Solid
'I don't think the word "breakup" really suits us.' — Kim Jo-han, at the 2018 reunion press conference
At a glance 🔭💭
Some coordinates adapted from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) · Pleiades (CC BY 3.0)
People around them ⏳🌊
- ProducerJang Ho-il
As 015B's guitarist he produced the first album, Give Me A Chance, and through that connection Solid appeared on 015B's stages and records.
- ProducerKim Hyung-suk
As co-producer of the second album, he wrote "Holding the End of This Night" with Jae Chong, leading Solid to its first million-seller.
- MemberJae Chong
The architect of the group, handling composition, arrangement and production; after the breakup he worked as a producer in Taiwan and the United States under the name Jae Chong.
- MemberKim Jo-han
The lead vocalist who made R&B singing one of the standards of Korean pop; after the hiatus he stayed in Korea, working as a solo singer and vocal coach.
- InfluenceLena Park
Cited as an example of the wave of producers who went looking for Korean American singers after Solid's success, he appeared alongside Kim Jo-han on season 1 of I Am a Singer in 2011.
I. Three friends from Orange County · 1972–1992
(Formation) In late 1992, in Orange County, California, three young Korean American men formed a group, and the following year they debuted in Seoul, South Korea, through the agency IM Communications. They were Jae Chung, born January 1972; Joon Lee, born that March in Los Angeles; and Johan Kim, born March 1973 in Atlanta, Georgia. The three are said to have fallen in together through a Korean church in Los Angeles. Joon Lee and Jae Chung are said to have been friends since childhood. (Roles) From the start, their roles were clear. Jae Chung, introduced as the leader, handled composing, arranging, and producing, along with guitar and backing vocals. Johan Kim was the lead vocalist. Joon Lee was a low-voiced rapper and a DJ who made sound by scratching records (turntable scratch). A trio that a producer, a singer, and a rapper formed on their own — that is cited as Solid's defining trait. (The scene) By the early 1990s, Jae Chung was already making records for local rap groups in Los Angeles. The three were also friends who loved breakdancing. They had learned Black American music not from textbooks but with their bodies, in the neighborhood and in the clubs. (Crossroads) The first song they recorded reached the ears of the manager of L.A. Boyz, an Asian American group then active in Taiwan. A Taiwanese agency wanted to add one Taiwanese member and launch them as a Taiwanese group. But a Korean agency reached out first, and the three chose the country of their parents. That year in Korea, Seo Taiji and Boys were shaking up the pop scene with rap and dance. R&B was still an unfamiliar name.
II. A first album too American · 1993–1994
(Debut) In 1993 their first album, “Give Me A Chance,” came out on cassette, CD, and LP. The producer was Jang Ho-il, guitarist of 015B. Jae Chung served as music director. Looking back on the album years later, he laughed that it had been pretty clumsy. (Genre) The title track, “Now, Me,” blended hip-hop soul into new jack swing, a style that lays a bright, bouncing rhythm over R&B. It also worked in snippets of James Brown recordings (samples). The album held a song about pager beeps, a track mixing techno and hip-hop, even an a cappella carol. It carried the currents of early-1990s Black American music across almost intact. (Neglect) The response was cold. At home, it was called too American. Since the members were students, they had to return to the United States right after the release, and with troubles at the agency on top of that, their TV appearances stopped at one or two. Because no one knew the name, the album was even pulled from record stores. In Jae Chung's words, it was a failure. Still, among devoted listeners, word quietly spread. (015B) The thread that brought their name back was Jang Ho-il. Through that connection, Johan Kim beatboxed — making drum sounds with his mouth — and Joon Lee rapped on “Bobbed Hair,” the title track of 015B's 5th album. As the song caught on, the name Solid spread with it. They had won recognition inside the industry first. The three waited for another chance.
The title track of a debut album the public passed over. The 1st album that carried it was reissued only after the 2nd album succeeded. It is Solid's starting point — Black American music they had learned with their bodies in the States, carried over almost as it was.
- Its backbone is a genre that lays bright, bouncing drum rhythms over R&B (new jack swing), together with hip-hop soul. It belongs to the same family as the sound of the American R&B charts in the early 1990s.
- It lifts snippets of James Brown recordings (samples) and deliberately distorts the rapping voice. An experiment from the moment sampling was just becoming known in Korea.
- Joon Lee's weighty rap alternates with Johan Kim's smooth singing. You can hear Jae Chung's design, balancing rhythm against melody.
- Reviewing the 2019 LP reissue, critic Han Dong-yoon wrote that even after 25 years the album does not sound thin.
III. Holding the End of This Night · 1995
(Turn) Preparing their 2nd album, the three changed their approach. They worked in Korea rather than the States, and brought in Kim Hyung-suk, then the most closely watched composer, as co-producer. They kept the bones of R&B arrangement but let into the melodies and lyrics the feelings Korean listeners knew. The recording is said to have run through sleepless nights for a whole week. In March 1995, “The Magic of 8 Ball” came out. A cane topped with an 8 ball is known as Joon Lee's trademark. (Against the tide) The title track, “Holding the End of This Night,” was an R&B ballad nearly 5 minutes long. Lyrics were by Kim Hye-seon, music by Kim Hyung-suk and Jae Chung. While fast dance tracks swept the summer charts, it pushed back with a slow song — and still climbed to the top, taking first place on music shows four times. (A million) The album is reported to have sold more than 1 million copies, though figures vary by source. This success led to the reissue of the 1st album. The follow-up, the hip-hop track “My Only Friend,” also made the top 10. Among the backup dancers on its stage was Chun Myung-hoon, who would later debut with NRG. (The current) It was an era of ranking shows like Gayo Top 10, when cassettes and CDs sold by the millions. The album is credited with lifting R&B into the mainstream of Korean pop. Afterward, producers went looking for Korean singers living in America, and Lena Park, who debuted in 1998, is often cited as an example of that current. There is also a story that R.ef, around the same time, named Solid as their rival.
The title track of the 2nd album, made after they moved their base from America to Korea and teamed up with Kim Hyung-suk. In a summer given over to dance tracks, a 5-minute ballad reached the top and made Solid stars.
- Music by Kim Hyung-suk and Jae Chung, arrangement by Jae Chung. The heart of the song is its marriage of Korean ballad melody with R&B harmony and rhythm.
- Johan Kim moves between a technique of rolling one syllable across several notes (melisma) and falsetto. It was an American-style R&B vocal, rare in Korean pop ballads of the time.
- Between the lines runs Joon Lee's low, thick voice in spoken narration. The interplay of song and speech is still talked about as the track's signature.
- It took first place on music shows four times. It is counted as the song that proved a ballad, too, could reach the top as R&B.
The follow-up from the 2nd album, it reached the top 10. A reminder that the group known for ballads had started out as a hip-hop crew.
- The 2nd album's credits list its genre as hip-hop. Music and arrangement by Jae Chung, lyrics by Lee Jung-eun. It runs against the grain of the album's ballad title track.
- Over a bouncy drum pattern, Joon Lee's rap and Johan Kim's singing trade short phrases, carrying the song forward.
- Chun Myung-hoon, who danced as a backup dancer on its stage, later debuted with NRG. It is often mentioned as a glimpse of the web of connections in 1990s Korean pop.
IV. First and last · 1996
(Independence) In April 1996 their 3rd album, “Light, Camera, Action!,” came out. This time Jae Chung served as sole producer, writing and arranging most of the songs. Johan Kim and Joon Lee are also known to have taken part in the songwriting. Unlike the 2nd album, which borrowed the hands of outside composers, this was a record the three made themselves. (The summit) The title track, “You Are My First and Last,” was R&B led by electric guitar. It reached No. 1 on several music shows, including KBS's Gayo Top 10 and MBC. The 3rd album became their second million-seller, with sales reported at about 1.5 million copies. (Climbing back) The follow-up the agency chose was “Happy Ending.” But track 4, “Match Made in Heaven,” drew the warmer response. A song that was never in the follow-up plans climbed back up the chart and won more love than the title track. It remains Solid's signature song today, and some 20 years later it would spark their reunion. (The stage) That July they held their first solo concert, “Deliverance,” in Busan and Seoul. The live recording was released as a live album. They also sang the Korean version of “Someday” from Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The group pushed out of record stores in the days of their 1st album had, 3 years later, become the best-selling name around.
The title track of the 3rd album, which the three made themselves without outside composers. Its run of consecutive No. 1s on Gayo Top 10 proved the 2nd album's success had been no accident.
- It puts electric guitar out front over an R&B base. Its texture differs from the piano-and-strings sound of the previous album's ballad.
- Jae Chung handled everything from composition to arrangement, binding melody tuned to Korean ears and American-style rhythm into a single song.
- Johan Kim's voice reaches higher as it nears the chorus, backed by harmonies stacked in many layers (chorus overdubs).
- It took No. 1 four times on music shows, including KBS's Gayo Top 10 and MBC's Popular Song Best 50.
A track 4 that was never in the follow-up plans climbed back up the chart and won more love than the title track. Some 20 years later, sung again as a wedding song, it became the thread that led to the reunion.
- A bright, upbeat song. In a playful voice, it sketches the flutter of two people who recognize each other at first sight.
- Joon Lee's low rap and Johan Kim's high singing cross like a conversation. It is counted as the song where the three members' division of roles shows most clearly.
- The 2018 reunion album included two remix versions of this song. That same year, on JTBC's Two Yoo Project - Sugar Man 2, the song scored 100 lights.
- Widely sung at weddings, it became an example of 1990s Korean pop surviving across generations.
V. Birds of a Feather, and a pause · 1997
(Transformation) On April 24, 1997, their 4th album, “Solidate,” came out. The title track, “Birds of a Feather,” was a Miami-style hip-hop dance track with heavy, booming bass. For a public waiting for ballads, it was an unfamiliar transformation. Instead, the ballad follow-up “Hope It's Not the End” won steady affection. (Fatigue) For four years the three had barely rested. Jae Chung recalled that their schedule in those days was so packed they needed a break. He also said each of them had had things they wanted to do from the beginning. Afterward, Jae Chung is said to have gone his own way as a producer, and Joon Lee as a businessman in the States. Joon Lee is also said to have needed to finish college. (Pause) In July 1997, Solid stopped at their peak. The press reported it as a breakup. Johan Kim remembered it differently. He said the idea was to rest for a while, and that “breakup” was not the right word. The short rest became 21 years. Solid is reported to have left behind about 4 million in sales across four studio albums. (The times) The air in Korean pop was changing too. With H.O.T.'s debut in 1996, the idol era began, in which agencies selected and trained members. At the end of that year the Asian financial crisis struck. The exit of a Korean American trio who wrote and made their own songs was also the sight of a door, briefly opened in the Korean pop of the mid-1990s, swinging shut.
The title track of their last studio album. It was an attempt to shed the ballad-group mold, but the public found it unfamiliar.
- A dance track in the Miami bass vein, with low end that rings out long and heavy. A body-moving low register (the bass) drives the song.
- Joon Lee's rap steps to the front, shifting the center of gravity away from the earlier title tracks, which were built around Kim Jo-han's vocals.
- For listeners expecting a ballad, it was a strange transformation. That the ballad follow-up “I Hope It's Not the End” won broader affection instead says much about the public's taste at the time.
VI. Light after 21 years · 1998–2019
(Parting ways) The three scattered down their own paths. Kim Jo-han stayed in Korea, became a solo singer, and coached the vocals of many K-pop artists. In 2011 Kim appeared in season 1 of MBC's I Am a Singer, alongside such fellow singers of the series as Lena Park, Kim Bum-soo, Lee So-ra and YB. (Taiwan) After the group went on hiatus, Jeong Jae-yun moved between the United States and Taiwan, working as a producer under the name Jae Chong. Chong contributed to records by Coco Lee, Stanley Huang and Chang Hui-mei (A-mei). In 2003 Chong helped found MACHI Entertainment, often called Taiwan's first hip-hop label, and became the first Korean American nominated for Best Producer at Taiwan's Golden Melody Awards. Back in Korea, Chong's name appeared on records by Kim Gun-mo, Shin Seung-hun and others, and in 2011 Chong formed the group AZIATIX. Joon Lee graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) and built a real-estate development business in the United States. (Reunion) A reunion was discussed as early as 2009, but schedules would not align. The spark came from an unexpected place: at a friend's wedding, the three sang “Match Made in Heaven” as the wedding song. On March 22, 2018, Into the Light, their first record in 21 years, was released. The members wrote and arranged the songs from their own home studios, trading files back and forth. The sound moved from R&B and hip-hop toward EDM and future pop. Rather than reselling nostalgia, they took a chance on new music. (Now) Their May concerts at Blue Square in Seoul sold out in 5 minutes and were extended to three days. The three worked together for about 1 year, then returned once more to their separate lives. In 2019 their 1st album was reissued on LP after 26 years.
One of the double title tracks from the record released after 21 years. The three finished the song by trading files between their own studios.
- In place of R&B·hip-hop, it takes up the grammar of electronic EDM and future pop. The refusal to repeat old memories is audible in the sound itself.
- Writing·arranging·production were all handled by the members themselves. Jae Chong explained that the song carries a wish to break free of the daily grind and run toward a more positive life.
- Past 40, Kim Jo-han sings with less force than in the 1990s, but with a deeper grain.
- Bae Chul-soo remarked that the album seemed not an attempt to sell nostalgia but a genuine venture into new music.
Lesser-known stories
Solid very nearly debuted as a Taiwanese group. Their first recording reached the manager of L.A. Boyz, a Korean American group active in Taiwan, and a Taiwanese agency planned to add one Taiwanese member and launch them as a Taiwanese act. A Korean agency's call arrived just a little sooner, and their course was set. Korean press coverage tends to begin with the Korean debut, so this episode is rarely mentioned. Yet given that Jae Chong later established a producing career in Taiwan after the breakup, that fork in the road did, in the end, lead somewhere after all — only in a different shape. After their 1st album failed, the song that put Solid back in the public ear belonged to another act. On “Bobbed Hair,” the title track of 015B's 5th album, Kim Jo-han handled the beatbox and Joon Lee the rap. Because it was a guest appearance, it is seldom counted in Solid's own history. But this connection, arranged by Jang Ho-il, became the moment an unknown Korean American group began to earn trust inside the industry. According to Kim Hyung-suk, who co-created their 2nd album, Lim Chang-jung's “Then Once Again” was originally written for Solid — a sign that the same composer's hand moved between Solid's R&B ballads and the ballads of the mid-to-late 1990s. For years the 1st album was regarded as a record living in the shadow of the 2nd. Its LP reissue in 2019, after 26 years, brought it back into the light. Critics reassessed experiments such as its fusion of techno and hip house, rare in Korea in 1993, and a song about pagers, as ahead of their time.
Notes on terms 📚🔎
R&B
(Word origin) Short for rhythm and blues. It comes from the name the American record industry used in the 1940s to group together Black popular music. (In Korean pop) A genre marked by smoothly rolling vocals, rich harmonies and slow rhythms that set the body swaying on its own. There were similar attempts before Solid, but many credit Solid with importing the sound of the American mainland intact and making it a mainstream genre. The same song feels completely different when sung with the beat gently pushed and pulled. That feeling of singing at karaoke with friends, more leisurely than the original, rolling the notes this way and that — that is close to R&B.
New jack swing
(Word origin) New jack is American slang for a young newcomer on the scene, and swing means a rhythmic feel that makes the body move. (In Korean pop) A genre born in the late 1980s in America by blending R&B singing with the crisp, clipped drum beats of hip-hop. Its bouncy rhythm is its hallmark. “Now, Me,” the title track of Solid's 1st album, belongs to this family, and the style deeply shaped Korean dance pop in the early 1990s. Think of the double bounce in jump rope — one jump, then a little extra hop. A new jack swing drum skips just like that within a single beat. (Elsewhere) In jazz, swing means the big-band music of the 1930s–40s; in golf or baseball, the motion of swinging a club or bat.
Producer
(Word origin) From the English produce ('to bring forth'): a person who brings something into being. (In Korean pop) The person responsible for how an entire record will sound from start to finish — choosing or writing songs, setting the direction of arrangements and recording, and coaching the singer. In Solid, member Jae Chong took on this role; in the 1990s Korean pop scene, it was rare for a group member to serve as producer. In a school play, it would be the teacher-director who picks the script, casts the roles and oversees the staging. (Elsewhere) In film and broadcasting, the person who oversees budget, schedule and staff.
A cappella
(Word origin) The Italian a cappella means 'in the manner of the chapel (cappella).' It comes from old church choirs that sang with voices alone, without instruments. (In Korean pop) A song in which several voices alone, without accompaniment, build the harmony and even the rhythm. Solid's 1st album included an a cappella carol, and their 2nd opened with the a cappella song “Dream” — a glimpse of the members' background in church choirs. If you have ever split into sopranos and altos with classmates in music class and matched harmonies without a piano, that was a cappella.
Beatbox
(Word origin) A blend of beat (the pulse) and box (slang for a rhythm machine): the human mouth doing the work of a drum machine. (In Korean pop) The art of making rhythm by imitating drums, cymbals and bass with the lips, tongue and throat. It began in hip-hop culture. Kim Jo-han handled the beatbox on 015B's “Bobbed Hair,” and at the 2018 reunion concerts the beatboxer KRNFX appeared as a guest. If you remember a friend who drummed out beats on a desk with their fingers between classes, imagine making that sound with the mouth instead of the hands.
Million seller
(Word origin) From the English million (1,000,000) and seller (something that sells): a product that has sold 1,000,000 units. (In Korean pop) A record that has sold more than 1,000,000 copies. In the 1990s, when people bought cassettes and CDs to listen to music, it was a kind of emblem of a star. Solid is said to have achieved it twice in a row, with their 2nd and 3rd albums. Now that music is mostly streamed, it is hard to picture a time when most of your classmates paid for the same album. That is how enormous a figure 1,000,000 was. (Elsewhere) In publishing, a book that has sold more than 1,000,000 copies.
Reverse run
(Word origin) Yeokjuhaeng ('running in reverse') is written with 逆 ('against'), 走 ('run') and 行 ('go'): to run backward. (In Korean pop) The phenomenon of a song that drew no attention on release, or was never meant to be promoted, climbing back up the charts over time. “Match Made in Heaven” on Solid's 3rd album was an album track with no follow-up plans, but it drew such a response that it replaced “Happy Ending” as the promoted single and was loved even more than the title track. It is like a classmate who was quiet at first suddenly becoming a star on sports day. (Elsewhere) In traffic, the dangerous act of driving against the designated direction.