3.Korean Popular Music and Yodel (70-80s)

▶ 70's - the contemporary folk music's prime,
Yodel's identity as a contemporary folk music in Korea

In the 70's, 김홍철Kim Hong-chul, the father of the Korean Yodel, was in full swing, and his hit yodel "아름다운 스위스 아가씨Beautiful Swiss Less"[1]ranked third in the popular song rankings in the TV show furthermore a lot of amateur yodeling clubs founded actively nationwide in Korea. 70's was the heyday of Korean yodel.

So far Kim Hong-chul is the only professional yodeler in Korea and has made the greatest contribution to the development of Korean Yodel. Kim Hong-chul's work will be described in more detail at the next opportunity.

In those days, Korean contemporary folk team '둘다섯Dool-dasut', which debuted in 1973, left a song called '서울구경A Sightseeing trip to Seoul', which originated the comedy-song by the 서영춘Seo Young-chun, Korean legend comedian, they add yodeling and recorded it at their debut album. This song is the 70's joyful masterpiece with humorous lyrics and joyful yodels.

이두진Lee Du-jin, the leader of Contemporary folk duet '둘다섯Dool-dasut"

서울 구경A Sightseeing trip to Seoul

Anonymous / Arrangement by Lee Du-jin

시골 영감 처음 타는 기차 놀이라 아하-

차표 받는 아가씨와 승갱이 하네

An old man took a train the first in his life

He had a spat with inspector to reduce the ticket price

이세상에 에누리 없는 장사가 어딨어

깍아 달라 졸라대니 아이고 내 팔자

The old man said, "Every store offers a discount! Isn't it?"

The inspector sighed, "Why does this kind of thing always happen to me ? "

[Yodel]

기차는 타기 전에 떠나갑니다

깜짝 놀라 차장에게 사정하기를

The train was about to leave before boarding

The old man was astonished and asked a favor to the railway guard

깍지않고 다 줄테니 나 좀 태워줘

저 기차를 붙들어요 돈 다 낼테니

Please, hold that train. pick up me~~

I'll pay all~

[Yodel]

이등칸은 만원이라 자리가 없어

옆에 칸을 슬쩍 보니 자리가 비었네

There are no seats because the train is full

The old man looked at the next seat and it was empty.

옳다구나 땡이로구나 집어 탔더니

표 검사에 특등이라고 돈을 더 줬어

Yesss~~~ oke  That's it~~~!! He sat there,

but he had to be given more money because that seat was the 'first class' !!

[Yodel]

 with the fanclub members of the 'Dool-dasut' [photos provided by Dool-dasut Fanclub]

The seventies in Korea, symbolized by guitars and beer, were the forerunner of contemporary folk music, and Yodel became one of the youthful music of the seventies and was popular here and there.In addition, during this period, there was a duet of female yodel named '요들우Yodel Woo', and there was a famous yodel song called '짝사랑Onesided love' by 바블껌Bubble Gum, a duet of 이규대Lee Kyu Dae and 조연구Cho Yeun-gu. In addition, there were 김혜숙Kim Hyesook's '꿈꾸는 목동Dreamy Cowboy'.

The lyric of Yodels are the beautiful nature and the atmosphere of honoring the diligent and faithful cowboys/shepherd are similar to contemporary folk music and their emotion.

In this sense, the current Korean Yodel also have been retained the atmosphere of the 70s, because almost the whole song lyrics of the Korean yodel were made in the 70s.
For many reasons, the 70s were the forerunner days of Korean yodels and also the period of establishing their identity as a sub-genre of their contemporary folk music.
In other words, in the 70s was the time of yodel's popular perception and stereotypes were established in Korea.

▶ 80s - A wholesome yodel with a healthy song

In the 1980s, amateur yodel clubs were full bloom throughout the country, but in popular music, yodels was more often heard in TV kindergarten programs. At that time, The only professional-yodel team was '김홍철과 친구들Kim Hong-chul and his friends'.

딱다구리 앙상블Woodcut ensemble / Illustration: Han Eun-jung

There is a team called "딱다구리 앙상블Woodcut Ensemble" which recorded Yodel in the album in the 80's popular singer.

They are a mixed group of men and women in the '80s. Their the last 16th track of a summer special album called "해변의 여인들Lovers on the Beach," released in 1983, with eight songs called "하이킹 요들송 모음Hiking Yodel-song Collection" .

Among them are four favorite yodel that are "나를 기다리는 사람들Someone who waiting for me", 아름다운 베르네 산골the Beautiful Berner Valley" , "아름다운 스위스 아가씨the Beautiful Swiss Less", and "브레넬리Vreneli".  Until now, I think it was the only album released aiming for summer season hit in Korea.

In the 1980s, Korea was a country where the economy grew rapidly in the forefront of capitalism, at the same time, the time was full of democratic aspirations.
The overall social atmosphere was required to be very exemplary. All the singers had to be inserted a healthy-song into their recordings. 'Hiking Yodel-song Collection' are really full of wholesome lyrics.

In those days, a lot of person who called the police, when they picked up the handbills from North Korea, majority of people hold the hands in their chest and honor the national flag every 5 pm.

"Hiking Yodel-song Collection" is seem to represent the pure sentiments of Koreans in 80s, in addition, I think it's a rare strange yodel that can represent the contradiction of the dictatorship that pursued the 'submissive-beauty' as well.

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 [1]This song's origin is 'She taught me to yodel', one of the most famous yodel in the world, but the new song's lyric written in Korean are completely different from the original English. The beginning of this other lyrics seems to be probably Japanese by Willy Okiyama(ウィリ-沖山), Japanese yodeling legend. In Japanese, that songs title is Swiss Less(スイスの娘), moreover the contents of the Japanese lyrics nearly same to the contents of the Korean language. So I think the Korean lyrics seem to be translated based on Japanese.