Things we sang to in late 1990s to early 2000s

Here we seek out our favourite millenium babies crooning.  

 

1 Lee So Eun Orae Orae

In December 2002, some rays of sunlight pierced the sentimental ice of Korean gayo winter season. Lee Soeun's feisty voice and Yoo Hee Yeol's (of TOY fame) bold lyrical arrangement soar throughout the splendor of Orae Orae (meaning 'For a long, long time' in Korean and refers to the length of her wait for a lover) in her memorable album Senorita. At 3 minutes and a half this song shines in its every prancing moment.

 

2 Lee Sora & Park Hyo Shin It's Gonna Be Rolling 

This track featured on Flower, Lee Sora's fourth album, raises up high the talent of two vocalists, known for both of their versatile singing abilities, launched in December 2000. The bold, rollicking song was written by Kim Hyun-Chul, a long-time prodigy who began a music career in gayo as he started writing and producing songs and albums for Cho Dong-ik and Jang Pil Soon at an early age.

 

3 TOY Are You Still Beautiful?  (Yeojeonhee Areumdaunji)

Sung by amazing guest singer Kim Yeon-Woo, this was the title track for TOY's January 1999 album, A Night In Seoul. Its theme was quite common, of a boy missing a girl he broke up with. The spelt-out music by Yoo Hee Yeol fit in tight with the melodic croons and dramatic, languishing lyrics.      

           

4 N.EX.T.  From sun to boy

This song with its album, written for a big Korean animation project Lazenca - dubbed a Space Rock Opera in 1997, by this band of rockers are beautiful to listen to. The track in particular addresses adoloscents hesitating to react to the world bravely with their own dreams. All this was done in a classical rock way with Shin Hae Chul's unwavering vocal contribution.       

 

5 SSAW Bravo My Life
Moving from blues to folk to rock to pop to fusion jazz, Kim Jong Jin, the guitarist and vocal and Jeon Tae-gwan, the celebrated drummer, SSAW, short for Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter has been hitting it off with the world of K-music namely gayo. In 2002, The album with the track Bravo My Life finds its own voice in both the singer and the mature audience. Rock elements are there to listen to, mixed with rich folk and jazz.  

 

6 H.O.T. Candy 

Returning to the beginning of boy idol group in Korea, you are sure to find out that our earliest examples are H.O.T. and SECHSKIES. H.O.T.'s first album was launched in Autumn 1996 under the name of We Hate All Kinds Of Violence, and its title track was Descendent of Warriors followed up by Candy. Candy brightened up the girl fans with its cute dance-and-sing-and-lyrics endeavours and we find listening to it is similar in effect.     

 

7 S#arp My Lips... Like Warm Coffee

In 2001 S#arp, a mixed gender group, released its 4.5 album calling it Flat Album. Its title track is sweet, named as above: Everything about it feels like warm coffee or tea, especially the girls' vocals - you might want to learn the Korean language just to understand better whatever they're chirruping, and feel therapeutic and restful.