![[KOREA ENCOUNTERS] When rock song and go-go dancing first seemed on Korean TV](https://theanarchist.press/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/495760c046c04b95a4b7f371fa13ebc3.png "[KOREA ENCOUNTERS] When rock song and go-go dancing first seemed on Korean TV")
The Devils carry out at MBC’s studio in 1969. Courtesy of Larry Tressler
Via Matt VanVolkenburg
Regardless that KBS Tv were at the air since December 1961, leisure broadcasting in Korea is in most cases concept to have begun with this system “Display Display Display,” which first seemed on TV in December 1964. It was once aired via TBC Tv, which had begun broadcasting best days previous, and, with its reside performances via well known singers, the display ruled Saturday nights for almost 20 years.
In August 1969, TBC confronted a brand new competitor when MBC — which were a radio broadcaster since 1961 — started airing tv systems. Weeks sooner than they went on air, an MBC managing director instructed The Korea Instances that the broadcaster’s apparatus, bought from a British corporate that despatched 3 professionals to Seoul to lend a hand with set up, was once “higher than different TV stations in Korea.”
British group of workers show how you can use TV apparatus at MBC’s studio, revealed in The Korea Instances June 29, 1969. Korea Instances Archive
MBC sought to innovate in different ways, corresponding to introducing a “manufacturer (PD) gadget” like that within the U.S., which gave extra inventive keep an eye on to the manufacturers so their systems would “mirror their initiative or originality.” Consequently, in step with the managing director, “Numerable top-class manufacturers have already moved to MBC-TV from different stations.”
One among TBC’s responses was once to broaden a brand new song program aimed toward teenagers that will function up-and-coming pop, folks or even rock musicians.
This new program, “1,2,3, Pass,” was once first broadcast on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 1969, at 6:30 p.m. It is not recognized how this inaugural broadcast was once gained, however its 2d episode was once reviewed via the newspaper Kyunghyang Sinmun, which criticized its “dead” performances, “monotonous digicam composition” and deficient group. Regardless of the presence of widespread singer Choi Younger-hee as host, it was once, the overview said, “embarrassingly shabby to look at” and “accountable of now not appearing the younger surroundings and dynamic rhythm that the display was once aiming for.”
Impressed via TBC’s new program, MBC advanced its personal, titled “Younger Rhythm,” which premiered on Friday, Nov. 21. Ilgan Sports activities reported that it will be hosted via hit singer Kim Sang-hee and would function the soul band The Devils, rock workforce A-Easiest, folks duo Dual Folio and dad singer Tak Nan-hee, who was once to sing The Beatles’ hit “Get Again” in a folks tune taste. On height of this, it was once reported that strobe lighting could be “mobilized to beef up the ambience of the psychedelic repertoire” — a primary for a Korean TV display.
The Devils’ look in this episode was once because of inquiries made via the band’s American member, Larry Tressler, who labored on Yongsan Garrison. As he remembered it, “I had heard someplace that MBC was once going to begin a brand new song display, so I figured, neatly, there are a selection of Korean-speaking folks within the Public Affairs Place of job, have one name and spot if we will get booked someday.” If this proved a hit, he assumed they may get on TV in a couple of months, however the reaction he were given was once quicker than anticipated. Consequently, after paintings that day he went to the membership the place The Devils have been rehearsing and requested, “Howdy guys, do you need to be on TV this Friday?”
Larry Tressler, heart, plays with The Devils for the primary episode of MBC’s “Younger Rhythm” in 1969. Courtesy of Larry Tressler
MBC’s studio on the time was once in “a deluxe 19-story development” (recently the Kyunghyang Sinmun Construction) that was once designed via architect Kim Swoo-geun for use as a broadcasting station at the decrease flooring and a resort at the higher flooring.
As Tressler remembered it, the studio the place the Devils carried out was once extensive and featured two levels facet via facet. “It allowed for 2 bands to arrange on the identical time” after which the published may just transfer from one degree to the opposite, making it “necessarily a reside display. ‘Band at the proper, do a tune.’ ‘Band at the left, do a tune.'”
In early 1970, the Weekly Kyunghyang rated “Younger Rhythm” extremely and credited MBC’s youngest manufacturer, Lee Jae-hwi, with “Effectively highlighting the feeling of a brand new era.” This he accomplished via researching using filters, mirrors, “hallucinatory lights” and digicam manipulation to create a “psychedelic scene.”
Those displays have been additionally noteworthy for bringing bands that had up to now performed just for U.S. infantrymen into the country’s dwelling rooms for the primary time. Whilst teams just like the Pearl Sisters, Key Boys and He5 have been appearing in downtown golf equipment or even getting radio play, displays like “Younger Rhythm” and “1,2,3, Pass” have been the primary to introduce Korean audiences to a variety of teams from the U.S. eighth Military Level like The Bees, The Devils, Ladybird, A-Easiest, Quick Weapons, Best Steps and lots of others.
The teenage band Best Steps / Courtesy of Weekly Girl
Along with the performers, the displays additionally featured, because the detrimental overview of “1,2,3, Pass” put it, “dancers shaking their drained our bodies in time to the band.” A few of the go-go dancers who seemed at the display was once the American dance troupe The Rhythms, a gaggle of ladies who attended Seoul American Prime Faculty on Yongsan Garrison.
A February 1970 Maeil Gyeongje article referred to them negatively when it accused the TV networks of “the use of international women dressed in ultra-miniskirts to boost their extremely sexualized and aphrodisiac systems.” This was once simply one in every of a litany of issues the thing complained about.
It additionally criticized the “out of control invasion into our ‘house theaters’ of ordinary systems by which folks strip and dance wildly,” accused the networks of “following frivolous international traits,” and referred to as this “a serious problem for kids’s training.”
The Rhythms, a go-go dance troupe from Seoul American Prime Faculty, pose for a promotional photograph. Courtesy of Lisa Callaghan Ettorre
Maximum problematic have been the “photographs of the vocal group’s waists and decrease our bodies as they carry out esoteric songs” in addition to “close-ups of adlescent girls and boys within the target market, which seems to incorporate basic faculty scholars, shouting and, with odd gestures, shaking their whole our bodies along side the ‘soul’ dance of the dancers.” Appearing such “sexualized postures, gestures, and lights” whilst ignoring wholesome life was once, the thing declared, “a big violation of broadcasting ethics.”
Others obviously felt the similar method. On March 21, 1970, “Younger Rhythm” aired its ultimate episode; “1,2,3, Pass” ended 4 days later. Each displays disappeared with no phrase, however in September 1970, within the wake of the primary crackdown on lengthy hair, which incorporated bans on appearing long-haired males on TV, point out was once fabricated from the destiny of the displays.
Because the Kyunghyang Sinmun reported, “final spring, on the advice of the government, TBC TV’s “1,2,3, Pass” and MBC TV’s “Younger Rhythm” have been stopped simply as they have been getting widespread. The cause of that is that either one of those displays featured go-go dancing to long-haired psychedelic bands.” Consequently, within the spring and summer time of 1970, “go-go dancing nearly disappeared from TV, and psychedelic teams best made occasional appearances.”
Musicians and dancers carry out on one of the vital youth-oriented song TV displays, revealed March 11, 1970. Courtesy of Weekly Girl
In hindsight, the silencing of those systems was once arguably the primary crackdown on Americanized youngsters tradition, predating the “long-hair edict” via 5 months. Those displays have been the primary to carry the sound of Korean rock bands, who had up to now performed just for American army audiences, to the ears of Korean youngsters, and their new sound obviously stuck on. Via September 1970, it was once reported there have been “about 30 psychedelic ‘workforce sound’ rock bands recently lively on levels downtown,” lots of which had long-term contracts. Rock song and go-go dancing best grew extra widespread within the years that adopted, so the government’ try to restrict its unfold was once obviously unsuccessful.
Matt VanVolkenburg has a grasp’s stage in Korean research from the College of Washington. He’s the blogger in the back of populargusts.blogspot.kr, and co-author of “Referred to as via Any other Title: A Memoir of the Gwangju Rebellion.”
