2011년 3월 27일 일요일

Pipi Band / Cultural Revolution (1995)

Pipi Band 삐삐밴드
Cultural Revolution 문화혁명
1995. 08. 01


1. 안녕하세요 / Hello
2. 수퍼마켓 / Supermarket
3. 딸기 / Strawberry
4. 요즘애들십계명 / The Decalogue of Kids These Days
5. 빠삐용 / Papillon
6. 낮잠 / Nap
7. star / star
8. 도레미파솔라시도 / Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do
9. 때로는 그대가 / Sometimes You Were
10. 어울리기 / Matching
11. 사랑 / Love
12. 1995년 7월 9일 1:10'15 / 1995 July 9th 1:10'15


















Some might be noticed that "Pipi" of Pipi Band was actually named after the famous fiction Pipi Longstocking(Actually, they later changed their name to Pipilongstocking). As their name indicates, they were different from other musicians during that period in that they kicked of the 'seriousness' of the Korean pop music. Actually, they also made an important history on the media broadcast history of Korea, as they were the first band that 'spitted' on the camera during the live show.   


Indeed, their first debut album, was the 'cultural revolution' in Korean pop music. Instead of 'resistance', they showed their punk music style combined with various music genres such as jazz, new wave, reggae, heavy metal. 


There is also a rumor that Pipi Band actually chose the singer 이윤정(Yunjeong Lee) as they thought that she was 'horrible' at singing. That is probably because they wanted to exclude the atmosphere of majorstream music. For instance, the title song of this album, 안녕하세요(hello) talks about daily lives unlike other topics that other Kpop musicians usually talked about such as love or politics. One of their another famous tracks, 딸기(strawberry) also shows this deviant music style as what the lyric of the song is all about is just a meaningless monologue talking about strawberries.


That's why this album has brought a huge issue on the korean pop music as it directly made a critical impact on the 'seriousness' of korean pop music. This issue has become more advanced as they started to show up on major television broadcasts. As a result, with this album, Pipi Band made a huge influence on both underground music and the majorstream of Korean pop music with various musical experiments. Soon, Their punk movement, which was different from other punk bands such as Crying Nut or No Brain, has been proceeded by 황신혜밴드 (Hwangsinhye Band) and 어어부밴드 (Ererbu Band).



(Pipi Band - 딸기 / Strawberry)

Album Cover
Maniadb (http://www.maniadb.com/)

References
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2011년 3월 22일 화요일

Deulgukhwa / Deulgukhwa 1st Album (1985)

Deulgukhwa 들국화
Deulgukhwa 1st Album 들국화 1집
1985. 09. 10




Side A
1. 행진 / Parade
2. 그것만이 내 세상 / That's Only My World
3. 세계로 가는 기차 / The Train to the World
4. 더 이상 내게 / No More to Me
5. 축복합니다 / Blessing You

Side B
1. 사랑일 뿐이야 / It Is Just Love
2. 매일 그대와 / Everyday With You
3. 오후만 있던 일요일 / Sunday with Only Afternoon
4. 아침이 밝아올 때까지 / Until the Morning Becomes Bright
5. 우리의 소원 / Our Wish


"Deulgukhwa" means a wild camomile in Korea.  Their first debut album, which is going to be introduced with this post, was awarded in the 1st place on 100 best Korean pop albums. After they made their first album, as it has been sold for about one million copies, Deulgukhwa made not only a huge economic success, but also tremendous influence on 'major stream' of Korean pop music.

The reason why their first debut album has been considered as one of the legendary albums of Korea is because this album has not only featured the tracks with perfect quality, but also made a significant cornerstone on Korean pop music industry. By 1980s, as most of them haven't made a huge success, rock music in Korea have been regarded as minority. However, after this debut album of Deulgukhwa has national-widely become famous, finally Korean rock music could cast away from underground.

They made immense influence on Korean pop history, not just because of a economic success, as mentioned, because of their own distinctive music style too. With shouting vocal and guitars, which sound trying to appeal to listeners, they could successfully represent resistance against the era of dictatorship in 1980s. Considering the time period when this album was published, the album also encouraged most people at that time, with positive messages featured in this album. One of the most well-known track, Parade (행진) shows this special 'appealing' characteristic of the album very well as the lyric of the song insists that even though we have bad memories and unknown futures, we should do marching. Also, their songs rejoin two different styles very well which can be represented by sharp and 'shouting' sound by the vocalist, Jeon Ingwon(전인권) with tendered and calm sound of piano and bass.


Considering all the things above, it is evident that this album deserves to be considered as the best album on the history of Korean pop music.



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2011년 3월 14일 월요일

Jeong Tae-Chun and Park Eun-Ok / 92 The Rainy Spell, in Jongno (1993)

Jeong Tae-Chun and Park Eun-Ok 정태춘과 박은옥
92 The Rainy Spell, in Jongno 92년 장마, 종로에서
1993. 09. 30
Side A

1. 양단 몇 마름 /  A Few Bundles of Brocade
2. 저 들에 불을 놓아 / Lay Fire on That Plain 
3. 비둘기의 꿈 / The Dream of Doves
4. 이 어두운 터널을 박차고 / After Kicking Away This Dark Tunnel
5. 비둘기의 꿈 / The Dream of Doves

Side B
6. 사람들 / People
7. LA 스케치 / LA Sketch
8. 나 살던 고향 / The Hometown I Used to Live  
9. 92년 장마, 종로에서 / 92 The Rainy Spell, in Jongno 

Jeong Tae-Chun is a folk music singer-songwriter who tremendously contributed the freedom of art in the Republic of Korea. Born in 1954, Jeong Tae-Chung started to play music as his brother, who worked in the U.S Forces Korea, brought his guitar when he was in elementary school. Since then, he has written his songs on his life after he was drafted to the army. Jeong is especially famous for his contribution to the abolition of the precensorship on music in 1996.  

To understand the concept of this album, we should have a quick glance at the modern history of Korea first as this album is based on the despair and hopelessness of the society of Korea after 1987. In June 1987, to accomplish the rights of direct election, Korean people held a democracy movement as the president Chun Doo-hwan announced its choice of Roh Tae Woo as the next president candidate. This public designation of Chun's successor was seen as a final affront to a delayed and deferred process to revise the South Korean constitution to permit direct election of the President(This democracy movement is often called as 6월 항쟁 / June Democracy Movement). As a result, the new constitution which allowed the direct presidential election was adopted; however, from the following presidential election, Roh Tae Woo became the president who actually was the successor of Chun. Even though democracy movements, civil rights movements, and labor rights movements had still continued, the majority of people assumed 1987 as the end of the dictatorship as seen in the failure of democracy movement in May 1991. 


Through this album, Jeong Tae-Chun penetrates the 'hopeless' reality of Korea. Instead of providing sarcasm or direct criticizing, he illustrates the scenery of the reality with realist approach. This special characteristic of the album is especially well-shown on 92년 장마, 종로에서 (92 The Rainy Spell, in Jongno) which is the last track of the album. In the song, Jeong Tae-Chun describes the Jongno street of Seoul where people are 'floating along' under the rainy spell, which makes a huge contrast to Wendy's signboard and high buildings. Furthermore, he says that [our epoch] is getting disappeared into umbrellas. This shows how democracy movements got devastated during that period.

This album also has a huge significance on the cultural history of the Republic of Korea because this album was the offset of the cultural liberation movement in early-90s. Before 1996, when the precensorship was abolished, all the music were forced to examined before their publication. This album was published as a bootleg, which was illegal, and had a huge success on the mass public (He has previously published his another album as a bootleg in 1991). As a result, Jeong Tae Chun's efforts bore fruits as the Constitutional Court announced that the precensorship on music publication violated the constitution.

(Jeong Tae-Chun - 92년 장마, 종로에서 / 92 The Rainy Spell, in Jongno)


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2011년 3월 6일 일요일

The Add 4 / The Woman in Rain (1964)

The Add 4 에드 훠
The Woman in Rain 비속의 女人
1964

Disc 1

1. 비속의 女人 / The Woman in Rain
2. 우체통 / The Letter Box
3. 傷處입은 사랑 / Suffered Love
4. 소야 어서가자 / Let's Go, Cow
5. 늦으면 큰일나요 / Do Not Be Late
6. 天使도 사랑을 할까요 / Would Angels Feel Love
7. 그리운 그님아 / My Yearning Dear




Disc 2
1. 커피한잔 (내속을 태우는 구려) /  A Cup of Coffee (It Makes me Feel Frustrated)
2. 나도 같이 걷고싶네 / I Want to Have a Walk Together Too
3. 故鄕길 / The Road to Hometown
4. 그대와 둘이 앉으면 / When I Sit Down Together with You
5. 쓸쓸한 土曜日밤 / Lonely Saturday Night
6. 바닷가 / The Seashore
7. 굿나잇 등불을 끕니다 / Good Night I'm Turning the Light Off




The Add 4 is considered as the first rock group formed in the Republic of Korea. This band was formed in 1962 by "the founder of Korean rock", Shin Jung-hyeon. He started his music career with a nickname called "Jacky" in the US forces Korea from 1955, when he was 17 years old. Actually, he had already published his solo album called "Hiki Shin Guitar Melody" in 1959. The reason why he is considered as the founder of Korean rock is because of not only that he introduced rock music into Korea first, but also the unique style of his music. That is why he was the first Asian artist who was given a Custom Shop Tribute Guitar by Fender(We will have more closer look at him later).


This album has really huge importance in Korean pop music history, as it was the first rock band music album in the Republic of Korea. All the songs featured in this album were originally composed by band members; in other words, there was no copy nor cover song in this album. What is more, the featured songs were brand-new considering the time period as most tracks are based on rhythm & blues style which only few has introduced in Korea at that time. The greatness of the album can be proven by numerous cover songs; especially, one of the most famous songs in this album, 비속의 女人 (The Woman in Rain) has been remade by 장현 (Jang Hyeon), 김목경 (Kim Mok Kyung) , Galaxy Express, and etc. Also, this album features 커피한잔 (A Cup of Coffee), which was later sung by Pearl Sisters who made the revival of Soul music during 1960s and 1970s. After this album, the Add 4 called themselves as 'The Ventures of Korea.'





(The Add 4 - 비속의 女人 / The Woman in Rain)


Album Cover
Maniadb (http://www.maniadb.com/)


References
Shin Jung-hyeon Official Website (http://www.sjhmvd.com/common_files/sub1_page2.asp/)
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