BBC, "Resurrection of the Trot, which was ridiculed as an absurd and ridiculous," is reviving with Lim Young-woong and AI [K-EYES]

*This content was translated by AI.

"The music genre, which was teased for being awkward, fought back"

The BBC, a British public broadcaster, has highlighted that Korean traditional music genre trot is entering its new heyday on social media. BBC Korea said on the 22nd (local time) that Generative AI is igniting a new flame in the trend, citing Lim Young-woong as a symbol of trot revival in an article titled "This once-trumpy Korean music genre is coming back."

The BBC introduced Lim Young-woong as "the most successful trot singer of the new generation" from the beginning of the article. Lim Young-woong, who won the 2020 trot audition program over 17,000 competitors, held a solo concert at the Seoul World Cup Stadium in 2024, matching Psy, Big Bang, and Seventeen. The BBC cited this fact as the strongest evidence of the revival of trot.

The article also pointed out the history of trot. Born in the 恨 of the 1930s, trot has been loved by the public for decades by unraveling separation, longing, and resentment (恨) toward hometown with its unique break-up singing and deep vibrato. In the 1960s and 1970s, the rivalry between Nam Jin and Na Hoon-ah was hot enough for fans to fight even in real life.

However, as K-pop dominated the world, trot became labeled as "old-fashioned and rustic music." Key listeners have also been stuck in the middle-aged. Although audition programs recently led to a revival in part by pouring out young trot singers, music critic Jung Min-jae told the BBC, "Not many are optimistic that these young singers will spread the trot to the wider public."

An unexpected variable appeared in this flow. It's AI. Recently, Korean content creators have started to use Generative AI to convert K-pop and hip-hop songs into trot styles and post them on Instagram and YouTube by dressing them with AI-made flashing suits and inflatable hair-style idol images. The trot version of Park Jae-beom's hip-hop song "Body" recorded hundreds of thousands of views with comments saying, "My mom seems to be going crazy." Kim Ji-hoon, a 29-year-old office worker, told the BBC that he wanted to shed new light on K-pop's hidden masterpieces and that he is running a separate YouTube and Instagram account.

YouTuber "Bbong Me the Money," who is also a worker in the music industry, also joined the trend and dropped all AI clips due to copyright issues. He reevaluated the trot to the BBC, saying, "It's not just cheap old music, it's the only modern genre that has endured the tumult of the 20th century."

Critic Jeong also pointed out the limitations of the AI trot craze with a cool head. "People don't enjoy trot as a genre, they play with AI technology," he said. "Trot will eventually be respected, but it will remain a 'classical K-pop' with a narrow base." The BBC added that the future of the genre could also falter as the older generation, the core fan base of trot, decreases.

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*This content was translated by AI.