Hyundai Card Culture Project 23: Beck

Fans of Beck are probably familiar with the story of how he went to New York for the first time in 1989 with only eight dollars and a guitar. With little academic success, an inability to hold down a job and a messy family background, Beck was by all societal definitions “a loser.”

However, a lot of this changed in 1993 when he made “Loser” and the song became unexpectedly popular (ironically, he believed the song to be “mediocre” at best). The track made it into Billboard’s Top 10 and later made its way onto his album Mellow Gold, which is full of unusual songs and raw lyrics that sound as if they came directly from conversations at a bar.

Successes continued to pour in for the singer, who released the highly
acclaimed album Odelay in 1996. He won another Grammy for his album Mutations (1998), and later, Beck was praised for adopting electronica sounds for his album Sea Change in 2002. His musical world went through various stages of evolution and finally brought him to where he is today. His latest 2014 album Morning Phase reflects his return to his musical roots— country music. This is a solid work as he has been doing his take on country for a quarter of a century.

And, now, finally, this "big shot" is coming to Korea on July 27th for one night only. Bound to start out as an indie concert and turn into a dance club, the concert should be full of lyrics so hot that you’ll want to take your shirt off. This bushy-haired, middle-aged man in tacky attire will run around the stage, dance and throw dad jokes at the audience.

While many of the songs he’ll perform will be from Morning Phase,  crowds are likely to ask for "Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime,"  which was the theme song for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. And when the audience asks for an encore? He’ll probably play  “Loser;” even though it’s clear that he’s no longer one.