Pop star Seo Taiji prepares comeback

The September comeback of pop idol Seo Taiji is expected to bring about a whirlwind in the music world. His comeback is focused on the contents of his 2000 message, character of his music, the artistic and industrial influence on the music world and the analysis.

In particular, there are a wide range of opinions about whether Seo, who spoke for the voluntary nature of the new generation in the 1990s, will be the creator of another social trend, or will remain as he was in the days gone by as ¡°Thou of Fantasy.¡± When how will he come back?

MBC reported August 18 that Seo will have a formal comeback show at the Fencing Gym in the Seoul Olympic Park at 8 p.m. September 9. MBC said it would record the performance on a video tape and release it two or three days later or around the Chusok holiday (September 11-13).

It dismissed as groundless rumors that it had offered some hundreds million won for the production of the program. Seo, who is preparing for his comeback show with his former colleague Yang Hyun-Suk in the United States, is expected to return home around September 1 or 2.

Outline of the comeback show has yet to be unveiled. There is a high possibility that Seo may come up with an extraordinary idea in that he used to be a genius in presenting surprise shows.

How about the music?

Seo only revealed that the music will be out of the ordinary. But it is hard these days to find an extraordinary music genre that may draw a public attention anew like the rap song, ¡°I Know It,¡± in 1992. Especially, Seo¡¯s music has not gotten out of the mainstream. The new album is expected to feature Techno or Hardcore (rock plus hip hop) songs, which have the main trend since the late 1990s.

Yet it seems that he will perform as a bassist or player of keyboard instruments due to the limit in his soft voice.

It is also expected that lyrics of his songs may contain strong messages in that he used to criticize institutional education or raised issues with various things like unification, whether he wanted or not.

How many new albums will be sold?

Prospects range over 1 million copies. His previous third and fourth albums -- ¡°Dreaming of Palhae¡± and ¡°Comeback Home¡± -- and the first solo album he released in 1998 after he retired did not exceed the 1 million mark each. The first solo album, which was made hurriedly, sold more than 1.1 million copies thanks to the footlight of Seo and the distributor Samsung Music`s good sales strategies. But later many were returned unsold from the market. A considerable number of representatives of domestic record companies predicted that the envisioned new album would not exceed the 1 million mark also.

Their negative view may be attributed to the fact that most of them were sidelined in the hectic competition to sign a contract with Seo.

In particular, the contract money with Seo is expected to reach 2.5 billion won, and the sales of 1 million or more copies would manage to make ends meet.

At present, one direct distributor of records and a domestic firm only known as a P are positively seeking to invite Seo as their client.

Reviews

¡°Seo will offer musical plug through his individual charisma for the explosive applause from his old fans, who were pushed out of the mainstreaming consumers` group in the pop song world," Kang Hun said.

¡°Seo Taiji`s appearance is the revival of an artist`s spirit and heralds a crucial showdown with entertainers who had swayed the music world after the middle of 1990s,¡± Lim Jin-Mo said. ¡°For this, more than 800,000 copies should be sold, but the situation does not allow optimism."

¡°The life of Seo Taiji is the strong message as an artist,¡± Kim Jong-Hwee said. ¡°His myth will be broken unless he makes strict precautions against a possible money game involving some billion won rather than concentrating on the contents of his message for the comeback."

Reaction of fans

Seo`s fans say that they are happy, as if they were reuniting with their separated family members.

But they expressed objections to any simple scheme to make Seo a product. One of them said, ¡°Irrespective of the result of the business, Seo Taiji`s comeback means that he is doing music he wants to do.¡±