Sing, sing a song: Noraebang turns 20
Published: 22 Jun. 2011, 20:14
“I’ve been working for almost 10 years, and going to noraebang, [Korean singing room], after a company dinner is an all-too-familiar routine for me now,” Moon said as he selected a song to sing.
“When I was a kid in 1980s Korea, it was rare for anyone to sing in a group setting. But I think the popularity of noraebang during the 90s changed the culture, and singing together has become an acceptable, popular pastime for adults.”
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the noraebang in Korea. Stemming from Japanese karaoke, the noraebang phenomenon here began in 1991 at a small arcade in Busan called Royal Arcade.
The beginnings of a national phenomenon
According to industry experts, the owner of Royal Arcade, Hyeong Chung-dang, was the first person in Korea to convert a Japanese karaoke machine into the noraebang machine of today.
The standard karaoke machine of the time consisted of a music player and microphone with the lyrics appearing on a separate screen, and the system was operated by someone other than the singer.
Hyeong’s machine combined the music player and screen with a song selection program and users could operate the machine themselves by typing in the number of the song they wanted to sing.
Hyeong made three such machines and set them up in small rooms within his arcade. Users paid 300 won for one song. The machine was a hit and led to the opening of singing room businesses around the country. Somewhere along the way, these establishments came to be known as “noraebang.”
The popularity of noraebang spread so quickly and so far that the same year Hyeong installed his machines at Royal Arcade, more than 10,000 noraebang sprang up in Korea.
The success of Hyeong’s small noraebang prompted Assa Corp. (now Youngpoong Electronics Co.) to start making an advanced form of the Japanese karaoke machine that used analog laser disks, which provided a fuller, richer sound.
“Our noraebang machines were selling so fast that we could hardly meet the demand,” said Kim Seung-dae, who helped develop the new machines at Assa 20 years ago.
More than a singing room
“I think noraebang blossomed in Korea because here, as well as in many parts of Asia, there is a strong tendency to do things in groups, a collectivism of sorts. In Europe or North America, the culture focuses more on individualism,” he said. “You can go to a club by yourself, but you can’t go to a noraebang alone.”
Choi Jin, a cultural studies professor at Suwon Women’s College, has another theory on why noraebang became so big in Korea.
“When noraebang took off here, most of the people who went were teenagers or people in their early 20s,” said Choi.
“Back then, there weren’t a lot of places for young people to go that weren’t centered on drinking. Therefore, noraebang became a safe, fun place for these youngsters to go together.”
Maintaining its status as an ever-popular pastime, noraebang is also serious business. It’s an industry worth more than 1.3 trillion won ($1.2 billion) in Korea, according to the Korea Creative Content Agency. Every day, a total of about 1.9 million people go to 35,684 noraebang in Korea, good for a daily average of roughly 54 people per noraebang, according to Kocca’s latest data.
But growth has slowed down since the early 2000s compared to the 1990s, when the number of noraebang sometimes doubled or tripled each year. Still, the number of noraebang in 2002 stood at 27,368.
“The noraebang market in Korea is now close to saturation, so since 2003 we’ve been concentrating on exporting our noraebang machines to other Asian countries, including Japan, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines,” said Hwang Kyu-yeon, the marketing director for TJ Media, another noraebang machine maker.
The majority of noraebang machines are made by TJ Media and Kumyoung. Kumyoung and TJ Media started exporting machines in 2003 and 2004, respectively.
“Ironically, one of the most lucrative countries for us in terms of noraebang machine exports is Japan,” said Kim Jin-koan, a Kumyoung manager.
An outside perspective
Just as with Moon and his co-workers, noraebang has become an integral part of a typical hoesik, or company outing. After co-workers eat dinner, usually with alcohol, the common custom in Korea is to go to a noraebang and sing together. The goal is to build camaraderie and goodwill.
Singing in a room together might feel like second nature to Koreans, but for many foreigners who come here, it’s a strange yet interesting activity that provides a unique insight into the country.
“It’s like singing your heart out in the shower, except that you’re in front of your friends or colleagues and your clothes are on,” said Elizabeth Groeschen, an American who has lived in Korea for more than four years.
A part-time photographer, Groeschen said she based a whole photo series around noraebang in Korea, in particular, noraebang screens.
“Korea is a country where everyone works incredibly hard. Going to noraebang is an escape. For a couple of hours, you can forget about everything and turn your attention to belting out ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ playing the tambourine or simply watching all of your friends turn into complete idiots with microphones.”
For Simon and Martina Stawski, a married Canadian couple who created and runs the popular Korean culture blog www.eatyourkimchi.com, the privacy of having your own room makes noraebang much more accessible than the karaoke bars in other countries.
“We’ve been to karaoke in Canada, and singing in front of strangers is a lot more intimidating. The privacy and comfort of having your own room makes noraebang far superior,” Simon said.
Experts warn, however, that the culture that has arisen around noraebang, which succeeded because of its wholesome entertainment value, has started to deteriorate into adult entertainment with female doumi, or “helpers,” and illegal liquor sales.
“Before noraebang started opening, most Japanese karaoke bars served alcohol and targeted office workers. But it was the noraebang that provided a fun, musical outlet for teenagers and even children with their parents,” Choi said.
For Rob Ouwehand, a Korean studies major who has lived in Korea since 2003, it was the presence of the doumi that almost turned him off when he was first introduced to noraebang.
“The first neighborhood I lived in was Bangi-dong, near a ‘business club’ area, and my old boss would take us out drinking. Once all of our female coworkers had gone home, he would hire doumi girls to come in and sit with us,” he said.
“I never quite knew what to do about that because I wasn’t used to that kind of thing. [The Doumi] would just sit, blush, look at their feet and say ‘sorry.’ All the doors to the noraebang there looked like dragons or monsters.”
What’s next for noraebang?
Along with the advent of smartphones and other digital media devices, noraebang machines have evolved in every way. The sound quality has been improved dramatically and most noraebang machines now feature an instrumental track by a real band, as opposed to a computer-generated score, as accompaniment. Also, whereas early noraebang machines could only store 300 to 400 songs at the most, today’s noraebang machines can store hundreds of thousands of songs at once with the help of advanced MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) data.
“We used to make machines that used the real instrumental track that singers had on their albums but we don’t anymore because then noraebang customers can’t switch keys or change the rhythm to a song as easily,” said Kim from Kumyoung.
Both TJ Media and Kumyoung have also developed noraebang apps for smartphones that provide background music and lyrics.
The companies say the future of noraebang machines now lies in their connectivity with the Internet, giving them access to a multitude of songs.
“The Noraebang market is actually quite stable because people will never grow tired of singing. People like myself try to make the background music as authentic as we can using new technology. We try to help people forget about their stressful lives for a moment so they can feel free to act silly for a while,” said Hwang from TJ Media.
*Additional reporting by Robert Holley.
By Cho Jae-eun [jainnie@joongang.co.kr]
한글 관련 기사 [중앙일보]
노래방 20년 … 전 국민 4800만 명이 “나는 가수다”
오늘밤도 190만 명이 마이크 잡는다올해로 국내에 노래방이 생긴 지 꼭 20년째다. 처음 문을 연 노래방은 어디였을까. 공식 기록은 없으나 업계에서는 1991년 4월 부산 동아대 앞 로얄전자오락실을 최초로 본다.
그전에도 일본식 가라오케가 있었으나 레이저디스크로 반주를 틀고 홀에서 노래를 부르는 식이었다.
노래방 1호 주인은 로얄전자오락실을 운영하던 화교 형충당씨. 아싸전자의 가라오케 기계를 개조해 번호를 눌러 노래를 선택하고, 자막을 보며 노래를 부르는 한국식 노래방을 선보였다. 오락실에 작은 방 형태로 노래방 기계 3대(곡당 300원)를 설치했다. 반응은 폭발적이었다. 아싸전자는 형씨의 기술을 도입해 요즘 같은 번호 입력형 노래방 기계를 만들었다.
91년 5월 부산 광안리 해수욕장에 첫 등록업체인 ‘하와이비치 노래연습장’이 생겼다. 이후 1년여 만에 전국적으로 1만 개 이상 생겨났을 정도로 노래방 붐이 일었다. 이른바 ‘4800만 가수 시대’가 열렸다. 20년 전 노래방 기기 개발에 참여했던 아싸전자 김승대 부장은 “ 납품 날짜를 맞추기 힘들 정도였다”고 했다.
◆국민적 놀이문화=노래방은 한국인의 회식·놀이문화를 바꿔놓았다. 가사를 보며 노래를 부르는 시스템이 우리의 놀이 감성을 자극했다. 젓가락을 두드리며 노래하던 한국 특유의 회식문화는 그대로 노래방으로 흘러들었다. 점수를 부여하고 코러스를 도입하는 등 노래방 기기도 이용자의 흥을 자극하는 쪽으로 진화해왔다.
93년 김영삼 정부가 청소년 제한을 풀면서 노래방은 폭발적으로 늘어났다. 2009년 현재 전국의 노래방은 3만5684개. 시장 규모는 1조3399억원이다(한국콘텐츠진흥원 통계). 업소당 하루 평균 54명이 찾고 있고, 전국적으로 매일 190만 명이 마이크를 잡고 있다.
◆가요계의 바로미터=노래방 목록을 보면 가요계 히트곡을 점칠 수 있다. 노래방 기기 업체들은 자체 선곡팀을 별도로 운영하면서 히트 가능성이 높은 곡을 골라 기기에 삽입하고 있다. 방송 횟수, 주요 팬층의 나이, 가수의 이력 등을 따져 해당 곡이 상위 20% 안에 들 것인지 예측한다. 장윤정의 ‘어머나’의 경우 노래방에 먼저 깔린 다음 1년 뒤에 인기를 끌기도 했다. 해마다 발표되는 노래방 애창곡 목록은 가요계에서 가장 민감하게 반응하는 차트 가운데 하나다. 한국 대중음악사의 흐름을 한눈에 알 수 있다. 90년대엔 이문세·김건모 등 실력파 가수들의 곡이 상위에 올랐지만, 최근엔 소녀시대·씨엔블루 등 아이돌 그룹의 곡이 상위를 차지하고 있다.
대중문화평론가 강태규씨는 “노래방 덕분에 음악을 감상하는 문화에서 참여하는 문화로 진화했지만 노래방이 유흥업소로 변질되는 부분은 경계해야 한다”고 말했다.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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