"I Won't Give Up" by Eric Nam (Jason Mraz Cover), Wednesday, May 13, 2021

In every small town to major city in South Korea there are private karaoke rooms called noraebang (노래방). These are used by everyone from middle school students escaping the stress of studying for exams to middle-aged office workers, pressured into going out and drinking with the boss. Since I've been in Korea, I've heard them mentioned in American TV shows or movies in major cities; however, noraebang culture is much more permeated in Korean culture than karaoke is in America. So what is sung in these karaoke rooms? You can spend hours browsing the song selection from old Korean throat music (트롯), a kind of old-timey, often disco sounding music that Korean ajoshis or ajumas (아주씨, 아줌마), or middle aged people, love. There are K-pop songs through out the ages and international songs like Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Spanish, and of course English pop, rock, and traditional songs. When you go to a noraebang, you select the song you want to sing and the lyrics appear on the screen. There's sometimes the music video, but usually a generic backing video that accompanies the song. After the song, the machine will measure your pitch and timing and give you a score based on how well you followed the song. It's quite a fun evening, and a karaoke room is usually about $20 for an hour if you have a big group and less for a smaller room.

HOW OLD IS YOUR SOUL. It was October of 2012 when I first experienced the noraebang. There was a talent show at church on a Saturday night and a bunch of other English teachers came from other parts of Korea. After the talent show a bunch of people went out for dak galbi (닭갈비) a spicy chicken dish that was the most famous dish in the city I lived Chuncheon (춘천). As the evening drew on, we lost more and more people, the way that all large nights out do, but after dinner and maybe a cafe, we headed to sing karaoke, which, in my American culture of just getting to know people would be terrifying. American karaoke is usually in public on a small stage in a pub, but Korean karaoke was a private event. I sat and watched the karaoke and sang Oasis's "Wonderwall" toward the end of the night. The evening consisted of songs like "Diamonds" and "Umbrella" by Rihanna, Alicia Keys/Jay Z, Beyonce, songs from movies, old songs, Franz Ferdinand "Take Me Out," a few Korean songs like "Monster" by Big Bang, "Ugly" by 2en1, and at some point someone sang the new Jason Mraz song "I Won't Give Up." I had heard the song before, but seeing the words made them stick out and resonant with me.

WE'VE GOT A LOT TO LEARN. At most points in my life, I had carefully curated the influence I allowed in. My blog is a pretty good reflection of that. I grew up not allowed to watch R-rated movies until I was 17 (with a few exceptions). I had to hide my record collection from my mom, but I chose to listen to mostly Christian music. I cut off friendships that I thought would lead me away from the Lord. In college, I felt a kind of duty to catch up on the culture I had cut myself off from. I started listening more broadly, watching questionable movies, especially if they were artistic, and reading everything I could. I wanted to be well-versed in my Christian apologetics. There was a culture war, and I didn't want to be an ignorant solider in it. But when I came to Korea, I met up with some pretty conservative Christians who were all about sheltering themselves from worldly influence. I was very frustrated with that stance, and I felt Christians should be allowed to explore art for what it is, while understanding that it is not holy and that the answers come from the Bible. What was interesting about Jason Mraz's song is his evoking God's name into his message. Of course, artists do this all the time, call on the name of God without it being the God of the Bible. However, something about when Mraz declares, "God knows we're worth it," reminded me of Christian humanism, a philosophy I had flirted with in college, but ultimately rejected because of the little Calvinism that crept into Adventism, telling us that humans are nothing outside of God. This song helped to spark the journey that I'm on today. Love is worth it. Who I am is who God created me to be. I have worth because I have worth.

I'M GIVING YOU ALL MY LOVE. The version of the song I chose is a rare cover version by Korean-American singer/songwriter, TV personality Eric Nam. Before his K-pop career started, his YouTube channel featured covers of other famous artists, but these days those videos are only available through other sources. I talked about Nam back in March, and I think that his version is slightly better than Mraz's because of the guitar work (not played by Nam as far as I know); however, Mraz's version will end up on my Apple Music version because Nam's is not available on Apple Music.

Eric Nam's lyric page: