Joseon pop set to be Korea's next cultural export
Vocalist Lee Hee-moon, third from right, and other members of Korean band SsingSsing that fuses Korean folk music with genres like glam rock, disco and psychedelic rock pose with Bob Boilen, right, host of NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts, and staff of the program in this 2017 photo. SsingSsing was disbanded years later. Courtesy of Shawn ChoiThis article is the first in a three-part series on “Joseon pop.” ― ED.By Kang Hyun-kyungSince the 1960s, there has been a group of concerned musicians who have been serious about finding a breakthrough for gugak, Korea's centuries-old traditional music styles, to make it more appealing to music fans. Their ceaseless efforts to modernize traditional music and to entice listeners in the local music scene, which has been dominated by contemporary music, finally materialized in the mid-2010s, five decades later, with the advent of what is being called “Joseon pop.”“Joseon” is the name of the dynastic kingdom of Korea that existed from 1392 to 1897, when it was replaced by the Korean Empire during the country's turbulent
