A window into Seoul’s vinyl scene.
I recently travelled to Seoul, South Korea and visited a number of vinyl stores during this brief trip. I thought to share this adventure with you, and perhaps give you a one or two places to add onto your future itinerary in Seoul.
In preparation, the number of record stores in one city is was a surprise - there are street-market style dives, Korean pop music stores (more on k-pop later), and large dedicated spaces with listening spaces. Even vinyl-themed cafés where you select records to enjoy with a coffee in an individual booth with a turntable and headphones.
Here are some of the visits:
Hyundai Card Vinyl & Plastic
Hyundai Card Vinyl & Plastic - Hannam (Near Itaewon)
Vinyl & Plastic was the largest store visited and next door is the 'Music Library’, a dedicated listening space with over 10,000 records from all around the world.
Manhattan Records Seoul
Manhattan Records Seoul - Hongdae
A personal favourite - it might be because the friendly employee gave a bunch of stickers, a bag, and other merch with the records. Whilst a few artists were recognisable, there was a lot of unfamiliar Japanese pop artists that I haven't seen much of in Sydney.
TW Records
TW Records - Hannam (Near Itaewon)
For the music genres across visits, whilst there was a diverse range from our household artists, Simon & Garfunkel, Elton John, and pop artists, some stores had a larger collection of hip hop and (contemporary) R&B which was an interesting and somewhat unfamiliar browse. In this case for TW Records, a curated selection is a perfect complement for their live events and the ground floor café's background music.
MANMOOLSANGDAN in Dongmyo
MANMOOLSANGDAN - Dongmyo
K-Pop album with mini CD
Ktown4u COEX
Music Korea
It would be amiss to not mention k-pop in a visit to Korea. As I walked around, there were lots of stores are playing Korean pop music and even in conversations, I overheard a conversation that was fully in Korean but the only words I recognised were names of k-pop group members.
Whilst k-pop clearly has a huge presence in Korea (but growing internationally), it came onto my radar late last year as I was exploring into different genres. From the first albums I purchased, it became apparent that this isn't a simple jewel back case or cardboard sleeve with a vinyl record, but an entire unboxing and collectible experience - stickers, posters, keychains, photocards of the artists, and of course the CD/vinyl...
This adds another dimension onto our existing reasons for physical media - supporting artists, physical ownership, and superior musical enjoyment that is possible when and listening to vinyl and CDs.
SEOULRECORD
SEOULRECORD - Jongo-gu
MOSAIC WEST
MOSAIC WEST - Sangsu (Near Hongdae)
Yet another surprise was the thriving secondhand range with a number of stores specialising in pre-loved vinyl. You could spend hours browsing.
In closing…
Only now did I realise the number of vinyl and music stores visited during in this trip - and I didn't even get through my entire list. Seoul's vinyl scene has a lot to explore, from quick trips whilst sightseeing to hidden-away destination trips.
It's always a valuable experience to see how music can bring us together around the world, and support these music stores with a 'souvenir' that we can continue to enjoy at home.
I'd love to hear about the music stores you have visited during your travels - send me an email!
Where to next? I can hear someone shouting "get back to work" in the distance. It could be coming from overseas - perhaps I need to double-check. 🛫
- Sam
p.s. for your convenience, all of these locations (and more) can be found in my NAVER Map bookmarks - https://naver.me/xydLOF36