Seo Taiji’s back in the news, and as far as Korean pop music is concerned, it’s a pretty big fucking deal. If you aren’t familiar with Seo Taiji, you might not get why he’s considered important, but the guy’s practically a legend. He had a strong, lasting effect on Korean pop music; he wasn’t just popular, he was influential.

And now he’s back. This time it’s something of an event, with an album to commemorate the 15th year since his debut. The album has already sold out in preorders, within four days of the November 2 announcement of its sale, and will need to go into additional pressings.

The frenzy of preordering was set off by the announcement that the album would be a limited edition — a monster 7-disc CD set with an additional two DVDs containing every song from his seven-album discography, all his music videos, unreleased footage, live clips, etc. Demand continues unabated even in the face of the rather high price, which is a bit over $100 (close to 100,000 won). The production company had wanted to only print 15,000 copies (15 being a special number as it’s the 15th anniversary), although a representative from Yedang Entertainment admits that it might prove difficult.

What I find cool about these copies is the care being taken to make it a special item — each copy from 1 to 15,000 will come with its own number, and the first 15 have been reserved for people at Seo Taiji’s company. The copies for sale will begin with #16, and — get this — even some of the other numbers are considered extra-special, i.e. 221 because February 21 is Seo Taiji’s birthday.

 
So what’s the big fuss? Hear some of Seo Taiji’s old-school hits >>

Filed under: Kpop News by javabeans - 30 Comments →