Seo Taiji and the 1990s

K-Pop

Course 1 · Chapter 3 · Seo Taiji and Boys and the 1990s Turn

Chapter 1 named Seo Taiji and Boys as the group the K-pop article credits with the "rap dance" that began the genre. This chapter looks at what the group did between 1992 and 1996, how it ran into the censorship described in Chapter 2, and how the first idol groups followed almost at once.

How this chapter was checked The facts here come from Wikipedia's articles on Seo Taiji and Boys, Seo Taiji, H.O.T. and SM Entertainment, as I read them. I read most of the first article and the opening sections of the others, and no books, chart databases or recordings. Sales and ranking figures are the articles' claims, with owners named. The outline also planned to cover new television music shows; I found nothing reliable on them in these articles, so I leave that to a later source rather than guess.

Who They Were

Seo Taiji and Boys (서태지와 아이들) was, in the article's words, "a South Korean music group active from 1992 to 1996". Its three members were Seo Taiji, Yang Hyun-suk and Lee Juno. Seo, born Jeong Hyeon-cheol in 1972, had played in the heavy metal band Sinawe before forming the group with Yang and Lee, who were dancers and backing vocalists. The article says Seo met MIDI technology in the early 1990s and began experimenting with new sounds, and that he "initially had no plans to debut as a dance/pop boy group", so the group's mainstream success was "a surprise".

Four Albums, Four Turns

Year	What the article says
1992	The trio debuted on an MBC talent show on 11 April 1992 with "Nan Arayo" (난 알아요, "I Know") and "got the lowest rating from the jury". The song and the self-titled album were nonetheless a hit. The article calls "Nan Arayo" "one of the first Korean rap songs", with new jack swing-style beats, rap verses, pop choruses and new dance moves, and says the album sold over 1.5 million copies within a month (the article's claim).
1993	"Hayeoga" (하여가) mixed heavy metal with folk elements, using the taepyeongso, a double-reed wind instrument. The group was banned from the national channel KBS-TV because they wore earrings, ripped jeans and dreadlocks, which ethics committees associated with "reggae, resistance movements, and rejection of social norms". The article calls this "the first of the numerous controversies". It also mentions an accusation that the guitar solo copied another band, which the guitarist denied.
1994	A more heavy metal and rock album. "Dreaming of Bal-Hae" expressed a hope of reuniting North and South Korea. "Classroom Idea" (교실 이데아) criticised the education system and the pressure of university entrance exams, and was "banned from being played on TV and radio (but passed by ethics committees)". The group was also accused of hiding Satanic messages by backmasking, an accusation the article says the mainstream news media later "proved ... groundless", though "the moral panic proved difficult to eliminate".
1995	"Come Back Home" took in gangsta rap, and "Pilseung" had an alternative rock sound. "Regret of the Times" (시대유감) was banned by the Public Performance Ethics Committee for lyrics that criticised the government. Seo refused to rewrite three lines, so the album version was instrumental only.

Read the claims carefully The article credits the group with "pioneering the use of rap in Korean popular music", while also calling "Nan Arayo" "one of the first Korean rap songs". The first is a claim of priority and the second is a hedge. Chapter 2 already named Han Dae-soo and others who came before, and another article lists Korean-American acts with American-style music and English lyrics (Chapter 1), so "first" here means "first to reach a mass audience", not "first ever".

The End of Pre-Censorship

The article says the backlash from fans over "Regret of the Times" "was immense, and the system of 'pre-censorship' (사전심의제) was abolished in June 1996, partially as a result of this reaction". An EP carrying the original version of the song followed a month later. Seo Taiji's own article goes further, saying widespread youth backlash to the suppression of his music "became a catalyst for the abolishment of censorship of Korean popular music lyrics."

"Partially" and "a catalyst" are not "caused" Both articles are careful: one says "partially as a result", the other says "a catalyst". Neither says the group alone ended censorship. The articles do not describe the other pressures on the system, so I cannot weigh them here. A sentence that says "Seo Taiji ended censorship" claims more than the sources do.

The Group's Own Verdicts

Sales. The article says Billboard reported in April 1996 that the first three albums had each sold over 1.6 million copies, with the fourth nearing two million. It also says the 1993 album was the first "double million" seller in Korea. These are reported claims.
A change of taste. Seo Taiji's article says the group's popularity "marked a departure from the trot style of music that previously dominated Korea's popular music scene." Chapter 2 showed that trot did not disappear, so read this as a change in what led the youth market.
Importance. A 1997 survey by the Samsung Economic Research Institute, the article says, voted the group the most crucial Korean cultural product. This is a single survey, and the article gives no details of it.
Ending. The group announced its retirement in January 1996, at its height. Seo Taiji went to the United States and returned to music with a solo album in 1998. Yang Hyun-suk founded YG Entertainment, which Chapter 4 meets.

The First Idol Groups

The agency side of the story starts at about the same time. The SM Entertainment article says Lee Soo-man, who founded the company, first signed a hip hop singer, then "decided to focus on debuting Japanese-style idols", with artists "nurtured by a training system". The company took the name SM Entertainment in February 1995, and the article says it "developed an in-house system that looked after all aspects of its artists' careers", aimed at teenage audiences.

Group	What the articles say
H.O.T. (1996)	Created by SM Entertainment in 1996, five members. "They are considered to be the first K-pop idol group". Lee Soo-man formed the group "by using information that he had obtained from polling high school students" about what their idol group should be like. TV debut on 7 September 1996. Debut album sold 1.5 million copies (the article's figure). Broke up in 2001 after a contract disagreement, which prompted "hundreds of fans" to protest against the company.
S.E.S. (1997)	The SM article lists it as a girl group launched in 1997, followed by Shinhwa (1998), Fly to the Sky (1999) and BoA (2000).

Group

What the articles say

H.O.T. (1996)

Created by SM Entertainment in 1996, five members. "They are considered to be the first K-pop idol group". Lee Soo-man formed the group "by using information that he had obtained from polling high school students" about what their idol group should be like. TV debut on 7 September 1996. Debut album sold 1.5 million copies (the article's figure). Broke up in 2001 after a contract disagreement, which prompted "hundreds of fans" to protest against the company.

S.E.S. (1997)

The SM article lists it as a girl group launched in 1997, followed by Shinhwa (1998), Fly to the Sky (1999) and BoA (2000).

Seo Taiji or H.O.T.? The two articles tell the story in different places. The K-pop article says K-pop "can trace its origins" to Seo Taiji and Boys, and that Lee Soo-man's H.O.T. and S.E.S. were the "first generation". The H.O.T. article calls H.O.T. the "first K-pop idol group". Both can be true: one is about the musical style and the other is about the idol system. Another small difference: Yang Hyun-suk's YG is called "one of the three biggest record companies" in the Seo Taiji and Boys article, while the K-pop article, as Chapter 1 said, names four dominant companies. The counts differ because the articles describe different times.

What Changed

The sound. Rap, new jack swing, metal, rock and folk instruments entered mass-market Korean pop within four years.
The rules. The group's run-ins with ethics committees, and the end of pre-censorship in 1996, changed what could be recorded and broadcast.
The business. Two members started agencies (YG, and a label by Lee Juno), and SM built a training-based system. Chapter 4 looks at how those systems work.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Name the three members of Seo Taiji and Boys, the song and date of the group's 1992 debut, and how the jury rated it. Then explain why the article's wording ("one of the first Korean rap songs") is more careful than "the first".

→ Solution

Exercise 2

Choose two of the group's songs from the table and describe, for each, the controversy it caused and the body that objected. Then explain why "Seo Taiji ended censorship" claims more than the articles say.

→ Solution

Exercise 3

Describe how H.O.T. was formed and what the article says about its breakup. Then explain how the articles can both call Seo Taiji and Boys the origin of K-pop and H.O.T. the "first K-pop idol group".

→ Solution

Quick Reference

Seo Taiji and Boys: Seo Taiji, Yang Hyun-suk, Lee Juno; active 1992 to 1996; retirement announced January 1996
Debut: "Nan Arayo" on an MBC talent show, 11 April 1992; lowest jury rating, then a hit
Songs and controversies: "Hayeoga" (1993, KBS ban over looks); "Classroom Idea" (1994, banned from TV and radio); "Regret of the Times" (1995, banned by the Public Performance Ethics Committee)
Pre-censorship: abolished June 1996, "partially as a result" of the reaction
SM Entertainment: named in February 1995 by Lee Soo-man; training-system idols; H.O.T. (1996), S.E.S. (1997)
H.O.T.: "considered to be the first K-pop idol group"; formed from a poll of high school students; broke up in 2001
Check: the sales figures, and how much other pressures mattered in ending pre-censorship

Next chapter: The Agency System, which looks at how the big agencies work: trainee systems, auditions, contracts and the reforms that followed.