The Soundscape of Nation and the Imaginative Power of Red Noise － For the study of the literature history of the sound in the 1960s (1)

Lim Taehun

doi:10.18856/jpn.2011..25.011

The era between 1961 and 1968 in Korea was not only a period of political turbulence with The May Coup, the twists and turns on the Korean-Japanese Conference, and two sessions of Presidential Elections, but also was a period of unique role for change of media environment. In this period, radio broadcasts were provided nationwide for nationals beyond the limit of Seoul local influence formed during Japanese rule, and unlike in other countries, the establishment of radio broadcast scope exceeded the supply of radio devices nationwide. Such was an outcome of the amplifiers installing project executed as one of top priority projects of press policy immediately after the May Coup, and of course a plan for active utilization of radio broadcast as tool for propaganda. The government facilitated so that even the aged in remote villages can frequently hear how 'well' the regime is doing anything now. This project came to a standstill after 1968 when the initiative of media environment is passed on to television. By this period, radio was stabilized as a holistic media for nationals that any household in the nation kept at least one unit of it, but after all came to be left behind in prevalence due to the typical limitation of frequencies. The radio broadcast got on it track back to the experience of private sound from group hearing. In the meantime, even until mid-1970s, the broadcasting capacity of South Korea fell behind that of the North counterpart, and thus radio transgression was a usual occasion not surprising at all. The days when the North Korean broadcasts toward the South which was so-called the 'Red Noise' could be heard in quite clear quality was the 1960s. Listening to the 'Red Noise' was an act in violation of the Anticommunist Law. However, such North Korean broadcast was a covert media that enabled the people secluded in the part of the Korean peninsula ruled by the Park Chung-Hee to imagine the other side of the Republic of Korea. The 'Red Noise' could be better heard during the night of curfew and was ever elevated to an experience that cannot be confessed rashly. The nights of the 1960s were just ironical. The nights were under curfew rather outspokenly by the soundscape of the government that instructed the nationals under the excuse of synchronization of physical rhythm. In the midst of all that, the 'Red Noise' that outreaches the truce line without getting any restriction across the atmosphere of silence raised vortices in the time by stirring up rebellious ideas to those who felt suffocating about the 'government' of Park Chung-Hee. This paper will examine the three soundscapes that resisted the time(1961-1968): the soundscape of the government which is reflected through amplifiers village construction project, propaganda and 'curfew'; the 'Red Noise' that stirs up cracks of the soundscape of the government; and lastly the sonic warfare of those that do not harmonize with the 'sound' of the government and modernity. The group of people surrounded by the three soundscapes were placed and raised in the seat of natinoals, but also they were set apart among themselves. This is specifically a query for the following questions: In Choi In-Hun's novels 「The Sound of President」(1969) and「The Sound of Governor-General」(1967~1968), why the listener of the pirate broadcast of the underground department of the Japanese Government General of Korea and the provisional government of Korea in Shanghai was set as 'poet' among others? Kim Su-Young put down the moments that he listened to the clear stereo sound of the North Korean broadcast toward the South in 「Radio Worl d」(1967). What imagination was it that the poet get from the transgressing 'Red Radio'in the South Korean society which was under the regime of Park Chung-Hee that maintained high anti-communism? And why was Shin Dong-Yeop so desirous of loading his own voice in the radio by becoming a disc jockey? This study intends to begin the first work for the study of the literature history of the 1960s sound through the process of searching for the answer to these questions.

KJC Korea
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