Think of Korean music and one of the first things that come to mind is probably K-pop. It is a 5 billion dollar industry after all. Now, the indie music scene in South Korea has taken on more mellow acoustic sounds in contrast to their provenance. And within the last couple of years, younger indie groups and musicians have also started incorporating English lyrics into their music as well. Probably one of the more known names on the list, Hyukoh gained its mainstream popularity after participating in the Korean variety program Infinite Challenge and performing with IU.
Oh Hyuk, the leader, singer, and guitarist, grew up across northern China for the first twenty years of his life and he moved to South Korea on his own after finishing high school to pursue music. If you can find translations, or turn on the Closed Caption on Youtube, I recommend it. His lyrics are amazing.
Tablo hid from the public eye for years, but Epik High is now back and stronger than ever. They just finished a world tour and Tablo is now president of an independent branch of YG called High Ground. Must listen: Epik High Born Hater. I might not know what PRIMARY looks like he often wears a box over his head to perform or in photoshoots , but the former hip hop producer broke out from the sound room and now has some of the catchiest songs on the Korean sound waves. It may seem like no one really buys full albums anymore, but this one is worthwhile.
Must listen: Primary Tonight. His fun, pop-y beats are plain easy to listen to. Indie-folk is my jam for reference, my favorite singer is Bon Iver.
This is my go-to singer-songwriter duo to put on my headphones and drown out the rest of the world when I need to meet a deadline. But sometimes you need a good sad song. Part electronic, part rock, The Solutions reunited recently after serving their mandatory military service. Busan surf rockers Say Sue Me and the mysterious lo-fi shoegazer Parannoul are sonically far removed from their glossier domestic contemporaries but both are more well-known and admired abroad. These bands point the way towards another layer of the indie scene with a more organic mentality: the underground bands of South Korea.
A deeper dig will inevitably lead us to one place—in the world of Korean counterculture, all roads lead to the Hongdae district of Seoul, the mecca of all types of creatives.
By all accounts, this was the golden age for Hongdae and Korean bands who were uncompromising, creative, and fully independent. Since then, successive generations of indie scenes have brought their own spin on and reactions to a rapidly evolving South Korean society, through a fierce drive to express their own unique take on the world around them. The new cohort of bands very much continues to embody this mindset—from the grungy scuzz of Riot grrrl-esque Beacon, to the poundingly danceable Youthlim and the wall of searing post-rock that is Desert Flower.
These bands take their art into their own hands, and as such, they are united as a scene, not by genre but by outlook and attitude: indie by philosophy over aesthetic. In one of the most homogeneous societies in the world, going against the grain is a particularly challenging thing to do. Yet a select few do just, making way for a particularly dynamic and varied music scene. Introducing the bands that stand at the forefront of the future of Korean music.
When K-pop wears you down, these guys have you covered. The South Korean underground is populated by bands who live only for today, banking everything on just one more night of burning it at both ends for the hell of it. At the other end of the spectrum, nestled deep in the darker alleyways of Old Seoul, a very different style of musician lurks.
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