Cho Yong Pil History

Jiwoo Lee

2016199061

Understanding of Popular Music Mid-term

Meet the K-Pop Legend: Cho Yong Pil

I. Introduction

The history of 1970’s and 1980’s Korean popular music cannot be completed without mentioning Cho Yong-pil (Cho Yong-p’il). So, who is Cho Yong Pil? Younger generations, including myself, do not closely know about him or may have barely heard his name or the melody of his songs. Ironically, back in 20th century, singer-songwriter Cho is usually regarded as the “National Singer” and “King of K-pop”. Basically, he is a living legendary figure who has topped the charts with different hit songs for 30 years span, since 1970s to 1990s. Throughout its history, Korean popular music has taken numerous transitions and there, Cho Yong Pil-

Nowadays, the music industry is one of the biggest sectors in the Korean economy. Music industry is indeed a lucrative business all over the world. A reason that Cho Yong-pil is a significant figure in Korean popular music history is because that he made a great profits from his music album by ‘recording’ his songs. In the past, the purchase of CDs was the only way for people to access music. As the recording technology developed, artists could yield better quality music album and Cho perfectly took advantage of it. He is also a very well known experimentalist. Cho Yong Pil is the first artist in Korea who employed a synthesizer in 1980 and digital in 1984. With a total of 19 albums, he has received numerous awards. Cho’s album sales were unprecedented in terms of its scale and profits. Due to this fact, Cho is highly known as a Legendary K-pop singer-songwriter figure is that he holds a distinctive award/ album sales record. He hit the public taste every time he comes up with new songs. To be specific, he had topped the charts for 30 years span since 1970s to 1990s with numerous hit songs. Many Korean Pop fans believe that Cho is one of the most influential figures in Korean pop music and has produced the most hits of Korean pop music history, including "Return to Busan Port", "Dear Friend" and "The Lady Outside the Window". In addition, his first single, "Dorawayo Busanhange" (Come Back to Busan Port),

Cho Yong Pil has supreme qualities of a singer. Cho yong pil has an excellent ability to tap into his core emotions and turn them into wonderful music. His music could be a little frightening but completely compelling since when the intensity peaks, sincere, pure conviction pervades. A source of profound emotional power flows freely especially throughout his second album “Blessing (Candlelight)”, released in 1980s. Cho Yong Pil also owns a high musical and producing maturity. Apparently, his music includes various sounds of the whole world. This is a fact that Cho is a matchless artist. He is outstanding in all sorts of ways; he produces, composes, arranges and he even manages the stage by himself. Cho could sympathize with millions of audience and also give ceaseless support through his music. In this respect, Cho’s ability to create music that could relate to the general population was one of the reasons that many still consider him to be the phenomenon of popular