Cho Yong-pil sparks a dying CD market

People wait outside the Youngpoong Bookstore in central Seoul, Monday morning, hours before Cho Yong-pil’s new album, “Hello,” went on sale. / Yonhap

By Kim Tong-hyung

The compact disc (CD) was left for death as downloads ate away at the physical sales of singles. But it appears Cho Yong-pil has given it a shot in the arm.

The 63-year-old singer-songwriter of iconic status is obviously the only musician who could make Korea in 2013 look like it was 1993. The line of his fans at Youngpoong Bookstore in central Seoul stretched for more than 200 meters hours before the sale of Cho’s new album, ``Hello,’’ went on sale at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

The first orders for Hello came in at around 20,000 copies, a large number in a deflating music market where albums that sold more than 100,000 copies have been non-existent for a while.

``This reminds us of the 1980s when people would line up at record stores to buy Cho’s new album. This is his 19th album and it’s really exciting that people are responding to him like this,’’ said an official from YPC Production, Cho’s management agency.

Cho’s music also seems to be reaching a generation of music listeners that grew up on iPods and Napster-like peer-to-peer sites. `` Bounce,’’ a single from the album that was released in advance, is currently sweeping the country’s nine largest download charts, keeping Psy’s ``Gentleman,’’ his follow-up to last year’s global hit, ``Gangnam Style,’’ in a distant second place. Mobile-phone operators are saying that Bounce has emerged as the most popular choice for ringtones.

While Cho has arguably been Korea’s most influential singer of the past four decades, the popularity of his new work is exceeding expectations, even by his standards. It seems that Cho’s album meets the demand of the moment when the public is beginning to get wary of manufactured K-pop personalities and singing show contestants.

Beginning his career in 1968 as a guitarist in rock band ``Atkins,’’ Cho performed in several bands such as Five Fingers and the Kim Trio before going solo.

His breakthrough came in 1975 when ``Come Back to Pusan Port’’ became a nationwide hit and one of the country’s most beloved pop songs of all time. He followed this with ``The Woman Outside the Window,’’ which was included in his first studio album released in 1979 and considered by many critics as the best song of his career.

Cho’s other hits include ``The Leopard of Kilimanjaro,” “Short Hair” and “Let’s Go on a Trip.’’ He has sold over 10 million copies of his albums in Korea and also has a large following in Japan.