(TW : depression, su1cide attempt)

[Tell Me About It, 1988 #4 : Jang Deok, shining genius]

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It's January 20th, 1990.

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The Korean pop scene is boasting of talent and hope for the future from all sides of the spectrum. From rock to disco, dance pop to europop, ballad to folk, a variety of singers and genres are promoting, competing for the trophies and the hearts of the people. One such occasion is TV Broadcasts, like MBC's Saturday, Saturday Is Fun", that is going live today. Many singers are standing in the broadcast waiting rooms, ready to sing and promote their songs, play around with the MCs,and enjoy their time on stage.

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Among them, a young woman stands. Tiredness is written on her face, and her eyes lack the sparkle it used to have. She has a lot of junuors, and they talk to her with visible respect. The singer who used to promote fun disco dance songs and chill folk songs is standing on stage with a ballad song that feels out of her usual repertoire, "예정될 시간을 위하여" ("For Foreseeable Times") but yet like her magnum opus - opening with a big orchestra as instrumentation, a bittersweet, soaring melody, paired with her vocals layered in such a way in the background like she is her own choir, she sings of a heartwrenching goodbye, a farewell that was foreseeable. The last lyric of the song goes "The Time has come, my love, goodbye", as smiles a weak smile, even says "goodbye", bows, and turns back and walks off stage.

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Jang Deok is her name.

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Nicknamed "Dwarf Deok-i" by a lot of people, she is a singer, composer, lyricist, producer, and to top it off, even an actress. An all-around celebrity. Acclaimed by critics, the public and even her fellow singers, many of her direct rivals speak highly of her talent for songwriting. Her seniors praise her abundantly, her juniors look up to her.

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She is busy. She is producing songs and engineering and mastering them for as well as along with her fellow singers, who value her insight, compositions and musical-technical knowledge. She had scored a producer hit song in "Like The Smile Saying Goodbye To Me" sung by Lee Eunha, praised for its tight and catchy production 4 years ago, and since has been lending her helping hand to any fellow artist that might need her. She boasts almost 14 year did experience by then, having had composing songs for herself and her brother Jang Hyun, with whom she had debuted as a brother-sister duo called "Hyun-i and Deok-i" back in the mid-70s.

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Their father was a cellist, their mother a painter, and art ran in their blood. But It so came that the siblings had to witness their parents pretty ugly divorce when they were nothing but elementary schoolers. After they stayed with their father, who is said to have "fallen into his own philosophies" in the mountains - it's said he went out somewhere every morning with a cello and returned late at night.

Therefore, Jang Deok had many days when she had to stay alone in an empty house and deal with her loneliness, an emotion that would reflect in her songs her career. When her father got a stepmother and brought her home, it's been said that at the age of nine, she tried to take her life by poison, not wanting to live anymore. Hearing of this shocking situation, their mother gained custody of the siblings and took them in.

The older Hyun had taught Deok how to play the guitar to cope with the absence of their father, who had given them the inspiration for music, and it quickly became obvious both of them had bigger talents and thus, a bigger destiny than normal.

So It came that they had stood on the stage of parties of American Military Clubs as literal teenagers - Deok being 13, taking the name of "Dragon Rats" and covering American folk and rock hits such as "To Be A Child Again". The singing skills of elder brother Jang Hyun had impressed the club owners so much both were asked to be a regular, and they even signed a contract. One month later though, TBC, the biggest korean broadcast station before the dictatorship, picked them up and casted to their roster of singers, debuting them on a program called "오라 오라" ("Come come"), where they performed Deok's compositions "Little doll" and "Diary".

Needless to say, such a young duo of talented children made the rounds and the way to fame in almost no time.

From then, the brother Hyun and sister Deok were busy people. Almost giving up on school, Deok ran to the broadcast station in tow with her brother after school more often than her friends ran to the ice cream shop or the tteokbokki aunty.

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They changed their name from "Dragon Rats" to "Hyuni and Deoki" and released a compilation album, with the songs "My Friend" and "Tell Me You Love Me", as well as other songs they performed on TV.

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As they got busier, the question of schooling naturally arose. With Hyun being older than Deok by 7 years, it wasn't a problem for him. She would fight with her mother to attend Anyang Arts High School, opposing her mother who had wanted her to go to middle school for one more year. Fortunately, Anyang accepted her on basis of her compositions, and she got in.

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Deok debuted as an actress when she was a freshman in high school, with the movie "I Don't Know My Heart" in 1977. The singer Song Changshik, who was visiting Deok's mother's house's housewarming, heard Hyun sing a song which was later called "A Girl and The Streetlamp", and urged the siblings to either release it alone or give it to another singer. From then on, Deok decided that songwriting was her calling, and focused on improving her knowledge of music through school.

As Hyuni and Deoki's popularity rose, they participated in various broadcasts, competitions and music festivals.

In a way, they were the AKMU of the 70s and 80s, with the only difference being that the sister composed the songs and the brother sang with the sister.

Not that Deok wasn't good at singing - she sang beautifully too - it was just that she was a genius at composing. And that name, "genius songwriter" or "천재작곡가", would quickly be bestowed upon her after she debuted the aforementioned "A Girl and A Streetlamp" at the 1977 ABU Song Festival, having rookie singer Jin Mi-ryung sing the song - and take home the Daesang trophy. A win for a song meant a win for the singer, composer and lyricist at the same time, so with Jin Miryung, Deok won too.

Deok was just in her high school freshman year. Just think about it. A literal 16 year old was being called " genius songwriter".

It foresees a bright future for a bright kid, for sure. But it's also an extreme amount of pressure bad expectations that is landing on Deok's shoulders. It was a generation that just did not know a female composer or songwriter. There just had been none before. Deok was indeed, if not the first, one of the first female songwriters in Korea. Every song she wrote would extend to all women active in the industry.

Added to that, due to her appearance, she was casted in a lot of teen movies as supporting actor, such as "Teacher", "Our High School Era", and "I Don't Know My Heart". In that way, she was also one of the first few singers acting, but it took a big physical toll on her.

From then on, life gave her higher heights : Every song she sung or wrote became succesful on various festivals, and Deok became the only artist to win the MBC International Music Festival 3 times in a row (1977 - 1979). In 1978, it was with "Bigger Love", performed by Jang Hyun, solo. After his win, Hyuni and Deok's first regular album was released, with all of their performed songs recorded on it, as well as new songs.

In 1979, Park Kyung-hee's "Was It Love" win the gold prize, which sealed the deal for Deok as a respected composer.These words make it seem like she was in her 50s or 60s - she was 19. Jigu Records, an established recording company, would take her under their sing and offer her a solo recording contract, and she released her first album "First Love" with commercial success in the same year - 1979.

She kept on working on T.V. but with limited promotions due to school, while her elder brother Hyun started a separate band called Hyun and The Holy Castle in Ulsan, breaking apart from Hyuni and Deoki, thus disbanding the duo.

It also so happened at that time that their mother left Deok in the care of her brother in Seoul while she moved abroad - Nashville, Tennessee, USA. With their father basically absent and their mother gone, especially Deok suffered from having to stand all alone on her feet, at the age of just 17... She then moved to Tennessee with her mother where she attended the Belmont Music College to study music. In 1981, Jang Deok moved to the Department of Practical Music at Tennessee State University after a semester at Belmont College of Music due to high tuition fees, where she dedicated herself to studying music theoretically, .In addition, she joined the Nashville Composers Association as a member, worked as an MC at the Korean Spring, a Korean Christian broadcasting program, and became a member of the Nashville Korean Association's band Lee Family, to write songs for them, and its said she even gave songs to American rookie singers that attended college with her.

While promoting in Lee Family, she fell in love with a member, and even married him, but divorced right after not even two years, in 1983. She dropped out of Tennesee College, as she missed her home country, her singing career, her life, thus making her more miserable. Without telling her mother, she returned to Korea and lived alone in Hannam-dong, and started her entertainment activities alone.

She signed a separate record deal with Seorabul Records, and worked n and released her second album "Don't Find Me" in early 1984, and despite her not appearing on many broadcast shows due to her having to re-organise her entire life, the song ranked high on various broadcasts. Her albums from then on were more emotional and deeper, a reflection of her fears and emotions since childhood : the hunger for love, the emotion of darkness, and the fear of new love and parting. While in her teenage years, she had written hopeful and "innocent" love and simple breakup songs, her songs had a more emotional depth to it - a sound that even the public had to get used to.

She also worked as a producer for a brother and sister duo in 1984, and directed the music for the film "Daughter Of a Worm" - jobs that she struggled to get. The industry was different than what she knew, and since she was never in charge of her own promoting activities as a child, she had a lot of difficulties to adjust.

While there was already a mental toll on her due to her being all alone now (Hyun was promoting with his band in Ulsan), her third solo album she worked on, "Won't You Love" didn't do well - In fact, it flew under literally everyone's radar. Along with her lacking promotions, she lost contact to her old friends and acquaintances and it so came to be that Deok's mental health detoriated, and its said she fell into a deep depression. Not wanting to go out of her little apartment, crying for hours together, losing her passion for music, not wanting to promote. And even if the broadcast stations called her to come on shows, she used to hang up on them with the words "장덕은 없다". "Jang Deok isn't here".

Seeing the state of his sister, Hyun suspended his band career for a while, came back to Seoul, and took care of her, while announcing that the previously "disbanded" Hyuni and Deoki would be making a comeback. They indeed did, with "I Like You, You like me" in 1985. It was a commercial success, ranking in the Top 10 on the radio charts.

With renewed interest and passion, Deok went back to doing what she did best - composing. Just a year later, she would be introduced to her fellow singer Lee Eunha. Hearing her mature and raspy voice and sensing an opportunity, Deok decided to step out of the box and bring her American music influences she got while in Tennessee, to the Korean pop scene. And bring it to the table she did - "Like Your Smile Saying Goodbye To Me" or "미소를 뜨우며 나를 보낸 그 모습처럼" is a mid-upper-tempo RnB ballad with a strong synth melody backing it. It boasts of a really tight production, a slap bass and an iconic opening melody, and of course Lee Eun-ha's powerful, raspy vocals. With lyrics penned by Eunha, this song is considered one of the few masterpieces in the Korean pop scene that was made entirely by women. For that time, when a woman wearing pants was a great thing, this was even greater.

After the song becomes a hit and Jang Deok reclaims her "genius composer" title and her passion for making music, she starts working on her solo albums with renewed vigour, and she would get her biggest solo hit with "After You Left Me" in the same year, at the age of 23. It took her 10 whole years. She was of course given respect, reputation and a name way before that, but it wasn't until this song that she finally landed a bullseye for herself as a solo singer.

"After You Left Me" is a upbeat folk/disco track with a catchy chorus that, several vocal harmonies and pretty interesting layers. It won 5 times a row on KBS's Gayo Top Ten, thus giving her a golden cup, and topped Radio rotation lists And album sales charts quickly. And although its a disco track, the lyrics are about a breakup. On the same album, she includes her previous hits she produced for either other singers or Hyuni and Deoki, such as "Girl And The Stretlamp" or "Pure Love", as well as songs such "Becoming An Adult" and "Love me". She is officially back on track, and is in her second heyday - this time as a singer.

In 1987, she released a ballad-focussed album "It Wasn't Supposed to be like this", which ranked in the top 10 in music show, and included all of her hits she ever wrote or sung, as well as new songs such as "Parrot" and "I thought we're breaking up". It was supposed to be her "golden hits" album, and it indeed was. She even participated in the ABU (Asian Pacific Broadcasting Union) Song Festival s Korea's representative and gained considerable success, while Jang Hyun released his first solo album "The Last Truth", to much less fanfare than his sister's endeavours.

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The Year hereafter,she went on to work with several big names in the industry to release her 5th album, "Boy". The title track "Baby Baby" gained success and especially was popular for Jang Deok's cute choreography to it. Seeing Deok's potential to be the top in the artist, Jang Hyun even gave up his carer and started a management company called "Koah Enterprises" to manage Deok's activities. He even recruited new singers : Park Hyesung, a band called Hooni and the Superstars.

But alas, here too their happiness doesn't last long. Jang Hyun contracted tuberculosis, just before Jang Deok released her 6th album "For Foreseeable Times" and in addition he was diagnosed with terminal tongue cancer, which would leave him unable to speak and sing, and would spread as a tumour. There was a choice for him to cut his tongue off and allowing him to love for 5 more years, but Hyun wanted to keep singing as long as he could, and refused.

Deok was of course shaken by this news, and took care of her brother to the best of her abilities, paying his medical bills and moving him in with her. Meanwhile, she keeps on writing songs and working harder and harder despite her insomnia and stress. She releases her 6th album "For Foreseeable Times" in late 1989, and promoted the lead single for the next few months, with positive feedback

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And that takes us to today, the 20th of January 1990. Jang Deok finishes, leaves the stage. Life goes on.

No one would have guessed, that just two weeks later, following headline would be on the top of the papers:

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"장덕은 없다".

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Jang Deok isn't here.

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With us anymore.

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On the morning of the 4th of February, Deok's stylist Moon In-ok who had stayed the night with her, finds her in her room, groaning of pain, delirious, unable to speak. Next to her are multiple medicines - sleeping pills, cough syrup, and a bronchial dilator (the "spray" med used for asthma). She already suffered from severe insomnia and was physically unhealthy, and suffered from a cold at that time. This with the unfortunate combination and overdose of medicine weakened her system to a dangerous point. Seeing her in his state, she is brought to Seodaemun Hospital, where she took her last breath a few hours later after being in pain since at least midnight that day.

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The Time has come. My love, goodbye.

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Jang Deok (*21.4.1961 - 4.2.1990).

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A name that not many will recognise, if at all - but once a weathered Kpop fan hears the songs she's written, produced and released, they will recognise at least one of them from somewhere.

As I had put a play on in the title - be it Lee Eun-ha's RnB mid-tempo song "Like The Smile Saying Goodbye To Me", her breakout hit "After You Left", and her solo debut song "A Girl And The Streetlamp", Jang Deok knew hew to play the heartstrings of her generation well. In an era, where the amount of female songwriters could be counted on the fingers, and the amount of female singer-songwriters could be counted on one hand, she shone on stage, through her music and compositions. She shone with her fashion statement looks - short hair, denim jeans, chubby cheeks. The "trinity" of her, Lee Sunhee and Jung Soora were called "The three denim musketeers of female singers". Those were the times - where a woman wearing jeans on TV was something "new" and "controversial".

She starred with music to cope with the absence of her father, and worked tirelessly since the age of 13, missing out on school, social life, puberty. She has had mental ups and downs in that short life of hers, due to her circumstances she had no control in. And 28 is not an age to leave this world.

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Despite this, Jang Deok had worked hard. She has 137 credits with the KOMCA (number, if you wanna search her up : W0138300) to her name as of 2023 (of course, this includes various remakes and covers of her songs, compositions, and Hyuni and Deoki songs). She recorded 4 albums with her brother, 5 as solo, participated in about 33 albums (as either features, composer, lyricist, producer) and starred in 10 movies as either lead or supporting role.

All in a short span of 28 years of life. If it weren't for the problems she faced (that could have been easily avoidable with proper support), she could have done so much more. Lived a fulfilled life. Composed so many more songs, guide many more junior artists and especially female juniors... we shouldn't forget she was a pioneer for women in the industry.

The nation was indeed in shock then. Hadn't they just seen her on broadcast a few weeks ago? Small and big newspapers paid an obituary to her, as I am doing today. Radio stations were flooded with requests for "For Foreseeable Times", some citing that the last lyric in the song might as well her predicting her passing. People just didn't to believe she was gone from one day to another.

On her funeral day, there were almost no biggie/senior singers to perform on broadcast - they were all in the funeral hall, attending it, giving obituaries and comforting her brother, who was himself just hanging by a hread health-wise, unable to speak and even stand.

Many of her senior contemporaries, such as Jeon Young-rok, Lee Sun-hee and Kim Beom-ryong, her friends in the industry like Yang Ha-young and Jin Mi-ryung, as well as some of her proteges and juniors like Seoul Family's Wi Il-chung, Choi Sung-soo and Lim Jong-hwan came together and re-recorded Deok's most popular song in the form of a tribute album, "To A Friend Who Left Us On A White Day...". Apart from recording her hits, they included an unreleased song of hers, titled "Stand Up" (of which they were given the sheet music that she already had written) and even Jang Deok herself - with her final recording, For Foreseeable Times. It's a highly emotional album, a show of support, and longing.

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This was just one if the many ways the industry coped with the loss of Deok. Broadcast stations played obituaries for her in form of video montages, and the singers association at that time even agreed to pay Jang Hyun's medical bills, as their mother wasn't in a position to do so. Deok was indeed the breadwinner of the family up until her passing.

For the longest time, it had been ruled as su1cide, due to the involvement of medications and her known mental health issues, and the 90s didn't know better than just labelling it as that. It was just in 2022, a few months back, that a journalist "cleared" her name and it changed to "drug overdose", by proving that the medications that were found in her system are not a deadly combination in itself but the amount she administered (in her stress) made it such, and was not enough for a quick passing, as she suffered for various hours after she was brought to the hospital.

Just a few months later, Jang Hyun himself passed away as a result of his illnesses. He had not been able to gather as much success in his solo career as Deok did and rather stood behind her during her peak era, and his tongue cancer and tuberculosis hindered him from having some thing of a career. He passed away 6 months later, on the 16. August in the same year.

The copyrights for Hyuni and Deoki, as well as Hyun and Deok's solo albums and/or credits are currently in the hands of their father and maternal aunt, who have been generous when it comes to remakes or covers. There have been many homage and tribute albums for Hyun and Deok , the most recent one in 2020, and many more individual covers of their songs, thus ensuring the siblings' legacy lives on. Deok's legacy indeed is living on and thriving : Many more female songwriters came onto the scene - be it composers such as Kenzie or singer/idol-songwriters like BoA, Younha, Miryo, IU, Exy, Moonbyul and Jeon Soyeon and many more.

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I could go on writing more and more - in fact, I don't know if I wrote too much here. I discovered a few months ago (in fact, when I read the article about her passing and was extremely intrigued), and I have only been able to enjoy her songs. Yes, it sounds 100% 80s, but that's what I love. Her voice has a distinct flair of her generation, but be it ballad or dance song, she knew how to write an instrumentation and a melody in a way I would not expect from a girl literally my age. I cannot fathom the shock the country must have experinced, seeing a singer who was enjoying her peak popularity being gone from one day to another.

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It's been 33 years now that she left us, on this very day, 4th of February 1990. She would have been 60 years old today, living in an apartment somewhere in Seoul, maybe married, maybe with a grown-up child. Meeting up with her old friends from those days, performing her biggest hits on Gayo Stage or 7080s Concert, going on fun variety shows. Maybe she would have composed even more music, started her own company, scout and debut singers, giving them her compositions.

Whatever she would have been able to do - I hope she is doing so in heavens. She shone so brightly, so beautifully, smiled and made people smile. In my imagination, she is standing under the streetlights, a young woman with short hair, denim jeans, leather jacket, a ribbon in her hair, humming a melody to herself.

Jang Deok.