History of 'Boowhal'

     I unlock my cell phone, go into 'music' application, and click playlist #1. The playlist is filled up with music of the band, 'boowhal', which I often listen to when I study. Its calm, dreamy songs allow me to concentrate on the words I look at, and solve problems more fast and efficiently.
     This band, 'boowhal', actually has a very long history from 1984. At the time, Kim Tae Won, the leader of boowhal, organized the band called 'The End', and gained massive popularity. In 1985, the group changed its name to 'boowhal', but soon confronted big hardship as the vocal, Kim Jong Seo, left the team for military matters.
     After a while, Lee Seung Cheol, who currently shows up as a judge of the program, 'Super Star K', joined the team. In 1986, boowhal recorded its first album, 'Rock Will Never Die'. Such album is still being remembered as one of the best Korean rock albums until now, and it received the most popularity during boowhal's history. Songs, '희야', '비와 당신의 이야기', '인형의 부활', etc succeeded to draw people's attention, and even attracted female fans who had not had much contact with rock music before.

     In 1987, after some alteration of the members in the team, boowhal introduced its second album, 'Remember'. However, soon, Kim Tae Won went to jail for smoking marijuana. There were two songs he composed while smoking marijuana, which were '천국에서', and '회상3', and such facts hindered boowhal to rise as a band. Thus, the team got disbanded after such trouble, and it was 1992 when the members united again as a team. Kim Tae Won, who looked back at his past with an introspect in jail, decided to make better songs for people.

     Kim Tae Won tried to bring Kim Jae Gi to be his band's third vocal, but if he did, he would have had to wait for years until Kim Jae Gi does all of his military service. As Kim Tae Won was really eager to make him as his vocal, he waited that long time. In 1993, boowhal recruited its members and brought out their 3rd album, '기억상실', which is best known for the song, '사랑할수록'. Kim Jae Gi, as expected, showed his outstanding talent while practicing the songs. He was even known to be one of the best singers of Korean history. Unfortunately, before he dived into real recording, he got killed in the car accident while taking his towed car back. Nowadays, Kim Tae Won looks back on this past and regrets, saying that if he lent Kim Jae Gi money to drive taxi, he wouldn't have gotten killed. As a result, the album came out as a 'practice' version, even though the album is still very well-made.

     After Kim Jae Gi's striking death, Kim Tae Won scouts Kim Jae Hee, Kim Jae Gi's brother, as they had similar tones. Some people say Kim Tae Won brought him to soothe his guilty conscience, but no one is sure except for him. Anyway, the fourth album, '잡념에 관하여' was a complete failure, as its songs were strange and hard to understand. It is recalled as one of the worst album in the boowhal history.

     The next vocal for the 5th album, '불의 발견' in 1997 was Park Wan Gyu. Unlike most men, he was capable of raising his tone similar to that of woman's, which became the key to success. As the general trend for rock at the time was high-pitched voice like Kim Kyung Ho, the fact that Park Wan Gyu was able to digest various high-pitched songs Kim Tae Won composed was really a strong point. Consequently, the group boowhal officially announced its boowhal, 'resurrection' in English, and again received vast amount of popularity. The most well known songs of the album are 'Lonely Night', and '마술사'.

     If there was one more unlucky vocal like Kim Jae Gi in the boowhal history, it would be Kim Ki Yeon, the sixth vocal of boowhal. Kim Tae won at the time praised his ability to handle high-pitched songs smoothly, so the album was again filled up with numerous high-pitched songs, such as '가능성', '너에게로'. As he was about to become active as boowhal's vocal, he got diagnosed with vocal cord nodules, which is one of the worst disabilities among singers. Therefore, the sixth album also ended up as failure, though songs themselves achieved recognition as well-made songs.

     'Color', which is the seventh album made in year 2000, is known to be one of the greatest albums of boowhal. Changes in the members other than the vocal boosted the morale of the band, and the result was really successful. Sad to say, however, as the record company went bankrupt and the general trend altered to 'idol music', 'Color' became one of the most unfortunate albums of boowhal. On the other hand, some people look at this phenomenon as boowhal's luckiest moment, as it was this moment when boowhal manias first started to appear. Such album was remade in 2012, and as expected, it achieved great success.

     For a short break between albums, Kim Tae Won and the first vocal, Lee Seung Cheol decided to make a special album. Such album achieved great success, as it included one of the most praised songs in Korean history, 'Never ending story'. Because it gained so much popularity, it officially became boowhal's 8th album, '새벽'. Though many fans wanted Lee Seung Cheol to stay as boowhal member, he left as soon as he showed how much impact he can give to the fans.

     The ninth album, 'Over the Rainbow', didn't receive much attention, as the songs of boowhal started to get soothing and relaxing, unlike the music boowhal pursued. The vocal, Jeong Dahn, also failed to gain popularity, although his voice was pure and clear.

     In 2005, boowhal's tenth album, '서정' got introduced with a new vocal, Jeong Dong Ha. Through the gossips, it is known that Kim Tae Won was extremely attracted to Jeong Dong Ha's ability and tone at the vocal audiiton. His voice fitted well with the calm songs such as '노을', and '추억이면' Kim Tae Won started to pursue, and Jeong Dong Ha anomalously became boowhal's stationary vocal for the next three albums.

     The eleventh album, '사랑', came out in 2006 with vocal of Jeong Dong Ha. However, it was since then when boowhal started to get criticized for composing calm music. In 2009 and 2010, boowhal introduced its 12th official album, '25th Anniversary: Retrospect', which  is divided into two parts. The first part includes the widely popular song, '생각이나', and the second one includes '사랑이란건'. Through such touching songs, boowhal achieved another great success. As Kim Tae Won really got attracted to Jeong Dong Ha, he signed 5 more years of contract to him, though the official contract ended as the 12th album.

     And now, just a few months ago in 2012, boowhal's thirteenth album, 'Purple Wave', came out with, of course, vocal of Jeong Dong Ha. As soon as it came out, its songs charted top on the billboard, from first to tenth, which shows the great popularity of the band 'boowhal' itself. Its songs including '차갑다', 'Return to Innocence', and '1982' drew attention of millions of people, and just like many other boowhal albums, it achieved success.

     Boowhal is my favorite band, which is the reason why I'm posting its history on my blog at 1 a.m. However, the thing is that the boowhal didn't receive all that popularity just because the songs so far were great. In my opinion, the key to boowhal's extreme success was that it boosted courage for people to rise in hardships, by showing that the band surmounted various difficulties it confronted. The message is that anyone can overcome the troubles he or she is facing, and that anyone can achieve success just like boowhal.