Shin Jung-hyeon

Shin Joong-hyun (, or ; born January 4, 1938), also transliterated as Shin Jung-hyeon or Sin Junghyeon, is a South Korean rock guitarist and singer-songwriter often referred to as Korea's "Godfather of Rock." A pioneer of Korean rock music, Shin is known for forming South Korea's first rock band, Add4, in 1962 and for being at the forefront of the country's psychedelic rock scene of the 1960s and 1970s. He wrote his most famous song, "Beautiful Rivers and Mountains," in protest of the military dictatorship of Park Chung Hee in 1972. Shin was later imprisoned and tortured by Park's regime, and his music was banned until the 1980s. He experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 1990s and has since received numerous accolades recognizing his contributions to South Korean popular music. After her death, Shin moved to Seoul, where he worked in a pharmaceutical factory and attended night school. During this time, he taught himself to play guitar after a failed attempt at learning to play the violin.

In 1964, Shin's rock band Add4 released its first album, The Woman in the Rain. Add4 is considered to be South Korea's first rock band. The album, which included the hit songs "My Dear" and "A Cup of Coffee," was a huge success and went on to sell more than 1 million copies. For the next several years, Shin wrote songs and produced hit records for young musicians including Kim Chu-ja, with whom he made the album Before It's Too Late. Many of these recordings featured Shin's trademark psychedelic soul sound.

"Beautiful Rivers and Mountains" and arrest In 1972, the office of South Korean president Park Chung Hee asked Shin to write a song in praise of the president. Shin refused and instead wrote a 10-minute long song about the beauty of South Korea, called "Beautiful Rivers and Mountains," which he recorded with his band at the time, Shin Joong Hyun & The Men. After the release of the song, police confiscated Shin's guitars and cut his long hair, which was banned at the time by the South Korean government.

In 1975, Shin was arrested for possession of marijuana after giving away a plant to a friend of the president's son, even though marijuana was not yet illegal at the time of his arrest. He was subsequently imprisoned and tortured. He was later imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital. However, Shin returned to the stage in 2008 for his first concert in the United States at the Korean Music Festival at the Hollywood Bowl. The following year, in 2011, Seattle-based Light in the Attic Records released the first U.S. pressings of Shin's music. He was honored by Berklee College of Music with an honorary Doctor of Music Award in 2017.

Personal life Shin was married to Myeong Jeong-gang, the first South Korean female drummer and a member of Blue Ribbons, until she died on March 23, 2018. They had three sons: Shin Daechul, guitarist for the heavy metal band Sinawe; Shin Yunchul, a singer and guitarist; and Shin Seokchul, a session drummer.

At the 2011 Korean Popular Culture and Arts Awards, the South Korean government awarded Shin the Bogwan Order of Cultural Merit (3rd class) for "expanding the spectrum of Korean popular music."

In 2017, Shin received an honorary degree from the Berklee College of Music in Boston. The president of the college said that Shin "helped build the foundation upon which the global success of South Korean popular music rests."