Brother Is a Street Musician: Viewing the Landscape of Modernity Through Korean Popular Music

by Eujeong Zhang, Seulbin Han (Translator)

336 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication August 11, 2026

Reviews

[Nicki Markus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brother is a Street Musician was an enlightening read. I am interested in music history and in Korean history, so this book was the perfect blend to catch my eye. I knew a little bit about trot, but didn't realise it went back so much earlier than the 60s. It was fascinating to see how new influences from Japan and from the West intermingled with Korean traditional music like pansori and minyo during the 20s and 30s. The author offered a balanced viewpoint on the influences and the development of popular music in Korea during this time, and I am certainly planning to search on YouTube to see if recordings of any of the songs are available to listen to. The only negative comments I have is that the book was a little repetitive at times (giving the same definitions of different styles of song on multiple occasions) and I really hated the use of the McCune–Reischauer romanisation system. As someone learning Korean, I find this system unintelligible at times. While not perfect, the Revised Romanisation system is far closer to approximating how Korean words should be pronounced. I am not sure why MR is still forced on us in modern publications when RR has been the official system in South Korea for over 25 years now. But, that little rant aside, this is a fascinating read for anyone interested in Korean popular music and Korean history. I am giving it 4 stars.

I received this book as a free eBook ARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.