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Nagwon Musical Instrument Arcade |
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Where the Romanticism of Music Lives On |
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Right beside the traditional street Insa-dong, much frequented by foreign visitors to Korea, is located Asia's biggest musical instrument arcade. It is more than 30 years old and still going strong. Countless anonymous musicians have passed through here and today it is still the place to go for people who hear the irresistible call of music as it is a place literally overflowing with music, from the sound of instruments being tested to all sorts of popular and classical music. A visit to the Nagwon Arcade can be very interesting and inspiring. |
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A violin store |
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One of the most enjoyable things about the highly acclaimed Korean movie Waikiki Brothers is the appearance of the prototype band, the kind many people dream about being a part of at one point in their youth. The familiar repertoire of songs is third grade music that continues throughout the movie, but it is just such a repertoire that sparks the dreams of becoming first grade. It is said that the movie is in fact based on information gathered through interviews of bands working the night stages of Nagwon-dong and the small provincial towns. And when talking about the pitiful history and life of a musician in the outskirts of the city, Nagwon Arcade without fail has a part to play. |
Nagwon 2-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. This is the address of Nagwon Arcade, which sells almost everything that produces sound, from such typical band instruments as acoustic and electric guitars, drums, bass guitars, saxophones, and trumpets, and classical instruments such as pianos, violins and cellos, to Korean traditional instruments such as the piri (flute) and tungso (bamboo flute), and a variety of keyboards, synthesizers and karaoke machines. It is not only Korea's biggest shopping center specializing in musical instruments but also the biggest in Asia.
The history of Nagwon Arcade goes back more than 30 years. The building that houses the arcade was constructed in 1968 and one by one musical instrument dealers gathered on the second floor. In its heyday in the 1980s, there were more than 300 stores. Even today there are some 240 dealers on the second and third floors, arranged in a labyrinthine way along narrow corridors that make it difficult to see just how big the arcade really is.
Nagwon-dong, once known as paradise (nagwon in Korean) for musicians working the cabaret and club scene, was originally an elite neighborhood inside the four walls of Seoul populated by high officials and men of prominence. From the beginning of the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945), well-known restaurants started to gather in the area and until the end of the 1970s it was a highly affluent part of Seoul. With the construction of a combined shopping and apartment complex, the forerunner of Nagwon Arcade, Nagwon-dong was firmly established as a rich neighborhood, much envied by ordinary people. This is understandable considering that an unprecedented 15-story mansion apartment block was constructed in the area. In the basement floor appeared a modern style market selling high-quality goods and imported products to the rich, thus creating a model of affluence. |
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The arcade sells not only musical instruments but also all sorts of macines and products related to producing sound. |
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Nagwon-dong saw its heyday in the 1980s when entertainment venues began to flourish. So say most of the gray-haired instrument dealers who, after more than 20 years of doing business in the area, still do not rank among the old-timers of Nagwon-dong. In the 1980s, the arcade catered not only to musicians and students, but also the broadcasting stations which, having a dearth of facilities, would borrow equipment whenever they had a show program to broadcast.
Moreover, at 3 p.m. daily the musicians market was held for wandering street musicians, bringing together those looking for work and the cabaret and night club managers seeking to employ them. Longhaired young men with a guitar slung over a shoulder or a saxophone case digging into their sides crowded the central corridor in great numbers. Legend has it that the market once attracted as many as 40,000 people. This is not as fantastic as it might sound considering the large cabaret halls at the time commonly hired two bands, the 10-12 piece A band and the 5-6 piece B band. Every night these bands would play their hearts out for the drunken audiences covering everything from pop classics to the Korean musical style known as trot.
Coming and going through the corridors of Nagwon Arcade, once the birthplace of so many bands, one might catch an impromptu performance. Such performances are not the sole territory of the handful of professional musicians; each and every instrument dealer will tell you that there is not a one among them who does not know how to play music. One cannot last in Nagwon Arcade without a connection to music of some kind, whatever it may be. It seems that all the instrument dealers who spent their youth in this arcade have a lingering regret concerning music, whether they be among those who formed high school bands and dreamed of becoming rock stars like Shin Jung-hyeon or Songgolmae, or among those who majored in music in university.
During its decade of high prosperity, some 90 percent of the revenue generated at Nagwon Arcade came from instrument sales to musicians. But since late night operation of entertainment venues became illegal in 1992, the scene has greatly changed. The musicians found that demand for their service had much decreased and this situation was aggravated with the wide popularity of karaoke and noraebang (literally singing rooms). Today their superb performance skills live on at Nagwon Arcade only in legend.
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Foreign tourists look at guitars. |
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Thus the consumer base has changed over the years according to the trends of the time. If there was a time when most sales were sales of instruments to musicians, there was also a time when most sales were karaoke or noraebang machines. Today, ordinary consumers account for the highest portion of sales and since education in the arts is emphasized from elementary school, many families visit the arcade on weekends. |
"Our eldest has been learning piano at a piano school for the past three years and it seems the right time to buy our own piano now. I chose an eight-year-old piano that has been newly tuned. It has a good sound and is very reasonably priced. Our younger child came with us and seems to have gained an interest in music by looking at all the different instruments," said a satisfied mother.
Though it has been many years since music instrument arcades began appearing around the Seoul Arts Center in Seocho-dong, the Nagwon storeowners say that the prices are better at Nagwon. In general, the instruments here are around 20-30 percent cheaper than the market price with very little difference between retail and wholesale and as there are so many stores it is very difficult to sell something at an unrealistic price. Also, Nagwon has many expertly repaired and reconditioned secondhand instruments so customers can purchase used instruments that are almost like new at a great price.
Demand for pianos, violins and flutes is high as always and acoustic guitars are as popular with teenagers as ever, but these days there is a growing demand for unusual instruments such as the pan flute or ocarina. The storeowners have become conscious that the times have indeed changed. For a long time now foreign musicians working in Korea have been buying their instruments here but these days a noticeable number of foreign tourists are coming here looking for an instrument at a good price. Therefore, the Nagwon Merchants Association and owners of stores in the surrounding area have taken the initiative to make Nagwon a tourist-friendly place out of the realization that it is time for Nagwon Arcade to become a world-class instrument center.
The Nagwon area is now a traffic-free zone on Sundays. The stores used to close on Sundays but now they open every second week for the benefit of the family groups that shop on weekends and the people of the area are making a concerted effort to turn Nagwon-dong into one of Seoul's most famous streets along with neighboring Insa-dong. As part of such efforts, the Nagwon-dong Development Association is planning for the coming spring an exhibition of musical instruments from around the world and on-site performances where musicians from Africa, Central and South America, and Southeast Asia play the native music of their respective countries. |
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