Lim Kim, or Yelim Kim, returned from her four-year hiatus and in the most unexpected way possible. Everyone who knew from Lim Kim’s “Superstar K” (a Korean audition show- Kim debuted in Superstar K Season 3 in 2016 as the duo Twogaewol.) persona would have been surprised by the fact that she has returned with this hip hop album with this raw and aggressive explosive and “Oriental” sound. As she released her single “SAL-KI” followed by her album Generasian, she documented her creative process and her journey of coming back to the public eye in her interview videos on Youtube. As I was watching her video I could not help but think of another idol turned icon in Korean music — Lee-Tzsche.
The Idol Phase
Singer-songwriter Lee-Tzsche debuted in 1988. She also debuted from the audition show that precedented all the audition shows that followed in the 21st century called the “Riverside Song Championship”. Her entry song to the competition (which became her debut song) “Dam-da-di” is easily one of her best-known works. It was catchy and energetic- if there was one song that could perfectly sum up the general public’s excitement to hosting their first Olympic games in 1988, it was Dam-da-di.
Her debut was a shock. 6-feet tall girl with short cut hair, major tomboy aesthetic, dancing with a tambourine. There was no character like her before and after her time. With her debut at the Song Championship, she literally became a star overnight.
Back to Lim Kim. I really can’t talk about her career without talking about her Super Star K period. The duo Twogaewol, consisted of Lim Kim and Dae Yoon Do who were both eighteen years old at that time, appeared on Super Star K’s New York location preliminary rounds. They performed Virtual Insanity by Jamiroquai and Romantico by Tete. The duo made a steady way up to their top-three round. Throwback to 2011, K-Pop was growing in a rapid speed (this was the period of GD&TOP, Girl’s Generation, 2PM, 2AM, IU and Suzy starring in Dream High. Feeling old yet?). As a reaction, there were also a demand for “real” music. Real music, real artists, real stories and real instruments. Super Star K was one of those shows that satisfied this demand. Acoustic duo in their teens who could “actually sing and perform” (The general disdain towards K-Pop as it being “not real music” is just so fun to dissect, but that’s a story for some other time.) was a fresh addition to the music sphere at that time. With Super Star K Season 3 ending with great commercial success, Lim Kim started off her music career as an indie princess.
The identity crisis
After starring in Super Star K, Lim Kim joins Jong Shin Yoon’s music label, Mystic 89. With her Twogaewol partner, Dae Yoon Do, going on a hiatus to finish his studies in the States, Lim Kim sets off her career as a solo female artist. Her songs produced in Mystic 89 followed the equations of what I like to call mainstream indie songs- acoustic sound supporting Lim Kim’s characteristic vocals, sophisticated but relatable lyrics, and quirky music video aesthetics. It was produced to be indie, perceived to be indie, but it was not indie in the sense that it was experimental or non-mainstream. To Mystic 89, the addition of Lim Kim just seemed as if they just added another unique voice to their usual repertoire.
No one would know exactly how much creative freedom Kim had in her music during her time in Mystic 89, but Lim Kim herself explains in her interview that she wanted more creative control of her own music during this period. As her contract with Mystic 89 ended, Kim naturally part ways with the label and goes on a hiatus until she comes back with a single Instagram post and a crowdfunding project.
After her rise to stardom, Lee-Tzsche also goes through a period that is stripped of her own creative freedom. She constantly releases new music, stars in multiple TV shows and movies, and performs all around the country — to the point her health was compromised. (When she released her second album “I will love you (사랑할거야)”, she was diagnosed a case of vocal cord nodules.) She recalled this period of her life to be the darkest period of her life. In her own words, she describes this period of her life “burnt out, overloaded, drained and traumatic.” After her second album, she leaves her stardom — and everything that brought her down — to study music in New York’s Pratt Academy.
New identity — Asia, Women, Experimental
When Sang Eun Lee came back in the public eye after her time in New York, she surprises the Korean peninsula. Her third album’s title song was a ballad song called “Someday (언젠가는)”. After that, she returns with a ballad song based on an ancient poem — “공무도하가 (Gong Mu do ha ga, or the song of the waterman’s wife)”. Her new music was deliberately Asian. Under the influence of fellow Asian artists and her life outside of the Korean peninsula, she placed her as a “middle man” or a “bridge between East and West” using her own words. She uses the Korean drums, flute, and gong to open up her title song “공무도하가(Gong mu do ha ga)”. The scale she uses resembles the Asian music scale. The themes of her songs were derived directly from Korean myths and cultural texts. Before the time of K-pop boom or BTS and before musicians from Asia were represented in the mainstream music sphere, she placed herself to be distinctively Korean and Asian wishing to breakthrough.
While Lee-tzsche tried to define Asianness through her music in the 90s, Lim Kim is trying to redefine Asianness through her new music. When she broke her prolonged silence, she came back with a crowdfunding campaign for her new album. There she states that she chose herself to leave a blank space in her career and that her new album reflects her identity as an Asian woman of the era. And by Asian women, she meant “Unfuckable Creatures”.
Her album Generasian does a clever job of mixing different aspects of East Asian cultures to make something distinctively Asian but evasive in nationality. The words she uses are Japanese, the sound is Chinese, the dance in her music video is Korean. What is important is not where her music belongs or where the origins of her inspirations are from. What is important is the question she poses — why should I (even bother to) give an answer? After all, all this confusion of what her “real” origin and “real” inspiration is speculation into her Asianness. So here’s an Asian woman without the submissiveness, the smile, or the fuckability, just an Asian girl with SAL-KI(desire to kill in Korean) in her eyes.
What’s the big deal?
The fact that the two artists Lim Kim and Lee-tzsche has distinctively changed their style throughout a career, especially in a way that required them to venture out of their public image, gives me hope. It is that change that allowed Lee-tzsche to keep on making music. It is the change that allows any artists to keep on creating- breaking the mold that they are in. Yet, for female artists in Korea, they are given such a small room for that change. Once they are the Nice Girl Next Door or the Sex Symbol or the Punk Rock Girl, that is how they are defined and that image lasts their whole career. In an already hyper-produced industry where the artists are not given much creativity, being a female doesn’t help. The sheer existence of artists like Lim Kim and Lee-tzsche gives me hope that idols of our age do not have to be artistic expendables.
Both of Lee-tzche and Lim Kim’s album came out this October. Both available in Spotify.
