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 Korean society opened up in mid '90s and with it the culture ministry's stranglehold on foreign recordings. A jazz boom took place around '93 perhaps given a push by a corresponding movement in western countries, perhaps resulting independently from the rising middle class / white collar segments of society. Blues also received a boost in interest as a result of that. (Many Koreans are still not very sure about the distinction between Jazz and blues). Now there is a growing number of young men who are interested in playing guitar and choose blues as their target genre. Many of them want to be guitar heros and their view of blues is limited mostly to rock guitar styles of Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughn. Very few people are exploring the styles of the black pioneers of electric blues although many would know B.B. King and perhaps Buddy Guy. There is little interest in folk or acoustic blues and little consideration of blues as a whole rather than just a vehicle for guitar showmanship. The Korean approach to (western) music tends to be to copy exactly, which means usually Koreans display little ability to "jam" or interact in a live perfomance in a creative manner. Also signigicant is the common Korean perception that blues results from the American black experience of the underclass and as such expresses emotions to which Koreans should feel empathy. Korean culture has a concept known as han which is held to be the result of suffering and this concept is central to Korean character and art. I think Koreans overlook that the blues can be a release from emotions risen from suffering rather than expression of the emotions. |
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*The direction of underground in Korea*
The Korean popular music industry, whilst dominated by forgetable dance music aimed at a teenage market has some very creative and noteworthy elements derived from a rich heritage of musical and creative expression.
While the term underground in English brings to mind images of avant-guard acts that may shun wide popular acceptance, in Korea the term is applied to musical acts that do not appear on the regular popular music television shows.
The musicians banded together under the Korean label of underground do not necessarily aim at producing music for the arcane tastes of an intellectual clique.
It may simply be that they have a sincere commitment to the producing quality music.
They may also hold contempt for the popular music industry and prefer to avoid it's dubious values.
For many years live music in bars was banned by paranoid military regimes as a potential source of subversive activity as well as decadent morality.
It was probably during this period that the interpretation of underground began as a result of the distinction between sanctioned artists promoted through mass media and those involved with music on a more clandestine basis.
As the political climate loosened up and market forces gained greater influence over the media, the nature of the acts operating in the different arenas changed.
Obviously any categorisation applied to human activity will be fairly arbitrary. I am not attempting to define the nature of the artists described but merely using the label of Underground to indicate a general theme or direction for this page.
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