The cultural artifact that I focused on this week was Trot music. Trot (트로트), which is also known by the onomatopoeic term ppongjjak (뽕짝), is a genre of Korean pop music, known for its use of repetitive rhythm and vocal inflections. This type of music first originated during the Japanese rule in the first half of the 20th century in Korea and is a very big part of Korea’s history and culture.
To give some more context, trot is known for being composed of a two-beat rhythm, which is also known as something called duple metre. In its origins, trot music was composed using the pentatonic scale and minor keys. However, after Japanese rule of Korea, more trot music began being composed with the heptatonic scale and major keys. When trot is being sung, lower tones are usually sung with vibrato and higher tones are sung with a method called kkeongneun sori (꺽는소리), which translates to"breaking throat."
The origin of trot music has always been a hot topic question and many scholars have been known to debate this topic. What is known for sure is that trot music was developed between 1910-1940. Initially, trot music rose in popularity in Korea during the Japanese rule, which leads many to believe that it takes influence from the Japanese’s style of music. Here are the two sides of the debate. On one side there are those who believe that trot can be traced back tosijo, a traditional form of Korean poetry. On the other side is the people who believe that trot music’s closest ancestors/precursors were popular Western songs and Japanese enka, translated into Korean and called yuhaeng changga (유행창가). The singer Yun Sim-deok has a hit recording called "In Praise of Death in 1926, which is an adaptation of a Romanian song, and regarded to this day as the first yuhaeng changga.
During the 1930s, Korean songwriters began composing original popular songs called yuhaengga (유행가),which translats to "fashionable music." Shortly after these songs received a new name, daejung gayo (대중가요), which means"popular music." In 1927, Kim Yong-hwan rose to fame with his hit song , "Falling Flowers and Flowing Rivers.” This would signal the rise of Korean songwriters and composers making hits and very well known songs. After the end of World War II and Japan’s colonial rule over Korea which is somewhere between 1950-1970, trot music started to take and incorporate Western influence. The Westernization of trot music was done very quickly due to South Korea’s government’s goal of eradicating the ideological values of communism and korean musicians drawing motivation from America’s popular music trends
to try and attract and appeal to American soldiers’ interest, that were stationed in South Korea.
Trot music started to lose its popularity in the 1980s, as dance music and Korean pop as it is known today soon overtook the mainstream. However, the invention of cassette tapes hugely benefited trot by staying hip to the trend and keeping trot music somewhat relevant. It also aided heavily in the creation of the new sound of trot medley, which is now representative of contemporary Korean trot music seen these days. As a result, I believe that trot music is an important cultural artifact and gives good insight into Korean culture and history especially in music.
Readings on trot music
https://www.pri.org/stories/2020-05-25/move-over-k-pop-korean-youth-turn-old-time-trot-music
Here is a youtube video that gives context on this topic as well
Replies