The Song Kim Kwang-seok Was Told He Couldn’t Have

Part 7 of 16 in Kim Kwang-seok: The Dead Singer K-pop Can't Let Go

No. 10, “Becoming Dust,” is a song Kim Kwang-seok wanted on his album, and the composers gave it to another singer. Koreans remember it as his song anyway, and his recording only came out on an album after he died.

Kim Kwang-seok – “Becoming Dust” (Madang Cecil Theater, July 30, 1991) — 89,000 views

With about 21.2 million combined views of his version and other singers’ covers, it ranks No. 10. I’ll admit that for years I simply assumed this was Kim Kwang-seok’s song. That’s how completely his voice became one with it.

Two singers wanted the same song

The song is older than Kim’s career. In 1976, at the live music cafe Cherbourg in Seoul’s Myeongdong district, singer Lee Dae-heon wrote the melody and Song Moon-sang, who sang there with him, added the words (Nongmin Shinmun, Apr. 6, 2026). Song said he wrote them missing his mother, who died when he was in elementary school (Kyunghyang Shinmun, Feb. 22, 2021). The first to record it, in 1987, was singer Lee Mi-ki, Song’s wife, and it didn’t get much notice (Hankyoreh, June 7, 2018).

Around 1990, the two singers on the underground folk circuit who sang it most were Lee Yoon-su and Kim Kwang-seok. Both wanted it on their new albums. After some agonizing, the songwriters decided, “Lee Yoon-su is a bit worse off than Kim Kwang-seok, so we’d like Lee Yoon-su to record it.” In 1991 Lee Yoon-su’s “Becoming Dust” hit No. 1 in the folk category of the national music-cafe DJ chart (Nongmin Shinmun, Apr. 6, 2026).

Kim kept singing it on stage. The video above is from his July 1991 show at the Madang Cecil Theater. His studio version finally came out in August 1996, seven months after his death, as the first track of the posthumous album Norae Iyagi (“Song Stories”). The note next to the title reads “from the studio sessions” (Melon).

Also read: A Med Student Wrote It the Night Before an Exam. Kim Kwang-seok Made It Last.

Turning to dust to reach you

먼지가 되어 날아가야지 / 바람에 날려 당신 곁으로

I’ll turn to dust and fly, / carried on the wind to your side.

— Lyrics by Song Moon-sang, music by Lee Dae-heon (1976), excerpt

On days when he hears a Bach melody, forgotten memories bloom, and the song he sent off on the wind comes back as a whistle. Only memories pile up in his small room, and even when he gathers his whole heart into a poem, it can’t hold all of her. So he decides to become the smallest thing there is. He’ll turn to dust, ride the wind, and land beside her.

It’s a song about becoming the smallest, lightest thing in the world just to reach someone you love. Pop critic Park Seong-geon wrote that in an age when Koreans worry about fine dust in the air, a romance like “I’ll turn to dust and fly to your side” is hard to find in today’s K-pop (Nongmin Shinmun, Apr. 6, 2026).

How Lee Yoon-su’s song became Kim Kwang-seok’s

The song had another original singer, so why is it “Kim Kwang-seok’s ‘Becoming Dust'”? Because of the way he sang it. Singer Ali, performing it at his 30th-anniversary concert, said, “You can’t help doing the ‘areungeorine-e-e‘ (it shimmers). It doesn’t work without it” (SBS D-Report, Jan. 7, 2026). Kim’s habit of drawing out and shaking the last note has hardened into the right way to sing the song. In the early 1990s, as rap and dance were taking over Korean pop, he was described as the last point of pride left for people who still listened to folk (Nongmin Shinmun).

From Roy Kim to Kihyun

The song got young again in 2012, when Roy Kim sang it on the audition show Superstar K4 (Hankyoreh, June 7, 2018). Roy Kim later sang it again as a trio with Kim Jong-kook and FT Island’s Lee Hong-ki on SBS’s Fantastic Duo 2.

Kim Jong-kook, Roy Kim and Lee Hong-ki – “Becoming Dust” (Fantastic Duo 2, SBS) — 770,000 views

The 2020 SBS Gayo Daejeon was held in Daegu, the city where Kim was born, and MONSTA X’s Kihyun sang “Becoming Dust” on that stage.

Kihyun (MONSTA X) – “Becoming Dust” (2020 SBS Gayo Daejeon) — 330,000 views

Kim Jae-hwan, formerly of Wanna One, sang it on an MBN stage with just a guitar (130,000 views). The most-watched performances are the band Touched on KBS’s Immortal Songs (1.53 million) and singer Park Chang-geun with his brother (1.24 million).

Kim Jae-hwan – “Becoming Dust” (MBN) — 130,000 views

Kim never got to put this song on an album with his own hands. The song he was told he couldn’t have is now the tenth most-sung of all his songs. Maybe those of us who remember it under his name have finally, belatedly, given him this song as a gift.

Previous: Part 6 — He Lost His Brother to the Army. Then He Sang Korea’s Enlistment Song.

Next, No. 9: “Stand Up,” the brightest song he left behind, with the most painful line hidden inside it.

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Sources: Nongmin Shinmun, “That Song, That Story” (Apr. 6, 2026); Kyunghyang Shinmun (Feb. 22, 2021); Hankyoreh (June 7, 2018); Melon (Norae Iyagi, Aug. 13, 1996); SBS D-Report (Jan. 7, 2026). View counts as shown on YouTube, Oct. 25, 2026.