Trot is back in full swing
By Kim Ji-soo
In days past, the Korean “trot” music I often heard was through late-night television shows my father used to watch in his undershirt and shorts, sometimes singing along as a summer night breeze swept through the front door. I could see he was transported to a certain time earlier in his life. Or the music was heard when we stopped at highway rest venues where the distinctive songs with a disco-like beat or “ppongjak, ppongjak” blared from a cart full of music tapes, as if to wake you up from driving fatigue. The older generation of taxi drivers would also play trot music as they drove their passengers in Seoul, leaving the passenger in the backseat involuntarily imagining a time long ago that the driver seemed to relate to. All in all, the trot songs of the past as in the 1970s and 1980s were associated with old school, good but raw and loud.
An upgraded version of this old-style, almost folk-like Korean music genre has seized the nation's TV audiences. Much of it is attributable to the popularity of one cable channel's audition programs, “
Miss Trot for Tomorrow” and “Mr. Trot” on TV Chosun
. The singers who poured out their heart and soul into the competition are now top stars, including Song Ga-in the winner in the former and Lim Young-woong in the latter. Some of the runners-up have also become major stars.
These are the new stars of the 21st century. Song continues within the array of top female trot stars such as Jang Yoon-jeong with her “Oh My,” Kim Yeon-ja (“Amor Fati”), Sim Soo-bong (“At the Time He Was…”) and Lee Mi-ja (“Camellia Lady”).
in the footsteps of Nam Jin (“Young Meadows”) and Na Hoon-a (“Weeds”).
But being talented and of a different era, Song and Lim have applied another layer of essence to the trot colloquially dubbed “ppongjak” songs that had once been the domain of the older generation. Not only do they deliver the wisely resigned acceptance to the vicissitudes of life as their predecessors did, but also a certain fortitude and energetic jazz in their trot songs performed beautifully with vocals that seem to belong to another world.
The usually slow, melodic trot music is also known for its vocal technique of bending the voice or “kkeok-kki” where the singer hits the lower notes with vibrato and voices the highs in a cracking pitch. Its lyrics have a raw appeal, no fancy similes just pure Korean words. Trot, while largely regarded as having been derived from the Japanese pop genre “enka,” reflects influences of Korean folk music from the southwestern region. Its cyclical path in the 20th century was marked by highs and lows where it enjoyed wide popularity from around the 1930s to the 1960s until Western folk, rock and pop began to dominate the Korean music scene from the 1970s onwards. Until K-pop that is.
In a way, the renewed popularity of trot is the story of a comeback. While hip-hop and K-pop enjoy unrivaled popularity and fandom domestically and worldwide, the genre of trot has survived and now thrives. And everybody loves a comeback. The audition programs invariably encompass that element too: struggling singers reaching for their dreams.
Even if you don't like trot, it is omnipresent in Korea. Listen to the songs of top divas such as Lee or Sim, or the male singers such as Nam or Na, and you'll hear they tinge their songs with sorrow but acceptance. It's interesting how the same feelings arise when I listen to the songs of American divas such as Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald and Mildred Bailey. All these songs evoke certain times in recent history or in our lives.
The renaissance of trot, through fusion with other music genres, has enriched the Korean music landscape. So many names have not been mentioned here, but we should thank them too for the music that continues to flow in and out, to ebb and flow and enrich our days.
Kim Ji-soo (janee@koreatimes.co.kr
) is an editorial writer at The Korea Times.