Artist Impact to Kpop -

Students for High School Summer Abroad Korean Immersion program in Seoul were tasked with creating a 200 word blurb about some of the most important figures and their impact to the KPOP industry. 

Sechskies 
Sechskies debuted in 1997 as a six-member boy group composed of Un Jiwon, Lee Jaijin, Kim Jaeduck, Kang Sunghoon, and Jang Suwon. The success of SM’s H.O.T caught the attention of DSP Entertainment, who scouted future members Eun Jiwon and Kang Sunghoon in Hawaii. Kim Jaeduck and Lee Jaijin were trainees at Lee Juno’s company, and the Seo Taeji member himself recommended both Jaeduck and Jaejin to DSP. Jiyong and Suwon auditioned as the final members of Sechskies, and the group debuted on April 15 of 1997 with the album, School Anthem, selling 1.8 million copies. Sechskies soon came back with Welcome to the Sechskies Land and were deemed rookies of the year. The group maintained massive popularity, filming their own movie, being the first dance group to perform in North Korea, and winning a multitude of awards. However, it was suddenly announced in 2000 that the group would disband, a decision that still elicits confusion and controversy. While some members claim the group wished to change agencies, others admit they intentionally disbanded at the peak of their popularity, possibly due to DSP’s decision to promote their labelmates, Fin.K.L., instead. Sechskies is considered to have had a significant role in the development of K-pop alongside Shinhwa and H.O.T as an early dance group, establishing the idol aura, style, roles, and fashion. The group was so influential that in 2016, YGE signed five of the former members, and Sechskies reunited with new music and stages and were able to sell out multiple concerts and garner numerous awards. They celebrated their 20th anniversary in 2017 and are is still active and releasing music under YG as of 2018.\
      
The Kimchi Cats
The Kimchi Cats were performers for the 8th US Army. They were wildly popular for the soldiers and made a great deal of money from their performances for them. The soldiers had a lot of free time and wanted entertainment. Since numerous amounts of famous performers did not want to go to South Korea, many Korean performers took advantage of this opportunity. The Kimchi Cats were one of them. Their style of music changed with the audience they performed for. When performing for Americans, it was of course covers of American songs that were popular at the time. When performing as a theatre show, they had korean music (for the Korean audience). For the Gogo club, they had American music for their Korean audience. The Kimchi Cats are important due to the fact of their popularity with the American soldiers and they were a major breakthrough for girl group performers. They, along with other girl groups of the time, paved the way for future generations

Kim Haesong
The name Kim Haesong would first be distinguished throughout the K.P.K. a variety show collective which initials come from the names Kim Chŏnghwan, Paek Ŭnsŏn, and Kim Haesong, that take a huge role during the 1930s and 1950s with their activities showing complexity in the notion of occidentalism. The collective would search to find artist that were the most talented and highly trained artists they needed to be able to play traditional music, modern folksongs and jazz, but they would also need to be able to performed traditional and modern dances and stand-up comedy acts too. But hardship started when the collective audience change at the time when Korea was liberated from Japanese colonial rule. In over a fairly short period of time, the audience change with a major U.S presence due to the U.S military bases. The collectives found themselves with a drastically different performing venues. Then, Kim Haesong and his wife Yi Nanyŏng had their seven children. Their seven children will later had played crucial roles in the 20th century and the later development of popular Korean music. The family Kim played important roles in what is the development of popular Korean music and it become to receive recognition abroad, but also their performances ( in some cases) served only to emphasize the cultural superiority their foreign audiences had. Therefore Kim Haesong story and the collectives show the viewpoint of the audiences and the entertainers.

Kim Wanseon
Many people are familiar with the Korean trainee system that is used by most  entertainment companies today. However, what many don’t know is who set the example for this system. Kim Wanseon, or Kim Wansun, was the first kpop idol. She was born on May 16,1969. Her aunt, Han Baekhee, recognized Kim’s talents and was able to convince her parents that living with her would be best. At 14 years old, Kim was taken out of school and sent to live with her aunt. Han was a performer for soldiers at mipalgun shows, and she used her connections to ensure that Kim would have a successful career. From a young age, Kim Wanseon was placed into a life with strict schedules and little to no free time. She spent her days practicing dance, vocals, and language. She wasn’t allowed to speak to other artists, and her life was controlled by her aunt. She debuted with a song called ‘Tonight’, which was composed by Kim Chang-hoon. Despite making a lot of money, not a cent of it went to Kim. In 1998, Han and Kim got into a fight, which resulted in Kim backing out of her musical career. Apparently, Han had poured all of the money Kim had earned into a ‘failed business venture’. After the fight, Kim decided to enter the University of Hawaii and study design there. Four years later, she attempted to re-enter the musical industry in Korea. This was unsuccessful due to the fact that her star years were gone and, while she was undeniably unique in the start of her career, she was now just one of many idols who have been trained the same way. In 2011, she had a comeback with the EP ‘Super Love’. This was an unofficial comeback, and the official one was in 2016 with the song ‘Use Me’ along with Ravi from VIXX. What is she doing now? Well Kim Wanseon is still in the music industry and still producing songs. Her latest song was called ‘Jelly Christmas’, released on November 30th,
2017.


Kim Gunmo / Kim Geonmu
Kim Gunmo, born on January 13, 1968, was a singer-songwriter. He was known as one of the most famous artist of the 1990’s. He continuously hits the charts with his albums and ranks high. Gunmo holds the title of the most  album sales ever in Korea, with 3.3 million album sales. Gunmo is known as the most representative “national singer”. He is known as this because of his rapid popularity and spike in between 1993-1996. Gunmo was exposed to have almost no talent in singing or composing music through variety shows. Despite this he was able to become immensely popular. This was mainly due to his dancing skills and his ability to perform charismatically in front of an audience. He was able to attract the audience through his different genres of music and allowed for a bunch of new genres to be incorporated into K-pop. Without Gunmo and his impact of the Korean society, K-pop wouldn’t have been able to have all the diversity it has now. Kim Gunmo will forever be known as one of the utmost significant “idols” in the K-pop industry.



Kim Nam Jin
Kim Nam Jin (김남진) was born on September 27, 1946 in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province, South Korea. He debuted with the album Seoul Playboy in 1965 and was incredibly popular in the 1960s and 1970s. He was married to Yoon Bok Hee for three years in the late 1970s, then later married Kang Jeong Hyeon. He released five new songs for his 50th anniversary of performing, putting out new music almost every year up until then. He has released over 1,000 songs throughout his career, from albums such as 남진 흘러간 노래 제1집 (1978) and You Coming Mokpo Harbor (2009). He is a korean singer who is still alive today, and has sung music from trot to Latin music, although he is mainly known to be a korean trot singer. He is 71 years old currently, but has still been putting out music even in his older age. After being such a large hit in the 1960s and 1970s, he seems to still be doing well for himself and enjoys what he is doing.
Yang Hyeonseok (Yang Hyunsuk)
Yang Hyunseok is a former member of Seo Taeji and The Boys. (1991-1996) The group was known to mix many different genres of music, bringing a new sound to Korean music. They also sung about important social issues, which would later, in 1996, get them in trouble and would disband later that year. In 1998 YG Entertainment was formed where he first released his own album, which included Seo Taeji, and since has been producing many successful artists under his entertainment including Sechs Kies, Big Bang, 2NE1, and BLACKPINK, to name a few.

The Kim Sisters
After the death of composer-conductor Kim Hyesung, his wife, creator of Tears of Mokpo, Lee Nanyoung was left a widow with seven children to feed. Lee needed a way to keep her family afloat, practically career-less, but as a formerly-married woman looking into the music industry of the mid-1900s, there were startlingly few options, the most profitable one being performing for the American troops stationed in Korea, or in Mi Pal Gun shows. As her children grew older, her two eldest daughters, Young-ja and Sook-ja, or Jane and Sue, began performing with her in English— a language foreign to all of them. Eventually, two of the sisters, Ai-ja and Sook-ja, joined up with their cousin Min-ja, later known as Mia, and gained a reputation among the American troops for the performances of Ol’ Buttermilk Sky and Candy & Cake. 
Word quickly spread among the troops stationed in Korea of the trio who could together play around twenty instruments, sing in English despite being full Korean, and dance. Hearing this, Tom Ball offered them a contract to perform for four weeks in a Las Vegas show. They later went on to accept an eight-month contract with a different show, eventually continuing on and performing until they had appeared on the Ed Sullivan show. In 1967, all three of the Kim “sisters” married, but Ai-ja and Sook-ja continued performing without Mia, who left to pursue her life in Hungary, until Ai-ja passed away in 1987 due to lung cancer. 
If you ask an American today about Korean pop music, chances are that they’ll bring up BIGBAN, Wonder Girls, BTS, EXO, or 2NE1. If you asked an American a few years ago, they might have mentioned H.O.T., Seo Taiji and Boys, or Sechkies. If you’d asked an American in the mid 1900s, they would’ve responded with The Kim Sisters. Even today, the Kim Sisters continue as one of the largest bridges between Korean, and by extension East-Asian, and American pop culture, not in performance, but in legacy. 
Epaksa (Yi/Lee Baksa)
Epaksa (Yi/Lee Baksa) is famously known for his fusion of techno music and trot (Techno-trot), a popular style of music in the 1990s and early 2000s. Epaksa started with learning pansori from his parents growing up, but he added his own modern twists to the music he performed. People first took notice of Epaksa because of his interesting imitations of the instrumental sounds he would make while performing. Once he gathered a small fan base, Epaksa began to perform on a tour bus for almost 20 years. In 1989, he was approached by an owner of a nightclub and together they released Epaksa’s first album, Sinbaram Epaksa Vol. 1. The album was a huge success selling over 1,000,000 copies and Epaksa was considered a rising sensation among the middle class. Since he was gaining recognition, MBC talk shows invited him on as guests which further boosted his popularity. He even became a co-host for a year on the show Nae Gohyang Sohshie. Along with his first album, Epaksa went on to release 19 more albums in the same year (1989). Today, he has a total of 25 albums. From 1996 and on, Epaksa’s style of music has changed; it’s shifted towards more of a lyrical style than an instrumental style. In more recent years, Epaksa has also really taken off in Japan. It’s easy to find him on Jpop sites along with his Japanese fanbase. 


Ely Haimowitz 
Ely Haimowitz was an American who came to Korea to serve as an cultural affair officer in the US  Armed Forces.He majored in music  and became a professional pianist who helped organize the first Korean Symphony Orchestra and other musical groups. He showed/introduced Korea to classical music and helped them get their people together ,organized and exposed  to classical music to form a group.He was and still continues to be praised by his former students of how he was such an influential person with a kind heart and a big passion for music.Ely Haimowitz changed korean traditional cultural giving it a more western image through classical music changing people piont of view on what music they liked..He has affected Kpop  giving it more of a better image to Koreans since it seen as  Korean music that is unique to their country only and classical music is from a different culture or the people of Korea could have not been really into or the older generation could have liked it since classical music is more calming nad similar to their music taste compared to K-pop.After creating the music groups in Korea he returned to school(Julliard) to get his Masters Degree.
INSOONI
Kim In-soon is a South Korean singer or R&B Diva. She is more known as Insooni. Insooni has been part of Korean music for over 35 years and releasing a total of 19 albums. She is one of a few Korean singers to have performances at Carnegie Hall and winning multiple awards. She was born with an African American father, who was serving in the military at the time, and a South Korean mother. A big part of her career was debuting with the “Hee Sisters” in 1978 and the fact that her father was African American, she said, had a drastic impact on her past as a younger child and as a performer growing up. She grew up with many of the American soldiers living in South Korea as a teenager. Growing up she was able to meet many different people and, in fact, she recently just met one of her best friends, Ronald Lewis, who was serving in the military at the time. Being born into a culture that shuns mixed race people it was tough for her to become popular. Furthermore, the fact that her father was an African American, which is extremely uncommon in South Korea and the fact she was a successful singer and performer allowed Korean culture to have more openness to other foreign artists and allowing the Korean people and culture to be more accepting of “non-white” Koreans.

Han Dae Soo
Han Dae Soo is often considered as the father of Korean folk rock music. Coming from a background of physicist, pianist, and theolist, Han Dae Soo grew up in New York City and was influenced by folk and hipster styles living in the United States. In New York, he would play in a garage band and also very much influenced by Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Leonard Cohen, and Bob Dylan. Later, he also performed the acoustic guitar and harmonica on a variety show. From his entire career as a musician, one of his most famous iconic song, To The Land of Happiness, is a highly spirited song of hope. During the time of this song, Korea was under the administration of Park Chung Hee. Long-Long Road (1974) and Rubber Shoes (1975), Han Dae Soo’s first two albums, were banned by Park Chung Hee, which made Han leave Korea to New York. Nevertheless, Han Dae Soo’s song To The Land of Happiness, inspired the youth to rise up and even began a movement of many young students learning to play the T’ong guitar. It soon became a joke that if you didn’t know how to play the instrument, you are a North Korean spy

Seo Taiji
Seo Taiji was a pioneer in the Kpop industry. He changed the industry by incorporating rap into his music, sampling, dancing, criticizing society, and having genre fluidity in his music. He was also a huge fashion icon during his time. Seo Taiji started out in a heavy metal band called Sinawe as the bass guitarist when he was 17. Here he took on his stage name and later dropped out of school to pursue music. After Sinawe, Seo Taiji started his group Seo Taiji and Boys with two other members Yang Hyun-suk and Lee Juno. They debuted April 11, 1992 on MBC’s talent show with the song “Nan Arayo” which got the lowest score on the show. It later gained major success even winning a Golden Disk Award. “Nan Arayo” is known for starting rap in South Korea and combining Korean ballad, rock, rap and techno. Seo Taiji and Boys continued to release three more albums after their first. The group was quite controversial and some of their songs were banned by the government. In 1993, they were banned from promoting their album due to them wearing earrings, ripped jeans, and dreadlocks. Another controversial song was “Sidae Yugam” which criticized the government so Seo Taiji was asked to censor the lyrics but he refused and instead released an instrumental version of the track. The backlash from the fans later contributed to the abolishing of pre-censorship in June 1996 and Seo Taiji later released an Ep with the original lyrics of the song. Seo Taiji and Boys disbanded in 1996. Seo Taiji continued on with a solo career with his last album coming out in 2014. From 1992-2004, every single Seo Taiji album outsold all other albums released. In 2017, Seo Taiji gathered other modern Kpop artists to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Seo Taiji and Boys’ debut. Some of the artists involved include BTS, Urban Zakapa, and Younha. Seo Taiji had a major impact on the Korean popular music today and is considered “the President of Culture” in South Korea.
                       
Byun Jin-Sub
Byun Jin-Sub was born on July 30,1966 South Korea. He is admired by all age groups in Korea. He realised 12 albums called “ To be alone”, “back to you”, “farewell”, The reason to be with you”, “you to me, again”, “image ‘94”, “again”, “nonfiction”, “20B”, “History”, “drama”, “timeless”. He has reserved lots of awards like “Golden Disc Award of the year 1990, 1989, to you again, it's too late”, “Golden Disc Award for Rookie artist of the year in digital music 1988 becoming alone”. Byun was one of the first to sell one million albums.


Jo Sungmo
Jo Sungmo, born 1977, is a Korean ballad singer who debuted in 1998 and continues to release and perform songs to this day, is referred to as a first generation idol. His first album, To Heaven, is one of the best selling albums in the history of South korea with more than 775 thousand albums bought. He continued topping the charts only a year later with the album For Your Soul, which is considered to be the second best-selling album in South Korean history, having sold more than 2 million albums. For Your Soul also won Jo Sungmo numerous awards such as the Golden Disc Awards’ Album Grand Prize and Album Main Prize, KBS Music Awards’ Best Song Award, Seoul Music Awards’ Grand Prize and Main Prize, Mnet Asian Music Awards’ Best Ballad Performance, and had him nominated for Mnet Asian Music Awards’ Best Male Artist. Only a year after releasing For Your Soul, Jo Sungmo released yet another best selling album-- Classic-- which sold over 1.5 million albums, only to have another album released a short 7 months later named Let Me Love, another chart topper which sold over 2 million albums. The very next year Jo Sungmo released another successful album, No More Love, which almost sold 1 million units. However, after that success, his album sales dropped dramatically, not even close to hitting the half a million sales he’d exceeded fourfold only 4 years prior.
Hwajungseon 
Pansori is a type of traditional Korean music that’s a form of story telling, performed with a vocalist and someone playing the drum. It’s also considered an important intangible cultural artifact. One artist who performed Pansori and is possibly the biggest celebrity of the colonial era is a woman named Yi Hwajungseon (pictured below) who even performed it in other countries. Hwajungseon lived from 1898-1949 as unfortunately a boat she was on sunk in Japan and she passed away.
Yoo Young Jin
Yoo Young Jin (Yu Yeong JIn) is a South Korean singer, songwriter, and record producer under S.M. Entertainment. He started his career in 1995 with SM as an artist, not a producer. After his fifteen-year contract ended, he signed for another fifteen contract with the agency as a songwriter and producer. He talks about the songs, mixings, and choreography to the singers. He has written numerous songs for H.O.T., BoA, Shinhwa, TVXQ, Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, Shinee, f(x), EXO, Red Velvet, and NCT. 
Yoo is one of the first people in the k-pop industry whose method is to create the rhythm first, then the melody. He argues that his songwriting method will be good for the performer’s performance on stage. Producing k-pop music, he believes that this kind of music should contain dramatic elements and emphasizes that the various genres in the tracks (for instance putting five different genres into one song) will stimulate the audience. An example would be songs performed by H.O.T. or Super Junior. Although there has been a huge commercial success for his music, his method stands controversial as other composers claim that melody is more important than rhythm and that he is leading k-pop into a weird direction. 
Recently, Yoo Young Jin has composed in songs, such as Red Velvet's "Bad Boy" EXO-CBX's "Blooming Day" and TVXQ's "The Chance of Love" in early 2018.


Lee Mija
Lee Mija was or still is one of the most influential trot singers of her time but all of her success came with quiet a lot of backlash. She rose to fame with her song called “Camellia Girl” in the late 1950’s and is known as the “Queen of Elegy”, meaning serious writings about grief and sorrow. She is also one of the only South Korean singers to perform in Korea. Even with all of this she was criticized as her style sounded too “Japanese”, remember this is right after Japan’s colonization era, and the government even banned her music. Although she was President Park's favorite singer it didn't get her any special treatment. (Notes) She had established herself as Korean and not Japanese influenced by performing in traditional Korean hanbok and temples/palaces around Korea. She has released over 500 albums during her peaks and time performing. Now she only performs at special events and shows on MBC sometimes. She is still one of the most influential singers even today as she paved the way for Trot and what later becomes popular music as she sets records for Trot and women of her time alike. Her setting apart of the Japanese and Korean style and bring back a more traditional but interesting sound to Korea is what makes her a legend.
Crying Nut
Crying Nut is the accumulation of the talents of five South Korean musicians into a band that would introduce much of the nation to punk rock music. The group, consisting of twins Lee Sang Hyuk and Lee Sang Myun, Park Yoon Sik, and Han Kyung Rok started out as four high school friends in 1993, performing for the first time in 1995 in a live club, and were later joined by Kim Insoo in 1999. The band’s debut album, Speed Up Losers, gained immense attention and sold over 100,000 copies, mainly from their new youth following, after its release in 1998 despite being from an unknown label. Crying Nut has won multiple awards, including Indie Artist of the Year and Indie Music Video of the Year multiple times and the band has performed at multiple international festivals in countries such as the USA, Singapore, Japan, and Sweden. Despite originating as a punk rock band, Crying Nut’s music ranges across reggae, Ska, polka, and Irish among other types, their versatility only adding to their popularity. The band’s touching lyrics are reflective and self-composed, and their indisputable charisma allows them to continue to gain new fans to this day. This legendary group, which has remained active for over two decades, continues to hold the spot as Korea’s best selling indie punk rock band and are prominent innovators of the genre.

Lee Sooman (Lee Suman) 
Lee Sooman (Lee Suman) has contributed so much to the Kpop industry today with his own
entertainment company, SM Entertainment and many successful Kpop artists under his label. Lee
Sooman first started as a student who had a large interest in music. He debuted as a duet with his
friend called April in May and performed for a small amount of time before moving to the California and
major in computer engineering. While in America, he was exposed to American artists and sparked an
interest in introducing this kind of music to Korea. He came back with this new goal in mind. He opened
his own restaurant and DJed while he wasn’t working at the restaurant.
He was finally able to raise enough money to be able to established his own entertainment company
called SM Studio. He signed a singer, Hyun Jinyoung and they released an album. It did not do as well
and Lee decided to go a different route. He trained Jinyoung and dictated his work but Jinyoung’s next
album did much better with their sales.
Lee Sooman continued with his training process and signed many more artists. Later on, SM Studios,
which is now known as SM Entertainment debuted a group called H.O.T and S.E.S. which took off. This
started the rise of SME and let SME be where the company is right now. They have over 30 artist signed
and have debuted artists that have left a mark on the Kpop industry like H.O.T, BoA, Girls Generation,
Super Junior and more.

Kim Min-Ki 
Kim Min-Ki was a very important figure in the shaping of korean music and where it is
today. He was a key component in pop music and blending it with Korean folk music. His most
famous work is his song “Morning Dew” which became a large pop music hit in the 70s. As well
as being a prominent person in pop music he was also a political activist and representative of
youth culture. His songs often talked about westernization and the relationship of North and
South Korea. His lyrical style and music style also shaped the genre known as Norae Undong
("Song Movement") which grew in the 80s. His career consisted of nine albums before 1975. His
songs began to be censored by the Korean government and pulled from record stores. Playing his
music or singing it in public was also banned. Kim Min-Ki could not release material under his
own name. The censorship on his work was active until June 26th 1987 when all restrictions
were lifted. During his time of censorship he did things like writing plays and formed an acting
troupe which performed musicals that he created. His adaptation of German Rock music was
performed in 1994 and gained mass amounts of fame with it also being performed in China and
Japan. Finally in 2007 he received the “Goethe Medal.”

Lee Aerisu (Lee Erisu)
Lee Aerisu was known for her talented voice and her popularity as a jazz singer in the 30’s. Lee was born in Gaesong, North Korea and she began to act and sing at the age of 9 years old. She then went onto to perform a song at age 18 called Hwangseong Ruins also known as The Ruins of Hwangseong which was the nation’s first pop song by Wang Pyeong and Jeon Su-rin. The song talked about the past of the palace Manwoldae, and how all of its glory turned into ruins; this touched the hearts of many people and was a song that was “highly valued from the enlightenment period in North Korea”. 
Lee ended up gaining success after singing this song, hence she became one of the fist female stars in Korea and sold 50,000 copies even though it was banned by the Japanese colonial government. A gramophone disc was also released for Hwangseong Ruins in 1932.  
As time passed she ended up getting married at the age of 22 and disappeared after her marriage leaving her performing career. She was then later on found in a nursing home in Ilan, and on July 17th she passed away at 99 years old. 

Buhwal/Boohwal
Buhwal/Boohwal is a rock band formed in 1985 by the lead guitarist, Kim Taewon. Thy led the wave of rock music in the 80’s, along with other well knows bands. While other bands worked on western rock, Buhwal worked for more Korean style rock ballads. 
Many bands have tried to copy or mimic Buhwal’s sound, because of their popularity and success. They broke the barrier of traditional and bland music, with their booming music and instruments. They were one of the newest and unique sounds in the 80’s which inspired many people to follow in their footsteps. 
 
Buhwal has so far stayed consistent with their members, with the exception of lead singers. Over the past 33 years, Buhwal has changed lead singers 10 times. 
 
2015 marked Buhwal’s 30th anniversary, and they are still together as a band. Their most recent release was a single, called “flower” which was a nostalgic hit. Up until today, Buhwal is one of the most unique and diverse rock bands in Korea

Sin Junghyeon
Sin Junghyeon is a rock guitarist and singer songwriter. He was born in 1938/01/04.  He began he career in 1957 when he formed his group Add4 when they debut for the U.S. Military base in South Korea in 1962. At the time of debut he was 19 years old. He began the rock wave in South Korea and is now considered the “Godfather of Rock”. He was signed under Jigu Records in 1974, after the release his first album in 1970. During the presidency of Park Chung-hee, he wrote a 10 minute song called Beautiful Rivers and Mountains to protest against the president. After the release of the song, police confiscated Sin’s guitars and cut his hair off. In 1974 Sin released another album with a new band and sold over 1 million copies.  In 1975 Sin was arrested for having weed and was thrown in jail.  Later on he was moved into a psychiatric ward until his released when he was banned from performing. After the assassination of the president, Sin continued to perform and write music. He is still active today, his last album was released in 2013, it was a guitar melody compilation released under C&L music.

Na Hoona
In modern Korean pop, hiphop, and rock music, trot (트로트), as a genre, is typically overlooked. It's considered 'old-fashioned' and maybe even 'boring' for those who've been hearing the same general tune during their whole life. However, Trot is quite important to the history of the development of the aforementioned K-music genres. In fact, it was one of the first rising genres that could be considered "popular", when it was introduced as far back as the 1920s. The reason Na Hoona (나후나) is important is because he took the final step in bringing trot music to a more urban scene. Because trot began as a genre for the wealthy residents of Korea, it was harder for trot artists to bring a more urban, cross-class appealing vibe to the music. He was able to take foreign music and turn it into something that caused a nostalgic feeling in Koreans, quite similar to the way sad country songs might make Americans feel. The reason Huna is important is because he was able to develop trot into something that ended up being strictly Korean (still today). And he ended up developing sounds that indirectly contributed to a very large concept still important to today's popular k-pop sounds.

H.O.T
HOT, made by SM Entertainment. They are the most famous K-pop boys group in the 1996 to 2001. Member has Moon hee-joon, Jang Woo-hynk, Tony An, Kangta and Lee Jae-won. Also they are the first star of the Korea Wave in Asia. They just come out 3 mouth and sold over 12 million records in South Korea during their career. They were also commercially successful in China and Japan. Everytime they Comeback people is very excited. Also they open the door for SM, they make the SM be the most famous Entertainment. H.O.T was formed in 1996 by record producer Lee Soo-man. But they have the very hard time training in the SM Entertainment, because at 1995 SM Entertainment just a very little company in Korea they don’t have a lot the money to training them. They don’t have any mirror in the practice room so they can only use the mirror on the window at night and use the light to see in mirror. That they can fix their dance. Finally, they came out at 1996. But they broke up in 2001 following a contract disagreement with SM Entertainment, Prompting hundreds of fans to stage protests against the company. That very sad, but if they don’t broke up they can bring SM Entertainment so much money, this is they are choose we can only feel sad for them.  

Jo Youngpil (Cho Young-pil)

Jo Youngpil (Cho Young-pil  was born in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi in 1950. He had a love for playing the guitar, so when his parents asked  him to focus on getting into a good college, he ran away from home. He started off working in at clubs around the 8th military base and performing on stages in Busan. In 1976, his song “Please Return to Pusan Port", became huge globally with the LP selling over 100,00 copies. In 1980, his first album, “Woman Outside the Window", had a record breaking sale of 1 million. Young-pil got very popular in Japan with many people singing his first hit in Korean and even had his first concert in Japan in May 1983. He also was the first Korean to have a solo concert held in Beijing, China in 1988. During the 1990s the hype around Young-pil died down with new groups like Seo Taiji and Boys coming into music. He still was performing live and was selling out shows and even had the chance to perform in North Korea. In 2013, his 19th album “Hello", hit number one on the Korean pop charts and performed on TV the first time in years.