INDEX
Exploring the Movement Reviving Popular Music Genre “Ponchak”
Celeina: From your point of view, are there any new movements in the recent Korean music scene that you are paying attention to?
Uchihata: I can’t really comment on mainstream music, but I think it is interesting that 250 (Lee Ho-hyeong), who produces music for NewJeans, has a solo career in addition to producing music, and his concept is the Korean popular music “Ppongjjak”.
Takano: Long distance drivers and such listen to it.
Uchihata: Yes, they do. You know it well.
Celeina: We talked a little about this topic before.
Takano: I also like listening to Mr. 250’s solo.
Uchihata: It’s great, isn’t it?
Takano:You have very good taste. It’s like you paid attention to that.
Uchihata: Ppongjjak, or when it comes to songs, it changes to the word “trot,” but there is a nostalgia and a bit of cheesiness in the underlying “pong,” the emotional part of the music. There have been artists who have updated Ppongjjak in a modern way, but 250 took the cheesiness and what he’ve heard and took it straight to the heart and reconstructed it in a solo album.
Ppongjjak is getting more and more kids mixing it with DJs in the underground scene, like the one I visit a lot. The mainstream scene, led by 250, is reinterpreting music that they heard when they were young and didn’t take it seriously, or that they thought was too commonplace to pick up now. In the underground, there is a girl named Techno gaksuli who is working on a kind of music that combines techno and ponchak.
Celeina: Techno✕Ppongjjak.
Takano: I’m curious about that.
Uchihata: I think that is one of the movements.
Takano: I heard that you have prepared a song for Techno gaksuli, and I would like to listen to it. May I ask Ms. Uchihata to introduce the song?
Uchihata:Then please listen to “Jjam-bbong” by Techno gaksuli.
