Korean restaurant music

There are certain universal things that you take for granted; you never think twice about them.

• The rule of thumb of pairing a delicate fish dish is with some delicate white wine.
• Anyone who chooses “Brown Eyed Girl” in a karaoke bar will get the entire place joining in on the chorus.
• They should always be playing some non-descript “Italian Café Music” in an Italian café.

Now, here’s something to chew on: “What kind of music should be playing in a Korean restaurant?”

That question came up among my buddies during a lunch one Sunday when I realized that what was playing at the restaurant were pop songs right out of some top pop music compilation (for example, from ‘Now That’s What I Call Music!’ CD series); except that instead of Shakira and the Killers, these songs at least a decade old, if not two decades! When I pointed this out, everyone exclaimed, ‘hey, now I see what’s been kinda off about this place today!’

We sat through an unsolicited listening of ‘Yesterday’ (Beatles), then ‘Like a Virgin’ (Madonna), ‘My Way’ (Sinatra), then finally ‘Wind of Change’ (Scorpions) through the rest of our lunch while we finished up our food, giggling in disbelief. It was just God-awful.

I’ve since been paying particularly keen attention to the ambient music in the different restaurants I’ve been dining, and the results are startling. For example, a Chinese dinner through a listening of ‘The Four Seasons’ (Vivaldi) felt entirely ridiculous; mushu pork and classic orchestra music does NOT mix! A respectable restaurant that blasted ‘Kryptonite’ (Three Doors Down) made it feel like I was in the wrong place; it felt like I should be sitting in a drab, hole-in-the-wall bar with an outdated jukebox instead. And you should never play anything by Cake in a ‘cool’ Japanese sake bar if the interior is supposed to exude euro-sleek coolness. (Actually, you should never play Cake unless you are a bar in Wriglyville that caters to the ex-frat-boys-from-Big-Ten crowd.)

So, coming back to my original question: What kind of music should be playing in a Korean restaurant?