The musical “My Love by My Side” is a jukebox production composed of K-pop hits from the 1990s, inserted throughout the play to tell the love stories of characters of various ages. The audience gets into the show completely, singing along with their favorite songs.

- I remembered how I felt when I was in love. I liked Lee Seung-hwan’s songs, especially my favorite, “Thinking of One Person.”
- It got me really nostalgic. My favorite singers were Seo Ji-won and Kim Hyun-shik so when their songs came out I was really moved.

The creative musical “My Love by My Side,” comprised of only Korean songs, is particularly popular among the people in their 30s and 40s. The props used in the production – pagers, bell-bottomed pants, silk shirts - are exactly like the ones they used twenty years ago, and the sensibilities of the 1990s are amplified through the scratchy sounds of analogue tapes, unlike the sterile, flawless digital sounds of CDs, all reminiscent of the romantic innocence felt when we were much younger. Return to the 1990s, that’s the theme that defines today’s cultural trend in Korea. Here’s cultural commentator Kim Sung-soo to explain more.

The ‘90s were the most affluent time for Korea, both economically and culturally. Until the financial crisis hit the country later in the decade, people grew richer every year and the middle class ballooned from a robust economy. What today’s middle-aged people miss the most about the 1990s is the good old days of prosperity, and what people in their 30s want to feel and consume is the cultural abundance of that time.

Before the foreign currency crisis hit Korea, in the early and middle parts of the 1990s, the nation luxuriated in economic, social, and cultural affluence. The establishment of the country’s first civilian-led government ensured the freedom of diversity and expression of uniqueness. The 1990s was undoubtedly the Renaissance of Korean economy and culture.

Almost all cultural products in the ‘90s were successful - ballads, dance music, Korean rap pioneer Seo Taiji and Boys, idol groups, films, and a new breed of TV shows, termed “trendy dramas.” All forms of Korean pop culture created sensation and the 1990s was when the first wave of Korean culture or hallyu began its foreign landing.

The hottest idol groups of the time, such as H.O.T., SES, and Baby Vox, were the vanguards of hallyu, taking Korea’s unique music style to China, and the film “Swiri,” a blockbuster about inter-Korean espionage and terrorism, completely changed the landscape of the country’s commercial film industry. This is why the musical “My Love by My Side” is like an assorted gift package for the generations that lived through the 1990s. Here’s actress Hong Ji-min for more.

I remember that a wide variety of culture was accepted in the ‘90s. Even in outfits, we wore bell-bottoms, roomy disco pants, slim pants, hippie-style vests, and more. No one fashion style dominated the era, like the mini-skirts in the ‘60s or disco pants in the ‘80s. The ‘90s were like a musical production, a combination of different entertaining elements - dance, music, and acting. The culture of the ‘90s was not confined to one specific style or genre, but included everything, just like a gift basket.

The first cultural production to open the retro trend was the film “Architecture 101” released in March 2012.

A story about a naïve architecture student’s first love was further sentimentalized by inserting the song “Etude of Memories” released in 1994 as its main score. The romantic drama triggered a torrent of first love nostalgia for moviegoers, recording the highest box office sales for a romantic movie. It is undisputed that the film’s success was in large part driven by people’s longing for the good old 1990s.

Those who went to college in the ‘90s relived the days of their youth through the main characters and were amused by the props, such as hair mousse, modem communication, pagers, and portable CD players, they no longer use but played important parts in their lives. If the movie “Architecture 101” was the first step in our trip back to the ‘90s, a TV show set against a high school in the 1990s took us all the way back into the bygone era.

This drama, titled “Reply 1997,” aired on a cable TV channel traced the lives of high school students during the years when teenagers and young adults were enraptured by the first-generation idol groups, like H.O.T. and Sechs Kies. The loves, troubles, joys, and sorrows of these students may not have been all that serious, at least from the adults’ perspectives, but more than enough people found themselves in the shoes of these characters and turned the show into a mega hit, bringing the stories of the ‘90s into the mainstream. Then the retro trend spread from films and dramas to live performances.

The musical “My Love by My Side” is about three love stories, spun in the past and the present. Golden oldies written by composer Oh Tae-ho help bring out the nostalgia.

Back in the 1990s two young characters, Se-yong and Yun-ju, fail to confess their feelings for each other, too timid to admit their true emotions. The audience see themselves in the characters and sings along to the song.



I loved the song “Between Love and Friendship” when I was preparing for college. I remember being torn between love and friendship, just like in the song.

Twenty years later, Se-yong is a successful photographer and Yun-ju, recently widowed, runs an herb farm in Jeju Island with her daughter. One day the two come across each other accidentally.

Regrets about the unprofessed love and the emotions of first love unsettle the now middle-aged characters.

But Yun-ju sees Se-yong for what he is, a lost love, and marks their reunion as one night’s dream and lets him go.

The audiences are moved to tears at the songs featured in the scenes.

It is natural for those who lived through the ‘90s to feel the nostalgic, but it’s amazing to see the young people in their teens and twenties accept the ‘90s as a hip cultural trend. Apparently, the 90s delight both the young and the old. What is it about the ‘90s that appeal to all generations? Here’s cultural critic Kim Sung-soo to answer that question.

Because it’s new. From the point of the teens and young adults, the 90s are something really new, something they haven’t experienced. Moreover, it’s not outdated or kitschy. The music featured in “Architecture 101” or “Reply 1997” still sounds refined, different from the music that prevailed until the ‘80s. That’s because producers and musicians had money back then. They invested their money into best equipment and best recording studios, thus creating the best cultural results. Today’s young people want something new and sophisticated, and found it in the unfamiliar time of the 1990s. Cultural products from that time certainly stand apart from the uniform, colorless products of today. People love the diversity in the 90s culture.

Going back to the ‘90s has become an effective marketing theme as well. Customers flock to the clubs in the Hongdae neighborhood fitted in the retro ‘90s style interior.

This club plays lots of K-pop songs from the 1990s, drawing customers from all generations. Here’s Choi Min-jeong from Club I Love K-pop.

This is a pub-slash-club that features K-pop hits from the ‘90s to today. It’s a place where people can enjoy Korean pop music. People mistakenly think that the most popular K-pop songs are the latest hits by idol groups, but most of our customers, in their 20s through 40s, love songs from the early 1990s.

A trend is defined by the generation that dominates that era, so until now people in their 30s and 40s have been overlooked in a cultural sense. But the reemergence of the ‘90s culture has brought the fond memories back for the older generations, while piquing the curiosity of the younger ones.

- Hongdae was not an inviting neighborhood for older office workers, but now that clubs with the ‘90s theme are open in the area, people like me can drop by and talk about the good old days. It gives me a chance to release the stress.
- I come here three or four times a week. I used to be a member of a college dance club. Seo Taiji was so hot when I was in high school and I used to dance to H.O.T. songs. I’m glad to see those musicians spotlighted again, and that I can still remember the dance moves done by the first generation of idol stars, like H.O.T., Sechs Kies, and SES.

The retro trend is raging on. The resurrection of the ‘90s culture reenergizes the Koreans in their 30s and 40s and gives a fresh cultural shock to the younger generations. By reliving the culturally prosperous and diverse 1990s, Koreans may be gearing up to recreate another cultural Renaissance.