1990s rock bands return

1990s rock bands return. June. 01, 2018 08:07. imi@donga.com.
Lee Soo-jin, 35, are excited to go to a concert by the rock band Eve to be held at the Jangchung Arena in Seoul on Sunday to mark the band’s 20th anniversary of its debut.

“I was a fan of the band since the day when its vocalist Kim Se-heon was a member of the band ‘Girl,’ which is famous for its song ‘Aspirin’,” Lee says. “I had forgotten Even since I graduated from high school but the band’s recent appearance on a TV show rekindled my heart for them.”

Tickets for the upcoming concert, which is quite large in size, are almost sold out as of Thursday. Lee is not going alone but with her high school friends who used to do head banging at rocker Kim Kyung-ho’s Christmas concert when they were high school seniors.

Rockers or bands that were mainstream in the 1990s are having their second heydays. Rocker Kim Kyung-ho has been having national tours for the 10th year. This year, he will embark on a concert tour with a concert at Yonsei University in Seoul on Saturday. The K2 and the Emerald Castle, which had a joint concert in Seoul in January, is expanding their concert tours nationwide with a performance on Jeju Island on Saturday.

People in their 30s, who were teenagers at the bands’ heydays, are the major driving force behind the return of the rock bands. According to online shopping and booking site Interpark, 82.6 percent of those who booked Eve’s 20th anniversary concert are in their 30s. Tickets to the K2-Emerald Castle concert in Jeju were mostly sold to those in their 30s (50 percent) and 40s (35 percent).

“At that time, many rock bands appeared on TV music shows together with idol groups, and people viewed rock musicians as having higher musicality than idol bands,” said pop music commentator Kim Hak-seon. Quiet but loyal fans who now have purchasing power are returning to rock concerts.