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Trot is Hot: It's Not Just K-pop in South Korea

Fans of South Korean singer Lim Young-woong pose for photographs with banners bearing his name, before watching a movie featuring ‘trot’ singers including Lim Young-woong, at a theater in Gunpo, South Korea, October 22, 2020. (Reuters)
Fans of South Korean singer Lim Young-woong pose for photographs with banners bearing his name, before watching a movie featuring ‘trot’ singers including Lim Young-woong, at a theater in Gunpo, South Korea, October 22, 2020. (Reuters)
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Trot is Hot: It's Not Just K-pop in South Korea

Fans of South Korean singer Lim Young-woong pose for photographs with banners bearing his name, before watching a movie featuring ‘trot’ singers including Lim Young-woong, at a theater in Gunpo, South Korea, October 22, 2020. (Reuters)
Fans of South Korean singer Lim Young-woong pose for photographs with banners bearing his name, before watching a movie featuring ‘trot’ singers including Lim Young-woong, at a theater in Gunpo, South Korea, October 22, 2020. (Reuters)

In a film theater near Seoul, scores of middle-aged South Korean women in matching baby-blue T-shirts, hair bands and face masks inscribed with the word “Hero” are screaming, singing along and taking selfies.

They are some of the 135,000-member fan club of top male South Korean singer Lim Young-woong, gathering to watch “Mr. Trot: The Movie”, a movie featuring him and other singers who perform the country’s oldest form of popular music, commonly called trot.

Lim’s fan club is called “Age of Hero”, after the singer’s name which means hero in Korean.

Once ridiculed as music for grannies, trot is making a comeback and many South Koreans, mostly in their 40s and above, are cheering an alternative to K-pop idol music in one of the world’s fastest ageing societies.

K-pop is a multi-billion-dollar global music industry with bubbly bands like BTS and BLACKPINK enjoying huge fan bases outside South Korea.

But at home, trot signers performing old ballads have seen the biggest increase in fans, according to top portal website Daum that analyses growth rates of fan clubs and their social media activities.

“Our country is ageing, but it is hard to find songs that bring emotional empathy for the elderly population because the music is too idol-oriented” said Park Woo-jung, 54, a member of Age of Hero.

“But listening to Lim Young-woong, I find his voice beautiful and comforting,” said Park, wearing the sky-blue Hero mask. Lim’s new single topped online music charts earlier this month.

Although considered uncool by youngsters, trot music has a broad national following with a storied history of success going back before the birth of modern K-pop. The music’s melancholic lyrics of unrequited love or yearning played to a repetitive beat has resonated with babyboomers and retirees, the generation that helped build Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

Money and time
Today, fans of the genre have become an economic force to reckon with and many use their unlimited data plans to plug into streaming sites or vote for their favorite stars at awards, embracing ways of K-pop followers.

“Fandom of the middle-age and elderly is unconditional,” said Jung Duk Hyun, a pop culture columnist. “They have time to listen all day. They have money, and think their stars energize their life, then aggressively invest by buying and clicking.”

When Lim of Mr. Trot became the model for a Ssangyong Motor SUV this year, sales surged 63% in May and 98% in June compared to the vehicle’s monthly average sales between January and April this year, the carmaker said.

Song Jong-choon is a fan of trot singer Song Ga-in whose songs, he says, “heal his broken soul,” especially one about lost hometowns that remind him of the countryside home he left. He doesn’t hesitate a moment to support her career.

“We are old, and many of us are in 50s who have economic power, so normally don’t mind the spending. But, if you are a (K-pop) idol fan, you have to do a part-time job to buy a concert ticket.”

Song is head of Song Ga-in’s fan club “AGAIN” with 57,000 members and six regional chapters. The club has its own guide book to show how to subscribe to streaming sites, and click likes for her music videos.

The living room of his apartment is decorated with giant photos of the singer and merchandise in her signature pink ranging from aprons to cushions with the singer’s pictures.

Trot is unlikely to reach the global success of K-pop largely because of the language barrier, but fans believe their fandom as something special, treating their stars as if they are their own children.

“BTS has (its fanclub) ARMY but we are Mommies,” said Hwang Eun-jeong, a 52-year-old housewife and a member of Lim Young-woong’s fan club.

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Entertainment

Think You Know 'Jaws'? Test Your Knowledge with this Trivia Ahead of the Movie's 50th Anniversary

This image released by Peacock shows Roy Scheider in a scene from "Jaws." (Peacock/Universal Pictures via AP)
This image released by Peacock shows Roy Scheider in a scene from "Jaws." (Peacock/Universal Pictures via AP)
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Think You Know 'Jaws'? Test Your Knowledge with this Trivia Ahead of the Movie's 50th Anniversary

This image released by Peacock shows Roy Scheider in a scene from "Jaws." (Peacock/Universal Pictures via AP)
This image released by Peacock shows Roy Scheider in a scene from "Jaws." (Peacock/Universal Pictures via AP)

Friday marks the 50th anniversary of “Jaws.” It remains one of the most beloved and rewatched movies of all time. But how good is your knowledge of the some of lore surrounding Steven Spielberg's 1975 masterpiece?

Read on and see how much you know about “Jaws.”

What was the nickname given to the shark? Spielberg named his mechanical shark “Bruce,” after his attorney, Bruce Ramer.

Where did the title come from? When author Peter Benchley’s 1974 book was going to print, he needed to choose a title. He has juggled various titles — “Leviathan Rising,” “Silent Fall” — before, at the last minute, choosing “Jaws.”

What did it mean? Benchley, himself, wasn’t sure, he told his editor, but it was short.

What's the origin of the iconic movie poster? The image of the rising shark came from the cover of the novel’s paperback edition, illustrated by Roger Kastel. For his painting, Kastel went to the American Museum of Natural History to photograph a great white shark from a diorama that was laying on an easel.

What was the inspiration for Amity? Though Spielberg shot “Jaws” on Martha’s Vineyard, off Cape Cod, it was the neighboring island, Nantucket, that inspired Benchley’s novel. He has spent time fishing there with his father. In the book, the fictional Amity is on the south shore of Long Island.

Who was first attached to direct “Jaws”? Dick Richards was initially in line to direct the film, but producer Richard D. Zanuck said he lost the job after, in a meeting, repeatedly referring to the shark as a whale.

How old was Spielberg when he began the project? 26.

Who sought but was turned down the role of Brody? Charlton Heston wanted to play the Amity Island police chief, but Spielberg instead cast Roy Scheider.
What’s the name of Quint’s boat? The Orca. Not coincidentally, two years after the massive success of “Jaws,” a 1977 ripoff about a killer whale was released titled “Orca.”

What led to the shark often malfunctioning? Salt water. The shark, built by special effects artist Bob Mattey, would get corroded by the salt water of the Atlantic Ocean, leaving it unusable for times – particularly early in the filmmaking. Spielberg pivoted and instead doesn’t show the shark until well into the film, an approach that ultimately led to a far more suspenseful film.

Spielberg once estimated that Bruce’s mechanical delays added $175 million to the movie’s box office.

How long into “Jaws” does the shark fully appear on screen? It’s not until one hour and 21 minutes into the movie that we really see the shark.

Was the movie’s most iconic line scripted? No, Schieder adlibbed “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” Screenwriter Carl Gottlieb, though, has said the line had been percolating on set. The size of the barge carrying equipment and craft services was often slighted by the crew who felt producers weren’t spending enough. Gottlieb told The Hollywood Reporter in 2016: “It became a catchphrase for any time anything went wrong – if lunch was late or the swells were rocking the camera, someone would say, ‘You’re gonna need a bigger boat.’”

What disaster was Quint a survivor of? The sinking of the USS Indianapolis, the US Navy cruiser torpedoed by a Japanese submarine during World War II.

Quint’s lengthy and memorably speech in the film wasn’t in the novel but was, according to Spielberg, penned by the uncredited screenwriter John Milius.

Spielberg wanted a backstory to why Quint hated sharks so much. Though debate has continued over the years over who wrote the monologue, everyone has agreed Shaw synthesized it, and deserves most of the credit for the scene’s power.

Does Spielberg appear in “Jaws?” The director isn’t seen in the film but his voice is heard. During the finale of the film when Quint is readying the harpoon, it’s Spielberg’s voice on the radio. He says: “This is Amity point light-station to Orca. Orca, come in.” Spielberg shows up in a couple other ways, too. A clarinetist in high school, he plays briefly on Williams’ score. And Brody’s dogs were Spielberg’s cocker spaniels, Elmer and Zalman. (For his part, Benchley makes a cameo as a TV reporter during the July 4th beach scene.)

How far over schedule did “Jaws” run? The production was scheduled for 55 days but took 159 days to complete. The budget also nearly tripled, to $9 million, plus $3 million more in post-production. Though “Jaws” become the prototype summer movie, it was originally expected to open around Christmastime the year before.

What was “Jaws” rated? Though it caused some controversy, the Motion Picture Association of America gave “Jaws” a “PG” rating. At the time, there was no PG-13 rating. (That only began in 1984, with “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” after a handful of other Spielberg productions, including “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Gremlins” led to the new category.) Jack Valenti, then-president of the MPAA, defended the rating by arguing that “‘Jaws’ involved nature’s violence, rather than man’s violence against man,” Valenti said. “This is the same kind of violence as in ‘Hansel and Gretel.’ Children might imitate other kinds of violence, but not the kind seen in ‘Jaws.’”

The movie’s poster carried the warning: “MAY BE TOO INTENSE FOR YOUNGER CHILDREN.”

What did “Jaws” lose best picture to at the Academy Awards? “Jaws” was nominated for four Oscars and won three: best sound, best editing and best score for John Williams. The competition for best picture, though, was fierce.

The nominees, alongside “Jaws,” where “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Barry Lyndon,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Nashville.” The winner was “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”