Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Lizara]

I'd like to get some Korean music to make my Korean studies a little more interesting... but 99% of the music I've heard here makes me want to shoot myself to stop the torture, so does anyone have any suggestions for good Korean music? No ballads PLEASE... I'd prefer rock if anyone knows anything about that, but I can handle bad dance-y stuff like Koyote if necessary. I like fast music better than slow and it has to be well-known enough that I'll be able to find the lyrics online somewhere.

Any ideas?

[Demophobe]

서태지

[excitinghead]

I love WAX myself. 3 of her songs are straight copies of Cyndi Lauper, although she acknowledges it and pays royalties to her (unusual for Korea), and you can detect a strong Lauper influence in all of her 5 albums. All of the lyrics are quite easy to study too (I can help!). But Lauper isn't exactly hard rock, and most of WAX's music is on the mellow side.

One of the only other artists I listen to without throwing up (means a must buy in Korea!) is 엄정화, or Om-Jong-Hwa, especially her early stuff. But she's still very dancy. I recommend listening to '틈', or opening/crack (not the best translation ...in time in means) to see if you like her.

Sorry I can't help with Korean rock, but I'm not too much into any Western stuff heavier than Red Hot Chilli Peppers or G&N metal ballads myself, so have never looked. But I get the impression that rock just isn't as popular here.

[Khunopie]

This will be a short thread

[Son Deureo!]

Jaurim, Crying Nut, Cherry Filter, and Seo Tae Ji are all well versed in the art of rocking.

[Qinella]

I can't bring myself to listen to Cherry Filter and Crying Nut just because their names are so ridiculous. If they put so little thought into their names, I can't imagine the music would be much better.

Hey, Lizara, how do you feel about Trot? That's pretty good stuff for studying Korean.

[Leslie Cheswyck]

Ju Ju Club



Catchy tunes, sexy voice

[Drew345]

A neighbor of mine is a record producer, and he gave me this Korean Rock CD: 서울전자음악단 "볼륨을높여라" . They really rock. It seems influenced by Tool or Pink Floyd. Everything I ever saw on Korean TV is so packaged and wholesome; I was really surprised anything like this existed. The words are clear, not that I understand. It looks like it's the lyrics in the CD cover.
Drew

[flotsam]

[taobenli]

My post just got deleted- so annoyed, as I wrote a bunch.

The short of it: DO check out Jaurim (they have a new album and I love their last album, too). Having silly names is not good enough of a reason to avoid Cherry Filter and Crying Nut (you can't afford to in ballad wasteland Korea!). I like Cherry Filter, Crying Nut is silly but okay (both these bands have a new album). Seo Taeji I don't like so much. Nell I like better when they sound like Coldplay or Radiohead or something, but they take an icky boy-band turn at times.

Pop groups that are not too ballady: Rumble Rish, Loveholic (good voices).
Fun stuff: Yi Sang Eun (clear, interesting voice), Roller Coaster.

I like Yoon Do Hyun but NOT his solo project of last year. SO ballady. Is his new album any good?

I also need more trot! Jang Yoon Jung (the "new queen of trot") seems like an okay place to start. I have started old folk music compilation albums and that's catchy stuff, too.

I am about to give Bluedawn a try...

[Lizara]

Awesome, thanks. Time to start downloading...

[cruisemonkey]

Korean 'music' is like K-food... it's crap!

If you don't like what I'm saying... shove it.

[Hyeon Een]

Well you should definitely listen to 자우림 . If you go to Mithridates Cyworld website then you can find translations to a bunch of their songs too, with handy grammatical pointers and explanations as well.

His website is http://www.cyworld.com/mithridates/ then click on like the 6th or 7th tab on the right until you see "Korean lessons/music". He has a whole bunch of Jaurim songs translated with useful notes up there. My favorite so far is "안녕미미" because it's easy and not too many difficult words.

Jaurim rocks-uh. My world-uh. Oh yeah. Bravo Your Life!!!!!!!-uh.

[Qinella]

[bobbyhanlon]

jaurim are utterly useless, in my humble opinion. the singer is cute, but thats about the only good thing to be said for them.
delispice, rollercoaster, nastyona, nell, seo tai-ji (especially the last album), windy city are all great though.