K-retrowave and AKMU
Courtesy of Jrwooley6
By David A. Tizzard
K-pop dominates the news with its schizophrenic approach to genre-bending and dizzying choreography. Yet despite this assault and insistence on heavily trained idol music, many find solace elsewhere. Amongst everything else, lo-fi, vaporwave, chillwave, retrowave and their various subgenres have all become popular over the past decade, providing the hypnagogic soundtrack for those stuck behind computers, cash registers, and crosstown traffic.
The styles were a logical progression and extension of the filtered French house that preceded it. That trend relied heavily on 1970s disco samples and gave us Daft Punk's “Discovery,” Pete Heller's “Big Love,” Fantom's “Faithful” and which in K-pop could be found on EXO's “Lucky One,” Fromis_9's “Feel Good,” and Lee Su-hyun's “Alien.” It was a similar juxtaposition between old and new that gave birth to the analog nostalgia of retrowave.
It comes in various forms, but retrowave (used here to point to all the associated genres and sub-genres while cognizant of their differences) largely eschews the huge drops telegraphed from miles out and the repetitive bass lines we've come to expect from modern corporate dance music and replaces them instead with a sharp focus on melody and composition. The dynamic ranges are highly-compressed and the drums are heavily gated in the style of Phil Collins and all those other VH1 80s vibes. Arpeggiated synthesizers lay melodic tendrils across everything ― providing chords and lines well beyond the supertonic note that
as being the commonly used ingredient behind modern hits by Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, Glass Animals, Dua Lipa, Haim, Post Malone, and basically every song by The Weekend.
Retrowave is instead the downtempo, heavily glitched and sampled soundtrack of a 1980s that never existed except in the modern mind. It draws heavily on the influence of John Carpenter soundtracks and was resuscitated in the modern age through games like “Hotline Miami” and Nicolas Winding Refn's 2011 neo-noir crime film “Drive.”
How does this all impact modern Korean music? Early interpretations could be heard in Taemin's song “Move” (2017), SF9's “Just On My Way” (2017), and Luna's “Free Somebody” (2016). But now more exaggerated versions can be seen and heard in Everglow's “La Di Da” (2020), Twice's “I Can't Stop Me” (2020), STAYC's “So Bad” (2020), and Youha's “A Bit Tipsy” (2021). These are unashamed versions of the retrowave style glocalized for the Korean market, combining the sounds with aesthetics like neon skylines, orange skies, and cars and motorbikes speeding along digital highways.
It's this retrowave sound that can be heard on some of AKMU's latest EP, a collaboration record released earlier this week titled “Next Episode.” Each of the seven tracks features a different Korean artist alongside the brother-sister duo of Lee Chan-hyuk and Lee Su-hyun and sees them working with Lee Sun-hee, IU, Zion T, Beenzino, Choi Jung-hoon, Crush, and Sam Kim. Many Korean artists have been reluctant in the past to work with the AKMU duo simply because of how difficult their songs are. IU said she was at first hesitant about working on the latest track because it would be doing something people would not expect to hear and might be uncomfortable with. But that's what real artists do, isn't it?
Lee Chan-hyuk is credited with writing vocals and music on all seven tracks. And this should come as no surprise because the young man who spent five years of life growing up in Mongolia is a phenomenal artist who is achieving success by charting his own path and vision. He's only twenty-four but he's already completed his military service, had a best-selling novel (“Fish Meets Water”), topped all manner of domestic charts, and written hits for some of the country's biggest stars. His fashion and stage performances have seen some describing him as seeking to emulate G-Dragon (a hugely talented and respected artist in his own right) but that would be doing Chan-hyuk a disservice.
While AKMU's early work was largely driven by acoustic guitars, pianos, and high-pitched vocal melodies with explorations into indie-rock, R&B, reggae and electronica, the opening tracks of the latest EP are unmistakably inspired by synth-pop and retrowave tendencies. The shimmering synth hook in the chorus of “Hey Kid, Close Your Eyes” provides great release from the downtempo drums, irregular rhythm stabs, and arpeggios. The second track, “Nakka,” has a filtered bass that wouldn't sound out of place on a Hall and Oates or Billy Ocean record as it skips around the similarly downtempo backing driven by a four-on-the-floor beat before giving way to electronic drum fills. The hook vocals in the chorus of “Nakka” are filtered through what sounds like a vocoder and supplemented by synth lines while tracing intervals that stick out for not being the same tonic note we almost expect to hear in chart pop music. Both IU and Lee Su-hyun who sing the lines have said how difficult it was to hit those particular notes and follow that melody. This is not just two note songs. It's high information music and deliberately so because of Chan-hyuk's composition.
The third track, “Bench,” starts with a filtered guitar line that sounds straight out of an INXS or XTC track, perhaps taking hints from how Dua Lipa reinvented the classic line from the Australian band's 1987 hit “Need You Tonight” for her 2020 track “Break My Heart.” It's more upbeat than the opening two tracks, featuring a two-four beat on the drums, handclaps, occasional whoops, and more musical space which creates a less imposing and more positive atmosphere. This marks a turning point in the EP as the music veers back into more familiar territory for AKMU listeners.
Throughout the album there are places where you will be surprised; where the music will go to chords or key changes you weren't expecting. It feels familiar in some eerily nostalgic way but there is enough new in there to make you aware of the fact that you are hearing something for the first time. For the most part it's unpredictable ― and that's a good thing. It's not wearing genres as a concept but rather exploring sonic possibilities and melodic options.
It's very easy to lose sight of artists and individuals in the Korean music scene because domestic and international media focus so heavily on highly-curated idol music which seeks to squeeze every piece of individuality out of the members so as to ensure a more profitable commodity in a neo-liberal capitalist system. It also continually tries to remind us that what makes good art is how many times something has been streamed on social media. But there's still a lot of interesting and excellent music being made in South Korea. AKMU's latest EP released this week is testament to that and long may it continue.
Dr. David A. Tizzard (datizzard@swu.ac.kr) has a Ph.D. in Korean Studies. He is a social/cultural commentator and musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. The views expressed in the article are the author's own and do not reflect the editorial direction of The Korea Times.