Ok-Pop’s first technology is commonly referenced as the inspiration for the business we take pleasure in now, however there aren’t sufficient good English-language sources that give its music the main focus it deserves. I’m hoping to alter that with a unbroken flashback sequence, spotlighting private highlights from the period – each iconic and obscure.

The period in query is commonly thought-about to run from the debut of Search engine optimization Taiji & Boys in 1992 to the emergence of TVXQ in late 2003. The music featured on this sequence will largely match inside that time-frame, give or take a number of years on both facet.

It was a time of bonkers track constructions, wild style, slamming techno beats, dangerous reggae impressions, flagrant use (theft?) of American hip-hop samples, hearty energy ballads, foul language, the growliest rapper tones you may think about and an anything-goes scrappiness that’s unimaginable to pigeonhole. To borrow the identify of a well-liked second-gen act, these years had been the “large bang” of an rising musical powerhouse, nonetheless discovering its footing and throwing every little thing on the wall.

Years earlier than Eminem exhilarated the world along with his rap/rock hybrid Lose Your self, Korean co-ed hip-hop supergroup Bros had their very own pump-you-up anthem. However this being early Ok-pop, Win Win is sort of idiosyncratic.

On this period, it was quite common for songs to pattern fashionable American hits, and also you’ll typically hear wildly surprising interpolations and straight-up rip-offs framing a lot of this music. Given the business’s underdog standing its basic stealth inside the world music market on the time, a part of me wonders what number of of those samples had been legally obtained. Nevertheless, I’ve obtained no sourcing for this speculation. What’s most necessary about Win Win is that it chooses a killer pattern. The track is constructed across the mammoth guitar riffs from Survivor’s 1982 mega-hit Eye Of The Tiger, fueling the monitor with an addictive depth.

Bros was a 14-member collaborative venture, together with artists from fashionable teams Roo’Ra, Diva, and Chakra together with luminaries like Bobby Kim. They launched precisely one album on the flip of the millennium, and it’s a blended bag of disparate sounds and concepts. However Win Win stands as a complete triumph — a track so exhilaratingly energetic that it’s unimaginable to take a seat nonetheless whereas it’s enjoying. Even when the vibe modifications midway by means of (a typical incidence in Ok-pop on the time), the manufacturing retains a way of pressure that retains you ready for the stabbing instrumental to make its triumphant return. And boy does it ever!

Grade: A-