Trot (music)
Trot (트로트, RR: teuroteu) is a genre of Korean popular music, known for its use of repetitive rhythm and vocal inflections. Originating during the Japanese occupation of Korea in the first half of the 20th century, trot was influenced by many genres of Korean, Japanese, American, and European music.[1]
Not to be confused with Trotto (dance music).Trot
from the English word foxtrot
Korea during Japanese rule
Teuroteu
T'ŭrot'ŭ
Gyemong-gi gayo
Kyemonggi kayo
Trot has been around for almost 100 years and its distinct singing style has been continuously evolving. Trot music developed in rhythms during Japanese colonial rule. After the liberation of the Korean peninsula and the Korean War (1950-1953), artists such as Lee Mi-Ja, Choi Sook-ja, Bae Ho, Nam Jin, Na Hun-a, Joo Hyun-mi and many others helped to make trot popular. With the rise of K-pop from the 1990s onwards, trot music lost some popularity and was viewed as more old-fashioned. However, from the 2000s onwards, young trot singers such as Jang Yoon-jeong, Hong Jin-young, K-pop singers such as Super Junior-T, Daesung, MJ and Lizzy, renewed interest in the genre and popularised it among young listeners.[2]
Although the genre originated before the division of the Korean peninsula, it is actually now mainly sung in South Korea; the associated pop culture, together with nursery rhymes, new folk songs in North Korea were categorized as "Enlightenment Period song" (계몽기 가요).[3][4] It is no longer composed as propaganda music has since displaced other musical forms.[5][6] Those songs were only orally-recorded. It was intentionally revived during Kim Jung Il administration: in the late 2000s, Korean Central Television aired a TV program that introduced those "Enlightenment songs".[7]
Etymology[edit]
The name "trot" is a shortened form of "foxtrot", a style of ballroom dance that influenced the simple two-beat rhythm of trot music. Except two-beat rhythm, trot and foxtrot do not share any other notable characteristics.[8][9]
History[edit]
Origin[edit]
Trot music originated in Korea during the Japanese occupation of Korea. It is believed that trot's closest ancestors were Japanese enka.[9] After the liberation of the Korean peninsula, however, trot has continued on its own path.[19] There is an investigation showing that the songs that were published in Korea and Japan between 1945 and 1950 used in both countries pretty much the same amount of duple metre rhythm in a minor scale.[19] It is sometimes asserted that trot's origins can be traced to siga (시가), a traditional form of Korean poetry, although this only partially explains origins since it is relevant to poetic and lyrical aspects only.[20] Some suggest that trot could have been influenced by Korean folk music, which does have some resemblance to trot's vocal inflections, even if Korean traditional music's rhythmic structure differs from trot's fixed duple metre. It was true that a genre of Sin-minyo (new folk song, 신민요) was in circulation in the 1930s;[21][22] but this music was simply modified versions of traditional folk songs e.g. Arirang or 'Taryeong' songs[nb 3] accompanied by western instruments. It is an old controversial issue whether trot originated during Japanese colonial rule and thus is not a genuine Korean popular music. This problem has caused quite a stir twice. Once the government took a position in the 1960s that the supposedly 'Japanese-tinged' songs suffered at the hands of the censor. The second discussion took place by the musicians and cultural critics in the 80s, called the 'Ppongjjak debate'.