If you think music in South Korea consists only of K-Pop and ballads, think again.
Trot music, also referred to its onomatopoetic term “bbong-jjak” is a genre of music in South Korea that goes way back to even during the time of Japanese colonial rule in the nation.
While the genre is usually reserved for the older generations, youngsters of South Korea still to some degree enjoy listening to it for its entertainment element. And plus, it’s also quite different from your average K-Pop songs that are frequently played everywhere on the city streets.
One of the many exciting things about trot music in South Korea at the moment is how popular the show ‘Mr. Trot’ was, accumulating 7.73 million votes in total. Of course, of that figure, 5.4 million votes were deemed as valid due to various reasons. Numbers don’t lie and Koreans are still adamantly holding on to their roots, no matter how much it seems like times are changing through the rapid-pace of the K-Pop music industry.
According to Nielsen Korea, the highest view rating for ‘Mr. Trot’ was 35.7%. Now to put things in to a little perspective, the highest viewer rating for ‘Produce X 101‘ was 3.9% while ‘Produce 48‘ was 3.1%.
The winning finalist of ‘Mr. Trot’, Lim YoungWoong, received 1.4 million votes, accounting for twenty five percent of the entire votes.
‘Mr. Trot’ also was significant because it broke the stereotype of what a typical male trot singer looks like, which is usually someone in their late thirties or forties who often wears flashy and cringe-worthy stage outfits. On the contrary, ‘Mr. Trot’ had contestants who had visuals that could easily compete with current K-Pop idols as well. From fitness trainers to actors to models, the viewers might have surely been unsure at some point if the show was actually an audition program for idols instead. In addition to attractive men, there were also professional choir vocalists who competed as well, clearly boasting a wide spectrum of competing participants.
Mr Trot
Lim YoungWoong’s release, ‘Trust In Me’, which was composed by song-writer and composer Cho YoungSoo as one of the prize for winning ‘Mr. Trot’ along with the $82,000 cash award, has been performing extraordinarily well on the charts. As of April 4th, it has been ranked 6th on Melon, 5th on Genie, 2nd on Bugs, and 2nd on SoriBada.
You can check out ‘Trust In Me’ below through the video.
