Pop Music

BACK TO Ok-POP’S FIRST GENERATION: Shin Hae-chul – To You


Back to K-pop's First GenerationOk-Pop’s first technology is usually referenced as the muse for the trade we get pleasure from now, however there aren’t sufficient good English-language sources that give its music the main focus it deserves. I’m hoping to vary that with a seamless flashback sequence, spotlighting private highlights from the period – each iconic and obscure.

The period in query is usually thought-about to run from the debut of Web 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 couple of years on both aspect.

It was a time of bonkers track buildings, wild vogue, slamming techno beats, dangerous reggae impressions, flagrant use (theft?) of American pop samples, hearty energy ballads, foul language, the growliest rapper tones you’ll be able to think about and an anything-goes scrappiness that’s not possible to pigeonhole. To borrow the identify of a preferred second-gen act, these years have been the “large bang” of an rising musical powerhouse, nonetheless discovering its footing and throwing every thing on the wall.


(and 1988… and 2006…)



I need to kick off this sequence with one in all my all-time favorites – a masterpiece in my eyes and the eyes of many others. The late Shin Hae-chul is broadly thought-about one of the crucial progressive abilities of the period, a genre-spanning musician beloved for his distinctive imaginative and prescient. Inside his various catalog, To You (그대에게) is the track that set every thing in movement and can possible endure the longest.

Some songs simply fill you with a swell of emotion from their very first moments. To You is so beloved as a cheering track, shortly turning into a part of the very material of Korean music. It’s not unusual to see audiences delivered to tears throughout reside performances and covers. You may sense the deep connection the music has made with its listeners.

To You exists in a number of iterations. First got here its 1988 MBC College Tune Pageant debut, which took the nation by storm. A number of years later, the primary studio recording appeared on Hae-chul’s second solo album. Fifteen years after that, a 3rd model appeared along with his band N.EX.T on the remake album ReGame?. I think about this ultimate model to be the definitive recording, buoyed by years of efficiency and musical growth that fulfils the track’s full potential. It additionally appears to be an association typically referenced after Hae-chul’s passing. Nevertheless, I do love the prominence of the swirling strings that encircle the refrain on the 1991 recording.

Above all else, To You is an anthem for the ages. It soundtracks sports activities festivals, political rallies and year-end performances. The track is celebratory and highly effective, with a refrain that lifts spirits and an irresistible pomp and circumstance evident from the  ceremonial stabs of its spirited introduction. You’re feeling every reverberation in your chest, from the second the brass provides strategy to a pounding rock beat. It has a primordial spirit, as if these melodies have existed from the start of time and simply so occurred to be plucked from the ether thirty six years in the past.

Hooks 10
 Manufacturing 10
 Longevity 10
 Bias 10
 RATING 10

Grade: A+

2006 Recording

1991 Recording

1988 Debut

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