From: jfe@alchemy.tn.cornell.edu (Brian Chung)
Subject: Re: Hot food and pop music
Organization: Alchemy International
Distribution: soc.culture.korean
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 04:16:23 GMT

In article <8956@dirac.physics.purdue.edu> bark@bohr.physics.purdue.edu (Bark Kwangyl) writes:
>First, you seems like put a great value on lyrics of pop song and think Korean
>songs are lack of it.  I can give you hundreds of counter examples of 
>very lyrical  Korean pop songs although I have very limited knowledge of it. 
>As already mentioned  by somebody, try Chung Tae Chun 's song. 
>( This is your serious problem. Why didn't hear others and make 
>yourself wiser? )
>His lyrics are  full of poetic  beauty. Some of his song's lyric talk about
>the   beauty and sadness of life  seen from Buddism's point of view.
>Why don't you ask Andrew Sung Hyun Kim for the translation of his lyrics
> and judge yourself whether Korean songs  sucks or not?

	For your information, I am a native speaker of Korean.  So, you don't
have to sound so condescending anymore.

>Try Song Chang shik. Most of his lyrics are beautiful and  he even made 
>a very  artistic song to  a poem by Seo Jung Ju.

	He's okay.  I know him personally through my family.  Nice guy.
HIs lyrics are half-way decent, although by my standards, he's an old-timer,
not really a current pop star.

>Try some songs  even by Cho Young Phil, Byun Jin Seup......

	Cho Yong Pil, you mean.  Personally, I think he sold out.  His
music isn't what it used to be.

>Second, you put Seon Gu Ja in the realm of pop song but we Koreans consider
>it rather classical than popular song and call it a Ga Gok. 

	And we Koreans understand perfectly what you are talking about.
If you have read my posting, you would have noticed that I said "older
songs like Sun Goo Ja."  And we Koreans are not such a condescending people.
Where did you get your attitude?

>Anyway, if you think  Seon Gu Ja has good lyric, you can find hundreds of 
>thousands of beutiful lyrics from Ga Gok genre. 
>( They should be lyrical because most of them are written by poets. )
>Some of those Ga Gok are  very popular in Korea.
>How can you say Seon Gu Ja is lyrical and  at the same time Korean 
>songs are not lyrical

	I believe my original point was that Korean pop music isn't lyrical.
And as you said yourself ga gok doesn't belong in pop/rock genre.  I was
only complaining of lack of poetic lyrics in gayo genre, not in ga gok.

>even if we had thousands of beautiful popular Ga Goks where Seon Gu Ja 
>belonging to?  Is this a Martian logic?

	No, you just don't know how to read.
>
>In my frank opinion,  taste for music is too subjective topic
>to argue or compare with. I know a close friend of mine who think
>Schenberg and  Shostakovich's music is very beautiful although it 
>make me sleep in a minute.
>I have many American friends who really enjoying those Heavy Metal sound
>althogh I have too weak ear to bear it.
>Even if you compare or judge, do not make a stupid statement like Korean pop 
>song's sucks compared with British/American pop music.
>That just shows your ignorance.

	You really don't like me, do you?  Unfortunately, I'll be back home
in Korea by this time tomorrow, so you can insult me all you want, but
I won't be able to answer it.  If you have something really substantial
to talk about, leave me an e-mail rather than a follow-up.  That way, I'll
be able to answer you when I get back in mid-January.  Merry Christmas
and happy new year.  I je na i ga han sal du mug ut su ni gga, du jum jan
ke gul go, sae hae bok man i bad a ra.
>
>


-- 
T. H. Brian Chung                      | Happiness is...              
Internet: jfe@alchemy.tn.cornell.edu   | "Tea, Earl Grey, hot."
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