Book tracks history of Asian pop music

This undated photo shows rock band ADD4, organized by Shin Jung-hyeon, third from right, performing at a music hall at the Eighth US Army base in Seoul. / Korea Times file

Eighth US Army band shows paved way for K-pop

By Baek Byung-yeul

A cover for “Sound of Border”

Korean music fans might get emotional these days because boy band BTS has been fascinating pop music fans around the world.

Those who still remember that many Korean musicians made their musical debut at U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan in Seoul after the 1950-53 Korean War, feel like Rip Van Winkle.

The Eighth U.S. Army (EUSA) base has been a cradle of Korean popular music, years later labeled as K-pop.

The United Service Organizations (USO), a nonprofit established to support the U.S. military and its families around the world, has been organizing entertainment to boost military morale since 1941.

It regularly teamed up with American stars to stage comedy shows, concerts and other entertainment for U.S. troops stationed overseas.

The EUSA in Korea also had similar entertainment programs. It is not certain whether its shows here were related to the USO-led entertainment programs or if a separate organizer was responsible for the entertainment programs in Korea. Many Korean singers and stars debuted through the U.S. Army’s entertainment programs.

Guitarist Shin Jung-hyeon, known as the godfather of Korean rock music, began his career there using the stage name “Hicky Shin.” Pop diva Patti Kim’s half-century career also started there.

Western pop music had a strong influence on Korea’s pop music scene through the 1980s. But with more local singers combining aspects of Western pop and Korean culture, Korean pop music has gone mainstream in Asia.

But despite its strong presence, a new book says there has always been a circulation of sounds and that it is now K-pop’s turn.

Titled “Sound of Border,” the book says it has been less than two decades since K-pop started fascinating Asian music fans. For a longer time, Asian listeners had been more familiar with the pop music of Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

“Sound of Border,” published by the Institute for East Asian Studies at Sungkonghoe University, traces the history of pop music in 11 Asian regions from 1960 to 2000. They are Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore.

The book is written by 13 professors of culture and music critics from Asian countries.

Lee Kee-woong, one of the authors and a professor at Sungkonghoe University, writes that they penned the book to get to know about each other’s pop music.

The author hopes readers can take an interest in Asian pop music through this book because the dichotomy between local pop music and global pop music has become blurred.

To Korean listeners, there have been only two kinds of popular music -- “gayo,” referred to as K-pop at home, and English language pop music. Asian countries are close to Korea, but only a few of the nations that are part of Asian pop music have been featured on the charts.

Lee writes that ignorance of Asian pop music breeds prejudice that Asian pop is outdated, dowdy and old-fashioned and this prejudice breeds more ignorance.

The authors are members of the Inter-Asia Popular Music Studies Group. Since its establishment in 2005, the academic group has had a biennial academic conference since its first conference in Osaka in 2008.

The first publication of the academic group is comprised of four parts, with each section divided by geographical area.

The book finds a common thread in each category because neighboring counties share cultural content as well as history.

The book also introduces different kinds of pop music genres that identify each region. They range from J-pop to Thai punk, from Chinese folk to Japanese enka Cambodian rock to Vietnamese soul, and from Japanese city pop to Thai funk.