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Members
5 Male
Origin
South Korea
Genre
Nu Metal
Style
Metal
Mood
Angry
Born
5 MaleOrigin
South KoreaGenre
Nu MetalStyle
MetalMood
AngryBorn
1998
Active
1998 to Present...
Cutout
Alternate Name
서태지
Most Loved Tracks1 users
SeoTaiji - Orange1 users
SeoTaiji - Internet War1 users
SeoTaiji - Feel The Soul1 users
SeoTaiji - Ultramania1 users
SeoTaiji - Tank
Music Video Links Feel The Soul |  Robot (로보트) |  F.M Business |
 Ultramania |  Orange |  Internet War |
 Heffy End |  Live Wire |
Artist Biography
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Early career with Sinawe
At an early age, Hyeon-cheol had a fascination with music. At 14, he participated in several amateur rock bands. He took the stage name of "Seo Taiji" at age 17, when he was recruited into the heavy metal band Sinawe as bass guitarist by Shin Daechul. He chose to drop out of school because he felt that continuing to be enrolled in school would not be useful in pursuing a career in music.
Seo Taiji and Boys: 1992-1996
Main article: Seo Taiji and Boys
Seo Taiji and Boys was a South Korean boy band. Although also including Yang Hyun-suk and Lee Juno, Taiji was the leader and main songwriter and began his signature of mixing many different genres of music. They had several controversies with songs and lyrics, but became the first modern highly successful band in the South Korean music industry.
Solo career: 1998-present
1998: Seo Tai Ji
Two years after Seo Taiji and Boys' retirement, Taiji resumed his career as a musician and solo act, which has been and continues to be successful. He sought to return to his true roots and perform rock music. Without any appearances or activity in South Korea, he released an album with a couple of music videos in 1998. There was some controversy over his sudden reversal of retirement, but his first Solo album Seo Tai Ji sold more than a million copies, even without any promotion in Korea. His first solo work included heavy metal and nu metal songs, but the main genre was still alternative rock. Although it was his first solo work, fans refer to it as his 5th album.
2000-2001: Ultramania
In 2000, he returned to South Korea after a four-year absence. On the day of his arrival at the Kimpo International Airport in Seoul, the entire airport had been crowded by thousands of fans and media trying to get the first look at Seo Taiji.
He released the album Ultramania which consisted of nu metal and Hardcore punk. His solo act had an effect on many South Korean boy bands such as H.O.T. and caused them to decline in popularity. His songs "Internet War" and "Ultramania" were the biggest hits of the year. After the first ETPFEST in 2001, which he founded during his comeback, Taiji was presented with hide of X Japan's Fernandes MG-360S guitar, which is yellow with pink hearts, by hide's parents and his brother, Hiroshi, to celebrate the success of ETPFEST and the first hide showcase tribute ever at a Korean rock festival.
2004: 7th Issue
Seo Taiji maintained his nu metal sound in his third solo album, 7th Issue. However, unlike Ultramania, 7th Issue was recorded mostly on a dropped C tuning, which gave the effect of the album sounding like one long song. Nevertheless, it had no problem attracting attention to a wide range of audiences. 7th Issue's catchy rock tune made his fans call it "punk rock". Also, he obviously added Drum and Bass sound into his several songs, so that it proved him to be a favorable electronica musician (skills he learned from producing the "Seo Taiji and Boys" albums). J from Luna Sea also participated in the making of this album as the bassist. His song "Live Wire" was a good hit succeeding the vivacity of "Ultramania". "Robot" deals with his youth and anguish, while the song "F.M.Business" acrimoniously criticize the issues of and the commercialized music business and the artist exploitation from greedy corporate record labels. He also touches on the issue of abortion along with sexism and sexual assault with the song, "Victim". His record sale was reduced to a half million due to on-line downloading services, but was still the highest selling record of 2004 in South Korea. Taiji proved himself to be a musician in top popularity for more than a decade. After being active up to 2005, he once again suddenly disappeared out of the spotlight.
2008-2009: 8th Atomos
He returned to South Korea after a long absence, and revealed his latest single "Moai". It was the first release of Seo Taiji's ambitious 3-part "mystery project", which was followed by another single, "Bermuda Triangle" which was put up as a digital single. The third part, Atomos Part Secret, was released on March 10. He had a promotion called "Missing Taiji", where there were false rumors that Taiji went missing, only to return on the "Wormhole" concert day. In his single "Moai", Taiji reinvents his sound, and introduces a new experimental style he calls "nature pound". "Moai" draws inspiration from the mysterious statues of Easter Island which had long fascinated him since his childhood. He performed at the 2008 ETPFEST which he spearheaded to promote his comeback alongside bands such as The Used, Dragon Ash, Death Cab for Cutie and Marilyn Manson.
He also put together "The Great Seotaiji Symphony" with Tolga Kashif and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to perform his old hits and new songs presented in an entirely new form, combining rock and classical music. The main concert was held at the Seoul Worldcup Stadium. After the main concert, there were complaints about the sound quality not being delivered to the second and third floors at the further ends of the stadium and to make up for this mistake, another encore performance (same setlist) was held in December at a closed/indoor venue, Jamsil Gymnasium upgraded with better sound systems.
Taiji's second single, following Atomos Part Moai, called Atomos Part Secret was released on March 10, 2009. It is the same date as the arrival of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to Mars in 2006. Taiji also held a concert promoting his second single on March 14 and 15. Tickets for the concert, cryptically titled Wormhole, sold out in just 20 minutes.
Seotaiji's 15th anniversary album consisted of most of his works so far, re-recorded and re-mastered but it was released in a limited edition with only 15,000 copies available, each with unique serial numbers. Serial numbers #1-15 were purchased by Seotaiji himself. He kept #1 for himself, gave #2 and #3 to his old time friends Lee Juno and Yang Hyun Seuk, and the rest to his close friends. Since the re-recorded and re-mastered songs were only available for the limited anniversary album and not all the fans were able to purchase it, he decided to re-release all the albums with the containing the new versions. On April 3, the first two Seo Taiji and Boys Albums were rereleased. Taiji will rerelease all 7 of his albums, from Nan Arayo! to 7th Issue. On May 25, the 3rd and 4th Seo Taiji and Boys albums were rereleased.
On June 13, he held a nationwide tour named "The Möbius". The first of the concerts was held in Seoul, Korea. The tour has ended, but a repeat performance was given 2 months after the finish. ETPFEST 2009 was also held with guest groups such as NIN, Limp Bizkit, Keane, Fade, Boom Boom Satellites, Pia and GUMX.
2014–2015: Quiet Night
In 2013, Seo Taiji announced that he had been working on a new album. The first single from the new album, "Sogyeokdong", was released in October 2014. The single was released in two parts: first part, a collaboration with IU, was released October 2, and the second part on October 10. The album, Quiet Night, was released on October 20.
2017–present: Seo Taiji 25 Project
In April 2017 it was announced that Seo Taiji was assembling a group of modern K-Pop acts to cover songs from his past to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his debut with Seo Taiji and Boys. The first act announced for the project was BTS, with other acts including Urban Zakapa and Younha. The first single from this project, a cover of "Come Back Home" (from Seo Taiji and Boys IV) recorded by BTS, was released with a music video on July 5, 2017. The next song, a cover of "Moai" (from Atomos), was released on July 11, performed by Urban Zakapa.
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