Sorian Brings K-pop Flair to BU Community

BU Today

If you walked through the College of Fine Arts basement on a Tuesday night recently, chances are you’d have been treated to an impromptu concert. A young woman might have been singing a somber ballad in one practice room, a group of guys singing and rapping an R&B song in another, or a pianist experimenting with song arrangements in a third. These members of Sorian the Sound Makers, a student-run K-pop, hip-hop, and a cappella group whose goal is to spread Korean music and culture and enrich cultural life at BU, were rehearsing for their spring concert.
Sorian was founded in fall 2010, as the K-Pop craze was beginning to hit the United States. “It started as just a group of people who love music and love to sing coming together to have fun,” says Junehyung (Julia) Park (CFA’17), club president. “The name of the group is derived from the Korean word sori, which means ‘music’ in English, with an at the end, indicating ‘the people of’: Sorian means ‘People of music.’”
Initially, the group performed all kinds of music, but by 2013 decided to focus exclusively on K-pop, which originated in South Korea in the 1980s and 1990s. The genre draws inspiration from traditional Korean music as well as Western genres such as R&B, Western pop, hip-hop, reggae, jazz, electronica, and more. K-pop spread globally with the help of social networking sites and ignited in the United States in 2012 when Korean pop star PSY’s “Gangnam Style” became a viral sensation, attracting hundreds of millions of views on YouTube.
Yongjin Cho (CAS’18) at a recent rehearsal. Photo by Alexandra Wimley (COM’17)
“The K-pop genre entails various types of music, says Park. “Most of its songs have music videos involving choreography and cool fashion styles, which helped it gain a huge popularity around the world. Through our concerts and ...

Read More