Trot

Trot is the oldest continuous form of Korean popular song, a sentimental ballad style built on a duple-meter beat nicknamed ppongtchak, minor-key melodies with strong vibrato, and direct, often tearful singing. It took shape under Japanese rule from the hybrid popular song called yuhaengga, absorbed the pentatonic colouring of Korean folk melody, and was renamed after the foxtrot in the 1950s. Signature voices such as *Lee Mi-ja* and *Na Hoon-a* deliver its tales of lost love, separation and hometown longing over string orchestras, brass and, in later decades, synthesizers, making it the bedrock repertoire of Korean popular music.