Suzanne Vega. I like everyone. Sonic Youth.

Seo:  I'm not into Sonic Youth.

Bo:  How about we all go around and talk about the music we like then.

Hanul:  Sigur Ross, My Bloody Valentine. [Bo:  I like them too!]

Rainbow 99:  Brian Inoue. Vision of Disorder. Yo La Tengo.

Shin:  Pink Floyd.  [Rainbow 99:  I hate them. Their earlier stuff was ok though.]

Seo:  I like jazz. Chet Baker, Bill Evans. I like Red Hot Chili Peppers too.

TK:  Would it be faster if you just listed the stuff you don't listen to?

Rainbow 99:  Sure. I'm not into "K-pop."

Hanul:  Music from hot countries, like reggae. I also hate the trot medleys that they sell at highway rest stops in Korea. Regular trot is fine; just that fast medleys.

Bo:  There is some jazz with discordant notes. I can't stand it.

TK:  How do you see Smacksoft's music evolving, going forward?

Bo:  We just want to make good sound. The music equipment has made that so much easier. With computers, it is much easier to add anything we want, and just put on some more acoustic stuff. In our most recent fifth album, we have a lot of rock, electronica and ambient noise. We try not to get tied down to a certain genre.

TK:  How did you feel about your SXSW experience?

Bo:  I love people. I love music. I love Austin and SXSW! It's so wonderful here.

Seo:  It was far beyond expectation. I really want to come back.

Bo:  Maybe we should leave our instruments here.

Shin:  Seeing so many artists was great. It was so much better than seeing just the headliners.

Hanul:  Rock festivals in Korea are too similar to one another. I wish they combined to form just a couple of festivals with more tradition, and have something like this in Korea.

Bo:  It could totally happen around Daehak-ro. We should talk to the mayor.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Ask a Korean! News: Apple v. Samsung

One of the Korean's favorite blogs is Alternative Hypothesis, providing analysis on technology market with respect to Korea and other world leaders. The blog is run by Mr. Kim Sang-Hoon, a reporter covering business for Dong-A Ilbo.

Mr. Kim recently penned an extremely interesting piece comparing Apple and Samsung, as reflected by their newest smartphones. Below is a translation. (Because the Korean is unfamiliar with tech terms, the translation may not match up perfectly.)

Great Product and Great Factory - the Difference Between IPhone 4 and Galaxy S

I just came back last night from Japan. I was there for the Google Conference, but apparently the world is now full of chatter about Apple and Samsung Electronics. Many commentators in the news said that iPhone with strong software augmented the hardware, and Galaxy with strong hardware augmented the software, in the end resembling each other. I don't know about that -- really, what things are similar?

Actually, there is nothing special about iPhone 4's hardware. The A4 Chip, reported to have been improved in quality, was previously used in iPad and fundamentally is a semiconductor using ARM's core. Of course the detailed specifications are very important, but to put it very simply and just looking at the numbers, it is not much different from the 1 GHz chipset used in Snapdragon or Galaxy S by Samsung. Also, the "Retina" Display that caused a stir is no more than an IPS-style LCD with excellent resolution. Although it is much better than any other low-cost LCD, with respect to the ability to display outdoors or the view angles, (roughly speaking,) there is not much difference with HD LCD that goes into phones made by LG Electronics. Personally, I believe that LG Electronics had the ability to order a single-standard component as many as Apple could order, LG would have been the one introducing the Retina Display. (Of course, it is a separate question whether LG has enough marketing acumen to name it "retina.")

At any rate, what is important is not the specs of each and every hardware. What is important is the purpose for which this product is made, and how the new functionalities organically unite with the old functionalities to serve this purpose. Apple is really good at this. To give an example, I personally think iPhone 4's camera -- which was buried by the fanfare over other parts -- is the prime example.

In talking about iPhone 4's camera, Steve Jobs said one should focus on the purpose for which the camera is used instead of engaging in a megapixel race, because a phone camera is fundamentally a tool that one always carries around to record one's surroundings. Therefore, a phone camera ultimately has a smaller image sensor (which acts like the film) and smaller lens. Then naturally, the picture is murky and the quality of the photo taken in a dark place is even worse. Given this characteristic, a phone camera will never be better than a DSLR. Instead, Steve Jobs emphasizes that iPhone 4's camera can be as good as a point-and-shoot camera. IPhone 4's camera takes in relatively more light because the megapixel number of the camera's sensor increased but the size of each sensor speck remained the same. The result is that apicture taken with iPhone 4's 5 megapixel camera is not that far behind in quality compared to a picture taken with a regular compact point-and-shoot digital camera.

As an aside -- for the sake of providing more context -- I really like the camera on iPhone 3GS. Although it is only 3 megapixel, I only use the iPhone camera unless I have to take out the DSLR. I do that because there is hardly any "shutter lag," which is the time it takes to capture an image after the shutter is pressed. With other cell phone cameras, when the shutter is pressed when a child is smiling, the image captured is the child with his face turned away. That's about 0.5 seconds, which is a very long time as semi-serious photographers would know. DSLR takes the picture instantaneously when the shutter is pressed, but it is heavy and a chore to carry around all the time. For a person like me who takes a lot of pictures of children, this is a very considerate function. In contrast, other smartphone makers talk about the megapixel of their cameras but keep mum on shutter lag. Nor does iPhone particularly emphasize it -- you just know when you use it. Then iPhone users, instead of playing number games, create a word-of-mouth ad that says "You just know the difference once you use it." This is because Apple is a company that cares about how we use a machine.

This is how Apple makes a great product. Seeing Facetime after seeing the existing video conference that features low resolution and static-laden audio makes you widen your eyes with wonder. A video conference screen that sends images captured by a HD-capable camcorder is a functionality that redefines video conference. Facetime commercials nicely shows how Apple is accomplishing its mission of making a good product.

Compared to this, Galaxy S is not a great product. Although it receives praises of "best functionalities among all the Android phones thus far," it feels more like a well-rounded thing without a big flaw rather than the best. This is why it is difficult to imagine anyone who would stay up all night to buy Galaxy S, children who jump up and down with joy after receiving Galaxy S, or a friend who is on the verge of tears after receiving a Galaxy S as a gift.

But even the greatest product is meaningless if it is not there by your hands when you want to buy it. Therein lies the greatness of Samsung Electronics. It was reported that Samsung pre-ordered more than a million Galaxy S. Worldwide, 110 communications companies are planning to purchase Galaxy S, and Samsung plans to supply them all at the time they want the phones. In contrast, iPhone 4 will only be available in five countries (including the U.S.) by the end of June, 18 countires by the end of July, and even later for other countries. Until then, people cannot buy an iPhone no matter how much they want one. When the demand outstrips the supply, Samsung can conjure the magic of instantly increasing supply by expanding the production line for Product A into the production line that used to make Product B. Apple cannot do this. Instead, Apple takes reservation on the quantity of its products, gets its product based on that deadline, then increases the supply if the order increases. Although Apple is always late to respond to the market, it covers its weakness by its product's outstanding attractiveness. Apple even goes so far as to use the reactions of the waiting customers in its marketing.

In contrast, if the demand for its products is lukewarm, Samsung Electronics -- which runs its own factories -- simply changes the production line to produce something more popular. On average, Samsung only takes two months to re-educate its workers for the new line. Samsung's employees, who are divided into a number of ranks, always endeavor to become a higher-ranked engineers. Because the working environment is dynamic (in other words, not boring,) there is no employee who kills himself; in fact, the job satisfaction for Samsung's factory workers is on the high side. Furthermore, based on the market's reaction, Samsung adjusts the amount of production within 48 hours. It is not an exaggeration to say that Samsung has the world's quickest reaction time among global corporations. Apple cannot order Foxconn to adjust its production within 48 hours. If Apple did that, it would not be able to have the contract that allows for Apple to put out its products at this price. But Samsung makes a lot of cell phones other than smartphones; because Samsung orders so many parts, it can acquire components at prices as low as Apple's. Samsung also has a production system that is just as efficient as Foxconn. On top of this, Samsung has the advantage of an incredibly fast market-reaction-time that Apple-Foxconn combo would have difficulty achieving. The strength that makes Samsung great is this unique advantage that allows the company to make approximately similar products for cheaper price and put them out in the market when the customers want them. I think the company learned this strategy when it was battling Nokia.

Therefore, my belief is that while Samsung did not build a great product, it built a great factory. Even though it does not make an Anycall phone that drives customers mad with their desire to have, Anycall phones maintained the basic level of quality, were available at appropriate price, and existed at the time and place when the market wanted that product. Instead of trying to be the most innovative company, it seems as if Samsung is trying to be a company that will continue to be in second place even if the first place may change.

위대한 제품과 위대한 공장, 아이폰4와 갤럭시S의 차이점 [Alternative Hypothesis]

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Against Hashtag Warriors

For those of you who were lucky enough to miss the shitstorm in Twitter in the last two days, here is some background:

On Wednesday night, Stephen Colbert was speaking of Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder, who responded to those who criticized the name "Redskins" as a racial slur by founding a non-profit organization called Original Americans Foundation. Then a 2005 episode of the show replayed, in which Colbert, in character as a satirical conservative talk-show blowhard, was "caught" making racist jokes about Asians. After the callback, Colbert, in character, said he would atone for his racism by establishing the "Ching Chong Ding Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever."

The butt of the joke here is very clear: it is Dan Snyder. Snyder thinks founding a non-profit organization would let him continue having a racial slur in his team's name. To mock Snyder, Colbert assumed the same posture as Snyder, only in a more ridiculous way so as to make Snyder's folly more obvious.

After the show, the official Colbert Report Twitter account repeated the joke on a tweet: "I am willing to show #Asian community I care by introducing the Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever." Then came the outrage. Suey Park, who recently rose to prominence due to a series of Twitter hashtag campaigns, most notably #NotYourAsianAmericanSidekick, began yet another hashtag campaign: #CancelColbert.

I believe Ms. Park's efforts are dumb and damaging. Here is why.

*             *             *

Previously in this space, I shared a story of his friend from Louisiana:

"The father of my ex-girlfriend was a rare breed -- a real deal racist. I'm not talking about someone who has a lapse in judgment and says the wrong thing from time to time. He genuinely believed that black people were inferior to white people. But whenever a black person happened to cross him, he would never yell, "you damn n-----!" Instead, he would yell: "You damn Democrat!" That way, nobody would accuse him of being racist."

This anecdote is interesting because it reveals the true nature of racism. Racism does not reside in the words; it resides in the mind that utter the words. Regardless of the precise word uttered--either "n-----" or "Democrat"--the man described in the Korean's friend's story remains just as virulently racist in his heart. Using the word "Democrat" instead of "n-----" does not mitigate the racist man's sincerely held belief that African Americans were inferior to whites. This shows the vacuity of what I call the "magic word racism," which may be defined as an attempt to detect racism by the presence or absence of certain words or phrases. 

If we cannot rely on the presence or absence of words alone, how are we to know what makes something racist? Recall where racism truly lies: it is in the person's mind, her intent. What makes something racist? It is the racist intent that makes something racist. For the man in the story above, the words "n-----" and "Democrat" serve the same function: to express his racist disdain toward African Americans. The precise vehicle by which the man delivered the racist intent does not matter. What matters is the intent delivered in those vehicles.

(More after the jump.)

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

TK's Korea Travel Itinerary

(This is for you, T.)

TK received a request from a friend who is traveling to Korea: where should she go and see?

This is a deceptively tough question. There are already plenty of excellent travel books of Korea out there. (TK's favorites are the two books from Seoul Selection, Seoul and Korea, both by Robert Koehler.) The New York Times--the New York Times!--seemingly runs a feature about traveling Korea every other month, and not just to big cities like Seoul. What could I possibly add to this, at this point?

In the end, what TK settled on is this: if I wrote a short exposition about Korea, what scenery would serve as the key illustration to highlight the points that I was making? What could one see to understand where Korea was, what it went through, and what it is now?

On this basis, a lot of the famous tourist attractions would be missing--partly because I felt that there are other places that tell the same story, partly because I do not know enough about a certain locale. The biggest omission perhaps is Busan, one of the most significant places in Korea that somehow is a big black hole of knowledge for me. Also, this itinerary includes Jeju simply because my friend asked me to include it. The whole thing is set for 10-11 days, but you will see that it involves fairly rigorous traveling. If you want to slot in a few "break" days in the middle, it could stretch into 14-15 days.

Long story short: this is just one guy's suggestion. Not the "best of"s, not the "must-see"s, just the places I would take you if we were friends. If that sounds good, off we go.

PART I.  SEOUL

Seoul metro area is home for nearly half of the population of the entire South Korea--the fifth most populous metro area in the world. It has centuries of history, and far too much to see. By my standard, seeing the city in a meaningful way would take around seven to ten days. But we will try to do the best parts in three days.

To do this itinerary, it is best to stay in the north of the river. Look on Google Maps to see if the hotel you are thinking of is near the palaces and a subway stop. If you like traditional Korean houses, Bukchon area has many guesthouses run out of traditional homes.

Day 1

Gyeongbokgung Palace [경복궁] , Samcheong-dong [삼청동] and Insa-dong [인사동]:  Walking tour of the Joseon Dynasty, phasing into early 20th century.

Start your day from:  Gyeongbokgung [경복궁] Station at Line 3 (Orange) or Gwanghwamun [광화문] Station from Line 5 (Purple)

Visit Gyeongbokgung Palace, the grandest of the Joseon Dynasty palace. So grand, in fact, that the re-construction of the palace in the late 19th century contributed to the fall of the dynasty. Built in 1395, the palace burned down in 1592 during the Japanese invasion (i.e. the Imjin War) and was reconstructed in 1865, in the twilight of the Joseon Dynasty (which ceased to exist in 1910.) This should take at least several hours. Tip: in this area, there are little stores that rent traditional dresses (hanbok 한복) that you may wear to stroll the palace grounds, to really get into the mood.

Advantage of hanbok rentals: the pictures are awesome.
(source)

Leave the palace and walk east along Sajik-ro, and turn north (left) onto Samcheong-ro, which puts you on the eastern edge of the palace. Turn right on Bukchon 5-ro, pass the Jeongdok city library on the right, until you hit Bukchon-ro. Turn left--you are now in Bukchon [북촌] / Samcheong-dong [삼청동] area, the Seoul neighborhood with the most well-preserved traditional houses (hanok [한옥]). Because of its proximity to royal palaces, Bukchon was the place where the noblemen lived, and the houses there reflect the history. Today, it is a hip neighborhood with many adorable cafes and restaurants nestled into the traditional houses. Pick a place for lunch here.

Walk south from Bukchon, tracing back toward the palace. Insadong-gil would appear on the left; turn left. Insa-dong [인사동] is where you can get your fix for all the little traditional trinkets--and unlike most other tourist traps in Korea, these trinkets are in good taste. Tong-In [통인], a renowned antique store at 30-1 Insadong-gil, is particularly worth visiting even if your wallet cannot handle their exorbitant price for some of their genuine articles.

Insa-dong is also a home for many tea houses and traditional restaurants. For the highest quality of makkeolli [막걸리, rice beer], visit Nuruknamu [누룩나무], 13 Insadong 16-gil.

(More after the jump.)

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Looking for Someone?

Dear Korean,

How do I go about finding someone in Korea? I only have a name, and what he used to be back in the 1980's. Any help would be much appreciated.

F.V.

This is a very frequent question for which the Korean has no good answer. Just think about the absurdity of the question -- how can F.V. seriously expect to find someone with just a name, from the 1980s? It is not as if the Korean knows everyone in Korea across all time and space. Yet this type of questions continue to come in.

The Korean suspects that part of the reason why this question is so frequent is because people often do not realize is just how populous Korea is. Korea is a country with 50 million people. It has more people than Spain, Argentina, Poland or Canada, just to give a few examples. Finding one person among the 50 million will not be easy.

Short of hiring a private detective in Korea, there is no "good" -- as in, high-percentage -- way to find someone in Korea. If one is willing to try even a very low percentage shot, the best option for someone living outside of Korea is, in fact, Facebook, as approximately 8 million Koreans are on Facebook now. But it would be wise not to get your hopes up.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

The Korean on NPR, and "East Sea/Sea of Japan"

The Korean appeared on NPR's Kojo Nnamdi show to discuss the pending bill on Sea of Japan/East Sea for Virginia's textbooks. You can listen to the show here. (Click "Listen" on the top left.)

A note on the Sea of Japan/East Sea issue: personally, I am agnostic about this issue. At the end of the day, I don't think it matters all that much no matter what the outcome. If we are dealing with issues of Japan's colonialism, I think the effort would be better served focusing on the issue of Comfort Women, as those women represent the most direct victims of Japanese imperialism who is being denied justice. In fact, when it comes to addressing the dark legacy of Japan's colonialism, there are several more issues that I would devote my energy before I get to the Sea of Japan/East Sea issue.

But then again, people have different priorities than the Korean's. And that's fine, as long as those priorities are within reasonable boundaries. And there should be no question that the attempt to list both "Sea of Japan" and "East Sea" is a reasonable effort to address the stain of Japan's imperialism. As I said in the broadcast, it is an American tradition for immigrant communities to express their views on world history, and ensure their children and other children who study with them are introduced to such perspectives. This is such a natural desire that even the representative of the Japanese Embassy tripped up and said he would prefer his children to learn about all sides of the issue, even as he was claiming that there was only one correct name for the sea.

Indeed, the makeup of the show's guests was telling. "Korean side" had a local small businessman and a blogger; "Japanese side" had the embassy representative. If you ever thought Koreans were the ones who were too sensitive to the historical issues, think again.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

50 Most Influential K-Pop Artists: 40. Lee Seung-Cheol

[Read more reviews from the Korean from the Library Mixer. To join, click here.]

[Series Index]

40. Lee Seung-Cheol (also spelled Lee Seung-Chul) [이승철]

Years of Activity: 1986-present

Discography:

As vocal of the band Born Again [부활]
Rock Will Never Die - Born Again vol. 1 [Rock Will Never Die - 부활 vol. 1] (1986)
Remember (1987)
Bird, Wall [새, 벽] (2002)

Solo albums
Lee Seung-Cheol Part 1 [이승철 Part 1] (1988)
Lee Seung-Cheol Part 2 [이승철 Part 2] (1989)
Lee Seung-Cheol 2 [이승철 2] (1990)
Wandering [방황] (1991)
Secret of Color (1994)
The Bridge of Sonic Heaven (1996)
Deep Blue (1998)
Confession (2001)
The Livelong Day (2004)
Reflection of Sound (2006)
Secret of Color 2 (2007)
Mutopia (2009)

Special albums
The Moon is the Dream that the Sun Dreams Original Soundtrack [달은 해가 꾸는 꿈 OST] (1992)
Cheongyeon Original Soundtrack [청연 OST] (2005)

Live albums
Live (1989)
91 Irony Live (1992)
95 Secret Live (1995)
Born Again/Lee Seung-Cheol Joint Concert Live [부활/이승철 Joint Concert Live] (1995)
97 Heaven Live Hall in Se-Jong (1997)
Serious Live 93 (1999)
1999 & Live Best (1999)
20th Anniversary Live in 2005 (2005)
Live Best (2005)
He's Coming: Live Album (2008)

Compilation albums
Born Again Best [부활 Best] (1989)
The Best of Born Again (1989)
Hit Bank (1990)
Best of Best (1997)
Forever Love (2003)
20th Anniversary: A Walk to Remember (2005)
The Best Great Hits (2006)
Lee Seung-Cheol Best (2007)
Sound of Double (2007)
No. 1 (2008)
Golden Ballad + Special Live Best (2010)

Representative Song:  Rain and the Story of You [비와 당신의 이야기] from Rock Will Never Die (1986), performed live in 2002.

비와 당신의 이야기

Rain and the Story of You

아이가 눈이오길 바라듯이

Like a child wants it to snow

비는 너를 그리워하네

Rain longs for you

비의 낭만보다는 비의 따스함보다

More than the rain's romance, more than the rain's warmth

그날의 애절한 너를 잊지못함이기에

For I cannot forget the sorrowful you of that day

당신은 나를 기억해야하네

You must remember me

항상 나를 슬프게 했지

You always made me sad

나의 사랑스럽던 너의 눈가에 비들은

With rain in the edge of your lovely eyes

그날의 애절한 너를

The sorrowful you of that day

차마 볼수 없었던 거야

I could not bear to look

[Refrain]

무척이나 울었네

I cried so much

비에 비 맞으며

Getting rained over rain

눈에 비 맞으며

Getting rained over my eyes

빗속의 너를 희미하게 그리며

Lightly tracing you in the rain

우리의 마지막 말을

Our last words

너의 마지막 말을

Your last words

기억하네

I remember

사랑해 사랑해 사랑해

I love you, I love you, I love you

Translation Note:  Simple song, but in a very difficult grammatical form to translate without sounding awkward. Suggestions are welcome.

In 15 Words or Less:  Personified history of K-pop, "the Emperor of Live Stages"

Maybe he should have been ranked higher because...  Longevity is easy to underestimate.

Maybe he should have been ranked lower because...  What, precisely, was his influence? Is there any one thing that he did that particularly stands out?

Why is this artist important?
It is a tricky endeavor to gauge the Lee Seung-Cheol's influence, mostly because he managed to survive for so long in the K-pop scene. The number of albums that Lee made, and the number of hit songs in them, are simply staggering. In fact, Lee might be the only artist in K-pop history who had a number one hit song in three different decades, from 1980s to 2000s. He managed to consistently stay in Korean people's public consciousness throughout his 25 years of career -- for better or for worse. On the other hand, there is no single event or characteristic that succinctly defines Lee. In this case, one can do no better than simply narrate Lee's career, and appreciate its many turns and deviations.

Lee Seung-Cheol made his debut as the vocal for the band Born Again in 1986, the heyday of Korean rock. (Despite the name, Born Again was/is not a Christian band. The "Christian rock" genre is unknown in Korea, although there are many Christians in Korea.) It was a different world back then, as rockers were the greatest stars in K-pop. The screaming fangirls did not chase studio-produced corporate groups, but real musicians who took their music seriously. Musicians were appreciated for their musical skills, not for their looks or the dances choreographed by puppeteers. The top billing of television shows were reserved for rock groups, who did nothing but play music and sing; none of the inane talk shows that fill up Korea's entertaining programming on TV existed back then.

In the field filled with loud noises and screeching voice a la KISS, Born Again distinguished itself with romantic tunes and Lee Seung-Cheol's sensitive voice. On the strength of Lee, Born Again also attracted no only the too-serious rock fans, but the screaming fangirls of the day. Through its second album, Born Again was not only the most popular rock band of the last 1980s, but the most popular musicians in Korea, period.

Lee branched out his solo career, in which he took more of a "pretty boy with good lyrics" tactic. This was again massively successful. There were whispers that he would be the heir to the throne held by a Cho Yong-Pil, a legendary K-pop artist who was slowing down his career. (It should be a surprise to no one that Cho will be ranked very high on this list.)

All of this would meet an abrupt end. In 1990, Lee was convicted of smoking marijuana, and his long road of trials and tribulations began. He was banned from all television appearances for five years. He would marry in 1995 to a high-flying actress Gang Moon-Yeong, but would divorce in two years. Through these disastrous PR events, Lee was utterly banished -- Lee recalls that even a gig singing at a club was difficult to come by.

This was the period in which Lee grabbed his lemons and made delicious lemonade. Because he could not show up on television, he focused his entire energy on live concerts and albums. His natural talent would shine through even without television -- in fact, Lee's presence as the "Emperor of Live Stage" would stand as a welcome contrast to the lip-synching corporate bands that came to dominate the scenes starting mid-1990s. Finally in 2002, Lee reunited with Born Again to sing Never Ending Story, probably the first number one song not sung by a corporate band in around five years.

Lee Seung-Cheol then made a surprisingly smooth transition into the celebrity world of today -- in which artists are not merely judged for their music, but their ability to give an entertaining talk in silly talk shows. He would continue to survive and thrive, while continuing to make music and release albums.

From afar, Lee Seung-Cheol's career might be another colorless and forgettable one, punctuated with some hit songs that were not exactly groundbreaking. But up close, Lee Seung-Cheol serves as a valuable mirror to the history of K-pop in all of its changing iterations. At the end of the day, that he managed to keep his head over the water while others have been swept away might be quite enough to claim a spot here.

Interesting Trivia:  While being banned from television, Lee Seung-Chul flirted with acting. His feature film debut was The Moon is the Dream that the Sun Dreams [달은 해가 꾸는 꿈] for which Lee also composed the soundtrack. The film was also the debut feature for a fresh-faced director named Park Chan-Wook -- who is now better known for Oldboy and the Revenge Trilogy. The film, while attracting a small number of enthusiastic fans, was a commercial flop.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Ask a Korean! News: Internet and Korean Entertainment

Here is an interesting article that nicely describes the interplay between Korea's Internet and its entertainment programs. Original here.

Portal-Friendly Talk Show or Chumming Heaven?

[TK Note: "Portal" is the word Koreans use to describe sites like Naver or Daum, which is similar to the structure of Yahoo! or MSN with a lot of content in the front page along with a search engine.]

The media scholars of the future may record July 2004 as a significant moment, because it is the date when Paran.com, Internet portal operated by Korea Telecom, officially launched. Why must we remember the launch of Paran, which no longer has much presence at this point?

At the time, paran.com focused on the Korean Internet users' high interest in contents regarding sports and entertainment. So it secretly entered into an exclusive deal with the five largest sports newspapers in Korea for a groundbreaking sum of $100,000 per month for a year. [TK Note: "sports newspapers" are Korea's tabloids, focusing on sports, celebrity gossip, lots of pictures and cartoons. All dollar figures assume $1 = KRW 1,000.]

Behind the so-called "Paran incident", there exists the portal market that was on a meteoric rise.

Gangshimjang, a mass-guest talk show, is the top rated show on Tuesday

At the time, the portal companies were engaged in a heated competition to attract visitors by cramming articles about sports and entertainment, preferred by young Internet users. Paran, which was late in joining this competition, reacted by hoarding the sports and entertainment content from the sports newspapers for $6 million for a year (five companies for $1.2 million each.) This was based on the erroneous judgment that monopolizing the killer contents would lead to the domination the portal market.

The result is as we know now. The competitors -- Naver, Daum and Yahoo Korea -- began to focus on supporting Internet news media that created similar contents. Within a year, the sports newspaper suffered a precipitous drop in circulation as well as in the public opinion-forming power that they previously had. Although this example is limited to entertainment content, the Paran incident went down in history that symbolizes the changed media environment.

Gangshimjang, an Epitome of a Portal-Friendly Broadcasting

The recent trend is that a portal site's main screen and real time search term rankings each morning are filled with gossips about celebrities who appeared on a talk show the night before. For a show to make a hit, it has to be "portal-friendly" -- because now there exists a virtuous cycle of voluminous and strong gossips feeding into higher ratings.

Of course, in any country's television, the night time is filled with talk shows featuring superstars. The the defining characteristic of "orthodox" talk shows, such as Jay Leno's "Tonight Show" or David Letterman's show, is a 1-on-1 conversation between the host and the guest. The conversation may be shortened through editing, but it does not veer from the basic framework of "person-to-person" conversation. Korea's best talk show, Gang Ho-Dong's Mureupak Dosa, follows the same format. There is no other show that is more populist, nor is there any other show that better showcase of the character of the guest. But it does have a weakness -- because there is only one guest, there is a large variance in its power to create issues.

At the point opposite of Mureupak Dosa is Gangshimjang, the ambitious new project by SBS. [TK Note: name of a TV station.] Gangshimjang focuses on how it could produce the greatest quantity of gossip materials in the shortest amount of time. Airing its seventh episode on December 1, this program is the culmination of the talk show format that reflects the very Korean, portal-led media structure.

"Quantity" and "Speed" - the Strength of Talk Shows Today

First, one must take note of the overwhelming number of guests. The number of guests for talk shows, including Yashim-manman (the previous edition of Gangshimjang) and KBS's competitor program Imagination Plus, has not exceeded 4 to 6 so far -- because even as a "mass talk show," that number was about the upper limit of a conversation considering the number of hosts (usually two to four.) In fact, the number of people before the camera on most domestic talk shows, including the hosts, are around ten.

But Gangshimjang came out with a groundbreaking format of two hosts and over 20 guests.

Gangshimjang's two hosts, Gang Ho-Dong and Lee Seung-Ki.
But their roles in fact are very limited.

Of course, not all 20 guests can be the main focus of a conversation. So the show boldly discards the conversation format; instead the guests toss to the viewers the pre-packaged "strong issue-creator" (or "chum", according to the Internet vernacular.) Seen positively, the show is an evolution toward a conversation with the viewers; seen negatively, it is an degeneration toward yellow journalism.

Of course, reaction from the Internet users alone is not enough. What really makes a TV talk show shine is the Internet-based entertainment-focused media companies. For these Internet-based, breaking news-focused media that strives for low cost and high volume, relaying the contents of a TV talk show plays to their strength. They are also welcome allies to television, since they provide a near-watching experience that does not require actually watching TV, and also some "official" authority even to simple gossip-like remark. In the end, the entertainment news on portal sites on Wednesday morning is filled with gossips provided by Gangshimjang and its competitor, Imagination Plus.

The limit of a traditional talk show is that there are only two or three topics to focus in one hour. But Gangshimjang brims with more than ten well-summarized and interesting stories. Thus, there is no overlapping news among different media, and generally more articles can be written.

Gangshimjang was initially considered a "survival talk show," emulating its predecessor Seo Sewon Talk Show. But now, it appears that it is an evolved form of talk show, aggressively accepting the portal environment. Leeteuk of Super Junior would reveal a fictitious "Realtime Search Term Ranking" in the middle of the show, and a portal company's search window naturally appears at the bottom of the screen as advertisement.

Because of Gangshimjang's rise, KBS's Imagination Plus (which had loudly proclaimed public interest) also began to invite multiple celebrities, quickly churning out "stimulating topics" without dragging on. We have now arrived at an age when the quantity and speed of a talk show "chum" determine ratings.

A Critical Moment

Singer Hwang Hye-Yeong on Gangshimjang.

On its December 1 episode, a 90s favorite Hwang Hye-Yeong (36 years old) appeared on the show after a long hiatus. She began on the topic of "Dating in my 20s":

"The biggest pop star at the time asked me out. I liked him too, so we began dating. We were on a secret date in a car, but we got into a fender bender on a snow road. Both of our production companies found out about us, took away our pagers and began a 24-hour watch. So we broke up against our will ..."

Immediately, the hosts asked who the man was. The secret of high ratings is not giving the answer right away. Hwang mumbled, "A member of the most popular group in 1994, who is still single." To this, Gang Ho-Dong concludes: "Don't worry. We have the Internet search party."

As Gang predicted, on the morning of December 2, the leading portal search term was: "Hwang Hye-yeong". The leading candidates for the mystery date, "Seo Taiji and Boys" and "R.E.F.", were also near the top. And the numerous entertainment news articles about this "scandal"! Everything worked out as planned.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@hotmail.com.

Korea's Presidential Election - Part III: Ahn Cheol-soo

Part III of this series will discuss Ahn Cheol-soo, an independent candidate.

Ahn Cheol-soo (Independent)

Ahn Cheol-soo [안철수]
(source)

Ahn Cheol-soo was born in 1962, which makes him around ten years younger than both Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in. That fact, coupled with Ahn's biography, puts Ahn in a fundamentally different position from both Park and Moon. Unlike Park and Moon, Ahn is not tethered to Korea's tortured past of the 1970s -- which is one of the reasons why he has enjoyed such massive popularity as an independent.

Ahn was born in Busan. Ahn's childhood was unremarkable, which is actually remarkable for a middle-aged Korean. In the tumultuous times of Korea in the 1960s and 70s, few in Korea had a normal childhood. Recall that Park Geun-hye lost both her parents to political assassination, or that Moon Jae-in grew up in dire poverty in a Korean War refugee camp. In contrast, Ahn's youth had no drama. Ahn's father was a doctor who had (and still has) a small medical office in Busan. Ahn grew up living a comfortable but not lavish life, as a bookish student.

Ahn began his career as a research doctor after having graduated from Seoul National University school of medicine in 1986. Only four years later, he would serve as a dean of Danguk University school of medicine at age 27, the youngest dean in Korean higher education history. Ahn's research focus was in irregular heartbeat.

(More after the jump)

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Why You Should Never Listen to Asian American "Writers" of Angst

[Note: This post is a reaction to Wesley Yang's article on New York Magazine, titled "Paper Tigers".]

First, I have to clarify and apologize for my use of the term "Writer" in this post. I myself am a writer of sorts. Obviously, I like writing. I would not have spent years writing a blog for a hobby otherwise. I also admire other good writers. I voraciously consume their works and attempt to improve my own writing by emulating them.

But, in my mind, there are writers, and there are "Writers" -- and I hope that the capitalization in the term "Writers" makes clear that the term, as I define it, does not refer to people who write for living or people who enjoy writing. My definition of Writers points to a peculiar breed of writers, frequently encountered in places like New York. The defining characteristic of Writers is their undeserved sense of self-importance. "Writers," for one reason or another, have achieved little or nothing in their lives. But that does not stop them from assuming their air of smug arrogance. In fact, in their little universe, the nothingness of their being is a perverted evidence of their genius, so far ahead of their time that the lowly world does not understand. So they often hate the world, and hate their parents who set the world order. They hack away toward building a masterpiece that, in their minds, even the stupidest of the people with whom they are forced to share the oxygen will not be able to deny. A handful of them do succeed, but most fail. Even those who succeed often leave a trail of misery for themselves and their family and friends in the wake.

I know Writers well because I have a lot of Writer within myself. I read a ton of books as a child, and I have always written well. I received a lot of praise and compliments from my teachers and parents of my friends for my reading and writing habit. As an elementary and middle school student, I was one of those insufferable 12 year olds who thought he got everything in life figured out because the grownups could not answer his clever little questions. Left unchecked, I would have been a Writer too -- the kind that bloviates on the unfair world that fails to recognize my genius, the kind that wonders why the stream of praises and compliments stopped coming just because I am no longer a 12-year-old smart aleck but a 30-year-old college graduate without a job.

Instead, I received enough good education from my parents and my schools to know that the world is full of people who are smarter than I -- and they spend less time bragging about it. I learned that B-students routinely beat the snot out of A-students in life with unrelenting diligence and effort, that nothing in life will be handed to me just because I can put together a set of some pretty sentences. I might yet change my job and make my living by writing things, but I will never become a Writer. In fact, my pen name for this blog -- The Korean -- is a self-mockery of my Writerly tendency that still rears its head from time to time. On this blog, I constantly engage in a third-person speak to remind myself how ridiculous I sound if I started taking myself too seriously.

(More after the jump)

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

50 Most Influential K-Pop Artists: 49. Clazziquai Project

[Series Index]

Two in a row? Why not? The Korean is on a roll, and good music makes him happy.

49. Clazziquai Project [클래지콰이 프로젝트]

Years of Activity:  2004-present

Members:
DJ Clazzi (Kim Seong-Hoon [김성훈]) - Mixing, producing
Alex (Alexander Hyeon-Gon Chu [추현곤]) - Vocal
Horan (Choi Su-Jin [최수진]) - Vocal
Christina (Christina Yeong-Ju Chu [추영주]) - Vocal (regularly featuring guest)

Discography:

Regular Albums

Instant Pig (2004)
Color Your Soul (2005)
Love Child of the Century (2007)
Mucho Punk (2009)

Special Albums

Remix - Pinch Your Soul (2006)
Robotica (2007)
Metrotronics Original Soundtrack (2008)
Remix - Mucho Beat (2009)

In 15 Words or Less:  World-Class electronica band who made the genre mainstream.

Representative Song:  Futuristic, from Instant Pig (No translation necessary!)

Futuristic

We are in virtual loving time

And I am thinking what a mess

All I want from you baby is just a little dance

I know the world we're living in

All these things we do

You want me I want you 

You hold me you love me

Now now let me out 

I want to take you in my arms I want to feel

Now you dance with me 

Come to meet my arms

Now I set you free 

I want to look in to your eyes to see the magic

Now now come on out 

Futuristic dance yeah

We are in virtual loving time 

We are moving and moving and moving

And the future will make me into a fusion girl

I know the world we are living in

All these things we do

You want me I want you 

You hold me you love me

Now now let me out 

I want to take you in my arms I want to feel

Now you dance with me 

Come to meet my arms

Now I set you free 

I want to look in to your eyes to see the magic

Now now come on out 

Futuristic dance yeah

All this time our love is 

Making you and I

Your kiss and your breath 

Turn me on turn me on... now

Now now let me out 

I want to take you in my arms I want to feel

Now you dance with me 

Come to meet my arms

Now I set you free 

I want to look in to your eyes to see the magic

Now now come on out 

Futuristic dance yea

(Dancing for your love)

Maybe they should have been ranked higher because...  Out of the 50 who are ranked in this list, few can be legitimately considered "world class".

Maybe they should have been ranked lower because...  It is too soon to tell what their imprint will be.

Why is this band important?

Even without regard to its music, the manner in which Clazziquai elevated to its current fame is significant in and of itself. In 2000 when illegal download of mp3 (a new technology at the time) was decimating the music market, DJ Clazzi opened a simple website that did not have much other than his music, which could be freely shared. Of course, DJ Clazzi was not the first to set up such a website -- but he likely is the first K-pop artist who actually became successful that way. The sophistication that he had shown on the free samples on his website was quite enough to lure several big label executives of Korea to make a trip out to Canada. (Kim Seong-Hoon, a.k.a. DJ Clazzi, is a Korean-Canadian who immigrated during his high school years.) By the time the band's first album was released in 2004, the grassroots support for the band was strong enough to overcome the general depression in the music recordings market. In short, Clazziquai embodies the new model of artistic success in the Internet era, in which talent simply wins out in the democratized field.

And what talent that was. Techno/electronica in Korea may as well be divided into two eras -- pre-Clazziquai, and post-Clazziquai. Electronica made occasional appearance in K-pop previous to Clazziquai, but it was never pursued for the sake of itself. Instead, it was essentially a ploy for a singer to bring something different simply for the sake of bringing something different. K-pop "musicians" cheaply purchased electronica to spice up their tired repertoire, and threw it away just as cheaply. Clazziquai is the first band that seriously pursued techno/electronica as an objective rather than using it as a tool. It is regrettable that K-pop had to wait until 2004 to have a band like Clazziquai, but the quality of Clazziquai's music was worth the wait. Clazziquai -- like Jamiroquai to which its name pays homage -- has always pursued music that was relaxed yet groovy. Its music is calm but complex. It is danceable without being intrusive. It can be legitimately considered a world-class band.

But for the purpose of this list, Clazziquai's crowning achievement is not simply that they made high-quality music, but that they made high-quality music accessible, and even popular, among regular Koreans. For all of its artistic merits, Clazziquai never developed the haughty (and ultimately toxic) attitude that their music was too good for the masses, like the way certain other talented members of K-pop pantheon did. While never sacrificing quality, Clazziquai nonetheless made their music (and themselves) easily accessible to Korean public. Making an average Korean music fan to have better appreciation for newer and more sophisticated music might be the greatest legacy that Clazziquai will leave behind, even after their already-promising career comes to a grand conclusion.

Interesting Trivia:
- DJ Clazzi's music education served as an excellent foundation for his later career as a fusion musician. As a child, he learned classical music from his mother. Once immigrated to Canada, he played piano in the school jazz band, and majored in jazz and music technology in his college years.
- Alex and Christina are siblings.
- Metrotronics was a soundtrack made specifically for a DJ Max Portable 2, a music game for PSP.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.