Korean Job Discussion Forums

[kiwiduncan]

I remember years ago buying a B and S album ('Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant') at Kyobo bookstore. All the lyrics had Korean translations and I was pretty impressed. Later I learned that the band has a cult following in Korea, and one of my students even told me that a bar in Hongdae changed its name to Belle and Sebastian in honour of the band. Cool eh?

[princess]

Your avatar is adorable!!!

[applesandshanana]

That makes me feel a little better about the music scene there.

[saw6436]

I'd be even happier if I could find a Manu Chao cd somewhere.

[Qinella]

I didn't know about that. I'd hit the floor if I met a Korean who cited B & S as one of their faves.

Too bad they don't come here to tour.

[robot]

very cool, but i have a hard time believing it.

b&s doesn't seem like the kinda thing you can noraebang to -- there's no crooning vocals leading up to a soaring climax -- which makes them pretty useless here.

& the lyrical content -- their true brilliance -- would also be totally lost on low-level speakers of English.

maybe a couple people diggit, but could "cult following" be an overstatement? awesome if it's not...

[uberscheisse]

i know a lot of korean people who love belle and sebastian. they have good distribution over here. it's all about distro, dude.

[mithridates]

[xenok]

i don't know how popular they are here, i do know that when i was a member of Bugs, every Belle and Sebastian album was available for download.

as for cult following being an understatement? i have to go all Fezzik on you but, I do not think it means what you think it means. good noraebang songs with simplistic lyrics would probably lead to a "popular following" here. cult following would imply a niche group of hardcore followers, which although i have no real proof of, does seem plausible. i know people who happen to be very hardcore fans of relatively obscure jazz and blues music.

i know it's hard to believe but even in a homogeneous society like Korea's, there is some diversity.

[kiwiduncan]

I mean more of a cult following than just popular appeal. I'd do a search on Korean sites to check out my theory but my work computer doesn't have hangul keyboard

Interesting to hear that it's played at Starbucks. But then Starbucks occasionally plays other good stuff like Aimee Mann too, rather than all that boring soft crooning crap from people like Jack Johnson.

[Billy Pilgrim]

B&S are terrible, by the way. Trust Koreans to go for the nambiest possible indie kids.

[rumdiary]

[Qinella]