Sing about hope

This sounds like it’s about the super bowl and it kinda is, but the motivation for it is not the super bowl. Recently I’ve been rekindling my love for the music I used to listen to in my earlier days. So I’ve been listening to a lot of 90’s kpop and Korean hip hop.

How I listen to music has changed over the years. I used to be a data hoarder, just downloading heaps and heaps of mp3’s. Then I just used a program like Winamp (wow what a memory trip!) to play the files. I spent so much time customizing EQ’s (only to just boost the bass lol) and add-ons to make the music experience more enjoyable.

Then came the era of streaming music. Suddenly music could just be listened to without being downloaded. I was really resistant to this because my collection was eclectic. I had a bunch of songs from different nationalities and genres and I couldn’t really guarantee that the songs from my catalogs would be there. But over time licensing and such must have worked out because now I can find any song I want online.

I might sound like an old fart, but I for the life of me could not understand why people listened to music on YouTube. It’s a VIDEO PLATFORM, not an AUDIO PLATFORM! My college friend would complain to me, “you know I wish YouTube would continue playing when I close the app” and I, with a totally judgmental tone, said “why the fuck would a video continue playing when you close the video?”.

But alas! Time is a cruel mistress and now I am eating my words as I listen to music on YouTube. I am sorry, my college friend. I was a pompous ass who could not appreciate your foresight.

The fun thing about listening to music on YouTube is I get to see comments about the song. And comments about some old timey songs get really nostalgic. I flip through the comments as I sing along with the song and revisit other people’s memories along with mine. The other day I was listening to Epik High’s song FLY when I got a super unexpected gut punch to the feels. One of the comments said,

Holy crap I did not expect to get punched in the feelings nutsack (sorry for the language!). The crazy thing is, this song is actually a super hopeful song about not giving up on dreams and how you can fly high even if you’re flying low right now. But depending on your life experience the same song can have a completely different meaning.

There was a 90’s kpop group called H.O.T. (high five of teenagers, i know it’s weird) and they were THE idols. They were the undisputed #1 boy band no matter what anybody said. Now, I was a hipster and I touted my disdain for H.O.T. because I actually liked American hip hop. But guess what? Secretly I also loved H.O.T. and idolized them because they were so cool.

In 1997 Korea experienced the biggest national crisis of the times, the IMF situation. The entire country went bankrupt and at this time even our family had to return to Korea because the conversion rate from Korean Won to dollars were so bad. Most families lost their income, broke apart with divorces, and many men committed suicide. It was a grim time for everyone and people were desperately in search for a reason to continue going on.

At this time the people looked to the sports heroes of Korea, Pak Se-ri and Chan Ho Park. Pak Se-ri is a LPGA hall of famer who went into walked into the pond barefoot to continue playing after a bad shot and eventually won the U.S. Open that year. Chan Ho Park was the first Korean major leaguer for the Los Angeles Dodgers and when Koreans looked at those sports heroes thriving overseas they found hope in them.

Then in 1998 H.O.T. came back with their third album, with a particular song called Hope. They usually sung about typical kpop stuff, like love or criticizing social norms so for them to sing a hopeful song was very atypical of them but given their national boy band status the song became a national hit as people really resonated with the core message of hope.

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H.O.T. went through a messy contract dispute near the end of their career and disbanded somewhat abruptly. Then they were never seen doing anything together, probably because of their high status and what implications the people could create rumors about. But a few years ago they made a very dramatic reunion after twenty something years which sent the entire Korean peninsula into a frenzy of nostalgia.

People remember the song but more importantly they remember their youth, what they were going through when they were idolizing H.O.T.. Lately they had a concert where they sang Hope and everyone gathered in the comments to talk about how genuinely hopeless their life was when the song came out, but how life looks so different now because they held on to hope.

Times have changed for sure, it’s almost been 30 years since the IMF crisis and Korea is one of the richest countries in the world now. Things are definitely better than before, but unfortunately we still suffer, just for different reasons. Korea aside, similar things are happening in America. There are reasons to believe that things are looking very bad and grim, but in another way things are sort of the best it’s ever been.

As long as there’s suffering, there’s a need to sing about hope. Without believing in hope there is no reason for us to continue. My Buddhist teacher likens lack of hope as an inverted bowl. No amount of food can satisfy a person with an inverted bowl. For you to get something you need to flip that bowl around, and that is what it means to hope.

In that spirit this year’s super bowl performance was just exceptional, it did a great job of showing what we can achieve from a Pan-American united front. How many different cultural influences we can have to form a joyous occasion in the name of unity. I hope for that for the Americas, and I hope we can talk about it in 30 years in the YouTube comment section.

So I ask you today, please: sing for hope. Even when you think no one is listening.

Billy Seol

July Life Coach
​julylifecoach.com​