Sometimes I hear some wicked Korean rock from the 70s-early 80s in bars around town–that music would do well overseas today.

Rain’s Sold-Out New York Gig Could Take K-Pop Global
Rain’s Global Ambition Alerts New York Times

??y heart is thumping. Famous big-time songwriters and producers come looking for Rain every night,??a breathless voice on the phone from New York says. It?? the director of JYP Entertainment, the K-pop star?? agency. ??he interest in the music industry here shows that Rain has gone way beyond what we could have imagined.??All 11,000 tickets for Rain?? two concerts at Madison Square Garden on Friday and Saturday have sold out.
The U.S. pop music industry, constantly on the lookout for the next best thing, is hoping Asian pop could be the phenomenon of this decade just as Latino pop led by Ricky Martin was in the late 90s, revitalizing the industry with guaranteed worldwide appeal.

I think the issue many have with Korean music is the lack of originality. Why don’t more artist put their own spin on original Korean music?

I’ve often heard expats say “If you listen to Korean pop music today you’ll know what they were listening to back home last year……

Did you ever notice the best music in Korea is played on T.V. ads, the home shopping channels and infomercials?

Korea truly rocked in the late 70s. One did not require access to one’s home country music because the Korean rockers did the job quite well. Times must change, I guess. Maybe there was conscious imitation of Western acts even in the 70s, but I didn’t feel it? Hard to know.

At any rate, I look forward to a Korean version of iTunes, where I can go find some of my old favorites. (If it works like the rest of iTunes, it will require a Korea-issued credit card.)

Out,
kpmsprtd

The fact this guy can attract 6,000 fans to MSG is more attributed to loyal affluent Asian fans who follow him around and NYCs ethinic Korean population.

The Korean media is crowing like a local boy has finally cracked the US mainstream music scene but they dreaming.

I agree with the OP in that some of the older Korean music that is truely of Korean influence is pretty good. Shim-su-bong is my favorite. Even some North Korean music has a haunting quality.

The Korean music industry is great at producing glitzy eye-candy vidoes but they lack the quality or hook to hold a listener in other pure audio mediums.

Bi is a typical of Korean products so be careful not to scratch the paint or look beneath the hood.

Where’s the bulgogi?

the korean music scene has nothing to offer but poorly done copycats, and sadly enough, the copycats aren’t even current. they’re always a decade behind.

mix the two. observe.

…But for the moment, here in the United States, Rain sounded like a nostalgia act.

I dont know much about Rain or what he intends to uniquely contribute to the world of pop-R&B. But in the world of underground rap/hip-hop, there is Roy Kim who goes by the stage moniker of Snacky Chan.

XXL magazine said, “Chan is the rugged-est, most skilled Asian-American MC I’ve heard yet — actually, he’s pretty dope on any scale …”

Chan is also a nostalgia act, in the sense that in this age of commercialized, mainstreamized, dumbed-down hip-hop, his stated intent is to restore the true, original meaning of hip-hop as it were during the nascent years of the 80s.

He has a number of critically acclaimed compilations. His debut album “Part of the Nation” dropped in 04 under his own record label Dynasty Muzik.

http://www.chanhiphop.com/tracks/index.php