
"Two years ago, I told my staff to turn on and listen to whatever music they wanted and one of the staffers in our office kept listening to Japanese music that was famous in the 1980s. Space Oddity is a startup music content corporation that has been working with Naver Cultural Foundation since 2018 to "dig up" hidden masterpieces in Korean pop music that did not receive much attention back in the day, but deserve notice as part of Korean pop music history. The Digging Club Seoul project also started with this as Kim Hong-ki, the director of Space Oddity, first noticed this as a trend in his office. The fad started among nightclubs in the Hongdae area, and from then a growing number of city pop music videos were shared on YouTube and social media, especially Mariya Takeuchi's "Plastic Love," released in 1984. The trend fell into place with a surge on YouTube and social media. She added, "The city pop trend can be explained by people wanting a romantic escape, going back to the happiest times of our lives."

"Because of the busy and harsh reality nowadays, people are trying to seek comfort and gain satisfaction through music that seems to recall happy days," said Jung Duk-hyun, a music critic.Īnother music critic, Kim Yoon-ha, said, "With the sweet and smooth sound of city pop, it is hard not to like this kind of music."

Music critics say this trend is a reaction to the difficulties that young people face in reality. I feel like I'm living in a time when everyone was more innocent." "The lyrics are simple as well as the rhythm. "The style feels so new and literally fresh," 24-year-old Hong Ik-hyun said. Some 30 years later, the music has been rediscovered by millennials and became the leading trend in music in 2019. It was also rejected by the popular culture market for not having as much fun rhythm as other music. It was when the student movements were active and to those who sought music with serious messages, city pop was deemed too light. However, the music was merely a short-lived fad at the time. Stars including Hyeuni, Kim Hyun-chul, Kim Wan-sun and the band Light and Salt took to the genre. "I hope more people can encounter music they were not aware of from the Digging Club Seoul."Ĭity pop reached Korea in the 1980s. "There was lots of great music in the 20th century, but I didn't have many chances to learn about it," Baek said after participating in the project. The project is part of ON STAGE 2.0, a social responsibility program of Naver Cultural Foundation. This is the latest release from the "Digging Club Seoul" project, which sheds light on songs and artists from the 1980s and 1990s that made up a music style called city pop. On Wednesday, Baek Ye-rin, a 21-year-old musician who swept Korea's music charts with "Our Love Is Great" in March, released a new song called "Before I Know it." The song was sung originally by singer-songwriter Jang Pil-soon in 1989.īaek Ye-rin remakes album from 1980s singer-songwriter Jang Pil-soon's song "Before I Know it," as part of Digging Club Seoul project from Naver Cultural Foundation Corp./ Courtesy of JYP Entertainment As the name suggests, the music style has an urban atmosphere with a rhythmic, funky base that is usually expressed with the minutely chopped rhythms of guitars or synthesizers.

With young artists re-recording old albums that didn't gain much attention after they were released in the 1980s, the musical genre called "city pop" is appealing to music fans and creating a buzz.Ĭity pop refers to a style of music originated in Japan that was popular from the mid-1970s to early 1990s. Album cover illustrated by Lim Dong-hyuk for Baek Ye-rin's new song, a remake from 1980s singer-songwriter Jang Pil-soon's song "Before I Know it," as part of Digging Club Seoul project for Onstage 2.0./ Courtesy of JYP EntertainmentĬover songs and remakes are in vogue as the Korean music scene goes retro.
