Most of what Seoul’s dance music scene knows about itself is stored in Instagram stories that vanish after 24 hours. This page is the start of a Seoul DJ oral history meant to last longer than that: the same five questions put to DJs, crews, producers and venues across the city, answered in their own words and kept here in writing. I have played house and disco in this city for two decades, and the conversations worth keeping have mostly disappeared into the feed.
To be plain about where this stands: the project is starting now, and no answers are published yet. They will appear on this page as they come in, dated and attributed, in Korean or English, in whichever language the person chose to answer.
Why a Written Record
A scene lives in its rooms and its group chats, and both are bad at remembering. A flyer gets posted, a set gets filmed, a story runs for a day, and then it is gone. Ten years later, the people who were there argue about who played first, which room closed when and why a sound took hold. That is how most scenes lose their own history.
Video helps, and I have written about how MIXMIXTV recorded a decade of Seoul DJs, but a set on film rarely says what the person behind it was thinking. Writing does not solve that alone, but it lasts. A dated answer with a name attached can be quoted, checked and argued with. Seoul’s house lineage is deep and underrated, and part of the reason it stays underrated is that so little of it is written down by the people who built it.
The Five Questions
Every participant gets the same questions, so the answers can be read side by side over time.
- What did you believe when you started that turned out to be completely wrong?
- Name someone who deserves ten times the attention, and the specific thing only they do.
- What has actually changed in Seoul in five years, not the press version, the version you have seen?
- What do foreign journalists always ask that you are tired of, and what should they ask instead?
- What is happening here that nobody is writing down, that you would want recorded in ten years?
The questions are built to get past the usual interview. Nobody needs another answer about how they got into music. The second question matters most to me, because the people who hold a scene together are rarely the ones being asked.
How It Works
Anyone taking part can answer one question or all five. Answers can come in Korean or English, written out or sent as a voice note, and they are published in the language they arrive in.
Before anything goes live, the quotes that will be published are sent back to the person for approval. Nothing appears here that they have not seen. Venues and promoters can answer anonymously if they prefer, as long as that is agreed in writing before the answers are sent, so everyone knows the terms from the start.
Who Is Being Asked
The aim is to hear from every part of the scene, not only the names on the posters. That means DJs at every stage, from residents to people playing their first nights, and the crews that throw parties outside the clubs, the world I described in the Korean rave. It means producers, and the venues and owners who keep rooms open. It also means the radio stations and online platforms that broadcast the scene, and the organisers who put on festivals.
Nobody will be named on this page until they have agreed to take part.
The Numbers Behind the Voices
This project has a quantitative counterpart. The Seoul Nightlife Report surveyed 343 people, with fieldwork in late 2024, about where they go, what they spend and how they get home. The survey shows the patterns. These answers are meant to explain them, from the people standing inside the rooms the numbers describe.
Read together, the two should give a fairer picture of the scene than either one could alone. The survey counts. The answers here will remember.
If you play, promote, produce, run a room or broadcast in Seoul and would like to answer, the contact page is the way to reach me, in Korean or English.
Written from Seoul, by someone who has been in the booth for more than twenty years. More on the site, or book a DJ.