OMONA ORIGINAL: The K in K-pop - songs that use Korean tradition, history & culture [pt 1]

[em-cavey.livejournal.com]

It’s almost Lunar New Year’s Day aka seol-nal in Korea! Seol is one of the country’s biggest holidays and one of the few occasions where most Korean families still practice old traditions such as eating specific traditional food, and customs such as cha-re [altar rites memorializing ancestors] or sebae [younger generations of the family bow to their elders to pay respect and wish them good fortune and get spending money in return \0/] Some people even still wear hanbok (mostly kids and newlyweds though).

In this day and age, it’s not unusual for the more esoteric elements of any country’s native culture to be reserved for special occasions and I definitely remember when the only times I saw hanboks on Korean TV was in seol and chuseok holiday specials or dry, dense sageuks that nobody but my uncles seemed to watch. But at some point sageuks became more fashionable, hanboks re-emerged as hipster trends, and really starting just a few years ago (about the same time that certain departments of the government realized just what a potent soft power they could harness in K-pop, but I digress) more and more surface elements of traditional Korean culture have been emerging in mainstream K-pop. The increasingly widening and globalizing audience for Korean pop culture has helped in part to lead to a surging revitalization and reclamation in mainstream media of the culture that is considered endemically ours, literally ‘우리의 것.’

In fact, there have been so many songs in just the last few years that this post had to be split into two parts - part 1 with various “honorable mentions” and OP’s ranking of the 10 best traditionally-inspired songs/concepts will be posted in part 2.

NOTE: For the sake of judging on equal terms, such as music / lyrics / choreography / aesthetics / MV, I only ranked official releases with properly staged and filmed videos. Noteworthy songs/performances that didn’t meet these ranking criteria or otherwise crack the best-of are listed below.
[Plus all the typical disclaimers - these are all OP’s subjective personal opinions, keep it civil, etc etc]

Blackpink - How You Like That (2020)
While very heavily modified, the outfits are unmistakably hanbok influenced in their designs and motifs, with the clever addition of a traditionally Thai-inspired pattern for Lisa’s skirt. Apparently Blackpink’s immense popularity momentarily boosted hanboks in international search engines when this music video was released.

Monsta X - Follow (2019)
Though the song itself sounds more influenced by Turkish musical traditions, the stage outfits most associated with it are a classy blend of Western and hanbok designs and fabrics.

Stray Kids - Back Door (2020)
Stray Kids especially seem to like combining flashy hanbok-style pieces with conventional boy group fashion like leather pants and designer T-shirts.

Stray Kids - 神 메뉴 / God's Menu @ 2020 SBS Gayo
Stray Kids combined traditional aesthetics with the cooking theme of God’s Menu in a clever homage to Nanta, a food-themed musical show that’s one of Korea’s most famous and longest-running original stage productions.

Mamamoo - Maria + AYA @ 2020 KBS Gayo
Hwasa and Mamamoo perform Maria and AYA dressed in a welcome variation from most female hanbok-inspired outfits. Most of the members are wearing long pants! Put more girls in hanbok pants!!

Monsta X (w/ Cravity) - Intro + Fantasia @ 2020 MBC Gayo
Along with their hoobaes Cravity, Monsta X revisited traditional aesthetics in this gayo version of Fantasia, accompanied by Tago - a performance troupe that uses modified jangu and daego drums - and outfitted in hanbok suits by fusion designer Kim Rieul.

Oh My Girl - 살짝 설렜어 / Nonstop @ 35th Golden Disc Awards
To my knowledge, Oh My Girl has never done a dedicated traditional concept, but they’ve gone traditional especially often for special performances etc, such as this stage of Nonstop. [these outfits are so cute <3 i would wear Jiho's or Mimi's in a heartbeat]

Oh My Girl - 비밀정원 / Secret Garden @ 2021 KBS Gayo
A traditionalized performance of Secret Garden filmed at Gosukjung, a favorite place of King Jinpyeong and a landmark famous for its natural scenery.

Brave Girls - 치맛바람 / Chi Mat Ba Ram @ 2021 MBC Gayo
Brave Girls perform a traditionalized version of Chi Mat Ba Ram (itself an idiomatic Korean phrase) with some standard entry-level fan dance choreography and props. [ok istg I learned a routine like this in grade school w/ those exact same fans, that fuchsia+neon green+fluffy feathers is giving me flashbacks lol]

Dreamcatcher - BOCA (2020) (Hanbok and "K-Zombie" versions)
Dreamcatcher live up to their reputation as K-pop’s genre girls with both a gothic hanbok version and a fantastically macabre Netflix Kingdom-inspired zombie version of BOCA.

BTS - 팔도강산 / Paldogangsan (2013)

If you consume enough Korean media, you’ll eventually come across 사투리 / satoori - regionally specific spoken dialects. While common in their respective areas, satoori is often considered unsophisticated and even inappropriate in some contexts so for a long time it was uncommon in more formal media and it’s still very rare in youth-oriented music. Back when they were little old Bangtan Sonyeondan, BTS bucked this conventional wisdom by loading one of their earliest b-sides with some t h i c k satoori in a verse-by-verse battle of playful one-upmanship between cultural and political rivals Gyeongsangdo and Jeollado, finishing with a reconciliatory final verse in standard Seoul speech. The result is a song that’s almost entirely unique in K-pop and deeply, endemically, unapologetically Korean. It really shouldn't work; it’s patently absurd in how it combines idol-hip-hop posturing and deep country-fried lyrics, some of which are pretty incomprehensible even to other Koreans. But nonetheless the song is very winning and I think what holds it together is the balance it strikes between a self-aware sense of humor and a self-sure embodiment of the material, turning what could have been a cringy gimmick into a knowingly corny but still genuinely proud statement of born-and-bred cultural identity, whether it’s considered cool or not.

BTS - Ma City (2016)
[Bonus: this video includes a decent translation of the lyrics]

Bangtan’s rapline RM, Suga and J-Hope each take a verse to deliver a love letter to their hometowns of Ilsan, Daegu and Gwangju respectively, blending their personal histories with the history and culture of the towns that raised them. Meanwhile, the vocal bridge is a tribute to the city of Busan, hometown to Jimin and Jungkook. The sound and production value have become somewhat slicker since Paldogangsan, but an echo of that same hoky charm still comes through from the slice-of-life authenticity and sincerity of the lyrics, such as Suga’s line about blue blood referring to the Samsung Lions, of which every Daegu native is a dyed-in-the-wool, diehard fan. Notably, J-Hope’s verse references the 5.18 uprising, a highly controversial but politically seminal moment in history for Gwangju natives.

Lizzy - 쉬운 여자 아니에요 / Not an Easy Girl (2013)
[shout-out to broadcities for the tip]

Former After School/Orange Caramel member Lizzy took a shot at going solo with a single heavily influenced by trot, another genre of music that’s very specifically Korean if a lot less trendy than K-pop. The song itself is generic and bland pop-trot (for better or worse most trot singers are very technically accomplished and Lizzy just doesn’t have the pipes). Most trot songs are also a bit…quaint in the love stories they tell and this one isn't an exception, with the lyrics insisting that she’s not an ‘easy’ woman whose virtue can be easily taken advantage of. Like I said, quaint. But the music video takes this conceit in a fun direction, with Lizzy digitally edited into scenes from the 1961 film Seong Chunhyang, one of the many film versions of the Chunhyang-jeon, one of Korea’s oldest and best known pansori traditions/stories about a young woman who falls in love with a young nobleman above her station and refuses the advances of a powerful and corrupt government official.

Rocky & Jinjin - 숨 좀 쉬자 / Just Breath (2022)

Astro sub-unit Rocky & Jinjin released their latest single as a plain-spoken rallying cry to Korean MZs exhausted by social distancing rules, video-chatting, government-issued Covid-19 updates, unexpected quarantines, QR code check-ins and all the social and economic opportunities the pandemic has cost them. But even without the Covid-specific details, much of the lyrics and especially the video are full of details that are eminently relatable and recognizable for young Koreans. Rolling around shoebox one-room apartments in your sweats and house slippers, stacks of notes and post-its for whatever spec exam you’re studying for, loud and blurry late nights at pojang machas, way too many online purchases you don’t need and wayyy too much soju altogether, yeah that’s Korean life in your twenties.

Super M - 호랑이 / Tiger Inside (2020)

The theme of personifying tigers was a meaningful choice, as tigers play a huge role in traditional Korean mythology, folklore, and art, often as symbols of power, strength, and majesty (Siberian tigers were once common in the northern Korean mountains but dwindled over the years and were officially hunted to extinction during Japanese colonialism). The aesthetics and lyrics indicate the song was conceptualized with Super M’s position as self-appointed K-pop ambassadors in mind and the members look good in their fusion hanbok outfits but that’s about as far as the pretty half-hearted cultural aspects extend. Otherwise the looks, sounds, and words are nothing very memorable or groundbreaking by 2020 standards and when you’re calling yourself the (.....) Avengers of K-pop, you set a pretty high bar for yourself.

Kai - Peaches (2021)

The aesthetics and theme of the song are inspired by the classic myth of 무릉도원 / mureung dowon. The legend tells of a utopian valley full of perfect peach trees, hidden in the mountains, wherein everything and everyone is so beautiful and captivating that centuries slip by before you notice - both a bliss and a danger to those who stumble upon it. Visually, the song calls on that inspiration in a dreamy mix of modernism and classicism with a touch of playful kitsch in the deliberate artifice of the sets. SM’s art department does not disappoint, coming through with creatively designed backdrops and outfits reminiscent of mythical Korean wizards and journeying heroes. Kai also plays the part of being lost in indulgent, sensual bliss well but ultimately the cultural elements of the song are pretty slight. The overall connection to a mureung dowon theme places it a step above hanbok cosplay but other than that it’s not really musically or lyrically distinct from most other current-day K-pop songs.

Oh My Girl - 나의 지구 / Destiny [originally by Lovelyz] (2020)

I debated a lot about this one because sadly I wasn't able to find any girl groups that have done a proper traditional concept for a title but as much as I wanted a girl group in the top 10, it’s a one-time performance of an existing song so I decided it didn’t quite fit. Still, the sweeping, string-heavy melody and the dramatic, slightly old-fashioned tone of the lyrics adapt very well to a more traditional, fusion-sageuk concept. The gravity and dignity that certain traditional instruments are often associated with works well in revising the tone of the song to be more poignant and melancholic to go with the lovelorn grief of the lyrics (imo it actually works better than the original instrumentals). The performance makes great use of choreography and props inspired by 살풀이 / salpuri [a dance/custom flourishing long, loose pieces of cloth or sleeves to both prevent and express misfortune and grief], a common element in traditionally-inspired K-pop performances.

BTS - IDOL (2018)

Yes, IDOL is probably to this day the most well-known K-pop song to use obvious homage to Korean culture. Yes, it broke new ground in bringing Korean traditions to the worldwide audience of K-pop. Yes, it’s a crystallization of BTS’ standing as the international pop culture representatives of Korea and their most overt attempt to meld their global superstar status with their branding as SK national team: idol division. The synesthetic acid trip of a music video includes many clear-cut Korean cultural elements as well as more subtle homages to traditional motifs and tropes. The song was among the first in modern K-pop to use old Korean vocalizations such as jihwaja and ulssoo, exclamations of joy and celebration used in oral traditions such as pansori. Yes, but. Although it was one of the first to really set off the traditional trend, ironically its effect was such that just about everything done here is eventually done better or more creatively by other groups and concepts. Yes, IDOL was ahead of the curve. But when it comes to how well or interestingly Korean traditions are put to use in K-pop songs, this one retroactively falls a bit behind.

But honestly I’d be remiss if I didn’t make special mention of the instantly iconic performance of IDOL at the 2018 MMAs.

The opening dance performance is gorgeously conceived with each segment representing a key element of Korean folk dances and performances - 북 / buk [standing drums], 부채 / buchae [fans, especially ornate decorative ones], salpuri, and 탈 / tal [caricature masks that signify different characters and emotions]. The music builds one layer at a time, first the percussive drums and 꾕가리 / kwenggari [handheld gongs with that brassy clanging sound], then the plaintive, keening winds, then a charging cascade of strings. Then comes a full 사물 놀이 / samul nori troupe, performers who were a common feature of Joseon-era folk festivities and celebrations and have been preserved as a traditional art form. Lion dancers and sangmo dancers [the guys with the twirling ribbon hats] with jangu drums and kwenggari spill out in a swirling prologue of movement and sound. Over just the next few years, a lot of the cultural tropes featured in this performance would become all but cliche in traditional-themed concepts but it’s not an overstatement to say their real re-introduction to K-pop started here and this remains one of the most effective mainstream testaments to how rousing and striking Korean traditional culture can be when it’s just being itself. And finally IDOL begins, reimagined with strings and winds like the geomungo, bipa, haegeum, daegeum, and danso, and charged with the lightning-in-a-bottle synergistic energy of history, art, and a historic artist’s moment in time all aligned - a homecoming victory lap for the unlikely homegrown heroes who conquered the world. Everything BTS did at this point was considered a triumph and in this performance, they invited everyone whose culture and history they shared to celebrate with them.

Sources: 스브스케이팝 1 2 ㅣ M2 ㅣ SBS Entertainment ㅣ KBS Kpop 1 2 ㅣ MBCkpop 1 2 3 ㅣ Golden Disc Awards ㅣ Piki Pictures ㅣ Dreamcatcher official ㅣ dorosoro ㅣ 1theK ㅣ fantagio ㅣ SuperM ㅣ SMTOWN ㅣ M-net KPOP ㅣ HYBE LABELS ㅣ Melon

Share your favorite performances and any I may have missed! Part 2 will be finished up and posted soon - OP will be back sometime after she’s done flipping jeon, washing dishes, and sleeping off the food coma ✌🏻

Comments

[lilsei.livejournal.com]

OP you deserve a medal for this imo. What an amazing amount of work and thought you've put into this. Can't wait to read it!

That said, with my mod hat on, can I ask you to just make a few formatting changes;
- your intro text seems to be larger in size than standard text? did you maybe paste it from another word programme where you drafted it? Could you resize it a little smaller please (this is to shorten the post's length on the front page);
- could you consolidate the multiple read mores into one please. You could potentially replace the individual read mores with further spoiler cuts, or just leave it as is without since you've used spoiler cuts already for the sections (this is also to shorten the length of the post on the front page and make scrolling easier).

Thanks again for doing this, I am in awe ✨✨✨

p.s sorry about the 500 edits i just made to this comment. i'm clearly so blown away by this post that i've forgotten how to type.

[em-cavey.livejournal.com]

1. Aw thank you, hope you enjoy ☺️

2. Noted and fixed to the best of my limited html abilities (lj post editor and I were enemies in a past life I swear) please lmk if you still see any issues!

[996677.livejournal.com]

it's here!!! can't wait to read allllll of this later tonight! the post looks friggin amazing too! i absolutely love the title and the gif. eyecatching, effective, beautiful. thank you op for making this for us <3<3<3

[sinnamon roll (from livejournal.com)]

This is a great post OP. Looks like you put a lot of effort into it.

I still love Idol, especially the live performances. And Paldogangsan is my favorite rap line song till date.

The outfits for HYLT are beautiful (the song still sucks though)! So are Mamamoo’s.

[em-cavey.livejournal.com]

The HYLT outfits are soooo pretty but I actually listened to the whole song for the first time when I was putting this list together and yeah that was...dire lol

[juhli.livejournal.com]

What an amazing post and title pic! Cant wait to check juut all the music videos and stages (again) to focus on your points

[rosiemotleymind.livejournal.com]

OP this is an amazing post! I love Ma City and Paldogangsan. Besides the cool cultural references they’re both really fun songs. BTS are strong with that. I never hated Idol I actually loved it on first listen because I think the African influence meshed well with the Korean one.

I’m going to check out more of the videos through the rest of this post when I’m not on the clock lol but I think this is so cool.

I also wonder whyyyyyy CA (I’m thinking of Jay Parks DNA in particular)is so popular in kpop/khiphop when they have such a rich and proud history and culture. This post proves that point!

[ohmylol.livejournal.com]

This is a vey cool post! Also I love the digs at SuperM (I love Tiger Inside tho, the only good thing they did)

Kai's video is so so so pretty, it's so aesthetically pleasing, peaches is a good song but overall i liked the b sides more but I love the aesthetic of the video so much !

[em-cavey.livejournal.com]

Tiger Inside is the best thing SuperM has done by far imo but when you call yourself THE AVENGERS OF KPOP you are absolutely asking to get dunked on at every opportunity lol


I was testing out some gifs to make banners for the songs I was considering for the top 10 and peaches had so many pretty scenes

[loverdestroyed.livejournal.com]

that version of BOCA is fire, i love it so much. happy to see skz and bp here too, their outfits/aesthetics were great. will check out the rest!

[carmine-pink.livejournal.com]

Outstanding post OP. The write up is fantastic, very insightful and shows the depth of your knowledge.

One I can think of for the fashion category is Golden Child's choreography video with hanbok for Wannabe. Too bad it's so dark we can barely see the gorgeous blue hanbok they were wearing. It looks clearer in the making video (https://youtu.be/-pYfsu14DS4).

[em-cavey.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah I could've made a whole other category on dance practices/videos in hanboks but the post was getting SO long and I needed to draw the line somewhere lolol

Thank you for sharing though, these ones are gorgeous

[gathyou.livejournal.com]

Yesss I came to this post also to mention it, but you had it covered already <3

[broadcities.livejournal.com]

op!!!!! what an amazing post, i've learned so much! thank you, it must've taken so much effort to put everything together and so beautifully too! songs and performances that center korean tradition and culture are always standouts to me, even though i do not always get the full references so i really appreciate this. and happy seolnal op, have fun on this long weekend!

i've never seen hanbok pants for women before but they look stunning. i really hope we'll see more girl groups and soloists embracing korean culture and tradition in their songs more too :)

paldogangsan and my city are some of my favorite songs by bts! as much as idol was a disappointment to me when it came out as a song, i cannot completely dislike it since that mma performance was just so great.

this is one of my favorite songs by bts ever called dead leaves (translated), because the instrumental is so stunning to me


we cannot forget agust d's daechwita but i can imagine op might include it in the next post!


sf9's stop it now also includes some pretty traditional instrumentals


and some kingdom stages last year held some korean cultural elements, like this dance performance by the boyz, sf9 and ikon


and ateez the real which really reminded me of old school bts


i'm not really sure if i call this a fave but yuju also included some traditional elements in her latest solo release!

[em-cavey.livejournal.com]

Aw thank you and I'm glad you enjoyed it <3

Imo the MMA performance of idol is one of the best things that has ever come out of k-pop, bar none, it gave me chills when I first saw it. And yeah it retroactively made me like the song a lot more.

And not to self-spoil but there are indeed more than one of these songs in the top 10! 🤭

[xoxkenzxox.livejournal.com]

THIS FORMATTING IS AMAZING! ok. time to actually watch performances and such. I'm a sucker for traditional Korean aesthetic. Especially anything with hanboks.

[lolknope.livejournal.com]

this is beautiful!!! i can't wait to go through and watch the performaces!!

*small correction: Oh My Girl did a cover of destiny by Lovelyz not Gfriend :)

[em-cavey.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much, fixed! I always mix up Destiny and Rough ;;

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

This is awesome! Thank you for this! Excited to check out the videos on the list that I haven’t seen before (that MX/Cravity one was awesome).

[ginger-star.livejournal.com]

Here to share one of my all time fav performances in modern hanbok <3 WJSN performing Secret. Everyone looked like beautiful princesses here.

[vanilla-09.livejournal.com]

this is SUCH a nice post so much work put into it wow OP

[996677.livejournal.com]

going through this was so interesting and educational! i hadn't seen most of the clips before, just the bts and omg ones (both oh my girl and dreamcatcher need do all-out traditional concept asap, all their stages here are fire!!).

that astro song is a bop, i totally missed it when it came out a couple weeks back, damn. lizzy's video was super clever too. as a whole, the novelties section especially was dope. 🔥🔥🔥 thank you for your hard work op!

[belintuchiha.livejournal.com]

Ateez's The Real has traditional Korean music, idioms in the lyrics and Korean traditional message rooted into it, traditional dance inspired and an amazing traditional mixed modern choreography in a break dance they did for Gayo Daejun. Simply perfect from head to toe.

[wannabeinsicily.livejournal.com]

This post is AMAZING. I learned so much and i enjoyed going thru all the videos and reading your explanations. I loooove traditional dresses in general and hanboks are just stunning so i found it really cool seeing them used in modern media.
I'm very excited for your second post, op.

[torontok.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous post OP and I can't wait for your top 10.

I just remembered No Mercy by B.A.P that featured satoori rap and a breakdown with traditional instruments and dancers. The member we don't talk about actually was trained in janggu

[gathyou.livejournal.com]

This post is AMAZING Op, well done!!!

[memei5.livejournal.com]

op this is amazing!

i really appreciate seeing more traditional elements in mvs and i often try and research more about the references used, just bc i like history like that.

one of my fave things related is oneus' lit and luna, where the main rapper changes his usual english tag of 'ra spit out flames' to an old traditional Korean translation of 'ravn recites poetry'

[xoxkenzxox.livejournal.com]

did Seventeen do a performance in Hanbok? found it:

[996677.livejournal.com]

kinda ot but the hair choices of this era are too iconic 😂😂😂

[xoxkenzxox.livejournal.com]

You could also say CLC's Me performance has hanbok styling:


The MV also has moderized versions of hanboks.

[xoxkenzxox.livejournal.com]

Crayon Pop also did a lot of Korean inspired styling and music:

Uh-ee;


Bar Bar Bar hanbok version:

[xoxkenzxox.livejournal.com]

Isn't CL's Spicy song supposed to be an ode to Korea? I would need someone else to weigh in on this one...

[kyungwons.livejournal.com]

really great post op!!!

i really loved the mix of modern and traditional outfits for peaches, and same with a lot a.c.e's styling during favourite boys, they incorporated a nice mix. and speaking of a.c.e i don't think this counts because its a cover and not a completely original traditional influenced song but i always bring up their
performance when traditional music is discussed.

and my favourite hanbok version of a performance is fromis's

because you don't often see female idols wearing this style even though it doesnt really fit the vibe of the song lol.

[chiives.livejournal.com]

thank you for this post op! i haven't seen most of these. the outfits for the nonstop perfs are beautiful, the puffy skirts and sparkly beaded bodices are A++.
why are the safety shorts so visible in that HYLT still lol.
also skz has some of the strongest stages, i know their music isn't to everyone's tastes but there's no denying their stages are always fire.

(i'll add on to this comment later lol)

[frequency.livejournal.com]

amazing post, OP!!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[itsme-eloise.livejournal.com]

this post was amazing, OP! I've been working my way through it since it went up. thank you for all the hard work and insight!!

[lightframes.livejournal.com]

OP! This post must have taken so much work. It looks great. I feel like I learned a lot from reading it, too.

I love Ma City. It's still one of my favorite BTS songs.

[milktov.livejournal.com]

Amazing post OP!!!! I especially love the descriptions for each video- the context really helped me appreciate each video even more. And sometime this week I'm gonna go watch through all the stages in a row as a kind of late Lunar New Year celebration haha

[takemydream.livejournal.com]

this is such a cool post! very interesting and informative

[myungung.livejournal.com]

thanks for the roundup OP! great to see many examples, pity girl groups don't do more of it.

I preferred the OMG Destiny version to the original. I do think Destiny ought to be higher than Secret Garden because it was more planned and that Secret Garden performance didn't add much

[nha2licious.livejournal.com]

Wow... i love these kinds of stuff.

Why when hanbok, and korean elements related in a kpop song, the first songs that popped up in my head is the 한량- HeeChul, Min KyungHoon, Bibi, and Dindin. Also Oneus-Lit.