Stuart A. Kallen Featuring quirky horse-riding dance moves and an infectious electronic beat, an unlikely music video and its leading man made history in 2012. In December of that year, “Gangnam Style” reached one billion hits on YouTube—the most views ever. Seemingly overnight, the South Korean pop star behind the hit—Psy (Park Jae-sang)—became a household name. But Psy is just part of the story. Other South Korean pop sensations such as Girls’ Generation, 2NE1, and BigBang are part of a global sensation called Hallyu, or the Korean Wave. South Korean bands are performing to sold out arenas all over the world, and fans can’t get enough of South Korean music, films, television, food, and manhwa (cartoons). K-Pop: Korea’s Musical Explosion traces the journey of South Korean pop music, from the early influences of American rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s to the success of a tiger-eyed sensation called Rain, who wowed American audiences in the early 2000s. Discover how this Korean Justin Timberlake, and those who came after him, rose through South Korea’s star-making system through grueling hard work to seduce international audiences with their tight choreographies, irresistible beats, outrageous outfits, and exciting stage shows. You’ll become part of the K-Pop fandom world too! REINFORCED BINDING Stuart A. Kallen TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY BOOKS / MINNEAPOLIS To all those fans of K-Pop and Hallyu all over the world. Keep on poppin’! —S.K. Copyright © 2014 by Stuart A. Kallen All rights reserved. International copyright secured. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means— electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review. Twenty-First Century Books A division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc. 241 First Avenue North Minneapolis, MN 55401 U.S.A. For reading levels and more information, look up this title at www.lernerbooks.com. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kallen, Stuart A., 1955– K-pop : Korea’s musical explosion / by Stuart A. Kallen. p. cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–1–4677–2042–7 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper) ISBN 978–1–4677–2549–1 (eBook) 1. Popular music—Korea (South)—History and criticism—Juvenile literature. I. Title. ML3928.K35K66 2014 781.63095195—dc23 2013009293 Manufactured in the United States of America 1 – PC – 12/31/13 Table of Contents Chapter 1: The Emergence of K-Pop 4 Chapter 2: The Star Factory 16 Chapter 3: The Korean Wave 30 Chapter 4: K-Pop Style 43 Glossary 56 Must-Have Album Playlist 57 Source Notes 58 Selected Bibliography 59 Further Information 60 Index 62 Chapter 1: The Emergence of K-POP South Korean pop exploded onto the world stage in the summer of 2012. That year the “Gangnam Style” video by the South Korean singer, rapper, and dancer known as Psy went through the roof on YouTube. Psy—whose real name is was little known outside his native land. However,Park his Jae-sang— “Gangnam Style” video, with its catchy electronic beats and amusing horse-riding dance moves, struck a universal chord. Within weeks of its July release, Psy’s video became a worldwide sensation. Psy shows off his horse-riding dance moves during a performance of “Gangnam style” on The Today Show in September 2012. 4 By the end of 2012, “Gangnam Style” had become the most popular online video in history, with one billion hits on YouTube. Psy was invited to perform his song and dance on several American television shows, including The Today Show , Saturday Night Live , The Ellen DeGeneres Show , and Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve 2013 . Psy’s synthesizer-heavy, hip-hop music is part of the Korean pop, or K-Pop, genre. While many Americans and Europeans discovered the music in 2012, K-Pop artists have been performing and recording throughout the world since the 1990s. South Korean rock innovators laid the foundations for the style in the 1950s. Without these pioneers, K-Pop might not have become an international craze in 2012. Korea’s Godfather of Rock South Korea’s musical traditions date back centuries, but the first pop music was brought to the country by US soldiers fighting the Korean War during the early 1950s. After the war ended in 1953, the Americans remained, stationed in more than two dozen military bases around the country. By the mid-1950s, American GIs were introducing Koreans in the nation’s capital of Seoul to the rock-and-roll sounds of Bill Haley & His Comets, Elvis Presley, The rock-and-roll music of American(above) and Chuck Berry. South Korea’s singers such as Elvis Presley influenced musicians in South Korea during the 1950s and the 1960s. THE EMERGENCE OF K-POP 5 military government considered rock music immoral and banned it. But according to the music historian known as Egon: “The American records . made their way to the progressive populace via sessions at [South Korea’s] teahouses, whose owners smuggled the records into their collections.” Shin Joong-hyun was among the teenagers who heard Elvis and other rockers in Seoul teahouses. He learned to play guitar and decided to become a rock star. In 1957 he changed his name to Jackie Shin and started playing music at clubs South Korean guitarist Jackie Shin, shown here in 2011, wrote songs and and social gatherings on US performed during the experimental Army bases in South Korea. pop music era of the 1960s. During the 1960s, Shin became Korea’s biggest rock star. He played songs he wrote, and he also composed hit songs for other Korean pop acts. Those performing Shin’s songs included the singing duo the Pearl Sisters and the female folksinger Kim Jung-mi. During this era, Shin was inspired by Western artists including the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, and the Jefferson Airplane. By the late 1960s, Shin had become an accomplished guitarist. Like many players, he imitated the Jimi Hendrix sound. This included distorting and bending the tones of his electric guitar, using sound effects such as the fuzz tone and wah-wah pedal. 6 K-POP: KOREA’s Musical exPlOsiOn THE PEARL SISTERS In the late 1960s, the Pearl Sisters were among the top recording acts in South Korea. However, the group’s success was an accident. In 1967 group founder Bae In-soon decided, on a whim, to enter a singing competition hosted by the US Army. She mesmerized the soldiers in the audience and won the contest. That night, she persuaded her sister, Bae In-sook, to form a duet. They named their group the Pearl Sisters. The Pearl Sisters had singing talent, but they did not have original songs. They auditioned for Jackie Shin, who was already producing The Pearl Sisters found some of South Korea’s top musical success with their first My Dear, in 1968. artists. Shin liked what he heard album, and began writing and producing songs for the sisters. The duo’s first album, My Dear (1968), was an instant success. The record featured songs written by Shin, such as the hit “A Cup of Coffee.” The album also featured American tunes such as Jefferson Airplane’s “Somebody to Love” but was sung in Korean. My Dear sold more than one million copies, and the Pearl Sisters remained extremely popular until they broke up in the mid-1970s. During this time, South Korea was run by a military regime headed by Park Chung-hee. Park helped transform South Korea from one of the poorest nations in the world to an economic powerhouse by developing a manufacturing and electronics industrial base. But Park believed rock and roll—especially Shin’s music—was subversive. Park barred Shin from performing and banned his music from the radio. After Park died in 1979, the THE EMERGENCE OF K-POP 7 government lifted the ban on Shin’s music. But by this time, music tastes in South Korea had changed, favoring syrupy love ballads and bubblegum music. These upbeat sounds with innocent lyrics were written for mainstream tastes. Few Koreans were interested in hearing Shin’s experimental rock. Looking back in 2008, Shin explained, “It was all . ‘Let’s be happy’ kind of stuff. It was completely physical, with no spirit, no mentality, no humanity. That trend has carried over all the way to today.” Singing and Dancing Because of changing tastes, Shin’s rock career was over by 1980. He opened a bar called Woodstock in Seoul. It became a popular music venue. Although Shin stopped recording, his music proved to have a lasting influence on Korean pop, and he became known as South Korea’s Godfather of Rock. One of Shin’s fans, Lee Soo-man, went on to become the prime promoter of K-Pop in the 1990s. Born in 1952, Lee was awakened to the sounds of South Korean rock in the 1960s. As he later recalled, “When I saw the Pearl Sisters, with their singing and dancing, I thought that was the style for me.” Lee began his career in the entertainment business in 1971, playing guitar and singing folk songs. In the following years, he also worked as a DJ for the hit radio show Viva Pops and as a talk show host on South Korean TV. Lee formed the heavy metal band Lee Soo Man and 365 Days in 1980. The heavy metal sound—which features loud, distorted guitars, extended bass and drum solos, and screaming vocals—was new to South Korea.