The term high tech refers to technology that is at the cutting edge: the most advanced technology currently available. It is often used in reference to micro-electronics, rather than other technologies. The adjective form is hyphenated: high-tech or high-technology. (There is also an architectural style known as high tech.)

There is no specific class of technology that is high tech — the definition shifts over time — so products hyped as high tech in the past may now be considered low tech or obsolete. This vague definition has led to marketing departments describing nearly all new products as high tech. Today, appliances and devices that incorporate advanced computer electronics are often considered "high tech".

Origin of the term[link]

In a search of the best New York Times articles, the first occurrence of the phrase "high tech" occurs in a 1950s story advocating "atomic energy" for Europe:^[1] "...Western Europe, with its dense population and its high technology..." The twelfth occurrence, in 1968, is, significantly, in a story about Route 128, described as Boston's "Golden Semicircle":

It is not clear whether the term comes from the high technologies flourishing in the glass rectangles along the route or from the Midas touch their entrepreneurs have shown in starting new companies.^[2]

By April 1969, Robert Metz was using it in a financial column—Arthur H. Collins of Collins Radio "controls a score of high technology patents in variety of fields."^[3] Metz used the term frequently thereafter; a few months later he was using it with a hyphen, saying that a fund "holds computer peripheral... business equipment, and high-technology stocks."^[4] Its first occurrence in the abbreviated form "high tech" occurred in a Metz article in 1971.^[5]

Economy[link]

Because the high-tech sector of the economy develops or uses the most advanced technology known, it is often seen as having the most potential for future growth. This perception has led to high investment in high-tech sectors of the economy. High-tech startup enterprises receive a large portion of venture capital; However, if investment exceeds actual potential, as has happened in the past, then investors can lose all or most of their investment. High tech is often viewed as high risk, but offering the opportunity for high profits.

Like Big Science, high technology is an international phenomenon, spanning continents, epitomized by the worldwide communication of the Internet. Thus a multinational corporation might work on a project 24 hours a day, with teams waking and working with the advance of the sun across the globe; such projects might be in software development or in the development of an integrated circuit. The help desks of a multinational corporation might thus employ, successively, teams in Kenya, Brazil, the Philippines, or India, with the only requirement fluency in the mother tongue, be it Spanish, Portuguese or English.

OECD has two different approaches: sector and product (industry) approaches.

High-tech sectors[link]

The sector approach classifies industries according their technology intensity, product approach according to finished products.

• Aerospace
• Artificial Intelligence
• Biotechnology
• Software
• Electrical Engineering
• Photonics
• Nanotechnology
• Nuclear Physics
• Robotics
• Telecommunications

High-tech industries[link]

Further analysis from OECD has indicated that using research intensity as an industry classification indicator is also possible. The OECD does not only take the manufacturing but also the usage rate of technology into account. The OECD's classification is following (stable since 1973):

Furthermore, OECD’s product-based classification supports the technology intensity approach. It can be concluded, that companies in a high-technology industry do not necessary produce high-technology products and vice versa. This creates a problem of aggregation.

High-tech society[link]

An overall society based in high-tech is something generally unattainable by the definition comprising its scarcity among every technology available. Many countries and regions like United States, Singapore, Canada, Greece, Italy, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Ireland, Iceland, Israel, Japan, the United Kingdom, Estonia, Australia, Germany, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Brazil and France can be in general considered high-tech societies in relation to other countries, since it is common for its citizens having access to technology that is presently at the cutting edge, in consumer's terms, as can parts of India (Bangalore, Mumbai) and China (Shanghai, Beijing). Research oriented institutions such as ESA, MITRE, NASA, CERN, and universities with high research activity such as MIT and Stanford might be considered high-tech microsocieties in relation to the general surrounding socio-economic region or overall activity sector.

Some geographical areas can be consider as a high-tech startups society like for instance the Silicon Valley:

The spark that set off the explosive boom of “Silicon startups” in Stanford Industrial Park was a personal dispute in 1957 between employees of Shockley Semiconductor and the company’s namesake and founder, Nobel laureate and co-inventor of the transistor William Shockley... (His employees) formed Fairchild Semiconductor immediately following their departure... After several years, Fairchild gained its footing, becoming a formidable presence in this sector. Its founders began to leave to start companies based on their own, latest ideas and were followed on this path by their own former leading employees... The process gained momentum and what had once began in a Stanford’s research park became a veritable startup avalanche... Thus, over the course of just 20 years, a mere eight of Shockley’s former employees gave forth 65 new enterprises, which then went on to do the same...^[6]

An organization's department dealing with the latest technology in their projects, may also be considered a high-tech microsociety within the organization's and partners' scope. Students and faculty related with ENAEE or ABET accredited programs might be considered high-tech society members, regarding other traditional degrees. In industry, companies working in the leading edge may be considered high-tech societies along with its main competitors, regarding the rest of the sectorial competition.

See also[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Wiktionary entry for high tech

Epik High
Epic High on September 19, 2009
Background information
Origin	Seoul, South Korea
Genres	Alternative hip hop, hip hop, pop rap
Years active	2003–present
Labels	Woollim Entertainment 2003-2008, 2010-Present Map the Soul, Inc. 2009-Present
Website	www.mapthesoul.com
Members
Tablo Mithra Jin DJ Tukutz

Epik High (Hangul: 에픽하이) is a South Korean indie hip hop group from Seoul, South Korea. The group is composed of Tablo, Mithra Jin and DJ Tukutz. Their music has been considered by many as a "lyrical piece of literature" and "urban poetry", lyric orientated, soulful and often witty while addressing serious social issues such as identity, discrimination, community, unity and change as a whole through the use of sometimes controversial subject matter. The group has been on hiatus since 2009 whilst members served individual mandatory military service.

History[link]

2003-2005: Earlier Days[link]

Epik High was relatively unknown early in their career due to hip-hop's lack of popularity in Korea. Their success began with the release of their second album, titled "High Society". Upon the success of their third album, Swan Songs, released in late 2005, Epik High has become one of the most popular hip-hop groups in Korea. "Fly", the title song, and "Paris" (feat. Jisun from Loveholic) from their third album became hits in Korea, reaching number one on many Korean music channels as well as on online music charts.^[1] "Fly" was also chosen for the video games FIFA 07 and Pump it up, this song has now become a popular track for dancers/freestylers. Epik High's fourth album, "Remapping the Human Soul", released on January 23, 2007 has shown a very different music style from their previous albums. "Fan", the fourth album's title song, and "Love Love Love" have been big hits in 2007.

2006: Swan Songs[link]

Epik High's 3rd album, Swan Songs, became a mainstream hit in the Korean music scene. Notable hit singles included Fly and Paris. The album was later repackaged as "Black Swan Songs", which included remixes of various hit songs.

2007: Remapping the Human Soul[link]

Their fourth album, Remapping the Human Soul, was released on January 23, 2007. The album was supposed to come out in October 2006, but the date was postponed.^[2] The album sold almost 90,000 copies in its first month and pushed Epik High to the number one spot for best upcoming artist. It went on to sell a total of 130,000 copies. The group was chosen as the best artist of the month.^{[citation needed]} The group decided to head towards a 'no genre, just music' style for their fourth album. Some songs in the fourth album have been banned from several channels due to issues dealing with sexual crimes, war, education and religion; the Ministry of Culture and Tourism is trying to stop air play as stated by Tablo in an interview with The Korea Times.^[3] With the title song "Fan", the album became their number one selling music album. In addition, Epik High's fame has risen in Japan with the song "Flow", which features Emi Hinouchi. They will release a CD sample in Japan. There have been offers to remake "Fly" as well as "Paris".^[4] The album sold 120,301 copies during the year, making it the third best-selling album of 2007 in South Korea.^[5]

2008: Early Success of Fifth Album and The First Mini-Album[link]

Over 50,000 copies of the fifth studio album entitled "Pieces, Part One" were pre-ordered. The first single off the new album and released music video is "One," which features Jisun from Loveholic and Korean actress Jung Ryu-won. Shortly after "One", music videos for "Breakdown" and "Umbrella" were created. After the success of "Pieces, Part One," Epik High released a mini-album, titled Lovescream. This is their first mini-album since their debut in 2003. It came out September 30, 2008. Teasers were put up on the Epik High website, which gained attention because it was made of abstract, animated graphics instead of actual actors.^[6] The mini-album gained huge success and the title track "1 Minute 1 Second" topped online music charts.

2009: Map the Soul[link]

Early 2009, Epik High parted ways with their old label Woollim Entertainment, and founded Map The Soul, an independent record label that currently consists of Epik High, MYK, Planet Shiver and Dok2.

Epik High's seventh work, a book-album entitled "魂: Map the Soul," was released on March 27, 2009. Completely independent from any major label, the book-album was distributed exclusively on Epik High's website. They recorded the album with the help of other artists such as MYK, Kero One and Beatbox DG. Tablo has specifically stated that 魂: Map the Soul is not Epik High's official 6th album but instead a special project. On May 19, 2009, Epik High released both worldwide and Korean versions of the music video for "Map the Soul". To commemorate their first release under their independent label and to interact with fans, Epik High toured various cities in the US (New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle) along with Kero One, MYK and Far East Movement in May 2009.

On July 22, 2009, Epik High and the electronic group they scouted, Planet Shiver, joined forces and released an album with re-recorded, remixed and remastered versions of Epik High’s past hit songs titled Remixing The Human Soul.

On August 14, 2009, Epik High member Tablo revealed on his blog that they are working on a new album called "[e]". Then on September 16, 2009, Epik High's 6th album, "(e)", was released. This album contains 30 tracks in 2CDs and a 74 page mini-book, which has interviews of each member as well as pictures. The Korean tour began on September 19, right after the album release. The first single for (e) was "따라해(Wannabe)" which features Mellow, and is an electronic-pop song that criticizes the current trends of K-pop. A joint music video was released for the next upcoming singles ("Trot" and "High Technology") shortly afterward. On December 6, 2009, a music video featuring scenes from the movie "No Mercy" was released with the track "Slow Motion".

[edit] 2010-present: Epilogue and military service

On October 15, 2009, DJ Tukutz enlisted for mandatory military service for two years, and was discharged on August 7, 2011.

On March 9, 2010, the album "Epilogue" was released.^[7] Epik High had created their new album with their new song "Run," representing their new artistic direction. This new album contains fewer songs than the previous, but is dedicated to all their fans and they thank everyone for all their support, as they wait for DJ Tukutz to finish his military service.

On August 3, 2010, Mithra Jin also enlisted for mandatory military service, he entered the 102 reserve in Chuncheon, then served as an infantry rifle soldier, a member of the military band and a GOP soldier, and finally at the Defense Media Agency (DEMA). He was discharged by the Ministry of Defense in Yongsan-gu, Seoul on May 14, 2012.^[8]

Announced on September 27, Tablo made his comeback on November 1 with his debut solo album. Although Tablo signed an exclusive 4-year contract with YG Entertainment, he indicated that it does not mean that Epik High has disbanded nor are they necessarily signed (or will sign) to YG as a group.^[9]

Members[link]

• Tablo AKA Supreme T, AKA Daniel Armand Lee: rapping, vocals, songwriting, composing, programming
• Mithra Jin AKA Sleeping M: rapping, vocals, songwriting, composing
• DJ Tukutz AKA Street T: turntables, programming, samples, songwriting, vocals, composing, engineering

The Movement[link]

Epik High is part of The Movement, a Korean hip-hop crew, which includes several other well-known hip-hop artists:

• Drunken Tiger
• Dynamic Duo/CB Mass
• Yoon Mi Rae/T/Tasha
• Sean2Slow
• Buga Kingz
• Leessang
• YDG
• G-Won (Eun Ji Won)
• Double K
• Top Bop
• Yankie
• Insane Deegie
• Ex-plicit Linez
• Dok2
• Roscoe Umali
• Mickey Eyez
• Bizzy
• MNOVA

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• 2003: Map of the Human Soul
• 2004: High Society
• 2005: Swan Songs
• 2007: Remapping the Human Soul
• 2008: Pieces, Part One
• 2009: (e)
• 2010: Epilogue

EPs[link]

• 2008: Lovescream

Projects[link]

• 2006: Black Swan Songs (Repackaged)
• 2009: Map the Soul
• 2009: Remixing The Human Soul

Awards[link]

References[link]

1. ↑ "(Korean) Epik High 1st on online chart". http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=106&oid=111&aid=0000021553. Retrieved 2008-05-04. 
2. ↑ (Korean) Tablo's hip hop magazine interview
3. ↑ Epik High Soars to New Heights
4. ↑ Epik High to expand into Japan with sample CD
5. ↑ "(Korean) January - Total sales level". Archived from the original on 2008-05-08. http://web.archive.org/web/20080508152311/http://www.miak.or.kr/stat/kpop_2007_2.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-04. 
6. ↑ "Epik High Website". http://www.epikhigh.com. Retrieved 1 December 2008. 
7. ↑ http://mapthesoul.com/news/29
8. ↑ Oh, MiJung (14 May 2012). "Epik High’s Mithra Jin Released from Army". Mnet News. http://global.mnet.com/news/newsdetail.m?searchNewsVO.news_id=201205141449_6653. Retrieved 16 May 2012. 
9. ↑ "Epik High's Tablo Joins YG Family". Asia Pacific Arts. 09/28/2011. http://asiapacificarts.usc.edu/article@apa?epik_highs_tablo_joins_yg_family_17430.aspx. 

External links[link]

• (Korean) (English) Map the Soul Epik High's official website
• (Korean) Tablo's Cyworld homepage
• (Korean) DJ Tukutz's Cyworld homepage
• (Korean) Mithra Jin's Cyworld homepage
• (English) Icarus Walks Epik High's fansite & fanforum