culture
Input2023.07.30 09:50 Edit2023.07.30 09:50
[arte] Jo Jin-joo’s Road of Music
There are days when the shape and meaning of the road that I was walking on with confidence and strength is blurred. Especially on days when the body is tired and the mind is suffering. A day when so many things happened regardless of my will and my soul was completely lost. Even if you try to soothe yourself with a drink, there are times when your head, once shaken, can hardly find the center again. These are the days when music is needed the most. On such a day when the power to draw from my inner self is exhausted, there is nothing like music to endure today and move on to tomorrow by receiving someone else’s energy.
Some may be reassured by listening to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, “Eroica,” which he wrote after being discouraged by his deteriorating hearing and trying to take his own life. Others may be crazy about the pop genre of exciting girl groups and boy groups and blow off their stress, or forget everything and spend the night, surrendering themselves to the furious rhymes and grooves of hip-hop that tremble from the club to the floor. I have fun and recharge my inner self.For days like this, I must listen to Deulgukhwa’s 1st album.
▲ Wild Chrysanthemum 1st Album
In fact, it is a bit of a strange album to me, who has been thoroughly trained to think only of music made of 12 notes. There are a lot of puzzling moments because of the coarsely unrefined pitch and too many musical influences. Even so, this album has a dizzying power. It will be because there are days when you have to listen to these words full of pure and direct confessions. In my late 20s, there were days that were difficult to handle. Like those who have just started their social life, they were not able to handle interpersonal affairs skillfully, and it was difficult. I couldn’t figure out what it was at all. Back then, I spent a lot of time in the car. I was working at a school where I had to drive for about an hour, and it was comfortable to drive even long distances, so I often drove to performances. It was a day when I had to save time to sleep, but when I was so busy, I naturally became more likely to drive long distances late at night. It was a daily routine of finishing work late and starting driving around 12:00 am for the next performance schedule.
After a long day / Darkness over the earth / Tells me that today is over / I can’t fill today’s void / I’ll have to put it off until tomorrow again / Searching for a love where my soul can rest in a dream / Until the morning comes / When my body rests / Shall I meet the woman I love in my dream / The fatigue of my body will be relieved / Will the suffering of my soul be compensated / My soul will rest in a dream / Love, find love / Until the morning comes / When my body, my body rests / Will I meet the woman I love in my dreams?
I endured those days while calling this lyrics to let the car go away. Because of the naive belief that if you hold on to today, you will be able to create a little better tomorrow. Was that belief really true? I don’t know yet. Did those days really bring me closer to what I wanted to achieve? But anyway, the music was with me. When ‘until the morning dawns’ passed, the album would go back to the beginning. And presents ‘March’ to me. My future / It won’t always be bright / My future will be hard sometimes / But when it rains, I get hit by it / When it snows, I’ll open my arms / I’m marching, marching, marching / Marching, marching, marching will / I will sing with you every day / until the morning comes
When I shouted out the word ‘marching’, which seemed to be repeated a million times, a strength I didn’t know would well up within me. It was like a marching song that people in the same situation as me were singing for me. Listening to the cheering, it seemed that the fatigue of the body and the hardship of the mind disappeared without knowing it. And then, the highlight of the “Wild Chrysanthemum Course” is ‘that’s the only world in my world’.
Yes, maybe I don’t know the world / I must have traveled this far alone / But I have no regrets / All the dreams I cried and laughed / That’s my only world / But no regrets / All the dreams I’ve been looking for / That’s my world / That’s my only world
After all, I, who was struggling to make my own world, cried a lot while listening to this song. On the hardest day, the most painful day, I listened to and sang this song. Creating ‘my world’ like this is exhausting, but it’s also something I have to do. In fact, I’m still living just to make ‘my world’. A dream about music I have, a dream about the world I have. Shouting it simply and repeatedly is my world. Anything else isn’t something I care about at all. It’s not because I don’t have affection, it’s because other things are beyond my ability. As a musician, all I can do is sing love with a high voice, just like the lyrics “The only thing that doesn’t change is love.” Yes. Because music is just love.
