Korean Indie Rock in a K-Pop World
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Volume 13 | Issue 48 | Number 1 | Article ID 4401 | Nov 30, 2015 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Us and Them: Korean Indie Rock in a K-Pop World Stephen Epstein Précis: This article, intended as a companion engagement with the world at large.1 New to the recent documentaryUs and Them: opportunities and challenges now regularly Korean Indie Rock in a K-Pop World co- present themselves. DFSB Kollective, for produced by Stephen Epstein and Timothy example, is an export-focused music marketing Tangherlini, situates Korean indie and punk and distribution agency run by Bernie Cho, a rock within a broader context in order to Korean-American based in Seoul. In 2015, for demonstrate how what may seem a byway the fifth consecutive year, Cho and his staff within Korean culture serves as a useful index brought several indie groups to Austin’s of important recent societal transformations. As renowned South by Southwest (SXSW) music the nature of not only global media flows and festival to perform on a branded stage, titled musical circulation but Korean national identity SeoulSonic. Since 2014, they have also helped and economic structures all undergo significant organize the “K-Pop Night Out,” which unites change, how should observers understand mainstream and independent artists. The event, “Korean” “indie” music and its meanings as of one of the best attended international 2015? How have the local punk and indie showcases at SXSW, is funded by KOCCA, the scenes developed in concert with, and in Korea Creative Content Agency, a government contrast to, K-pop? organization located under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Key words: South Korea, popular music, indie music, punk, K-pop. Conversely, in Mullae, a neighborhood with some of the lowest rents in Seoul, a new In recent years, South Korean popular music’s incarnation of the iconic punk venue Skunk quest for a share of the global market has Hell reopened in 2015 after a several year proceeded with striking speed and success: idol hiatus, fleeing its previous homes in Hongdae, bands from mainstream K-Pop have now carved the district that has long served as the center out a fan base around the world, and PSY’s of the indie scene. Not only have leases in “Gangnam Style” has become, for better or Hongdae become quite pricey, the district has worse, the most striking viral videoalso become too commercial and corporate for phenomenon that humankind has yetthe liking of Won Jong Hee (Wŏn Chŏng-hŭi), witnessed. As a result, K-Pop has attracted the club proprietor (Twitch 2015). As the leader international attention, with frequent coverage of RUX, Korea’s top street punk band, Won had in prominent media outlets, and severalonce reworked Cock Sparrer’s Oi! classic scholarly volumes on the topic in English “England Belongs to Me” for a version in which released last year alone (see, e.g., Choi and he sang, with conviction, “Hongdae Belongs to Maliangkay 2014; Lie 2014; Marinescu 2014). Me.” But perhaps Hongdae no longer belongs to RUX in a gentrifying K-Pop world. Amidst Less well-known is that for two decades South growing opportunities, the local punk scene Korea has possessed a vibrant independent also faces displacement and loss of identity. music scene that is likewise reacting to the rise of K-Pop and the nation’s ever increasing 1 13 | 48 | 1 APJ | JF anodyne but often overwrought concoctions and Western soft rock was ubiquitous. In grad Last year Tim Tangherlini and I completed a school I’d been playing bass in bands from the documentary entitled Us and Them: Korean punk spectrum, and I experienced music in Indie Rock in a K-Pop World (trailer here), Korea as a mild form of aural torture. One day I which updates our 2002 co-productionOur heard “Rainy Days and Mondays” by The Nation: A Korean Punk Rock Community. In the Carpenters in three different locations, and I second film we interview bands and individuals began to wish for the power to make speakers active in Korea’s indie scene to illuminate the combust at will. Unfortunately, I never complex and often contradictory developments mastered that skill, but it was a satisfying currently shaping non-mainstream music there. fantasy. In this article, intended as a companion to the documentary, I hope to situate Korean indie Nonetheless, during the 1990s, something I did and punk rock within a broader context and to find remarkable occurred in the landscape of demonstrate how what may seem a byway Korean popular music, as it experienced almost within Korean culture serves as a useful index seismic change (see e.g. Howard 2006). Seo of important recent societal transformations. As Taiji and The Boys, a massively successful and the nature of not only global media flows and critically respected idol group introduced rap musical circulation but Korean national identity (and, with less lasting influence, metal) into the and economic structures all undergo significant biggest pop tracks of the day and set a change, how should observers understand template for the Korean music industry that “Korean” “indie” music and its meanings as of has held sway since. Homegrown artists came 2015? How have the local punk and indie to exert increasing dominance over the local scenes developed in concert with, and in soundscape, but at the same time, more contrast to, K-Pop? Much commentary on K-Pop alternative musical forms from overseas were treats it as an example of the decentering of gaining a foothold in Korea. the world’s popular culture industries away from traditional national powerhouses to alternate sites of production. What can be learned from the similar movement of subcultural, niche genres from a once peripheral country back to the global center, as In 1998 as I headed to Seoul for sabbatical seen in the growing awareness of a variety of research, a fellow Koreanist who knew my Korea-based musical artists in the US, Europe musical tastes urged me to visit an and elsewhere? underground club named Drug in Hongdae, Into a K-Pop World which had been developing a reputation for its artsy, non-mainstream subcultures. From the The origins of this article in fact go back over a moment I walked through the club’s door and quarter of a century to when I spent a year heard the band playing, I knew that I’d found studying at Yonsei University, a generally my spiritual home in Korea, and I became a wonderful experience that ultimately led me to regular during my stay. In addition to enjoying shift my academic focus to Korea. One aspect I the music and the warm sense of camaraderie found less than wonderful, however, was the with band members and fans, I was also music then heard ambiently in Seoul. In the fascinated: what had allowed a punk scene to late 1980s, long before the term K-Pop was develop in Seoul in the 1990s when the coined, Korean popular music was rife with possibility seemed so remote in 1989? 2 13 | 48 | 1 APJ | JF That curiosity led me to produce articles and a musical knowledge easier than ever before. documentary exploring the emergence of punk rock in Korea in detail. As I have discussed While South Korea has long held fine bands, as elsewhere (Epstein 2000), the demise of do neighbors around the region, indie rock military dictatorship in Korea and the ongoing from the country currently treads a different processes of democratization in the 1990s path from counterparts because of its spurred a cultural flowering in various spheres, relationship to a burgeoning national most notably film. Local music also received a mainstream that has stepped into the global major infusion of energy with the opening of limelight. The “Korean Wave”, or Hallyu, first numerous live clubs, long suppressed because driven primarily by the success of Korean film of their potential as sites of subversive activity. and dramas a decade ago in East and Southeast The interests of youth shifted away from Asia, has resurged with the global success of K- political protest, and the rapid growth of Pop. The more recent version has been termed Korea’s economy allowed a substantial increase “Hallyu 2.0” because of both its fresh growth in disposable income. The relaxation ofand the role that Web 2.0 social media stringent passport requirements meant that far platforms have played in spreading Korean more young Koreans traveled overseas, often products internationally (Lee and Nornes bringing back new types of music to share with 2014). Idol K-Pop has occasioned curiosity in friends. Consumer culture took root in a Korean music more generally, and interest concerted way, but creative impulses were also spiked with the 2012 release of “Gangnam channeled into social critique. Style,” whose quirkiness led many around the world to seek out less conventional forms of the In retrospect, it has also become clear that nation’s contemporary music. during the 1990s, punk, hardcore and indie music scenes were developing across Asia. Since the inception of an indie and punk scene While non-mainstream rock subcultures had within South Korea, bands have regularly already arrived in Japan by the 1980s, in the defined themselves in opposition to hegemonic following decade scenes took root in Singapore, culture, and K-Pop presents a ready target. Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and China at Consider, for example, one indie aficionado’s roughly the same time.2 Although each indignant 250-song YouTube playlist “Korea is national incarnation exhibits uniquenot just K-Pop!” disputing a widespread image characteristics, collectively they wereof Korean music as little but manufactured boy responding to similar phenomena and share bands and girl groups.