Korean rockabilly dominates global music competition

Korean rockabilly band Streetguns performs at Ruailrock in Seoul on Dec. 15, 2015. The band was named the Global Winner in the 2016 Hard Rock Rising “Rock Local / Win Global” showcase in June. / Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

By Jon Dunbar

The Korean rockabilly band Streetguns beat out almost 10,000 other unsigned musical acts around the world to be named Global Winner in the 2016 Hard Rock Rising “Rock Local / Win Global” showcase, on June 20.

The contest, sponsored by Hard Rock International and Reverb Nation, was held at 100 global Hard Rock locations around the world. At Hard Rock Cafe Seoul in Lotte World Mall, Streetguns squared off against streetpunk band Rux, nu metal band Tempermount and alt-rockers Coincide.

The five-member band won top accolades that night, and their name was passed on to a panel of music industry experts who named them not only Region 4 Winner, but also the overall Global Winner. They’ve earned $50,000 and a gig at the new Hard Rock Hotel Ibiza, plus the chance to record a music video, get 1,000 CDs or DVDs made and a prize package from Fender Instruments.

Formed in 2014, Streetguns is still a relatively new name in the Korean live music scene, but the members have been playing in bands since 1998. Guitarist Tiger’s first band was Blue Punk Bugs, part of Korea’s first wave of underground punk bands, before converting to rockabilly.

“I still think of myself as a punk musician. My roots are in punk,” Tiger told The Korea Times. “A lot of punk musicians make a transition from punk to rockabilly. Rockabilly is attractive because it is the original rock music and we feel pride in that.”

In 2001, he started playing lead guitar in The RockTigers, which he believes was Korea’s first rockabilly band. They gathered a strong following especially among foreign residents, playing under the banner “kimchibilly” to introduce the genre to local music lovers and establish Korea’s place on the global music map. Their 34 monthly Kimchibilly Night events attracted numerous international acts to Korea and they became regulars at Japan’s rockabilly festivals as well as touring the U.S., the homeland of rockabilly.

“Our musical goal was to convey this Korean sensibility through rockabilly music,” Tiger said.

After vocalist Velvet Geena left in 2013, they brought in Cheol-soo as their new lead singer and began anew as Streetguns.

“A lot of the fans of RockTigers were non-Korean, but I don’t think that’s been the case with Streetguns,” That’s why we didn’t expect too much from Hard Rock Rising. But we somehow won the competition. I think that we just have to do our thing and not care too much what others think.”

Asked what he’d do with the $50,000 prize money, Tiger said, “We’re gonna save a lot of it and use bits of it to support our living. We also will pay for the drinks of fellow musicians.”

Visit reverbnation.com/streetguns to listen to the music of Streetguns.