A beautiful lady wearing a short Hanbok skirt is playing a janggu, a Korean percussion instrument, under the glamorous lights of the stage. Dynamic breakdancing is also performing at the same time. The dances and the janggu, a gayageum, or Korean table harp, and a haeguem, or Korean violin, are accompanied an electronic violin. This is what Koreans call fusion gukak” meaning Korean classical music with western instruments. When a vocalist singing pansori, a style of Korean traditional music, is added to those instruments, that is what the audience would see at a concert of the fushion gukak girl group SOREA.

Gukak girl groups that both are beautiful and amazingly talented at Korean music have engaged public attention through a modern approach to Korean music. Some of them are as small as a school music club, while others have been selected through auditions in which they had to compete against 500 people to win a position in a group. Some of them perform overseas throughout the year promoting Korean music and the country.

From former models to members of the Korean National Music Band, the backgrounds of performers in these groups vary. Becoming more popular and famous, most gukak girl groups have as many fan clubs as K-pop singers do. They say the Korean wave will spread gukak girl groups inevitably.

[Via] Korea.net