Musical Experiences: Hallyu Dream Concert & Global Gathering

Sunday-Tuesday (02-04 October 2011)

Traveled to Gyeongju over the long weekend for the Hallyu Dream Concert, a huge Korean pop concert with 18,000 people in attendance. Initially, I planned to travel to Andong for the Maskdance Festival and/or Jinju for the Lantern Festival, but I was down with a cold and needed time to rest. Of course, no bout of sickness would stop me from attending my first Korean pop concert, so I packed my bags and made the 7 hour journey to Gyeongju. A friend and I stayed with another friend who happened to be going to the concert and who also happened to live walking distance from the stadium.

Book Vending Machine at the Gyeongju Bus Terminal

A poster for firefighters? Also at the Gyeongju Bus Terminal

Facebook event winners were emailed instructions to pick up our tickets between 3pm-6pm outside of the Gyeongju Citizen's Stadium. My friends and I started waiting in line at 10:30am on Monday because tickets were distributed on a first-come, first-served basis; the earlier we arrived, the better the seat selection. The contest was for foreigners in Korea, so there were heaps of non-Korean people waiting in line. I overheard that some girls from UC Irvine, but I didn't bother talking to them.

Waiting in front of this from 10:30am-3pm -- 4.5 hours

Line full of foreigners. My nose was sunburned after sitting in this line

People often mistake me for Korean

Sunny daze

First glimpse of the Gyeongju Citizens Stadium

Waiting for the concert to start

And so it begins

The concert started shortly after 7pm. We sat in the stadium perpendicular to the outermost tip of the stage. The artists looked like little specs in the distance, and we could only identify them once they started singing. Two screens projected close-ups of the singers on-stage, and the perspective was identical to K-pop concerts seen on tv. (And sure enough I saw it on tv later that week.) I recognized quite a few songs because all of the stores in this country play the same 5 songs on loop. Korean pop is really hard to avoid because it is the only music in circulation.

Featured Artists: Girl's Generation, T-ara, Sistar, SHINee, GD&TOP, Secret,
MBLAQ, BEAST, SE7EN, IU, and more!
Is it just me, or do the names of these groups remind you of knock-off brands?
You know ... when you buy a handbag from Chinatown and it says "Cucci" instead of "Gucci"

I found the concert to be very mellow. Everyone stayed in their seats. No one stood up to dance. The music wasn't so loud that I couldn't hear the person next to me. The crowd wasn't rowdy. No one was drinking or jumping fences or destroying private property. The entire audience just sat and waved light-up batons or heart-shaped balloons back and forth to the rhythm of the music. I guess these are all good things...But even the teenybopper GLEE concert wasn't this tame.

As a Film & Media Studies major, I am very critical of Korean pop music. The songs are very catchy and integrate elements of house music that I like such as 4-on-the-floor beats and a heavy bass. But at the same time, the image and sound of Korean pop music are very fake and formulaic. Pale-faced girls with doll-shaped eyes, who wink on cue in every music video. From my understanding, there are a handful of Korean music companies that own essentially all of the pop groups. The companies recruit young kids and train them for 4-10 years; the young hopefuls work for the slightest opportunity to debut in a group of other singers who look JUST like them. They are carbon copies of one another (and one is more than enough), the music video content is unoriginal, and it doesn't seem like the artists are given a lot of creative input; they don't get paid very well either. The bottom line is that a handful of CEO's reap the benefits of the entertainers, who are sweat shop workers of the Korean music industry and driven solely by the fame. Well, that's my opinion. All I am asking for is originality, diversity, and unpasteurized talent.

I forgot who this is or what it's called, but it's popular.

"Goodbye Baby" performed by miss A

"High High" performed by GD&TOP. I like this song.

Friday-Sunday (07-09 October 2011)

Friday was the school picnic, otherwise known as a field trip. I overslept my 6:45am alarm (because I normally wake up at 9:30am) and rushed to shower and meet one of the teachers, who was picking me up at 7:50am. The ride to Daebul was long and quiet. I didn't realize there was so much traffic at 8 in the morning.

I had my fingers crossed that I wouldn't have to sit next to anyone on the 1.5 hour bus ride to Yeonggwang. Wish granted. More time to Kakao*, listen to music, stare out the window, and nap.

*Kakao is the application I use to text friends in Korea and America.

Our first destination was an exploratorium for the nuclear power plants. We walked through the type of lobby that belonged in a fancy hotel and sat in a viewing room to watch an introductory video. Of course, it was all in Korean, so I spent those 10-15 minutes on Kakao.

I stuck close to my mentor teacher and his 6th grade class. He seems really mellow when he talks to me, but goes all totalitarian on his students. While the other teachers let their kids run free, he ordered his students to stay in two lines separated by gender and walk together. He also makes them count off in boy-girl pairs by squatting, then instructs them to start over if a couple messes up. I bet those kids have really strong thighs.

Next we drove to a terrace that overlooked 6 massive power plants surrounded by evergreen hills and located by the ocean. The view was gorgeous, but we were told not to take photos.

We ate lunch at our next stop. The kids brought their own lunches and ate around the park. The teachers spread out huge tarps and literally had a picnic. Rice was distributed in sandwich bags, while Korean side dishes were served on paper plates for everyone to share. They packed at least 5-6 different side dishes plus tangerines, grapes, and baby tomatoes -- and beer / soju! I learned during orientation that it was rude to refuse a drink, so after intentionally trying to piss everyone off 2 weeks ago, the least I could do was accept a beverage. So they gave me a cheers and left me alone.

View from where we ate lunch

I was told that our last destination was where Buddha first arrived when he came to Korea. It was pretty cool.

Pretty awesome sights

That's my mentor teacher on the right.
Notice that he is making sure that his 6th graders are still lined up military style.

mud flats

more mud flats

Waiting to get onto the bus. During this time I chased the kids around like a "jombie" (zombie) and sword-fought with the boys using reeds pulled from the grass. I might be the least professional (and the most amusing) teacher in the history of Daebul Elementary School.

I left for Seoul on Friday evening and met up with some friends. On Saturday, I attended my first (and last) Korean electronic dance music festival called Global Gathering. It was okay, but I've seen better. For one, the DJ at one of the stages played house, dubstep, and hip hop back-to-back, which is an amateur move. Each of those genres deserve their own stage. The speakers were full of static. The company scheduled 50-60 minute intermissions between DJ sets at the MAIN stage, which is unheard of in America. You should never see people sitting around at the main stage; everyone should always be on their feet. I only saw one shuffler; he wasn't that good. They also scheduled the two DJs who I had actually heard of earlier in the evening. I missed both of their sets.

Crossing a bridge. Finding my way to Nanji Hangang Park

View of the other side of the bridge

I went on a brief hike on the way there. aka: I didn't take the most direct path

Sunset over Nanji Park

In the Distance: DJ Example closing his set with, "Changed the Way You Kissed Me."
I JUST missed his DJ set
Han River on the horizon

The camera on my phone makes this festival look more exciting than it really was.

Headliners: Groove Armada and Digitalism

Yellow smiley beach ball!   :)

All in all, it was an interesting cultural experience. Like the Korean pop concert, I can look back and bash on it for being so underwhelming. I think that the electronic dance music festival flopped because Korea doesn't have a historical reason to have electronic dance music. In America, house music emerged out of disco (soul, R&B, funk), which catered to marginalized bodies of people in Chicago during the 1980s. Korea can't relate to that. The presence of electronic music only serves to fill a pop cultural gap by introducing a genre that is a musical trend in the Western world.