Dear DΞΔN

SEOUL MCA PRESS JUNKET, MAY 2017

I was wandering around Hongdae when the faint sound of a familiar song urged me to walk a little slower. Playing in a club basement was DEAN’s “I Love It,” and nothing made me more excited than the thought of hearing it live come the weekend. The track didn’t manage to lure me into experiencing Seoul’s club scene, but it did make me skip and snap my fingers to a few beats.

Just a few blocks away, another track by the R&B artist was blasting from the speakers, and like its chorus, I needed someone to tell me what to do when I met DEAN in person the next day for a one-on-one interview.

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“I heard your songs last night as I walked around Hongdae,” I managed to tell DEAN, who was now seated a few inches from me. It was the second time I was seeing him that day, and unlike our first encounter (he pointed me to the direction of the bathroom), I didn’t freeze.

The ingenuity that is ‘K-pop’

The genre is backed by generations of fans who are vocal in pitting their idols against the industry’s long list of legends, because they are very much entitled to believe they can.

K-pop was always made for world domination.

Lee Soo-man—yes, the guy who owns SM Entertainment—saw that music was the next great export. He was a visionary for identifying music as the biggest cultural asset to invest in, as revealed in Vox’s “Explained” series which can be streamed on Netflix.

Come the year 1997, South Korea created a basic law for the promotion of cultural industries. It meant putting prime focus on bolstering the arts, and, in turn, promoting Korean cultural and entertainment productions as exports supporting the economy.

1992’s Seo Taiji & Boys are as much of a Korean revolutionary music symbol as BTS is now (in fact, their music are considered as bold criticisms of society, with BTS even covering Seo Taiji and Boys’ “Come Back Home”).

Seo Taiji and Boys

The group was considered as fearless trailblazers of K-pop groups, even preceding the 1997 law. Seo Taiji and Boys was replaced in the spotlight by agency talents H.O.T, Roo’Ra, Baby VOX, S.E.S, and Sechskies, which all soared to fame in the mid 90s.

A K-pop pilgrimage of sorts

SEOUL, MAY 2017

It’s not hard to fall in love with Seoul. While it is a country continually reinventing itself on a global scale, it is one that also strives to preserve its historical roots. It’s precisely in this harmonious dichotomy where Seoul’s very vibrance and energy resonate.

Worldwide, South Korea is known to be the home of today’s most consumed entertainment content—from television dramas and variety shows to live and recorded music performances. The faces of its stars are not only taking over Asia, but has begun penetrating the West’s mainstream media.

The country is shaping the time’s lifestyle and culture through the television and film, music, art, and fashion that they produce, and with this we can say Hallyu or “Korean Wave” which started in the 90s has reached its peak.

Many travelers who have their eyes set on Seoul are pop culture pilgrims, visiting various shooting locations of high-rated dramas, hopping from one Korean cafe to another, and going around the areas of music agencies hoping for serendipitous idol encounters. And I was among them.

I have been a fan of Korean music for the past decade, and visiting Seoul has permanently contained me in its K-pop bubble.