My first experience in the music-related research began when I was an undergrad at POSTECH. Back in the days when I was a 20 years old kid, I assisted working on a paper “Globalization Strategy of Korean Traditional Music - A Case Study of Hybrid Rock Band Jambinai,” which was a case study of a Korean post-rock band ‘Jambinai’ who uses traditional Korean folk music instruments. (The paper is on Korean domestic journal, so it’s written in Korean!) I participated interviewing the band members and observed their performances to understand how they incorporated traditional instruments into their music. I also helped analyzing their music and performance style to see how they blended traditional and modern elements.
As the paper was nearing completion, I was drafted into the mandatory military service, so I didn’t get to be an author and ended up being mentioned in the acknowledgments, which is perfectly fine. This marked a meaningful milestone in my academic journey.
If you want to learn more about the band, you can check out their Spotify or YouTube channel, and there’s a relatively recent interview with the band members here. Here’s one of my favorite songs of theirs:
