User:Modaesu/sandbox

1992: "Nan Arayo"
The trio debuted on MBC's talent show on April 11, 1992 with their song "Nan Arayo" (난 알아요, "I Know") and got the lowest rating from the jury. However, the song and their self-titled debut album became so successful that, according to MTV Iggy, "K-pop music would never be the same" again. One of the first Korean rap songs, "Nan Arayo" was a hugely successful hit; its new jack swing-inspired beats, upbeat rap verses and pop-style choruses combined with a focus on new dance moves took Korean audiences by storm. Influenced by the videos for Technotronic's Pump Up the Jam and Snap!'s The Power, the music video for "Nan Arayo" features varying color saturation and editing with use of a green screen to angle the dancers' bodies at different angles at a close proxemic. The group sold over 1.5 million copies of the album within a month of its release, and Seo Taiji and Boys won a Golden Disc Award for "Nan Arayo" in 1992. Spin named "Nan Arayo" number 4 on their 2012 list of the 21 Greatest K-Pop Songs of All Time. In 2015, Rolling Stone named it number 36 on its list of the 50 Greatest Boy Band Songs of All Time. "Nan Arayo" is also recognized for establishing the popularity of rap in K-pop and hybridizing the Korean ballad style with rap, rock, and techno.

1993: "Hayeoga"
Their 1993 second album took a different turn. Although remaining a mostly dance album, a few songs such as "Hayeoga" (하여가, 何如歌, "Anyway") combined elements of heavy metal and traditional Korean folk music through the use of the taepyeongso, a double-reed wind instrument, and melodic structure. While there was controversy that the guitar solo in the middle of the song plagiarized Testament's First Strike is Deadly, the guitarist for the solo, Lee Tae Seob mentioned in an interview that the solo's arpeggios reinterpreted Scandinavian folk songs, which had no copyright. "Hayeoga" earned them their second Golden Disc Award. Moreover, while promoting the album, the group was banned from appearing on the national television channel KBS-TV because they wore earrings, ripped jeans and had dreadlocks, which ethics committees associated with reggae, resistance movements, and rejection of social norms (although their brightly died long hair in 1995 did not attract a similar ban). This was the first of the numerous controversies regarding Seo Taiji and Boys. Their second album became the first 'double million sellers' album in Korean history.