Remembering a Korean pop idol from the 70s

Korea`s top pop songs in 1976 were Cho Yong-pil`s "Come Back to Busan Port" and Choi Hun`s “Odongnip (Empress Tree Leaves)." The former could be heard only on the radio and Choi appeared on TV. Only after 1979 did Cho return to TV, because he had been banned from TV for smoking marijuana. Over the four years that Cho was not on TV, Choi was without rival. Until Cho returned with "Women Outside the Window" in 1979 and dominated the 1980s, Choi was the most popular male vocalist in Korea.

In 1977, the rock band Sanullim debuted with the song "So Soon." For people fed up with Choi`s songs, the new tune was a fresh surprise. The kind of song Sanullim sang had been heard before, but it was still fresh. "So Soon" was similar to "Beautiful Woman" of Shin Joong-hyun & Yeopjeondeul, which became a hit but got censored soon after. The type of songs Choi sang was called "trot gogo." Music critic Shin Hyeon-joon wrote in his book "A History of Korean Pop in the 1970s" that to people who liked Shin and Song Chang-sik in the mid-1970s and Sanullim and "Hwaljuro" in the late 1970s, Choi`s music would be discomforting.

Choi Hun was a singer for a rock band. He performed with Kim Hong-tak of "He6," a legendary band of the early 1970s. Cho Yong-pil later said Kim was the top guitarist in Korea. According to music critic Kang Heon, He6 held an open audition to select a singer who could also play guitar. Leader Kim Hong-tak chose five candidates and then narrowed the field to Choi and Cho. Cho had a nasal voice, so Choi was given the nod.

The Yushin system, or the revitalization of reform under President Park Chung-hee, greatly influenced Korean pop. Popular trot singers Nam Jin and Na Hoon-ah were banned from TV when the "pop song clean-up campaign" classified trot as similar to Japanese songs. Folk singers such as Song Chang-sik and the Cecibon Band filled the ensuing void in Korean pop. Rock bands kept performing at hotel clubs despite the government`s anti-decadence drive that included limits for men having long hair. Song and Cecibon, however, were split up in 1977 due to crackdown on marijuana use. Choi survived, reinvented himself as a trot singer, and found success. He recently passed away, and Koreans will miss his charming voice.

Editorial Writer Song Pyeong-in (pisong@donga.com)