I have made no effort over the years to hide my disdain for the ubiquitous KPOP, the rhythmic sounds so common here in South Korea. Since first landing in Incheon over eleven years ago, I have had this instant loathing for these silly dancing girls and boys. Earlier this month I had the pleasure of interviewing and later writing an article about Whang, Bo-Ryung of SmackSoft and the punk scene in Seoul.

“Seoul is a place that in many respects is not any different from any other mega-city. It has a vibrant culture and is a breeding place for a small, eclipsed counter-culture, or as much as it can be in the land of Confucian-conformity. In a country famous for its auto-tuned dancing boys and girls, a country obsessed with punchy, over-saturated girl and boy bands which offer nothing to the progression of music as a discipline or an art form, an underground subculture exists. There is a small circle of bands and artists fighting the good fight, producing and playing in the impalpable rock scene in Seoul in places reminiscent of London’s UFO club.” (See full article here)

My shot at KPOP wasn’t subtle, nor did I mean it to be. I later go on to explain that I truly feel that KPOP is responsible for the death of real music in Korea,

“While her [Whang Bo-Ryung] name started to become synonymous with the avant-garde sound in Seoul, the once-angry youth began to become a part of the system they once clashed with. The ‘Seoul sound’ that embodied the disgruntled youth of the nineties began to wither in the early part of the last decade. It was crushed under the weight of the addictive and artistically unsophisticated opiate for the Korean commonage. The battle-cries of the nineties were replaced with the monotonous seasonal sounds of sexually suggestive teens singing about love and smartphones.”

I want to make it abundantly clear that I recognize that Korea didn’t invent this brand of auto-tuned, singing cyborgs. However, the willing lemmings that pay for this dreck have certainly perfected it. Korea has adopted it as their flagship, the “K-wave.” And what normally is a cyclical fad in other countries, has turned it into a permanent part of their entertainment milieu.

Should this form of entertainment even be considered music?

Frankly, no. My understanding of music is quite different and isn’t a ‘label’ that is simply applied to band that has ‘satisfactory record sales.’ Technically yes, most KPOP is music when you adhere strictly to the dictionary definition of what music is.

Music [ myoo-zik ] noun
the tones or sounds employed, occurring in single line (melody) or multiple lines (harmony), and sounded or to be sounded by one or more voices or instruments, or both.

However, my definition, as someone who is a student of music, someone that has studied music across decades, cultures, and genres, who is fiercely passionate about music, and an ardent defender of it as an art form, I define music as a teacher making a social comment, a mirror on our own society. Music can be a refuge from the cold outside and it can be a means to express the inexpressible. Music can, and for many does, mean so much. As far as I am concerned, KPOP only serves to sell sex, the lowest common denominator in entertainment. When all else fails, show more skin. Simply put, lyrically KPOP is trash. Their performances, pornographic. Their musical accompaniment, the same generic kicks and beats everyone else uses.

Music, real music, has a message. It is supposed to challenge us. It’s supposed to encourage us to be or do better. As I see it, there is nothing to be learned from KPOP as an ‘art’ form.

Look, this is my opinion, right or wrong I want to leave you all a quote that I find to be the absolute truth, “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” Bob Marley. Maybe in the end music is really whatever you want or need it to be. Nietzsche said in, “Twilight of the Idols” that “Life without music would be a mistake“. If KPOP works for you as a form of savage escapism, than I will concede that it does have value, but value as acute art, perhaps not.

Originally Published: SEOULfi, June 2013