The Impact of Western Popular Music in Korea: The Development of “Jazz Song” in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

This paper aims to examine the introduction of various forms of traditional and popular Western music to Korea. Western traditional and popular music had a significant impact on the development of Korean popular music beginning as early as the Japanese occupation. This paper has examined the origin, formation, specific forms, and meaning of jazz song, a representative genre of early popular music through considering the formation of Korean popular music and the ways in which Western music played a role in its development. This subject is discussed in detail referencing examples of adapted and original songs. Just as in the present, Korea was influenced by popular culture from all over the world, wherein the influence of foreign music is attested by the emergence of jazz song. To demonstrate this point, this paper reviews the specific characteristics of both adapted and original jazz song. Jazz song almost completely disappeared from the surface from the 1940s on, as Japan entered into a state of war and banned Western music from the U.S. and England considering it as music of the enemies. Consequently, much Western-influenced music, including jazz and jazz song, disappeared from the popular music scene. After Korea was liberated from Japan, Korean popular music was newly reorganized under the absolute influence of Western popular music. The music resulted from this reorganization has been settled as the mainstream popular music today and is being re-exported into the world boosted by the Korean-wave. In this light, jazz song from the first half of the twentieth century is meaningful in that it were the matrix of such music.