1. Introduction
A radio broadcasting station for Korean traditional music, Gugak (lit., "nationalmusic") FM, was set up and opened in March, 2001, in the National Center for KoreanTraditional Performing Arts. It was one of the wishes of the people working for Koreantraditional performing arts. This event motivated me to research the broadcasting of Koreantraditional music on radio and TV, and the ways in which Korean traditional musicreflected in the mass media.As a first step, in the present paper, I will examine what the broadcasting oftraditional music has been like in Korea, the background of the setting up of the GugakFM, and its present practice. It will suggest the relevance of broadcasting this music andalso raise some important issues in the broadcasting of Korean traditional music such ascommercialism and the value of traditional culture.
2. Broadcasting of Traditional Music in Korea
The first Korean radio broadcasting station (JODK) was established in 1927 duringthe Japanese colonial period. In the beginning of JODK, gisaeng (female entertainers) wereoften invited to sing folk songs and excerpts from pansori (long dramatic song) since thefemale entertainers were easy for people in the broadcasting station to contact. Court music began to be broadcast in 1929 when it was relayed from location in the Royal MusicInstitute.Since then, Korean traditional music has been presented through a variety of radiomusic programs. Some of those programs were made by producers who later becameinfluential scholars of Korean traditional music. The first person I want to mention is Dr.Lee Hye-ku, one of the most highly regarded music scholars of the 20th century.
He wasborn in 1909 and worked at the radio station from 1931 to 1947. It was through working atthe radio station for those 16 years that he came to experience Korean traditional music andstarted to do research on it. Later, in 1959, he established the department of Koreantraditional music at Seoul National University. He set up a foundation for Korean musicstudy and, at age 93, is still active as a scholar of Korean traditional music. A number ofother Korean musicologists worked professionally in broadcasting as well.1They seem to have taken advantage of music arrangement of programs of Koreantraditional music for their study. For example, they could bring the best musicians of thetime to the studio for a program, listen to their music and talk with them about their music.They could use the occasions for collecting resources of their music study in a transitionalperiod of Korean history when playing Korean traditional music themselves was notrespectable for scholars or the learned, and the girl students had to hide their instruments,afraid of being regarded as female entertainers. In return, the scholars' involvement with the broadcasting of Korean traditional music greatly contributed both to the systematicarrangement of programs of Korean traditional music and to the development of Koreanmusicology.In this atmosphere, the broadcasting station played a role as one of the leadinginstitutions to collect and preserve the materials of Korean traditional music. In 1958, theGugak library, an archive of Korean traditional music, was established at KBS. MBC radiostarted a program called Hanguk Minyo Daejeon (Korean folk music collection) in 1989.The initials MBC stand for Munhwa (lit., ¡°culture¡±) Broadcasting Corporation. One of theintentions was to let Korean people all over the country hear the indigenous local folksongs, such as work songs and lullabies, that are being forgotten by Koreans. For a periodof seven and a half years, the team led by producer Choi Sang-il collected about 14,300examples of folksongs and made 103 CDs in total, and donated them to institutes andscholars of Korean music. Now they are used as basic materials for research on Koreanfolk songs. When the show began, it was a 50-minute program broadcast every Sundaywith a folk music specialist Yi Bo-hyung as the D.J.
Through some changes in timearrangement, it is now broadcast for only five minutes, just before the 6 A.M. news, by theproducer Choi Sang-il himself, who collected the folksongs. Producer Choi Sang-il wasawarded with the Korea Broadcasting Grand prize for this program in the year of 1995.It is not for commercial reasons that the radio stations invested money in some ofthose projects for Korean traditional music, considering that popular and Western classicalmusic programs enjoy higher ratings and earn more money. Compared to the radio stations, the TV broadcasting stations seem to have been inclined more to commercialism in termsof music program since the first appearance of KBS television in on December 31, 1961.In the beginning of the history of TV broadcasting, there was a frequent change inarrangement of the programs. According to Lee Sang-man, a music critic who was aproducer at that time, folksongs sung by professional singers were broadcast more thanother genres of Korean traditional music because they were regarded to be relatively easyfor the general viewers to understand. According to Hanguk bangsong chilsimnyeonsa (70Years of Korean Broadcasting) published by Korean Broadcasters Association in 1997,there was a show of Korean traditional music, 'Gugak Variety,' broadcasted from 19:30 to20:00 every Tuesday in February 1961. However, one month later, in March 1961,¡°Gugakeui chodae¡± (Invitation to Korean traditional music) was broadcast. Considering thecondition of television, a visual form of mass media, the first piece in this program was afolk opera (changgeuk), which could offer a variety of visually interesting scenes, called¡°Chunhyangjeon.¡± The opera was based on Chunhyangga, a long dramatic song (pansori)of folk tradition about a woman¡¯s fidelity under great duress.Many people who do not choose to watch a special gugak show are still exposed togugak when it is used as background music for TV dramas. Episodes of a drama based onold stories with ghost scenes, "Jeonseolui Gohyang" (Hometown of a Legend) werebroadcast on KBS TV for some years in the 1970s and 1980s. It was good that Gugak wasused as background music in this drama. However, it was likely to implant a negativeimpression of Korean traditional music into people's "innocent" or "ignorant" minds. Forexample, Daegeum, a large transverse flute, producing a distinctive buzzing sound with the ability to change timbre, was typically played in a ghost scene. Even these days, Isometimes hear people associate the sound of Korean traditional musical instruments withwords like "scary," "poor-looking," "vulgar."At that time when I was little, I didn't enjoy watching those programs. I didn't haveany exposure to live Korean traditional music except when there was a shaman ritual in myneighborhood, which I regarded to be very primitive and despised. In school, there wasWestern or Western style music only.
It was not only a matter of music but a matter of lifestyle. For example, I didn't have any Korean traditional clothes. It was only on TV that onewould see people sing and dance in Korean traditional clothes. (It seems natural that Ididn't know how to integrate the different musical scenes around me in my mind.)Though a few programs began to be made such as "Hangukeui Mi" (the Beauty ofKorea) on KBS TV which has lasted from 1975 to the present and covers Koreantraditional culture in an artistic way, with beautiful images, including Korean traditionalmusic and musicians, the problem was that the serious programs were hardly shown attimes that were convenient for viewers. Now ¡°Hangukeui Mi¡± is broadcast for 11:35-12:00on Monday night. Another program of Korean traditional music on TV was ¡°SaemiGipeunmul¡±(Deep Spring) which was broadcast by MBC. It tried to show a popular side ofKorean traditional music through new genres, such as new compositions (changjak gugak)and fusion (pyujeon) music. And in 1996 it was awarded the Baeksang yesuldaesang(Baeksang Arts Grand Prize) in TV shows, which was established to promote nationalimage and broadcasting culture. However, for the 13-month period of broadcasting, fromSeptember 1995 to October 1996, the broadcasting time had to be changed several times, 11:30 at night, at noon, etc., and finally it had to be dropped altogether because of lowratings. Bang Seong-geun, the producer of "Saemi Gipeunmul," wanted to keep making theshow in spite of the low rating of his program which is never over 5%, but had to surrenderto the managing staff's decision to stop making the show.Consequently, the programs that reach the general public (and therefore have hadthe potential to affect the general public the most) are not the academic and educationalprograms but other light programs that have been more easily accessible. Now, there is¡°ugak Hanmadang¡±(Korean Music Gala Concert) a Korean traditional music program onKBS TV. Though it is now broadcast at 11 o'clock AM on Sunday, its broadcasting timealso had to be changed several times, too. And although historical dramas--which werepartly intended to raise historical consciousness among Koreans--have become more andmore popular since the 1980s, it is almost always Western style music that has been used asbackground music to the dramas. A historical drama that began last year, titled¡°Yeoincheonha¡±(lit., Women¡¯s World), attracted my attention in this regard. It is about awoman who was born as a daughter of a concubine of a nobleman and lived a difficult lifefull of ambition and sadness in the 16th century. The drama employs Korean traditionalmusic together with electronic pop music, a genre often called 'fusion techno' in Korea.Anh Sook-seon, the most famous singer of the epic narrative form pansori, sang the titlesong in a newly made melody with nonsensical words called gueum-chang (lit., ¡°singing inmouth tone¡±), which is one of the traditional ways of singing. Anh Sook-seon says that shetried to free herself of traditional musical conventions. Hwang Byung-ki, a master of the12-string zither (gayageum) composed and performed music for gayageum as theme music for the heroine, Nanjeong, in this drama.
There is a tune played by daegeum (largetransverse flute) and sogeum (small transverse flute). According to Hwang Byung-gi, thedrama often employed his music in the scene of Nanjeong when it first started, but it cameto lean toward popular music in general as it proceeded. Now this daegeum tune is hardlyplayed, maybe because it seems not in harmony with other music. A traditional music ongayageum is often played in the scene when a female entertainer plays the instrument, butimmediately after the change of scene, the music switches to Western style. It must havebeen a meaningful meeting of commercialism and indigenous arts, but it shows, at the sametime, the present limits of TV drama in presenting Korean traditional music.Some Korean traditional music and dance show is typically arranged as a specialprogram for traditional festive days like Chuseok, Korean Thanksgiving Day, and NewYear's day, according to the lunar calendar when Korean people have a family newreunion. According to Chae Chi-seong, who was a former producer in KBS and presentconductor of KBS Korean traditional music orchestra, those shows tend to be regarded askitsch or cliche by the general viewers. |
