T'ong guitar (or tong guitar) was a form of

Korean music Korea has produced music () for thousands of years, into the modern day. After the division of Korea in 1945, both North and South Korea have produced their own styles of music. Traditional music () produced by Korea includes court music, folk ...

developed in the early 1970s. It was heavily influenced by

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...

, and artists in the

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

were considered Korean versions of American

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

singers, such as

Joan Baez Joan Chandos Baez (, ; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing mo ...

and

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

. The musical form originally started as a solo singer-songwriter performing with an

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

. It was allied with student movements of the 1970s in song clubs such as "Maeari" at

Seoul National University Seoul National University (SNU; ) is a public university, public research university in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the SKY (universities), SKY universities and a part of the Flagship Korean National Universities. The university's main c ...

and in '' Norae Undong'' ("''Song Movement''"), caused the embracing of popular genres by

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

intellectuals. Serious academic inquiries in Korean popular music started in 1984, and continue today. With Korean popular music becoming more wide-spread across the world this style of guitar is being heard by more and more people. This does not limit T'ong guitar to specifically the Korean pop genre as there are hints of it in many different genres of music from rock all the way to contemporary Korean music. Most of these genres that T'ong guitar is used in are heavily influenced by western folk music but specifically the stylistic additions added to the music by the guitar. This was very apparent in the palladü style of music that became a popular dance music in the late 1980s that would normally be introduced with piano, violin, or cello with a solo acoustic guitar. However, in the 1980s, t'ong became a form of

soft rock Soft rock (also known as light rock or mellow rock) is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in the United States and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, mel ...

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

that earned critical scorn, being described as a 'mindless love affair with American culture'. Norae Undong separated from t'ong guitar, becoming a more

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

-based genre. With these newer genres T'ong guitar continued to evolve and expand on what it already was. It was a new style to many Korean people that brought in just enough western culture but also keeping the culture and vernacular that they were comfortable with. This bridged the gap between the people of Korea and the western folk music that many people enjoyed all over the world.

References

External links

Association for Korean Musical Research newsletter #2
Korean styles of music {{music-genre-stub