A feature I wrote for the International Herald Tribune about Shin Joong-hyun and the revival of Korean classic rock music is now online. I hope you find it interesting. It should be in Friday’s print edition, if you prefer dead trees.
I’ve written about Mr. Shin before, so rather than just re-hash his biography I tried to do something a little different with this story, connecting a bunch of different trends. First, there is the re-issue of Mr. Shin’s music in the West, which is pretty cool. And there is the growing interest in old Korean rock music in Korea, with retro bands like Chang Kiha and the Faces and the retro sampling of DJ Soulscape.
Plenty of modern rock bands are also covering classic rocks songs these days (like Galaxy Express), and several Hongdae clubs have had special days focusing on classic rock covers (which I think Badabie started with its Kim Jung-mi cover night) — oh, and the neo-70s group Funkafric & Boostah, they’re great — but unfortunately I could not find a way to fit in those details.
Anyhow, I’m just happy to spread the word a little about some great Korean music besides K-pop. I hope a few people out there might read it and listen to Mr. Shin’s music or other great stuff from way back when.
Here are a few links to some other things I have written here about Shin Joong-hyun: here (about the Light In The Attic releases), and here (about a 1963 article on Mr. Shin from Stars and Stripes).
Now if I could just find a reason to write about Han Daesoo or Sanullim…
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