I’ve forgotten about blogging this until now, but it’s better late than never (sometimes, at least).

Anyway, this past summer in Hong Kong a random piece of relatively unique graffiti caught my eyes. It was a treble clef on some wall in Causeway Bay. And it wasn’t just a treble clef either, it had a sharp accidental along the tail of the clef. Well, whether or not that little accidental is special is really up to you. But in any case, it was a simple but interesting work of art, an especially fresh breath of air—a couple of ubiquitous musical symbols not typically present on urban streets. Usually you don’t see cool graffiti like this, even in a place with a lot more graffiti, like Rome.

Delving In

Sophomore year in high school or so, I really delved into trance music and acquired not only specific knowledge about the trance scene, but also the electronic dance music scene. Last year, I began exploring Korean lounge and Korean hip-hop, and, although I can’t consider myself a true connoisseur of those two genres, I have learned quite a bit and now listen to a variety of artists, most of whom are not in the mainstream (the hip-hop side of this musical exploration is partially thanks to the recommendations of my friend Won here).

This picture is on my MacBook’s desktop. Now, where did they come from? Well, lately, I’ve begun my latest foray into interesting musical realms—this time, Korean indie rock. How did I embark upon that remarkable journey? I don’t really remember exactly why I was doing this, but for some reason I came across this guy’s blog post about a Korean indie mini-album released by a certain Earip (이아립), the lead singer of a Korean indie rock band called Sweater. I proceeded to listen to one of her songs titled “we are the universe.” It was good. Simple, quiet, and tranquil, it inspired me to find similar music.

Unfortunately, after extensive digging, very few people had the album, and it seemed difficult and expensive to order the album online (although I did run across many pages in Korean with brief reviews of Earip’s album). A place called Post Poetics has seems to have it available for ordering, but they don’t really seem to communicate in English, and an online store called Mr. Kwang also sells it—but for $32.99. [feb28 2008 edit: Post Poetics has actually contacted me (in English) for ordering the CD, so don’t be afraid to try contacting them either. My apologies!] YesAsia, probably the easiest method for buying Asian media online in the US, unfortunately, does not have either of her two solo albums.

Sweater and Misty Blue

Now we return to the subject in the picture above—Sweater, the group Earip’s the lead singer for. (I would provide a URL, but the group didn’t renew their domain registration because they were apparently too “lazy”—at least, as Earip said.) I found a review of Sweater’s first album, Staccato Green, rating it an A+… in Korean. There I listened to the second track, 별똥별, many times, and I was definitely hooked. I looked around more to find out about them.

Actually for Sweater I did find some blogs that had written about them in English… well, more like two or three. But in any case, see The Turning Gate’s “The Korean soundWave, Part II” for a particularly decent entry which includes them and other groups, like Misty Blue. So then I also tried some Misty Blue, and the words in that article describe pretty well my own sentiments, “I love Misty Blue. They remind me every so slightly of the Sundays, and they’re delightful to listen to – calming, but upbeat; upbeat, but low-key; beautiful, wonderful and catchy too!”

As of this writing, I’ve bought Sweater’s first album, Staccato Green, off Amazon in mp3 (LAME V0 VBR, I think, with no DRM!) as well as their second album, Humming Street, off YesAsia.com. I probably would’ve bought the first album in CD as well, but I wanted to buy something from Amazon (Amazon gift cards are awesome!), and unfortunately they don’t sell the actual CD… Either way, I’m very happy to have supported this Korean indie artist. I haven’t bought any Misty Blue music yet, but they too deserve me at least buying one of their CDs. I still might even buy an Earip CD. All of this music is just so refreshing.

Why Korean Indie Rock

You might ask why I don’t just settle for American music, maybe American indie music. It turns out that I did used to listen to a lot of popular American music. I still listen to and enjoy some songs here and there of that genre. I’ve somewhat tested out some indie music in English, but I didn’t find it very exciting. I have nothing against Western music, seriously; to this day, trance music is still something I love, and some of its songs are among my favorites. One way or another, for some reason, Korean indie rock has this appeal to it that I simply highly enjoy. I accidentally run into some of it and am instantly hooked. It can be really calming or just really delightful in all sorts of ways—not that other music can’t do this because other music definitely can—but why not learn about some music you find enjoyable?

Aside from reasons like that, Korean indie music is interesting in its own right. I once read that it’s somewhat of a Korean musical subculture countering highly commercialized Korean pop music culture. When you think about it, Korean music most people generally encounter is really commercialized—think BoA or Lee Soo Young, both of whom I think are enjoyable, competent singers, yet are still nonetheless parts of a commercialized culture. My friend Won even noted that all of Lee Soo Young’s songs sound the same, and I do find some truth in this. So, in principle, I also find Korean indie music intriguing. Besides, exploring various music means exploring various cultures and acquiring new understanding, and I certainly have felt wiser every time I’ve listened to some new brand of music—whether it’s been MC Solaar and French hip-hop, The Quiett and Korean hip-hop, or even the awesome Jeremy Soule and video game soundtrack music.

To the Future

Unfortunately the indie albums I’ve been listening to are relatively old (Staccato Green and Humming Street were released in 2002 and 2003, respectively), but if it’s fresh and exciting for me, then it could very well be the same for you, too. I’ll be on the lookout for newer interesting Korean indie rock albums, but information for this kind of thing is hard to come by in English. If at any point someone wants to help me out with these endeavors, feel free to let me know! Until then, I hope you, “dear reader,” enjoy some of these artists I’ve talked about.

Thursday late afternoon, some of my friends and I went to see the Korean Ambassador to the United Nations give a talk at Baker Hall here at Rice titled, “Beyond the Alliance: The Future of Republic of Korea–U.S. Relations.” I’m glad we have events like this, but I also wish there were more of them as well.

It was really interesting. Mr. Hyun Chong Kim talked about how last year South Korea signed a breakthrough bilateral free trade agreement with the United States, and the positive impacts it will bring to both countries. He also talked about the eventual reunification of Korea, that the government is ready for it, and the role of the United States in stabilizing the Far East region, pacifying the two traditionally opposed nations of China and Japan. He praised the United States’ spreading democracy around the world, particularly in the Far East region, as well as affirming their Republic’s commitment to helping the U.S. in Iraq. (Of course, it would be in the interest of the South Korean state to declare commitment to the United States’ intervention in Iraq, since their own stability rests strongly on their alliance with the United States.)

I am not really in a position to be able to totally criticize someone of his stature, so I will not. Even so, I’d still like to point out some things with relation to the United States’ foreign policy.

I do believe the United States has a critical role in the Far East at this point. However, in fairly extensive agreement with Ron Paul’s foreign policy, I believe the prospects for the United States creating democracy in the Middle East are not too great—at least, with respect to using military force to do so. I don’t understand what makes us believe we can succeed with force there. I once believed it as well, but let’s face it. From a comparative politics point of view, I quite easily see that any government we put in place of another’s in the Middle East suffers an extreme crisis of legitimacy. The cost of creating an unlikely legitimate government is far too high. I believe that democracy has to, in some ways, evolve through their own cultures, from the inside out, not from the outside (us) in.

The United States’ situation in the Far East has been quite different in contrast with that of the Middle East. Mr. Hyun Chong Kim pointed to our success in making Japan a relatively peaceful, prosperous nation-state since World War II, as well as our continued success in preventing the Communists in North Korea from overrunning South Korea. Japan, however, is a unique case. We did not invade them with the idea of creating a democratic state. We defeated them in a military war (World War II), and created a new state in their old state’s place, but the background of Japan from the nineteenth century onward is different from any other Asian country’s. Already in the nineteenth century did they begin to have democratic institutions. They did not have complete civilian democratic institutions until we made them, but for a while, a semblance of democracy lived in Japan under the Meiji Constitution. This encouraged a little bit of a democratic culture. There has hardly been any in Iraq right now.

In South Korea, we defended an authoritarian government against another, North Korea, backed by the Soviet Union and China. South Korea is democratic now, but it is still a new democracy, only having elected its first civilian president in the 1990s—a change we did not force. I think we should remain committed to helping South Korea, but we should probably not be relentlessly attacking countries to “force” them into democracy when democratic culture and institutions do not exist. Simply encouraging it, though—and I do mean simply encouraging it—is probably fine.

We have stabilized the Far East by our presence stemming from the aftermath of World War II. China and Japan are not at war. Generally, North Korea keeps to itself. We do not, however, really have a place in much of the Middle East. In Afghanistan we pursue terrorists, but in Saudi Arabia we sit stationed as a result of old Cold War legacies, and in Iraq we topple a government and have problems creating a new, stable one accepted by the people there.

I am glad we are initiating free trade in South Korea and promoting prosperity in the Far East. We do need to be careful though. The Middle East is not just like the Far East. A military presence should never be taken lightly. We should also never forget social problems the various countries we are involved in face, even if it is not the direct realm of the government.

Let us also hope that the reunification of Korea will not be too turbulent. A lot of things on the international scene would be affected, such as having a strong U.S. ally, Korea, border China.

Finally, here’s a picture of some of my friends, some other Rice students, and I with His Excellency. I look a little angry (haha), but, oh well.