First Koreans to play Glastonbury

The three core members of Korean post-rock band Jambinai pose with Jason Verney, a filmmaker/journalist/podcaster, at Glastonbury 2014 in the U.K. Courtesy of Jason Verney

Seventeen became the first K-pop act to perform at Glastonbury last month, as reported widely all around the world, from The Guardian and BBC to NME to Rolling Stone, to Times of India and Australian Broadcasting Corp. It's a pretty amazing milestone, way bigger than the time Sultan of the Disco, Jambinai and Choi Go-eun played Glastonbury way back in 2014. Their achievement a full decade earlier received considerably less fanfare.

I think we all know what separates K-pop groups like Seventeen from the less commercialized musicians of Korea, and it isn't artistic merit. It more likely has to do with the mountains of money stacked behind them.

What's wrong with celebrating the creative endeavors of the remarkable individuals of Korea's non-K-pop music scene who are making their dreams come true against all odds? Isn't that a victory as well?

Speaking of Jambinai, the post-rock band was also witness to another historic moment in 2019, being able to see BLACKPINK become the first K-pop girl group to play Coachella, where they were also on the bill along with indie rock act Hyukoh. The first Korean act to play Coachella was the electronic performance act EE in 2011, but it wasn't until K-pop boy band Epik High in 2016 that the headlines really took notice.

The history of Korean musicians touring overseas is still relatively young. Before "Gangnam Style," it was comparatively a trickle. Most Korean bands had to pay their own way, book their own shows, drive their own tour vans. It was tough going early on, but they paved the roads for all those that came later.

The turning point was, many will regret admitting, "Gangnam Style." Released in 2012, the song and video went super-viral, a first for the Korean culture industry. It revealed two important facts: that not all music in Korea is pretty idol groups, and that the government's support was worthless. There was egg on the faces of many government agencies promoting K-pop acts, while this short, fat novelty act broke through powerfully, originating from a tweet by U.S. rapper T-Pain on July 29, 2012. What followed was a lot of hand-wringing and soul-searching by civil servants.

By 2013, while "Gangnam Style" was still smashing records, there started to be much more government support for internationally touring Korean musicians. It brought the world's stages much closer, even if they had to jump through many hoops, and they were only covered for playing festivals, not cross-country tours – which is a major reason why we often hear about these milestones in connection with the big-name festivals.

When SXSW in Austin, Texas, introduced the K-Pop Night Out showcase in 2013, it mixed K-pop acts like f(x) with rockers like Jung Cha-sik and Yi Sung-yeol, as well as bands like Guckkasten, No Brain, Galaxy Express and the Geeks. I've been told organizers promoted the hell out of f(x), but were surprised to find a lot of support already existing for the Geeks and Galaxy Express, both of which had already toured the U.S. and connected with music scenes in the region.

K-Pop Night Out became a way to gauge certain characteristics about the global reception to — and domestic support for — Korean music of all kinds. The number of Korean bands performing the national showcase at SXSW swelled over the following years, though many other acts opted to play non-nationally branded events for the festival.

I've been led to believe it had been at the Korean culture ministry's insistence that the showcase's name included "K-pop." In those days, the message was being pushed that K-pop included all modern music in Korea, not just idol pop but also hip-hop, rock, punk, metal and so on. Although there has been a spillover effect, and you can increasingly find K-pop fans who like doom metal or punks who listen to NewJeans, most would agree that K-pop and anything outside that circus tent are in different worlds. That goes for all the global media gushing over the first K-pop act — rather than the first Korean act — to perform Glastonbury. In 2018, K-Pop Night Out was rebranded as Korea Spotlight, a less flashy name, as preferred by the American organizers. I don't think the national showcase still exists, but Korean bands continue to go there, now playing with their musical kindred spirits from around the world rather than grouped according to national divisions.

Also, around 2018, BTS was rising, imparting a new lesson that corrected a previous one, that Korean music is mainly about pretty idol groups after all. But the rising tide continues to raise all ships, and Korean acts of all kinds are finding that the globally acknowledged popularity of BTS makes festival organizers — and crowds — more receptive to anything from Korea.

Opportunities to perform abroad continue to grow for all Korean musicians. But that has less to do now with the availability of government support and more to do with the fact that touring Korean musicians are increasingly finding that they find warm welcomes, acceptance and popularity when they go overseas while they continue wallowing in obscurity in their home country.

It's a problem at the core of Korean music that Korea's arrival at Glastonbury received so much fanfare in 2024, rather than 2014.

Jon Dunbar is a copy editor at The Korea Times.