2011년 4월 25일 월요일

Cho Yong-pil / Cho Yong-pil 1st Album (1980)

Cho Yong-pil 조용필
趙容弼 대표곡 모음 : 창밖의 여자 / 단발머리 Cho Yong-pil Compilation : Woman Outside the Window / Short Hair
1980. 03. 20




Side A
1. 창밖의 여자 / Woman Outside the Window
2. 돌아와요 부산항에 / Come Back to Busan Port
3. 잊혀진 사랑 / Forgotten Love
4. 돌아오지 않는 강 / The River of No Return
5. 정 / Affection
6. 사랑은 아직도 끝나지 않았네 / Love Did Not End Yet

Side B
1. 단발 머리 / Short Hair
2. 한오백년 / Resentment of Five Hundred Years
3. 대전 블루스 / Daejeon Blues
4. 너무 짧아요 / Too Short
5. 슬픈 미소 / Sad Smile
6. 너와 나* / You and Me*
* This music was recorded as a 'wholesome song', which was mandatory for musicians to feature in their every albums in 60-80s. 







We have already taken a look at the "Godfather of Korean Rock" before here. However, one might probably ask another question, "then who is the 'legendary of Korean music?'" With certainty, everyone would say that he is Cho Yong-pil. Born in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi-do in 1950, he started to grow his dream as a musician when he was seven years old inspired by Ray Charles and The Ventures. Even though his family opposed his dream, he finally left his home with his friends and founded the band called Atkins(애트킨즈). Soon, in 1959, he made a band called Five Fingers (화이브 핑거스), and played various songs made by the greatest black artists such as James Brown in the US Forces Korea. In spite of his success in the U.S army, nevertheless, he paused his music career as his brother found him out. Of course, he didn't give up. Instead, he moved to Busan and started his music career again and made a huge success with numerous hit songs such as "Come Back to Busan Port" (돌아와요 부산항에)

Thus, even though this album is his first regular studio album, actually it is a compilation album featuring his numerous hit songs and few new ones. However, this fact doesn't degrade the true value of this album. He showed various music styles such as trot, folk, rock n roll, ballad, Korean traditional music, and even disco. Especially, one of the greatest hit songs included in this album, "Short Hair" (단발 머리) features disco-style synthesizer sounds which were regarded as innovative at that time. Not only that, the huge success from this album made a huge influence on Korean pop music industry. Such as, this album made pop music widespread to the mass public. With various genres of music featured in this album, regardless of age or sex, it successfully granted a huge popularity from people.

With the huge success from the album not only for the mass public but also for critics, Cho Yong-pil started to endeavor much harder for music creation. Eventually, he has become a 'national artist' who has published 18 regular studio albums and made a enormous contribution on Korean pop music industry.



2011년 4월 17일 일요일

Yoo Jae-ha / Because I Love You (1987)

Yoo Jae-ha 유재하
Because I Love You 사랑하기 때문에
1987. 03

Side A
1. 지난 날 / Past Days
2. 텅빈 오늘밤 / Empty Tonight
3. 우리들의 사랑 / Our Love
4. 사랑하기 때문에 / Because I Love You
5. 내 마음에 비친 내 모습 / Reflected Myself In My Heart

Side B
1. 그대 내 품에 / Hug You In My Bossom
2. 가리워진 길 / Hidden Road
3. 우울한 편지 / Sad Letter
4. Minuet (경음악) / Minuet (Instrumental)
5. 정화의 노래 / The Song of Purification

Probably, the most dominant song genre in the pop music industry of Korea would be ballad songs. Considering this music genre hadn't been popular until 1980s, Yoo Jae-ha was a pioneer of ballad music in Korea. Born in 1962, Yoo Jae-ha majored in classic music composition from Hanyang University. After his graduation, he started his music career for a singer-songwriter by composing a few songs for other famous artists such as Cho Yong-pil, Munse Lee Kim Hyunsik.


Unlike other pop artists during that period, he tried to combine various music spectrum together. That was because he was excellent in not only music theory as he majored in classic music composition, but also playing various types of instruments. Also, various projects he worked with other artists would have made a lot of influence in his music. As a result, these factors made him a jack-of-all-trades.


This album, even though it is not only the first but also the last album made by him, shows his distinctive music styles which connected diverse music genres from jazz, rock, to classic. More surprisingly, all the songs featured in this album was composed by himself. Unlike other artists in 1980s, he made his own lyrics, melody lines, rhythms, and he even sang all the songs by himself. Especially, it was such a rare case that pop music tried to make connections with classical music. For instance, his gifted talents are well represented in the song "Minuet." This song features various instruments which were used only for classic music such as violin, cello, clarinet, flute, oboe. Another distinctive characteristic of the album is that all the lyrics in this album were written based on Yoo Jae-ha's own experience. For example, the song "우울한 편지" (Sad Letter) was based on the letter from a woman he loved when he was a freshman in university. After the first meeting, he had tried to express his love to her for two years. Soon, he got the letter from her, which became the motif of the song. These lyrics based on his own life have fruited in persuasive power on his songs thus convince and motivate listeners.


However, this gifted a man of genius ended his life because of a car accident. Moreover, it is really miserable that he departed away just three months after the publication of this historical album. Fortunately, by numerous singer-songwriters who were inspired by him have made a lot of tribute activities. Yoo Jae-ha Music Contest, which is regarded as the biggest singer-songwriters contest in Korea, would be one of them. From 1989, Yoo Jae-ha Music Contest has made a lot of contribution on pop music of Korea by discovering hidden gifted rookies annually.

  
(Yoo Jae-ha - 사랑하기 때문에 / Because I Love You)




Yahoo Music (http://new.music.yahoo.com/yoo-jae-ha-23989012/albums/because-i-love-you--56762873)
Joogan Hankook (http://weekly.hankooki.com/lpage/culture/200712/wk2007120611301937140.htm)

2011년 4월 14일 목요일

Shin Jung-hyeon & Yeopjeons / Shin Jung-hyeon & Yeopjeons 1st Album (1974)


Shin Jung-hyeon & Yeopjeons 신중현과 엽전들
Shin Jung-hyeon & Yeopjeons 1st Album 신중현과 엽전들 1집

1974. 08. 25


The Firstly Issued Version
Side A

1. 저 여인 / That Woman



2. 그 누가 있었나봐 / There Might Have Been Someone
3. 설레임 / Flutter
4. 생각해 / I Think about You
5. 긴긴밤* / Long Long Night*

Side B
1. 나는 몰라 / I don't know
2. 할 말도 없지만 / Nothing to Say
3. 미인 / Beauty
4. 나는 너를 사랑해 / I Love You
5. 떠오르는 태양* / Rising Sun*

* These tracks were actually not featured in this album, but appeared in the song list on the album.

The Secondly Issued Version
1. 미인 / Beauty
2. 생각해 / I Think about You
3. 그 누가 있었나봐 / There Might Have Been Someone
4. 긴긴밤 / Long Long Night
5. 나는 너를 사랑해 / I Love You
6. 저 여인 / That Woman
7. 설레임 / Flutter
8. 할 말도 없지만 / Nothing to Say
9. 나는 몰라 / I Don't Know
10. 떠오르는 태양 / Rising Sun

Perhaps, "the godfather of rock music" would be considered as somewhat banal expression. However, everyone would probably agree that Shin Joong-hyeon deserves the title. Shin Jung-hyeon is a Korean guitarist who is considered as the godfather of Korean rock music. He started his music career with a nickname called "Jacky" in the US forces Korea from 1955, when he was 17 years old. In 1959, he published his solo debut album called "Hiki Shin Guitar Melody". Soon, he formed the band called "The Add 4", and published their first album which is considered as the first band music album in Korea in 1964 (We had reviewed this album already here). After that, he had not only created various rock music, also grew lots of musicians such as Pearl Sisters, Jungmi Kim who we shall have a close look at later.

During the 1970s, One of the biggest challanges that Korean rock musicians encountered was if they could make their own style of rock music. In other words, they were experiencing difficulties to make 'true' Korean rock music which would be distinguished from the classic rock music that the western countries already dominated.

This album directly answered this challenge combining traditional Korean music and rock music together successfully. Within this album, Shin interpreted rock music in his own way using five notes scale which was common in Korean traditional music(especially in "Beauty" and "Long Long Night"). Also, he showed his own distinctive music style by adding some psychedelic atmosphere within the album.
Even though this album featured music which are somewhat experimental, this album made a huge success both on critics and the mass public. Especially, one of the most famous songs featured in this album, "Beauty" (미인) has been remade by numerous artists such as Sinawi, YB.

However, because of the military dictatorship in that period, his music soon got considered as somewhat 'bulgur', 'chepaish', and he finally got arrested for "involvement" with marijuana in 1975. Later, he could restart his music career when the Republic of Korea came into the age of democracy in 1987. Nevertheless, in that period, rock music has already become minority. Techno, trots, dance music were considered as the mainstream of music so that he couldn’t get any more success on the pop music industry. In spite of it, again, he didn’t give up, and continued to work on lots of musical experiments. As a result, he became the first Asian musician who got Fender Custom Tribute guitar joining five of other rock legends as Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Eddie Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Stevie Ray Vaughn. Probably, this album shows well how he has struggled against the dictatorship and the sensorship and how he has made such a huge contribution to Korean rock music.

  
(Shin Jung-hyeon & Yeopjeons - 미인 / Beauty)




2011년 4월 3일 일요일

Hahn Dae-Soo / Long Long Road (1974)

Hahn Dae-Soo 한대수
Long Long Road 멀고 먼 길
1974


Side A
1. 물 좀 주소! / Give Me Water!
2. 하룻밤 / One Night
3. 바람과 나 / Wind and I  
4. 옥의 슬픔 / Sorrow of Ock
5. 하루 아침 / One Morning

Side B
1. 행복의 나라 / Land of Happiness
2. 인상 / Impression
3. 사랑인지? / Is This Love?
4. 잘가세! / Fare Thee Well!


















Hahn Dae-Soo is a Korean singer-songwriter who is regarded as a pioneer of Korean folk rock music. As he was born in a wealthy family, he had an early opportunity to leave for the U.S when he was young. After he came back to Korea, he started to play copy songs from the U.S. Even though he had his own music style Inspired by folk song greats like Bob Dylan, he actually showed his special gifts when he published his first debut album after he finished the military service for 3 years. 


This album was published in 1974 when the era of the dictatorship in the Republic of Korea was at its peak. Actually, one of the songs in this album, "One Morning" was not included in the first issue as the recording company was worried that the whole album would be banished due to this track. Later, this song became published when the album was reissued in 1988. Thus the main atmosphere this album surrounds is the craving for the freedom and happiness. In this album, Hahn Dae-soo tried to show his strong desire for the freedom and happiness using metaphors, such as desire for water.


The tracks featured in this album were far different from what were considered as folk music at that time. For instance, in one of his most famous songs, "Give Me Water!" (물 좀 주소!), his rough and muslin voice was somewhat distinctive from other folk song singers in 70s. Not only for his voice, he presented many experiments on folk music. In the song "Is This Love?", Hahn Dae-Soo presented sliding technique using chopsticks, and in "One Morning", which was not published in the first issue, he used a moktak (also known as a wooden fish) for percussion. With these unique elements, his songs are considered as the "striking" experimental psychedelic folk songs nowadays.  


(Hahn Dae-Soo - 물 좀 주소! / Give Me Water!)


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


References
Official Website of Hahn Dae-Soo (http://hahndaesoo.co.kr/who/who_am_i.htm)
Naver Music (http://music.naver.com/todayMusic/index.nhn?startDate=20081227)
Weiv (http://weiv.co.kr/review_view.html?code=album&num=1775)
Maniadb (http://www.maniadb.com/album.asp?a=129420)
Korean Rock (http://koreanrock.com/kr.pl?HanDaeSu)
Kyunghyang Shinmun (http://news.khan.co.kr/section/khan_art_view.html?mode=view&artid=200709131012081&code=900313)