Seoul Sounds: Music Is Food For The Soul

Warning: this is rambling, a bit introspective, and entirely related to my experience of sounds in Seoul (If you want to read some points about concerts, albums and music stores, just scroll down to where it says Let’s talk about music).

How can NELL's CDs be so pretty?

How can NELL’s CDs be so pretty?

It took an unacceptable amount of time to rephrase the title for this post, so I hope you appreciate it in all its glorious simplicity and soul/seoul-iness. I am sitting here with three brand new albums (well, I was when I wrote this on October 16th) and feeling moderately victorious over surviving three of my four classes’ finals (let’s not talk about how they went, just acknowledge the fact that they’re over). I have multiple Korean exams and tests left of course, but I’ve studied enough today and I need to catch up on some blog posts!

Music is life for me. I listen to music almost constantly, although I have a deep appreciation for silence – both the kind where I am silent and I listen to the noises that the world around me creates, and the kind where everything is so silent that you can hear your own heartbeat pushing blood through your head. Silence is a beautiful thing, and in Seoul, it is rarely so silent that the latter is possible. The former, however, is a glorious thing to experience. I love sitting outside at night as the weather gets colder and listening to the wind twist through the trees and sends leaves scattering across the pavement for adorable ahjussis to sweep up in the morning. The night is crisp and alive in its own beautiful way. I don’t sit in the bustling downtown – no, I mean sitting outside near trees and buildings where people are sleeping or simply not there.

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Fantastic Baby by BIGBANG (빅뱅)

Lyrics created in Photoshop 11. Please credit if you remove for your own purposes.

Lyrics created in Photoshop 11. Please credit if you remove for your own purposes.

One of my favorite lyric-Photoshop creations ^_^

Fantastic baby live version of Fantastic Baby from their Alive World Tour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siVPAd0O5KQ

Baby Don’t Cry by BIGBANG’s Daesung (대성)

Lyrics created in Photoshop 11. Please credit if you remove for your own purposes.

Lyrics created in Photoshop 11. Please credit if you remove for your own purposes.

sumanheun saramdeul tteonagadoi noraen yeongwonhae ne gyeote (hamkke halgeoya)

Even though many people will leave you, this song will stay with you forever (well do it together)

geu manteon chingudeul da tteonadoyeogi nan ne yeope gyesok seo isseulgeoya

Even if many friends all leave you, I’ll continue to stand here by your side

Baby don’t cry baby don’t cry baby don’t cry

eonjenga deo bitnalgeoya Give me your smile

Someday you will surely shine; just give me your smile

Baby don’t cry baby don’t cry baby don’t cry

hanbeonman deo nal wihae Just give me your smile

One more time for me, just give me your smile

Translation credit to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltahc2BCS4s

Blue by 빅뱅 (BIGBANG)

Lyrics created in Photoshop 11. Please credit if you remove for your own purposes.

Lyrics created in Photoshop 11. Please credit if you remove for your own purposes.

Tae-eonaseo neol mannago jugeul mankeum saranghago (I was born and I met you, and I have loved you to death)
Parake muldeureo sirin nae maeum (My cold heart has been dyed blue)
Neoneun ddeonado nan geudaero itjanha (Even if you have left, I’m still here)