A common side effect of obsessively following a single music genre is burnout. My love for K-Pop has waxed and waned over the years, and in the interim, I find substitute genres to keep my ears busy. When I do come back to K-Pop (and I always do), I end up searching for music that lies at the intersection of these two genres.
In the most recent case, I’ve found myself diving headlong into Japanese city pop, which has led me to discover (and feature on this column!) artists like Stella Jang, Day6, and Yukika. Continuing that trend, Summer Man combines three of the things I love most in music: city pop, K-Pop, and an abundance of brass.
Yoon Jong Shin is a popular Korean singer (and part-time television personality) for whom Summer Man was a bit of an out-of-left-field release. His music can typically be found in the firmly emotional, ballad-y side of K-Pop; songs like Parting Taxi and Like It (below) better exemplify the bulk of his discography.