Choi Ho-sup
The boy who once sang cartoon theme songs went on, with a single song written by his older and younger brothers, to sing a whole era's farewells on its behalf.
At a glance 🔭💭
Some coordinates adapted from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) · Pleiades (CC BY 3.0)
People around him ⏳🌊
- FamilyChoi Chang-kwon
His father and the composer of 「Saljjagi Opseoye」 and the 「Robot Taekwon V」 theme song, who raised his son in recording studios and theaters.
- PatronKim Cheong-gi
The director of 「Robot Taekwon V」, who chose the boy Choi Ho-seop's voice for the solo part of its theme song.
- FamilyChoi Myung-seop
His older brother, who wrote the lyrics to 「As Time Goes By」 and to 「GOODBYE」 in 2021.
- FamilyChoi Kwi-seop
His younger brother, who composed 「As Time Goes By」 and wrote the music for the musical 「Love Rides the Rain」.
- InfluenceLee Seung-hwan
One of the younger singers who took up “As Time Goes By” again, he carried the song to the next generation along with Jo Sung-mo·Kim Jo-han and others.
- ProducerPark Kang-young
Known as a producer of Cho Yong-pil's records, he composed and arranged the comeback releases of 2021 and 2023.
I. Child of Yegreen · 1964–1975
(Birth) He was born in July 1964 in Seoul, South Korea. His father was the composer Choi Chang-kwon. Choi Chang-kwon was born in Kanggye, North Pyongan Province. Choi Ho-seop was the middle of three brothers, with an older brother, Choi Myung-seop, and a younger brother, Choi Gwi-seop. Almost nothing about his mother is on public record. (Yegreen) His father had a hand in founding the Yegreen Troupe, regarded as the starting point of original Korean musical theater, and in 1966 he wrote the music for the troupe's production “Saljjagi Opseoye.” The work is considered the forerunner of the Korean musical. Yegreen later inducted him into its hall of fame. (Stage) And so the places where Choi Ho-seop played as a child were recording studios and theaters. In a 2009 interview he recalled appearing as a child actor on the Yegreen stage his father led. Singing and acting were not lessons he took so much as things he picked up the way one picks up household chores. (The era) In the 1960s and 70s, popular songs spread by radio and LP, and a television was not yet something every household owned. Even the word “musical” was unfamiliar. While the father walked the narrow road of stage music, the son grew up watching how hard that road was, and how joyful. That experience carried straight through to the way he kept returning to the musical stage even after he had made his name as a singer.
II. The boy of Taekwon V · 1976–1985
(Mirinae) At around ten, Choi Ho-seop learned singing and acting at Mirinae, an educational group. Mirinae is known to have been an organization that taught singing and acting. The vocal technique and stage sense he built there soon led to an unexpected opportunity. (Theme song) In 1976, director Kim Cheong-gi's animated film “Robot Taekwon V” opened in theaters. The theme song was composed by his father, Choi Chang-kwon. Kim Cheong-gi chose the boy's voice and gave him the solo part. The clear voice of a twelve-year-old passed from mouth to mouth among the children leaving the theaters, and he became a children's star overnight. (Sequels) The film's success brought a sequel every year. Bugs's discography lists under his name the soundtracks for “Robot Taekwon V 2: Space Mission” in 1977 and “Robot Taekwon V 3: Underwater Rangers” in 1978. Through theaters, records and children's broadcasts, these songs became the shared memory of a generation. (Musicals) In 1978 he made his formal debut on stage as a musical actor. As a teenager, he has said, he was so devoted to rock music offstage that he followed concerts around. He later enrolled at the Seoul Institute of the Arts but left without graduating. His father's stage music, animated-film theme songs and rock: three different strands piled up in his ear all at once.
The theme song his father, Choi Chang-kwon, wrote and the twelve-year-old Choi Ho-seop sang solo. It was the song that first carried his name to the public.
- A beat that strides along crisply like a march (march-style rhythm) drives the whole song. It is the grammar of film music, built to lock in with the images of the robot launching into action.
- The clear, straight voice of a boy whose voice has not yet broken pushes the melody forward without ornament. Listen with the story of the director choosing this voice in mind, and you can hear the reason for his choice.
- A scoring in which brass and strings ring out loudly together (orchestral arrangement) is the typical sound of Korean theatrical animation music in the 1970s.
- A short, easy-to-remember repeated phrase arrives early in the song. That is why children leaving the theater could sing along right away.
III. A song of three brothers · 1986–1988
(Wonsul) In 1986 he took the lead in the musical “Hwarang Wonsul” and made his name as a stage actor. The powerful voice that fills a whole stage took its settled form in this period. Yet what made the public remember him as a singer came not from the theater but from within his own home. (Brothers) On March 30, 1988, his first album came out. It held ten songs, and the title track was “Blow, Wind.” Yet the song that outlasted its era was the sixth track, “As Time Goes By.” His older brother Choi Myung-seop wrote the lyrics, his younger brother Choi Gwi-seop wrote the music, and the middle son sang it. Three brothers raised by a composer father had each taken a share of a single song. (Radio) The song is said to have first caught listeners' ears when it was introduced on KBS radio. On November 30 that year it reached No. 1 on KBS's music chart show “Gayo Top 10.” In the Seoul of 1988, the year of the Olympics, cassette tapes and LPs sold side by side, and chart shows on color television decided the hits. It was also the moment when the ballad, led by names like Byun Jin-sub·Lee Moon-sae, was rising to the center of Korean pop. (Feeling) “As Time Goes By” is a song addressed to someone who has gone, about a heart that will not forget no matter how much time passes. His voice, beginning as a quiet confession and bursting out with growing force toward the end, was a stage actor's voice through and through. One outlet later wrote that the aching emotion layered over his powerful voice consoled people who had parted from someone they loved. At twenty-four, the former child star made his name again with a grown-up's song.
A song by three brothers, with lyrics by the older and music by the younger, it reached No. 1 on “Gayo Top 10” in November 1988. Though it was not the title track, it rode the radio to become the song of its era.
- In the quiet first verse, led by piano, he holds his voice back and sings low, almost as if speaking. At the refrain (chorus) he opens up all at once, and the song swells to its full size.
- His way of driving the high notes of the refrain in full chest voice rather than slipping into falsetto sounds as though it came from the technique he honed on the musical stage. This passage is often cited as the reason the original remains the benchmark despite its many remakes.
- This is the sound of the late-1980s Korean pop ballad, with synthesized string pads (synth strings) laid beneath a slow ballad tempo. The warm texture of analog recording remains.
- The structure is lean: verse and refrain come around twice, with the emotion peaking in the final refrain. That is why singers as different as Kihyun·Jo Sung-mo·Lee Seung-hwan could each lay their own colors over the same frame.
The original title track of the first album. It was overshadowed by “As Time Goes By,” but this was the face the debut album first put forward.
- Listen with its place as the album's opening song and title track in mind, and you can see what the planners meant to put front and center about this singer.
- Set beside the anguished high notes of “As Time Goes By,” it reveals a different grain in his voice. The adult contemporary (soft pop for grown-up tastes) color of the whole album is first set in this song.
- Preserved as an LP reissue (audio transferred as-is from the old original pressing), it still lets you hear the sound of a 1988 analog recording.
IV. A Moment · 1989–2004
(Second album) On September 1, 1989, his second studio album, “A Moment,” came out under the production of Sudo Media. It held nine songs, including the title track “A Moment,” and carried “A Song for You” over from the first album. It was calm pop balladry in the adult contemporary vein. In 1994 he is said to have released a third album, “Wind and Paper Kite.” (Distance) He once admitted that he had never warmed to a life of moving at an agency's beck and call. In an era when the formula for success was to keep the hits going through broadcast appearances and events, he stood a step back from that current. From the mid-1990s, the Korean pop world shifted rapidly toward dance music and large management agencies. (Vocal cords) In a later interview he said himself that he had stepped down from the stage because of a vocal-cord problem of unknown cause. From then on he moved from the place of singing to the place of teaching and making. He worked as a vocal trainer and record producer, and is known to have taught students at a university. It was this very experience, he said, that taught him how to govern his voice through breath. (Younger brother) In the same period, his younger brother Choi Gwi-seop wrote the music for the musical “Love Rides the Rain.” Staged for many years, it became the signature work of Korean small-theater original musicals. The family lineage of stage music that began with their father had passed to the next generation.
The title track of the second album, released the year after his hit. It drew less attention than his first record and stands at the start of the period when he quietly drifted away from broadcasting.
- A pop ballad that puts its weight on a calm melody rather than the explosive high notes of its predecessor. There is pleasure in hearing another face of the same singer.
- An accompaniment built mostly on synthesizer keyboards and a rhythm machine (electronic drums), common in Korean pop recording around 1989, lets you hear the sound of the era.
- Heard alongside the first album, it shows traces of an effort not to repeat the debut's formula for success. This, though, is an impression taken from the record itself; no account of the production's intent survives.
V. Songs sung again · 2005–2016
(Re-recording) On December 27, 2005, he re-recorded “As Time Goes By” after 17 years and released it as a digital single. It was a new ballad version that brought out the groove. The same year the song was used in the film “When Romance Meets Destiny,” drawing fresh attention. As music was moving from CDs to MP3s and streaming sites, old hits began circulating anew as single tracks. (Younger singers) Meanwhile the song left its original singer's hands and spread through the voices of younger singers. According to streaming-site notes, Lee Seung-hwan, Jo Sung-mo and Maya have sung it. Bugs also lists versions by Byun Jin-sub, Park Wan-kyu and Kim Jo-han, formerly of Solid. Byun Jin-sub even invited Choi Ho-seop to feature on his own song “A Snowy Winter Night.” (Dooly) In 2009 he played Go Gil-dong in the family musical “Dooly the Little Dinosaur.” In interviews from around that time he said that musicals were not a change of career but a part of his life. He also said he wanted to carry on the path of original musicals his father had walked, and to introduce the 1966 work “Saljjagi Opseoye” abroad. He added that preserving Korean culture mattered more to him than a splashy comeback. (Reply 1988) In January 2016, the tvN drama “Reply 1988” released, as its ninth OST, “As Time Goes By” sung by Kihyun. While the drama was airing, viewers had hoped this song would make an appearance. As a drama revisiting 1988 summoned a song from that year, younger listeners who had never known the original went looking for the name Choi Ho-seop.
VI. A lowered voice · 2017–2026
(Goodbye) On March 25, 2021, he released “GOODBYE,” his first new single in 16 years. His older brother Choi Myung-seop wrote the lyrics with Shim Jae-woong, and Park Kang-young, known as a producer of Cho Yong-pil's records, composed the song with Shim Jae-woong and arranged it. It was a folk-rock ballad looking back calmly on a burning love now past. In an age when streaming and YouTube had become the main windows for listening, he quietly returned with the agency Buckynine. (Brothers) On this song, too, his brother was credited as lyricist. Thirty-three years after the song the three brothers made together in 1988, the way the brothers worked together had not changed. Only the voice had. The release notes placed his low voice at the center of the song. (Hey Brother) On May 8, 2023, he released the remake single “Hey Brother.” The title track rearranged a song released by Fighting Daddy in 2013 for acoustic instruments and brass, carrying a word of encouragement to neighbors living through hard times. The “As Time Goes By” included with it was sung again in a lower key than the original. The song he had belted out high at twenty-four, he now sang low and held down as he neared sixty. (Now) In 2024 he made a special appearance in the music film “Milky Way.” His father's musicals, the cartoon theme he sang at twelve and the ballad the brothers made belonged to different eras, yet all were one family's music. He carries that lineage on today as a singer and a man of the stage.
His first new song in 16 years, with his older brother Choi Myung-seop once again credited as lyricist. Park Kang-young handled the arrangement, tailoring the song to fit his lowered voice.
- A folk-rock ballad held up by acoustic and electric guitars together. Drums and bass carry the song along at an unhurried pace.
- Instead of the high, full-throated belting of his younger days, he sings in the lower-middle range (lower register) as if calmly telling a story. Heard side by side with the same singer's 1988 recording, thirty-three years become audible in a voice.
- The song looks back on a lost love without reproach. Rather than letting emotion burst out, it chooses to leave it lingering as an afterglow.
A remake single of Fighting Daddy's 2013 song. The lower-key “As Time Goes By” released alongside it shows Choi's present more clearly than anything else.
- It opens with harmonica and piano, and as trombone · saxophone · trumpet (brass) join in, the sound gradually widens and warms. It was rearranged to be gentler than the original.
- Choi Ho-seop's own name is also credited for background vocals. Layering his own voice (chorus overdubbing), he thickens the song's spirit of encouragement.
- “As Time Goes By,” released alongside it, was sung lower than the original key. In the passage where the climactic high notes are resolved differently, one can watch a singer reinterpret a signature song to suit the voice that the years have brought.
Lesser-known stories
(Title track) “As Time Goes By” was not the title track of the first album. The album's opening song and title track was “Blow, Wind,” and “As Time Goes By” was the sixth track, on what would have been the B-side. In those days it was not unusual for an album cut chosen by a radio host to take off ahead of the title track picked by the agency, and this song too is said to have first become known when it was introduced on KBS radio. Because the song is now called his debut, the original order is seldom remembered. (Chorus) The theme song of “Robot Taekwon V” was not a boy's solo from the start. According to Choi Ho-seop's recollection, director Kim Cheong-gi picked out his voice and gave him the solo part. As the solo later became widely known, the fact that a choral recording came first was almost forgotten. (Imprint) The place “Saljjagi Opseoye” holds in the history of Korean musical theater is well known among researchers. Yet the fact that its composer is the man who wrote the “Robot Taekwon V” theme song and the father of the singer of “As Time Goes By” is rarely connected. Original musicals, animated-film music and pop ballads have been recorded as separate strands. Choi Ho-seop has spoken of wanting to introduce his father's 1966 work abroad. (Key) The 2023 version of “As Time Goes By” was arranged in a lower key than the original. Rather than insisting on the original key for his signature song, he rebuilt it to fit his present voice. Recorded twice, thirty-five years apart, the same song came to hold one singer's time just as it passed.
Notes on terms 📚🔎
Title track
(Meaning) The English word title means a name. It refers to the song that gives an album its name or is put forward to represent the album. (In Korean popular music) The one song an agency picks, when releasing an album, to push on broadcasts and in promotion. Yet it is common for listeners to prefer a different song. It is like a classmate who sang during break time becoming more popular than the one elected class representative. Choi Ho-seop's first album, too, had “Blow, Wind” as its title track, but the song people remember is “As Time Goes By.”
Music chart show
(In Korean popular music) A television broadcast that ranks and announces the week's most popular songs, with singers appearing to perform. KBS's “Gayo Top 10” was the most influential such program of the 1980s–90s, and reaching No. 1 there marked a song as a hit of the year. Think of a school holding a popularity vote every week and writing the winner on the blackboard. This ranking, however, mixed several criteria, such as album sales, number of broadcasts and viewer postcards.
Theme song
(Meaning) Juje (主題) means 'the central story.' A theme song is one that shows the heart of a work in song. (In Korean popular music) A song that represents a film, animated film or drama, playing as the work begins or ends. As with the “Robot Taekwon V” theme song, the song is sometimes remembered longer than the work itself. It is like the music that plays every time you start a favorite game, lodging in your head so that you hum it even when you aren't playing.
Remake
(Meaning) The English word remake means to make (make) again (re). (In Korean popular music) Releasing an earlier song anew, newly arranged and recorded by another singer or by the original singer. “As Time Goes By” has been sung again by many singers, including Lee Seung-hwan, Jo Sung-mo, Kim Jo-han, Byun Jin-sub and Kihyun. It is like remaking a dish your mother taught you, changing the seasoning to suit your own taste. The basic flavor stays the same, but it tastes different depending on who makes it. (Elsewhere) In film, too, reshooting an old or foreign work is called a remake.
OST
(Meaning) Short for Original Soundtrack. It means a record collecting the sounds originally used in a film or drama. (In Korean popular music) An album gathering the songs and background music used in a drama or film, or those songs themselves. “Reply 1988” had today's singers re-record old songs and released them as its OST. Thanks to this, people who had never known the originals went looking for them. Think of a song that was used as your class's cheer song on sports day and afterward became something like the school song.
Reissue
(Meaning) Bokgak (復刻) means to carve (刻) again (復). It originally referred to recarving the printing blocks of an old book exactly as they were and printing it again. (In Korean popular music) Producing an LP or cassette released long ago anew, exactly as it originally was. Choi Ho-seop's first album survives as audio from an LP reissue, so the sound of 1988 can still be heard today. It is like scanning a worn photograph found at your grandmother's house and printing it fresh. The content stays as it is; only the medium is renewed.
Adult contemporary
(Meaning) The English word adult means a grown-up, and contemporary means of the same time. The phrase means present-day music that grown-ups enjoy. (In Korean popular music) A genre name grouping pop and ballads that are soft and clearly melodic rather than loud or fast. Streaming sites classify Choi Ho-seop's first and second albums (1 · 2) in this category. Think of the calm songs the broadcasting room plays at lunchtime — music you can listen to for a long time without it grating on the ear.
Key
(Meaning) The English word key means a thing that opens a lock. In music it refers to the reference pitch that determines which note a song is built around. (In Korean popular music) Lowering the key moves the whole song down to lower notes while keeping the same shape. Singers whose voices have changed with age often lower the key when singing old songs again. Choi Ho-seop, too, sang “As Time Goes By” lower than the original in 2023. It is like pressing the half-step-down button on a karaoke machine to fit your own voice. (Elsewhere) In everyday life, key means a key for a lock, a key on a keyboard, or a clue for solving a problem.