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🇰🇷 South Korea /Culture & Society

Kim Chang-wan to mark Sanullim’s 50th anniversary with free concerts for care homes and children

From Hankyoreh · () Korean

Translated from Korean and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources New plan
  • Kim Chang-wan said he will hold free “Seongam Concerts” at care homes, senior centers, day-care centers and youth facilities from January through December next year.
  • The concerts will mark 50 years since the formation of Sanullim and repay the people who supported the band, while also honoring his late younger brother and bandmate Kim Chang-ik.
  • Kim discussed the changing music environment, K-pop’s global reach, artificial intelligence and the continuing power of emotionally direct music.

Kim Chang-wan does not see Sanullim’s 50th anniversary as a reason to dwell on the past. For him, the number is a prompt to ask where he stands now. “I dislike spending time feeding on memories, and there is no point worrying about the future now. We have to complete our lives where we are,” he said before a rehearsal in Seoul.

I dislike spending time feeding on memories, and there is no point worrying about the future now. We have to complete our lives where we are.

— Kim Chang-wanHe explained why he wants to focus on the present rather than simply look back during Sanullim’s 50th anniversary.

His anniversary plans will take him away from formal commemorations and toward the people who have carried Sanullim’s music for half a century. From January through December next year, he plans to bring free “Seongam Concerts” to care homes, senior centers, day-care centers and youth facilities. The name combines the characters for “sound” and “rock,” reflecting a nickname given to him. Kim said the concerts would repay the love he has received. Personally, he added, they will also serve as a song calling back his late younger brother Kim Chang-ik, a Sanullim member.

I plan to visit selected places with equipment and hold small concerts myself.

— Kim Chang-wanHe described his plan for free concerts at care homes, senior centers, day-care centers and youth facilities.

Kim described Sanullim’s history as larger than the story of three brothers. He credited the listeners who made the band an icon of youth in the late 1970s, saying they laid groundwork for today’s global K-pop phenomenon. He also expressed discomfort with treating K-pop as a single genre, but said he was interested in Korean pop and culture becoming part of the daily lives of people who once knew little about them. His advice was simple: music needs work that contains genuine feeling.

People who chose Sanullim back then laid the groundwork for the K-pop phenomenon now spreading around the world.

— Kim Chang-wanHe credited Sanullim’s former listeners for helping create the conditions for Korean popular culture’s global reach.

That idea runs through his comments on technology. Modern listeners have access to so many songs that the time needed for one song to take root has disappeared, he said. Even if artificial intelligence is used, it cannot change music’s essence. Kim argued that a voice and an acoustic guitar can still move people to tears. At a November concert in Japan, his first there in 18 years, he plans to carry the same belief across the bridge he sees between music and human connection.

Use it if you want to use it. But it cannot change the essence of music itself.

— Kim Chang-wanHe discussed artificial intelligence and argued that technology cannot replace music’s emotional core.
About this summary

Originally published by Hankyoreh in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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