2011년 3월 14일 월요일

Jeong Tae-Chun and Park Eun-Ok / 92 The Rainy Spell, in Jongno (1993)

Jeong Tae-Chun and Park Eun-Ok 정태춘과 박은옥
92 The Rainy Spell, in Jongno 92년 장마, 종로에서
1993. 09. 30
Side A

1. 양단 몇 마름 /  A Few Bundles of Brocade
2. 저 들에 불을 놓아 / Lay Fire on That Plain 
3. 비둘기의 꿈 / The Dream of Doves
4. 이 어두운 터널을 박차고 / After Kicking Away This Dark Tunnel
5. 비둘기의 꿈 / The Dream of Doves

Side B
6. 사람들 / People
7. LA 스케치 / LA Sketch
8. 나 살던 고향 / The Hometown I Used to Live  
9. 92년 장마, 종로에서 / 92 The Rainy Spell, in Jongno 

Jeong Tae-Chun is a folk music singer-songwriter who tremendously contributed the freedom of art in the Republic of Korea. Born in 1954, Jeong Tae-Chung started to play music as his brother, who worked in the U.S Forces Korea, brought his guitar when he was in elementary school. Since then, he has written his songs on his life after he was drafted to the army. Jeong is especially famous for his contribution to the abolition of the precensorship on music in 1996.  

To understand the concept of this album, we should have a quick glance at the modern history of Korea first as this album is based on the despair and hopelessness of the society of Korea after 1987. In June 1987, to accomplish the rights of direct election, Korean people held a democracy movement as the president Chun Doo-hwan announced its choice of Roh Tae Woo as the next president candidate. This public designation of Chun's successor was seen as a final affront to a delayed and deferred process to revise the South Korean constitution to permit direct election of the President(This democracy movement is often called as 6월 항쟁 / June Democracy Movement). As a result, the new constitution which allowed the direct presidential election was adopted; however, from the following presidential election, Roh Tae Woo became the president who actually was the successor of Chun. Even though democracy movements, civil rights movements, and labor rights movements had still continued, the majority of people assumed 1987 as the end of the dictatorship as seen in the failure of democracy movement in May 1991. 


Through this album, Jeong Tae-Chun penetrates the 'hopeless' reality of Korea. Instead of providing sarcasm or direct criticizing, he illustrates the scenery of the reality with realist approach. This special characteristic of the album is especially well-shown on 92년 장마, 종로에서 (92 The Rainy Spell, in Jongno) which is the last track of the album. In the song, Jeong Tae-Chun describes the Jongno street of Seoul where people are 'floating along' under the rainy spell, which makes a huge contrast to Wendy's signboard and high buildings. Furthermore, he says that [our epoch] is getting disappeared into umbrellas. This shows how democracy movements got devastated during that period.

This album also has a huge significance on the cultural history of the Republic of Korea because this album was the offset of the cultural liberation movement in early-90s. Before 1996, when the precensorship was abolished, all the music were forced to examined before their publication. This album was published as a bootleg, which was illegal, and had a huge success on the mass public (He has previously published his another album as a bootleg in 1991). As a result, Jeong Tae Chun's efforts bore fruits as the Constitutional Court announced that the precensorship on music publication violated the constitution.



(Jeong Tae-Chun - 92년 장마, 종로에서 / 92 The Rainy Spell, in Jongno)


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