Seo Taiji’s music still makes hearts beat faster

It’s been 20 years since Seo Taiji & Boys released their first album “Nan Arayo.” Seo’s fans, just teenagers in 1992, continue to be loyal to the singer who seldom appears in public.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Seo’s debut album, his fans came up with the idea of naming a Brazilian forest after the singer and launching an online database (www.seotaiji-archive.com) of every document and video about him and his music.

The Korea Herald interviewed Lee Jin-sook, a 34-year-old office worker who is an advisor to the Seo Taiji Archive Project, an e-library on Seo and his music.

The online archive is for Seo’s fans to share news articles, radio interviews and photos. The website, which officially launched at midnight Thursday, will be a channel for accurate information and knowledge about the artist, the project team said.

The following is an except from an e-mail interview with Lee.

Q. What motivated you to do something innovative and creative in tribute to Seo? Where do you get the energy?

A. I get the energy definitely from Seo Taiji as an artist and his music. It has been 20 years since he made his debut but his music still makes my heart beat as ever and Seo continues to be our role model. Seo Taiji fandom, too, underwent a series of changes over the last 20 years, and that is what still motivates us to look forward to his music and him as a true artist.

Q. How many of you are participating in the project? Are you members of one of his fan clubs? Why does the group stay mostly anonymous?

A. The number of official staff is 33, but we have about another 70 members who partly participate in the project. They are fans of different ages with different jobs, different backgrounds. We have members who are in their 40s and even some middle school students. But we are all here to contribute to the project by doing what we can.

We don’t belong to a specific fan group. We are individuals who have memberships in different fan groups or websites that suit our own tastes. We pursue fan culture based on freedom and autonomy where members can freely participate in projects such as the Seo Taiji Forest and the Seo Taiji Archive. We choose to be anonymous because we want to be free when undertaking a project like this one.

Q. How do you fund the project?

A. In the last four months, we collected about 4 million won ($3,500) worth of donations from fans. The money will cover expenses on website design and server operation for a year. In the long-term, we will seek more sponsors to operate the website.

Q. Was the revelation of the secret marriage between Seo and E Ji-ah last year a disappointment?

A. I, as his fan, am not in a position to comment on his private life. We don’t want to have E Ji-ah mentioned in a story on the Seo Taiji Archive project.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)