“2002WorldCup” by Hyukoh, Monday, August 2, 2021

Singer and guitarist Oh Hyuk (오혁) was raised in Northern China by parents who worked as professors. His dream was to be a musician, which was vehemently opposed by his parents. In his teens, he tried out for the three major labels in South Korea but turned them down, citing musical differences. Oh Hyuk felt more aligned with indie rockers and listened to The Beatles and German-Norwegian band The Whitest Boy Alive. The young musician would go on to write vague lyrics as social commentary and about history, topics commercially unviable in the Korean pop scene. Moving to back to South Korea for college and dropping out, Oh's parents stopped supporting him. He was Bob Dylan's Rolling Stone--the birth of all good rockers: penniless and full of passion for music itself.

WHEN YOU'RE NAKED (I'LL BE COMING THROUGH). Like most indie music in Korea, Hyukoh started in Hongdae, the hip college town located between several major private universities in Seoul. Oh Hyuk started as a solo act but found like-minded musicians to perform and record with, naming his band Hyukoh, an inversion of his name. Hyukoh's breakthrough moment was when they appeared on the variety show Infinite Challenge, one of the most viewed programs in South Korea, in 2015. After signing to an indie label (meaning a label that didn't market to the K-pop market), the band recorded several EPs and started touring internationally. The band performed at Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Bonnaroo. So far 2017's 23, is the only LP the band has recorded, releasing mostly EPs and singles. Taking a note from Adele, most of the band's EPs and their LP correspond with the singer's age at the time of recording. Today's song "2002WorldCup" is the fifth track on the band's LP 23. The lyrics never mention the competition--one that was very important to South Koreans as they jointly hosted the games with Japan, and, controversially, placed number 4 in the competition. If the speaker of the song is Oh, then he would have been eight years old at that time (10 in Korean years).

THAT NIGHT I SPILLED IT ALL INTO A HEATED DIARY ENTRY. It's certainly possible to write vaguely in any language, but this song utilizes Korean's routine implied-thus-omitted pronouns the song hard to translate and the meaning opaque. The theme of the song is youth, and youth can be encapsulated in a particular event that happened in childhood, in this case, the summer games of 2002. Korean dramas often like to set up a lover's meeting after years--a Cory and Topanga Boy Meets World love story where childish play becomes infatuation then turns to love and conflict and crests in a happily-ever-after marriage. This can be seen in dramas like the Reply series or last year's It's Okay to Not Be Okay.  "WorldCup2002" seems to venture into this territory, with a bit of a twist. The line "But we fell together on that very adult-like night" gives an innuendo that more than just a kiss happened. This rock 'n' roll line is unlike most Korean drama plots and K-pop songs that hold teenagers to high, often unrealistic, mores. While most Americans don't care much for the World Cup, Hyukoh's song about the 2002 game speaks to the universal truth about growing up and losing innocence, which, for most people, usually doesn't involve soccer. 

Read “2002WorldCup” by HYUKOH on Genius