Episode 59: The Rise and Fall and Rebirth of TVXQ Part 1—Past Prologue (1989-2003)
This is the first part in an episode series on the rise and fall and rebirth of TVXQ aka 東方神起 aka 동방신기. I touched on the group in my history series—which you may want to listen to first if you haven’t—but the circumstances surrounding the group’s almost disbandment and multitude of legal problems which began in 2009 and lasted for years afterwards are still contentious with fans (and anti-fans) to this day and their story really deserved proper time and attention paid to it.
I tried my best to remain as neutral as possible throughout this story and where a single narrative wasn’t possible I attempted to steel man all sides of the argument. Listeners can make up their own minds about the heroes and villains of this story.
This first episode covers the founding of S.M. Entertainment and some of the circumstances that led up to the creation of TVXQ.
I really hate the narrative parroted today from English-language media like Rolling Stone in their bafflingly bad list of the “the best” Korean pop songs, which places the start of “K-Pop” with Seo Taiji and Boys. This has become the mythology thanks to the constant repetition from outlets like Rolling Stone but the truth is far more interesting and nuanced. Seo Taiji and Boys did not spring, fully formed, from a vacuum. Seo Taiji was not part of the scene that centered around the Moonlight Club, a popular hangout for Black American G.I.s posted to Seoul, but he did happen to catch the act of Moonlight regular Park Nam Jung and friends one night and was impressed enough by it that he asked one of those “friends”—a guy named Yang Hyun Suk—to give him dance lessons. The story goes that Yang Hyun Suk took his money and then promptly enlisted to do his military service without making good on the lessons. Meanwhile, Seo Taiji started writing songs inspired by these new sounds and rhythms he’d been hearing and when Yang Hyun Suk returned from the military he looked up Seo Taiji to make get something going and that was the start of Seo Taiji and Boys.
As you’ll hear in the episode, Seo Taiji and Boys had some help in their launch in the form of ex-S.M. Planning manager Choi Jin Yeol, who had been working with hip-hop/R&B artist Hyun Jin-Young before Hyun Jin-Young went to prison for smoking marijuana. So, while it’s true that Seo Taiji and Boys were the focus of an explosion of massive teenage energy, the group was also part of a larger ecosystem of musical acts—none of which were “K-Pop idols” the way we know them today. In every way that matters, the first K-Pop group is H.O.T. (And I will die on that hill: H.O.T. paved the way.)
H.O.T. also has a complicated story that I will leave for somebody else to tell but I do think it’s worth flagging that the group’s disbandment—while similar on the surface to TVXQ—is the result of a very different set of circumstances.
This episode also touches on S.M. Entertainment’s links to Japan’s Avex group, an almost completely ignored part of early K-Pop’s story. I don’t think it’s too big an exaggeration to say that without the intervention of Avex, we wouldn’t have K-Pop the way we know it today.
The songs played are:
“The Way U Are” by TVXQ (performed live on Music Camp)
“삐에로는 우릴 보고 웃지” by Kim Wan Sun
“통화중” by Sobangcha
“Every Little Step” by Bobby Brown
“야한여자(Rap Ver)” by Hyun Jin Young
“난 알아요” by Seo Taiji and Boys
“흐린 기억 속의 그대” by Hyun Jin Young
“두근 두근 쿵쿵” by Hyun Jin Young
“캔디” by H.O.T.
“전사의 후예” by H.O.T.
“Dreams Come True” by S.E.S.
MC and greetings from an H.O.T. concert in China, February 1, 2000.
“A Better Day” by JTL
“Come to Me” by M.I.L.K.
“날개” by Black Beat
“ID; Peace B” (Japanese version) by BoA
“Boy Meets Girl” by TRF
“Boys and Girls” by Hamasaki Ayumi
“Bing Bing Bing” by CLON
“Meaning of Peace” by BoA and Koda Kumi
“Ten Minutes” by Lee Hyori
“나쁜 남자” by Rain (비)
“브레이크 어웨이” by BigMama (performed live on Music Camp, July 26, 2003)
“Atlantis Princess” by BoA