SBS’s 10-episode music documentary series “The Stage of Legends – Archive K” which began on Jan. 3, provided a comprehensive look into the history of Korean pop music, genre by genre, from its beginning decades ago.

It took two years of research, 207 interviewees and 15,012 minutes of footage, much more than Choi Jung-yun, former music director at SBS, had anticipated. Choi quit her job to establish 11018, a company solely dedicated to archiving related data.

What moved her to begin the project was a conversation she had a few years back with Choi Young-in, the head of the entertainment department at SBS, and composer Yoon Il-sang. The three heard that Shin Joong-hyun, one of the oldest and most respected rock musicians in Korea who was born in 1938, was not well. Having witnessed all the dynamic shifts in the music scene over the years, they wondered who would be able to give a first-hand account of the history of Korean music if Shin passed away?