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T'ong guitar

T'ong guitar (or tong guitar) was a form of Korean music developed in the early 1970s. It was heavily influenced by American pop music, and artists in the genre were considered Korean versions of American folk singers, such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan.

The musical form originally started as a solo singer-songwriter performing with an acoustic guitar. It was allied with student movements of the 1970s in song clubs such as "Maeari" at Seoul National University and in Norae Undong ("Song Movement"), caused the embracing of popular genres by Korean intellectuals. Serious academic inquiries in Korean popular music started in 1984, and continue today.

However, in the 1980s, t'ong became a form of soft rock ballad that earned critical scorn, being described as a 'mindless love affair with American culture' ^[1]. Norae Udong separated from t'ong guitar, becoming a more rock-based genre.

See also

• Korean music
• Roots revival
• Norae Undong

External links

• Association for Korean Musical Research newsletter #2
• Google cache of a UsefulReference.com page