Seo Tai-ji (also spelled Seo Tae-ji, born Jeong Hyeon-cheol 정현철 on February 21, 1972) is a South Korean singer and musician. As a cultural comparison, Tai-ji’s levels of popularity in Korea is analogous to the popularity of Michael Jackson in the mid-1980s.
At the age of 14, Jung Hyun-Chul (Tai-ji) participated in several amateur rock bands. In 1990, at the age of 17, he was recruited into the metal band Sinawe (시나위 pronounced shee-nah-wee). Taiji chose to drop out of school, a system that he felt did nothing but corrupt the minds of youth, and became a professional musician.
‘Seo Tai-ji & Boys’ Explode After the break up of Sinawe in 1991, Tai-ji switched gears and formed the dance group Seo Tai-ji & Boys (서태지와 아이들) with dancers Lee Ju-no (이주노) and Yang Hyeon-seok (양현석).
The introduction of the first Seo Tai-ji and Boys album announced a complete shift in the focus of popular Korean music that is still felt today. Their first single, “Nan Arayo” (난 알아요, “I Know”) was a hugely successful hit, being one of the first songs in K-Pop to meld contemporary dance sounds with urban-influenced rap lyrics.
The sound of Seo Tai-ji and Boys’ albums was constantly evolving. The first album was very dance-oriented, while the second album began to display more hard rock and heavy metal influences, but still remaining mostly a dance album. The first single from their second album, “Hayeoga” (하여가), combined heavy metal sounds with traditional sounds of the taepyeongso, a traditional Korean wind instrument.
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