198 – Seoul Metro ‘Fanfare’
New ‘fanfare’ announcement that is currently being used on all Seoul Metro subway lines (Lines 1,2,3,4). No offense to whoever put these together, but I have to admit that the first time I heard this MIDI trumpet counterpoint, I laughed. In fact, even a month later, I still laugh. Personally, I preferred the old ones, as they got the job done a little more efficiently, and with a little less cheese. (198 – Seoul Metro ‘Fanfare’)
Recorded 7/20/11, 8:24AM (local time)
*P.S. This recording was made at 낙성대역 (Nakseongdae Station) toward 사당역 (Sadang Station). As the announcement suggests, it is the ‘inner-circle line’ of Line 2. I’m still having computer issues, so the picture above is recycled from an earlier post. But it’s still the right place.
Seoul Sounds / 서울 소리들 
Hahaha. That’s a bit over the top. At least they could have done was used some of the metro station rock/latino groups to play something ‘catchy’ like “Quien sera” or something of that sort. Something that offers a bit of a cultural upper cut instead of a cultural poke. It needs to be strong, strong like Koreans.
-_- I think it kind of sucks… the traditional Korean tune was much better than this. ppl could get sick of this pretty fast..
Haha, yeah. That’s a better way of putting it.
Thanks for your recording!! I totally miss the old song as well! I mentioned your website in an article on my blog! http://www.goneseoulsearching.com/2011/10/seoul-subway-song-has-changed-but-will.html
Thanks, Marie! I’m glad you liked it. It looks like you’ve got a pretty nice blog going, yourself. Are you back in the States now? I hope you had a wonderful time in Korea, and good luck!
To me, this one sounded like what one could hear in a communist nation. Can’t believe it’s not a relic from the past but only a year old or so. Thanks for posting though 🙂
Do you also happen to hold the announcement that you hear in the metro itself when the train approaches a station? It’s a bit of a flute melody…
Thanks for reading. Here’s the other one:
This isnt actually the transfer music – the song michael made was what you hear at a transfer station…this is just for the train coming, but granted it sucks – although between that and the crappy xylophone I now know on a morning going to work late if i need to run or walk down the stairs when I hear the train coming as northbound use the xylophone and southbound use the trumpet! (on line 4 anyway)
how can i download it…this sound make me miss seoul even more…huhuhu
Hi! You can download any sound you want by right-clicking on the file name and selecting “Download Linked file As…” Hope this helps.
thanx smorphie