Shin Joong-hyun
Pioneer of Korean rock and psychedelic soul.
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Shin Joong-hyun (born January 4, 1938) is a South Korean rock guitarist and singer-songwriter often referred to as Korea's 'Godfather of Rock.' He is recognized as a pioneer of Korean rock music, having formed Add4 in 1962—often cited as the first Korean rock band to record original material—and for leading the country's psychedelic rock scene in the 1960s and 1970s. His most famous song, 'Beautiful Rivers and Mountains,' was written in 1972 as a protest against the military dictatorship of Park Chung Hee, leading to a ban on the song. Shin was arrested and tortured in 1975 for marijuana possession, which was illegal at the time, though the arrest is sometimes conflated with the song's ban.
Background
Shin Joong-hyun was born in Seoul in 1938 during the Japanese occupation. After his mother died, he lived with his father and Japanese stepmother in Manchuria and Japan.
Following their return to South Korea, both his father and stepmother died by 1953. He then moved to Seoul, worked in a pharmaceutical factory, attended night school, and taught himself guitar after failing to learn violin. In 1957, he debuted at a U.S. military base, performing up to 40 shows monthly under the stage name Jackie Shin, inspired by American rock and jazz heard on the American Forces Korea Network.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Shin Joong-hyun (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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