New York DJ

We’ve performed at a large number of Korean weddings over the years (go here to see a sampling of many of them), and, while we are rarely asked to play entirely Korean pop music as couples planning weddings in and around the New York City area tend to have a diverse guest list and usually don’t want one kind of music to dominate, often Korean music is an important element. The most common form of Korean pop music today is called “K-pop”, which, loosely defined, is dance music with a sound influenced by the beat and rhythms of American hip-hop or R &B, and often performed often by boy or girl groups. (For a more complete guide to incorporating K-pop at your event, go to our blog post here.)

We know and enjoy new K-pop as well as K-pop going back to its roots in the early nineties, and we know well how it can enliven Korean wedding celebrations, whether it’s played here and there throughout the event mixed in with other pop music genres like hip-hop, house, merengue or others, or if K-pop is played in one or two “sets” after many of the guests have had a few drinks and are more inclined to bust out their dance moves and sing the lyrics to a classic K-pop anthem from the nineties by H.O.T or DJ Doc.

But since K-pop really only has been really popular since the early nineties, a lot of older Korean guests like the parents of the bride and groom and their relatives and friends (say, from ages 50 to 70) often aren't very familiar with K-pop. Sometimes they know and prefer American music from the seventies or eighties instead. If these older guests are not as Americanized, though, or have come from Korea to New York for the celebration, often what they respond to is a style of Korean pop called “trot” music, which was the most commonly-listened to kind of song before the rise of K-pop. A recent artist known for playing the trot style are Jang Yoon Jung (pictured at left), and one of the more famous classic trot singers is Seol Woon Doh (pictured at right).

Because a lot of younger Koreans (say, from ages 20 to 40) often tell us they had to grow up listening to their parents play trot music over and over while growing up, often they know of trot but think of it as old-fashioned. However, given that most couples we meet also want to include everyone at the wedding, they do usually agree that it likely will be enjoyed by the older guests, and be the way to get more conservative Koreans - often who can be reluctant to dance - to get up and party a bit.

The name Trot, or “teurototeu” as it is known in Korean, comes from its similarity to the rhythms used in a foxtrot dance. Trot music consists of a simple one-two beat that is repeated throughout the song, and its classic singers, many of whom are in their 50s or 60s today, have a romantic and sometimes playful loungey style, are roughly like the Korean equivalent of revered vocalists like Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald or Tony Bennett – talented veterans whose music might not be as trendy, but who are well-known and respected for their voices and for their songs’ firm place in Korean music history.

Recently, however, just like how American jazz vocal standards have in the past decade or so been re-enlivened by younger singers like Michael Buble and Diana Krall, trot has been re-discovered by some younger Korean artists, some of whom are even from massively popular K-pop groups. This trot "comeback" began in the mid-2000s with a song called “Eomeona” (a Korean expression which roughly translates to “Oh My Goodness”) by Jang Yoon Jung. This song mixed a trot rhythm and trot vocal style with Latin rhythms and was a big hit in South Korea, becoming the introduction for many K-pop fans to the trot style and making trot more "cool" to many younger Koreans.

When we play trot music at Korean weddings, often we find we get an enthusiastic response, from family members young an old, Americanized and non-Americanized, dancing and singing along together to it (much like the right “oldies” song from doo-wop to disco will do for American guests) to it being that spark that gets an older Korean couple to the dancefloor to share slower dance, or simply being a moment that gives the older guests something to pleasantly smile and bounce their heads to at cocktail hour or dinner.

Below you’ll get a sample of how everything old is new again - have a listen to “Eomeona” by Jang Yoon Jung, as well as classic trot singer Seol Woon Doh performing an updated version of a trot song called “Samba” with his son Lee-U, himself a member of a K-pop group.

When we meet to talk with clients about music for their event, often the first thing we notice is that they've already dejectedly decided the music they really like and want to hear won't be able to be played at their event.

It may be a designer in a fashion show thinking that the music she wants to use for her fashion line will be too ethereal a sound to keep the audience interested. Or a couple who loves moody acoustic indie pop but thinks it would be too much of a downer to play a little at their wedding Or an organizer of a corporate party who worries that the employees won’t dance because they tend to like raw Southern hip-hop and their bosses wouldn’t. Whatever the case, whatever the event, it seems this kind of unfortunate premature musical censorship is everywhere.

It often comes from a good place of common sense or consideration, like an organizer at a art opening knowing that prospective buyers might not want to hear his beloved deep cuts of ‘70s classic rock all night long. But some of our clients’ decisions that their favorite songs or genres won’t work comes not from a good place at all, but instead from having met with conventional, unimaginative DJs that tend to work for bigger, more cookie-cutter DJ companies. We’ve heard from these clients that some of these DJs have told them straight up that the only way to get a party movin’ is to play disco all night.

Whatever the reason for clients' doubts in the music they love, one of the first things we tell them – no matter what their event –  is to open up their mind, revisit their CD collection or iPod, and make their “dream list” of songs they want to hear, with no censoring allowed. Put anything in you would love to hear. Not only does it make the process of selecting music easier, but also more fun. It will get you excited about the possibilities of hearing this music, as opposed to nixing songs right away and feeling frustrated that the soundtrack to the event is already not what you would like.

Now, will all these "dream songs" end up making the cut when the event arrives? Sometimes many of them do, sometimes they don't. But what always happens is that when we see these “dream lists” and talk a bit with the client to see what music is most important to them, we can then use our experience in knowing what of these songs will work given the mood that is wanted at the event, as well as what kind of guests will be there, and what kind of structure the event will have. Then we can suggest which songs to keep, which to think about not using. For example, a pair of melancholy indie songs at the more sedate moments in a wedding can feel absolutely right and even moving. So can a set of obscure hardcore punk during the more boisterous moments of a corporate party. And even a little experimental progressive rock can enhance the feeling of an art opening, if played at the right time.

By far, many more of the songs you really want at your event then you ever think you can play are actually able to be fit in, but not only that, they can be made to add to the atmosphere of the event. But to do it, you have to begin by letting the DJ know what you really want to hear. And if that DJ looks at your list, smirks, and says something about how you can't have a party without having "the Y" on your list, well, you know the time has come to find a different DJ.

In our continuing desire to encourage those planning events to include music from other cultures – especially when they know there will be a significant number of guests from other cultures present – we’d like to give you a basic introduction in how to include Korean pop music (often referred to as “K-pop”) at your event. K-pop is a fun, generally upbeat but very wide-ranging genre in its sound, and in the past decade it has been growing in its exposure to American audiences and it has even broken into the American Billboard pop charts.

When many think of Korean music – especially if they have no exposure to what modern Korean pop music sounds like, stereotypes from movies and television may make them think of cartoonishly traditional music – somehow there’s the sound of soothing pipes, or mystical drum rhythms, right? Well, no. In fact, not at all, thankfully. Korean pop music couldn’t be further from a sound that’s seen as stereotypically, traditionally “Asian.” While the styles of modern Korean pop are varied, it’s a quite accessible genre – often being very catchy and danceable, and at times the lyrics even are partially sung in English. And while K-pop is commonly used as a term to include straight-ahead pop groups (Wonder Girls, pictured at top) and artists with an R & B-influenced sound (the singer Rain, pictured furthest below) or a hip-hop-influenced sound (the group DJ Doc, pictured at middle), the K-pop mood in general feels like a nicer, slightly warmer version of today’s American pop music genres. A derisive stereotype I’ve heard at times among those who have a bit of familiarity with K-pop is that it tends to all sound like too-sugary bubblegum pop, but today that’s not accurate at all. K-pop isn’t all overly sweet, but it is often a bit more friendly-sounding - snotty diva or coarse, ego-consumed rapper personas don’t seem as prevalent as they are on the current American charts.

This background info is all to reassure you of one thing – you shouldn’t hesitate to include Korean pop at an event where it’s requested, or where you think it might work! In our experience, this is especially true if you’re having an event with younger Korean guests – approximately those between the ages of 20 and 40. Whether it’s a half-Korean wedding reception or a corporate party where many of the employees are of a Korean background, including some K-pop will definitely raise the energy of the event to a higher level. We’ve found at events where we’ve DJ-ed K-pop for Korean guests that that the younger crowd always appreciates it, especially toward the end of the event, when they’ve had a few drinks and we pull out some K-pop from a decade or a decade-and-a-half ago and take them on a refreshing nostalgia sing-a-long trip. As a plus, often younger guests who have Chinese or Japanese backgrounds likely will recognize some of the bigger K-pop hits from now and the past ten or so years, as K-pop artists are often marketed to China and Japan.

It’s understandable to be a bit intimidated, though, by the prospect of including music that is not well-known in the U.S. at an event – you don’t want to risk the energy of the party or reception being sapped because of a wrong choice in Korean music, or one that isn’t considered cool to your younger Korean guests. And while no one wants to embarrass themselves by unknowingly playing the Korean equivalent of Weird Al or Richard Marx when it’s time to dance, with just a little effort at K-pop research you can make the right choices and bring a lot more excitement  to your event.

So, how do find out the right kind of artists and songs? First, simply ask your guests if they’d like a few K-pop songs and/or for some names of artists they like. Also, make sure to ask your DJ how familiar they are with the Korean music and what they would suggest that works for younger Korean guests. And, of course, it’s always quick and easy to do a little on-line research yourself on who the hot groups are in the world of Korean music today. And while this music is sometimes not available to users of the American iTunes store, in our experience, if asked, guests wanting this music at their event will know where to find it and provide you with it.

Here’s some examples of K-pop that we often spin: The first song is a 2007 hit by the Wonder Girls, “Tell Me,” an example of a Korean pop song that is fun, danceable and very accessible to American ears, featuring a dash of an ’80s retro freestyle sound. Next is “Run to You” by hip-hop group DJ Doc, an insanely catchy party anthem from the late ‘90s that now and then sounds like it could be could be the Asian cousin of House of Pain’s “Jump Around.” Last is a tune from 2008 by Korean superstar Rain called “Rainism,” a song that’s both edgy and smooth, and at times echoes Justin Timberlake and newer Kanye West.

Wonder Girls – Tell Me

DJ Doc – Run To You

Rain – Rainism