Raising a Neglected Singer-Songwriter - Chapter 6



Only Krnovel

Episode 6. 21st Century Boy (3)

What is music?

How can we define music?

If we approach it scientifically, we could express it like this.

Vibrating a person’s neck or a musical instrument to transmit certain waves and certain sounds to another person’s ears?

But that’s not the right answer.

Listening to music is something that resonates with your ears, but it often resonates with your heart rather than your ears.

If we approach it from the musician’s perspective, the definition becomes more detailed and individualized.

There is almost infinite music in the world, and the eternity of time added to this infinite music has created a variety of music that is even closer to infinity.

There are probably at least ten thousand definitions of music.

Even the definition of music, of which there are well over ten thousand, is sure to change over time.

That is the same as saying there is no answer to the question of what music is.

Since there is no answer, is the answer to not define anything?

well.

Maybe so… … or maybe not.

Someone’s words may or may not be correct.

also.

Just because I defined music doesn’t mean it’s the right answer.

Does that mean my definition is wrong?

First of all, I decided to define music.

“picture.”

Or.

“diary.”

More precisely.

“record.”

And I started to trace the birth of music.

Dance music that we encountered in the 21st century.

A ballad that was popular in Korea before dance music took over the world.

In America, we encounter hip-hop, which originated from the murmurings of black people.

Finally rock.

Now this is the world I knew.

Several small metal balls emerge from Kurt Cobain’s body and enter the muzzle of the gun.

Kurt Cobain stands up with a gun and pulls something white out of his body with a syringe.

Music pouring out of Kurt Cobain’s hands as he walked backwards, guitar in hand.

And the song.

[Suoregnad ssel s’ti, tuo sthgil eht htiw… … .]

It was different from what I knew, but it didn’t feel awkward at all. Along with him, I was also going against the world of music.

Albert Einstein was right.

Time is relative.

For me, that song is by Nirvana.

The pace picked up again after Kurt Cobain passed.

A black boy, shaking his body dazzlingly, is smiling in the center of the lights.

And then he walks forward, dragging his legs.

Metallica were shaking on stage at their debut.

He bounced up and down like Jesus three days after John Lennon died.

A bullet is ripped from his chest and flies into the muzzle of someone’s gun.

You could call it blasphemy to compare John Lennon to Jesus.

God blasphemed me first, so shouldn’t I blaspheme him once in a while?

Still, I cried out to myself while swimming.

‘Forgive me.’

People are so fragile.

Music seems to be born somewhere between fragility and the courage to confront it.

Finally, past the jazz and blues, you see guys with curly hair and wearing leggings and stuff.

The grandeur of classical music washes over me.

I met Beethoven and asked him for advice on music.

I met Schubert and shook his hand with a smile, even though he was timid.

Gradually.

The speed increases even more steeply.

This paradoxically meant that music had not made much progress for a long time.

Horsemen carrying the crossed flags pass by.

Conqueror or march for peace?

Smallpox and the Black Death swept the world.

Tens of thousands of people rose from their graves like zombies.

After witnessing all that time, I finally arrived.

A long time ago, I don’t even know when it was.

Naked people are shouting loudly.

-Wooga-wooga! Whoa!

Loud voice.

It’s not music.

Finally, we arrived at a world without music.

And then I realized.

Form is form.

Music is like water, and its definition changes depending on who puts it in what vessel.

Water that cannot be contained is just water.

If you pour it into a square cup, it is square water, and if you pour it into a round bowl, it is round water.

So then, is the will of the one who created it music?

Wrong.

If no one looks at the water in the square cup, it is just water.

Only after someone observes it does water reveal its square shape to the world.

The definition of existence becomes meaningless without an observer.

That’s music.

So making music is about bringing out and recording something I want to show.

My feelings.

My situation.

Sometimes like a photo.

Sometimes like a movie.

The creator records.

Waiting to be passed on to the observer and completed as music.

I witnessed light in the darkness.

The pen in my hand moves on its own, giving birth to dozens of bean sprout heads into the world.

And the unknown something born from my fingertips says this.

Hurry up and show me to the world.

“Phew… … .”

I took a deep breath.

And I confirmed the existence drawn before my eyes.

I didn’t make it.

I am looking at something in the universe that was created by itself.

If you ask, “Is it really that great?” then of course.

No, you can answer.

The standards of greatness are not set by me either.

If you were to ask if you could write a better song than this in the future, I would confidently say that you can.

But if you ask me to write a song with this kind of feeling, I would say it’s impossible.

Music is a record of a moment, and people change as they run through time.

That’s why music is great.

Because it turns a moment into eternity.

Now the guitar… … .

“ah.”

There is no guitar.

I’m going to ask Beomseok for some pocket money so I can buy an instrument.

So again.

Just when you think you’ve put on a guitar, a fake Gibson appears with a whoosh.

It was transparent, but it didn’t matter.

Anyway, since there is no observer at the moment, it is okay if there is no sound.

Another good thing was that it didn’t require any tuning or settings.

It starts with the guitar.

Start off by relaxing.

Because it’s in the key of A minor, it’s gloomy but not too gloomy.

After a short but soft introduction, the keyboard and drums follow almost simultaneously.

So that the audience doesn’t get bored.

We need to grab the audience’s attention before it’s too late.

21st century music is fast.

It’s intense.

Shake and shake from the start.

They sprinkle a sound called the money chord from beginning to end, and when the audience starts to get bored, they focus their attention by pushing and pulling semitones.

The music I created is the radio star of the 20th century.

It’s music from the radio era that video killed, but the observers are 21st century people.

TV taught me a lot.

Frequent screen switching.

Jumping between scenes.

Even the subtitles of entertainment programs that fill up the boring moments.

It means that the observer’s patience is very short.

So, keep the introduction short.

The tide is rising quickly.

The drums’ strikes become stronger and faster.

Music that changed from alternative to hard rock in an instant.

Hot―

The room was filled with heat.

Corner of the room.

The tendons on Dong-sik’s shoulders, who looked like a North Korean spy, were bulging.

The saying that the more advanced you are, the less force you have to use is half true and half false.

Drums are a power-intensive instrument.

To let go of strength is to distribute power.

So both physical strength and power.

If you have a lot of it… …you can continuously deliver powerful blows like the North Korean agent now.

The highest note is 4 octaves D (D#5).

The range of sounds is small.

The lowest note is 1 octave C (B3).

It’s ridiculously high for the lowest note.

But if you think of a vocalist’s throat as an instrument, then my throat is half broken.

The other half is finished.

It’s such a strange instrument.

Since it was my song, I matched it to the vocals.

If you can change instruments, you can change instruments, but vocals are fixed. You can’t rip your throat and swap it with someone else.

If I want to sing better someday, I’ll need to practice.

Finally, the imaginary performance ended.

I scribbled like this on the music score.

The music isn’t monotonous, but isn’t it too monotonous for a song title?

Then let’s add it like this. The pen in my hand added a few numbers.

It was music to commemorate the day our band was formed, and a faded song dedicated to the rock fans of that era.

I took a deep breath and looked in the mirror.

-You, do something about that stupid head of yours.

The hair that Beomseok had been nagging at so much had grown long enough to reach his shoulders.

He originally had long hair for a high school senior, but it has become tangled, perhaps because he has been locked up in his room for so long.

I lifted my head with both hands and grabbed my topknot, and my face was really… … indescribable.

The area under my eyes is puffy, maybe due to lack of photosynthesis.

Both cheeks are sunken, like a malnourished person.

“… … I shouldn’t join the bone-chilling members either. I’m the frontman after all.”

I opened the smartphone I received from Beomseok and sent a message in a familiar manner.

-Me: Give me some money.

Immediately afterwards, the Jiying smartphone starts shaking.

-Sancho: How much?

– Me: A lot. A lot. I’ll pay you back.

-Sancho: You crazy bastard.

– Me: I’ll write well.

But I know you packed it and left it.

I got up and walked to the living room, where a red square card was waiting for me on the table.

Hey, this is a card.

New civilization of the 21st century.

With just this one piece, you don’t have to carry around a heavy wallet.

“I also need to buy clothes… … . Hair… … .”

Beomseok went out into the street wearing the clothes that the guy had bought.

This is… … I wore it because I thought of the kindness of the person who bought it for me, but it really lacks sense.

A baggy T-shirt makes your hunched body stand out even more, and jeans that are neither skinny nor wide-legged are enough to make you look invisible.

“It wasn’t like this before, but it’s become delicious.”

Apparently, the guy was also quite interested in fashion.

Only my clothes are weird and unsightly.

Still, the price is quite high, and it’s not that I bought him anything weird, it’s just that the clothes he wears are like that.

I was thinking about organizing my hair a bit.

Rock is kind of like that.

Not all rockers in the world have long hair.

I also wanted to raise him like my brothers, and I think it’s a good thing that I’m waiting a little longer to see how he does.

Which comes first, the beauty salon?

Which comes first, the clothing store?

After a brief moment of hesitation, I got into a taxi and shouted:

“Paradise Shopping Street.”

The instrument comes first.

As always.

Today is going to be a particularly sad day for Sancho.

* * *

When looking at the whole country, there are a lot of rice cake shops with the word ‘Paradise’ in their name.

The origin of the name is simple.

There were a lot of rice cake shops in Nakwon-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

These people moved to their hometown in the countryside, and opened a rice cake shop in the neighborhood they moved to, and because it was a house that made rice cakes in Nakwon-dong… …they ended up using the name Nakwon Rice Cake Shop.

Again, people who learned the technique of making rice cakes from these people started using the name Paradise Rice Cake Shop again, thinking that since there were many rice cake makers in Paradise, they should also use their fame there.

Then why did the people who make rice cakes gather in Nakwon-dong?

Rice cakes are inherently a great luxury.

Rice cakes are made by pounding rice and kneading it into a ball, and rice cakes can only be made if there is leftover rice.

This is the reason why in the past, ordinary households could only eat this rice cake during holidays.

So, the technicians who make proper rice cakes gathered in the palace of Sin.

A place where those who could afford to spend money on luxury lived.

Among the court ladies who were driven out of the palace after the forced annexation of Korea by Japan, those who made rice cakes gathered in one place. That place was Nakwon-dong.

of course.

Now, it has disappeared into the back alleys of history, and it has become difficult to find a rice cake shop in Nakwon-dong.

anyway.

In that Nakwon-dong, there was one thing that was more famous than the rice cake shop.

Paradise shopping mall.

The mecca of music and musical instruments.

With the passage of time, rapidly changing distribution channels, and the onslaught of online shopping, it is difficult to see the past glory, but it is not like the rice cake shop that disappeared from paradise.

It still functions as a commercial building.

The instrument is.

Touch and feel it.

Check it out.

You have to try it yourself to find out.

on the 2nd floor of Paradise Shopping Mall.

“Minjae. Put your phone down and get to work.”

“Yes.”

“You, Imma. Are you going to answer with a straight face?”

“Yes, yes.”

“What are you trying to become?”

“I’m a YouTuber with a million subscribers.”

“That answer is strangely specific?”

“Hehehe… … .”

Oh Man-seok, the president of Myeongga Musical Instruments, let out a hollow laugh as he looked at his nephew.

I hate seeing people looking at their phones and occasionally picking their noses, but I can’t afford the labor costs to hire full-time employees or part-time workers.

There were times when I used to use three or four when Paradise Shopping Mall was doing well, but that is past glory.

I was grateful to that guy who only took care of me on weekends under the pretense of giving my nephew, who is now a high school student living nearby, some allowance. I wanted him to at least get some rest if he came out.

“Well… who can stop the passage of time?”

I was about to ask my nephew to dust off the dust that had settled on the instrument, but I ended up picking up the duster with my own hands.

Whisk- Whisk.

A light touch will cause the dust on the instrument to fly away.

Oh Man-seok chewed on his memories amidst the flying dust. Now that his hair had turned white, it was impossible to tell even if the dust flew and settled on his head.

But when I first started out, I was in my 20s and full of energy. I came to Paradise Shopping Mall in the 1980s and settled in without any help from anyone.

In the process, countless musicians have passed through his hands.

Among them, there are many famous people who are still known by name.

That was Oh Man-seok’s time and pride.

“When a customer comes, sell him the most expensive item possible. Got it?”

of course…….

It was an old pride that had passed away.

“Yes.”

Even if he answers like that, he still manages to do one thing – upselling. I don’t know why, but if customers consult with his nephew, they buy higher-end instruments.

I can only guess that perhaps that indifferent attitude is what is irritating the guest’s pride…

Ring ring ring

The small bell on the door rings, and a skinny, tall young man who looks like he’s wearing someone else’s clothes… …um. and has hair as long as an average woman’s comes in.

‘You’re a beginner.’

One scan and it’s all figured out.

His appearance is unusual, like he’s a musician. However, unless he’s playing a large instrument like the piano or drums, he usually goes to a music store with his instrument.

And while doing that, we compare and confirm.

Piano or drums?

If that’s the case, then you’re even more of a beginner.

Instruments that take up a lot of space, such as pianos and drums, are sold on the third floor.

‘Sell it for the highest price possible… Minjae.’

Oh Man-seok, who had been interested, entered a small room inside the store.

There are some ‘really’ expensive instruments on display there.

Without even a speck of dust.