2024-04-18 11:23:13
Culture Funtwo
The world’s first YouTube star – and what became of him
Status: 18.04.2024 | Reading time: 3 minutes
Before, afterwards? Funtwo 2005, Funtwo 2024
Source: www.youtube.com/Jamie, REUTERS /Lee Jae Won; Montage: Infographic WORLD
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19 years ago, Korean musician Funtwo became one of the world’s first YouTube stars with a guitar version of the Pachelbel canon. During a meeting in Seoul, he tells us how that changed his life and how he almost slipped into burnout.
Lim Jeong-hyun never found out who he owes his fame to. The video that made the Korean guitarist probably the first YouTube star in 2005 was uploaded to the platform, which had just launched at the time, by an anonymous user. By Clip Lim alias “Funtwo” plays a hard rock interpretation of the Pachelbel piece “Kanon und Gigue in D major” on the electric guitar. Virtuously, quickly and using complex playing techniques, the then 21-year-old computer science student rocked for five and a half minutes to the centuries-old arrangement that is actually known from weddings. He uploaded a five and a half minute long video to a Korean online forum for musicians – without realizing that he would end up on YouTube and become one of the network’s first stars.
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Lim Jeong-hyun is a humble man. The guitar influencer, sitting in a denim shirt in a studio in western Seoul, describes himself as an “accidental pioneer.” When he learned from a friend that his video had already had a million views just one month after it was uploaded, he remained calm. “Back then, new websites were constantly popping up, YouTube was just one of many.” He initially had no idea that the platform and his video would one day be known worldwide. But according to Lim, various uploads of the video have now received more than 100 million views. How has success affected his life? After the New York Times reported on him, invitations to public appearances followed – he recorded the soundtrack for a television advertisement. He gave up his studies in favor of his music. He traveled around the world on a scholarship, playing in Kenya and Germany, among other places.
Funtwo today in a studio in Seoul
Source: Jörg Wimalasena
Lim’s video embodied the new digital culture in rock music. Until the 90s, the route continued through garage bands, record stores and local music scenes. But with the new millennium, young musicians were able to design background tracks on their own PC and view notations on the screen. Nowadays, even shy musicians – like Lim himself – can record pieces without a band and communicate with like-minded people in online communities. At the same time, Funtwo also sees potential problems in this. “Musicians are under enormous competitive pressure,” he says. “Sometimes I see seven-year-old boys who play better than me.” Social media always reflected your own shortcomings. But this pressure can also be positive, says Lim. “It makes you more original. And originality is key.”
But online success is often not long-lasting. An experience that Lim himself had. About two years after Canon Rock, the attention slowly faded, he recalls. There was also self-doubt. “Am I good enough, am I an impostor?” And at some point Lim could hardly hear the song that made him famous. “I’ve played the piece a thousand times, and three years ago I had a real Canon Rock burnout. But now I’ve come to terms with it. Performing canon rock is now a part of me.” And his career has also leveled off. Lim teaches online guitar lessons, plays in a band and still produces music.
Does he occasionally get recognized on the street? “About once a year,” Lim says with a smile.
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