The Korean Underground

[Guest indieROK]

omg dude just buy the CDs. Support these artists (they ARE underground), the CDs are cheap anyway.

Um, yeah... kinda simplistic maybe. But you kind of have to know which CDs to buy, don't you think?

And, uh... fact is there's a lot of CDs that just aren't available for sale outside of Korea as far as I can tell. There's plenty of stuff I'd buy if I could. So yeah... anyone want to head over to Hyang Music and buy me CDs by Earip, Minhong, or Slow June? Thanks!

[Guest alisajohnson]

oh ! can u post the song "a cold heart" for me ?

[Guest helikoppter]

And, uh... fact is there's a lot of CDs that just aren't available for sale outside of Korea as far as I can tell. There's plenty of stuff I'd buy if I could. So yeah... anyone want to head over to Hyang Music and buy me CDs by Earip, Minhong, or Slow June? Thanks!

You could always ask Mr.Kwang ^^ Lately, I've been getting so broke because of him

[Guest uiyoltan]

Um, yeah... kinda simplistic maybe. But you kind of have to know which CDs to buy, don't you think?

Yeah. I used bugs to sample what kind of artists I want to buy albums from. (Same as you).

I must confess... I tend to pirate mainstream stuff alot. I feel guilty for pirating underground stuff.

[Guest ♬ J A N E T ;D]

Is there a thread for the group Noel (노을) ?

I couldn't find the link to it in the Korean Music section official thread

either..

-edit

wow no one really posts here do they?

my post's still the latest post ater 2 months..

anyways, I'm just checking if someone made an "All Black" thread?

[Guest semie-kun]

i need sad sonata story soundtrak...can u all tell me??

[Guest Anrui]

Is there a thread for the group Noel (노을) ?

I couldn't find the link to it in the Korean Music section official thread

either..

-edit

wow no one really posts here do they?

my post's still the latest post ater 2 months..

anyways, I'm just checking if someone made an "All Black" thread?

Dude, this is the underground section.........move back a section

[Guest proslots01]

Thanks for putting up all this info - really useful for someone like me - hard to find details for music like this when I'm not proficient in Korean

[Guest ja1n]

Does anyone know of .. Sunday 2PM EP? I don't even know if that's his/their.. name? I just have a couple of songs but I know nothing about him.. or them

[Guest musicgurl627]

anyone know of the band The Breeze? I know they had a popular single 뭐라할까 that was in the movie Temptation of the Wolves. But that's all I know about them.

[Guest robot_victim]

Do you know, I wanted to thank you for your list. I tried some of them. In fact, where is OrienKorean? (Or something.) This person seems to know his/her stuff.

Regarding K-Rock, (Korean Rock) that is, I wanted to investigate it. I really want to try supporting this community but I need to know who it is, what they sound like, and maybe how popular they are. I find that Koreans don't really appreciate rock music and their sound tends to be pretty much generic, albeit an imitation.

Actually, ever since I came here, I thought it was tragic that the rock people were tucked away in "the Korean underground", and that what we actually have here is not only rock, but a mixed melee of all kinds of sounds that are just not considered in the popular mainstream. (Although why hiphop is here is beyond me, knowing the Korean obsession for that music genre.)

So I finally sampled some Korean Rock in the form of

NELL

PIA

SUCK STUFF

DELI SPICE

CLAZZIQUAI

ROCKET DIARY

MY AUNT MARY

SCHIZO

NO BRAIN

TRANSFIXION

EVE

CHERRY FILTER

HUCKLEBERRY FINN

TRAX

THE SEED

DEVA

PRANA

MARY STORY

CLOUD9

DEAR CLOUD

HUMMING URBAN STEREO

BAY

CLOUD CUCKOO LAND

and as such, I decided to categorize them, because rock has many genres. This is how I found them to be, from lightest to heaviest. Keep in mind these categories are very broad.

-POP-

Clazziquai - they are not rock.

Humming Urban Stereo

-FOLK/OLDIES/POP- (I nearly forgot about this one)

My Aunt Mary - I'm dying to say this is the taste of the old people. Too soft and pop.

-INDIE ROCK (My god, there has to be a better category for this section)

Cloud Cuckoo Land (mellow, alternative sound)

-POP ROCK-

Bay - very mellow (they are more pop than rock, actually)

Nell - mellow rock (I like "Stay")

Mary Story

Cherry Filter - pop rock (they're always on Inki gayo)

Transfixion - pop rock -appeal to youth/teenagers- (their video "my jina" copied aerosmith's "crying")

Rocket Diary - appeal to youth/teenagers ("district 13" is punkish though, like sum41 or something)

-ALTERNATIVE/POP ROCK-

Deli Spice - their music is used in dramas, right?

Huckleberry Finn

Dear cloud

PIA

-VISUAL? ROCK-

Eve - I tried to search about this band and I thought they cared more about their appearance than the music

TRAX - visual kei by yoshiki of all people

The Seed (goth?)

Deva

Prana (mellow)

- 80s (metal? more Van Halen) ROCK -

Cloud9 (but that might change)

-PUNK ROCK-

No Brain (Their sound is like old Blink-182, Sum41, New Found Glory, or something like that, a comic appeal to ansgt-ridden youth)

Suck Stuff - their music for me is punk, but not interesting

-METAL ROCK-

Schizo - one can go metal, but you should make it more interesting. I didn't think schizo made any interesting metal songs. If they continue to go that way, they will remain unpopular, or select taste.

I appeal to the fans of these bands to stand up for them, or give me a heads up about them. Or even tell me, hell recommend to me, what I should be listening to. Thanks in advance.

[Guest indieROK]

Do you know, I wanted to thank you for your list. I tried some of them. In fact, where is OrienKorean? (Or something.) This person seems to know his/her stuff.

Yeah, orienkorean's YouTube channel is pretty crucial for exploration. Much more up to date and comprehensive than our list.

I appeal to the fans of these bands to stand up for them, or give me a heads up about them. Or even tell me, hell recommend to me, what I should be listening to. Thanks in advance.

What type of music are you looking for?

[Guest robot_victim]

Yeah, orienkorean's YouTube channel is pretty crucial for exploration. Much more up to date and comprehensive than our list.

What type of music are you looking for?

Hey, thanks for replying. Actually, I was curious about the Korean rock music scene in general. Can you name me the top five Korean rock bands in the past 2 years, and their number 1 hit song (or what they're popular for)?

I think it's a pity too that everyone seems indie, underground, or relatively unknown. How can it be that from 1996-2008, the handful of 'rock' bands I'm being exposed to are all indie/underground? What kind of a system is this?

[Guest robot_victim]

By the way, I find there are pop acts here that should not be underground. For example, Clazziquai and Humming Urban Stereo (along with some 'indie-rock') are definitely poppers-appeal - is it because they are unknown or still new that they aren't out there? That cannot be a reason, because it would be a crying shame. You know pop when you hear it, and it's a sound that's easily acceptable. Underground stands for real underground, a subclass of people from a genre or sound that's not easily accepted. Primarily because it's difficult. In direct contrast to that, I find some of the people here are really easy to listen to. They actually are pop.

And since when is it even wrong to be typecasted as mainstream? I thought it was the artists' intention to get to the top anyhow, not stay at the bottom. I mean, that's not beneficial to the artist - only to the fan. Or maybe not even then. I mean I really don't get the system here.

[Guest indieROK]

IMO the context is kind of different... so it's not much use to get too worked up over who the top 5 rock acts are, or why mainstream sounding bands are considered underground. In fact, I don't think they're necessarily considered underground (k-underground forum on soompi is not the final word) , it's just they don't fit easily in the manufactured producer (entertainment company) driven world of weekly music TV shows either.

Sure, some bands aspire to mainstream success, others probably don't. Other folks, like Jaurim or Rollercoaster, don't necessarily aspire to an underground tag, and most people actually do know who they are, it's just they don't show up on TV as much. Dunno how you want to define success in that kind of music industry.

If you have a certain type of sound you're looking for, best just to go with that, and not worry too much about what's underground or mainstream in a music scene with relatively little history.

I'm not sure the system is much different from other places really... only in maybe the UK or every now and then somewhere else (I dunno, Sweden) do I see relatively credible rock artists crossing over to actual chart or commercial success.

I also think there's such a thing as mainstream pop and non-mainstream pop, or at least different degrees (for example, even though they both mine similar lounge/jazz influences, I see a qualitative difference between the kinda ironic pop of Lee Jeereen/Humming Urban Stereo/Instant Romantic Floor, vs. Clazziquai's smooth r&b flavored pop), so I'm not sure I buy your underground vs. pop dichotomy... also see for example all of the Pastel Music bands who are definitely pop, but just as definitely not mainstream... but, yeah. Sorry, I probably wasn't much help.

[Guest robot_victim]

IndieRok, I'm glad you know the type of society korea is when you say their TV shows are "manufactured producer (entertainment company) driven" and that their music scene has "relatively little history." But more key then these two points is their blatant opposition to (and obvious distaste for!) rock music. My whole point of questioning and explaining is that rock music in this particular country is discouraged, and when I check out what they do have to offer, the quality of the bands are reflected in this bottled-up attitude. I don't think a lot of them are talented, (or know how to play the guitar at all!), let alone experimental enough. And a lot of them are just copies of other bands. What's worse is their preferred sound of soft pop, so that they think punk or metal are the only other alternative. Well, there's a lot more to rock than that - alternative, hard, industrial, nu-metal, progressive, retro (and I don't mean oldies folk music retro-retro, I mean the new type of retro that's been churning since The Strokes), reggae, country... god there are so many.

Do you really think other countries are that shallow about rock? Just to name a few big commercial names: Ireland has U2, The Cranberries; Canada had Bryan Adams, Alanis Morisette, Sum 41, Avril Lavigne, Arcade Fire; Wales has Bullet For My Valentine, (and Lostprophets); Germany had Rammstein; Colombia had Shakira and Juanes; Australia had Silverchair and Jet (and if you want to go even further back in time, there's ACDC). (I'm just talking about people who have crossed over here to the US, and there are a lot more I'm pretty sure.) So it's not only the English and Swedish! The Japanese have also had their Jrock bands fighting with their Jpop acts forever in the Oricon charts. And it is pure common sense to have rock bands competing with pop acts for commercial success in the music charts. You can't have an entire country being run by Justin Timberlakes, Christina Aguileras, Fergies, Miley Cyruses, and Kanye Wests alone. People are always seeking different flavors, and rock is actually one of the more popular (and longlasting careerwise!) genres in music history.

As for underground versus mainstream, this is where it all boils down to the attitude of the individual. From as far back as I can remember, all the rock bands I ever got into were interested in success, because they wanted to be heard. You don't ever want to stay indie forever (indie is actually an unfavorable label/term), you wanted to become major and to be number 1 in the chart. Because duh! You wanted to sell your records. (This is actually common sense!) [Hint: Even better in a country like Korea, I would imagine, with all the missing competition (or hidden ones), why not bend the rules and create something totally different and become famous for it? There's even more incentive in a country that's so ignorant - educate the people. Show them there's some "new" kind of music you can try and actually enjoy.]

But the problem here is the country and its intolerance. And no 2-year military service can even prevent a good band from developing. Being a rock band, creating good rock music, is all up to an individual's interest, (and persistence!) in making music, as well as talent. Traits I still find lacking in many of Korea's youth or even current "indie" bands. The catch-22 is they're only a reflection of their country's own biased agenda towards rock music.

And before I answer your mainstream pop vs. non-mainstream pop argument, can you please explain to me what you mean by "ironic pop"?

[Guest RACETRAITOR]

Well, there's a lot more to rock than that - alternative, hard, industrial, nu-metal, progressive, retro (and I don't mean oldies folk music retro-retro, I mean the new type of retro that's been churning since The Strokes), reggae, country... god there are so many.

Reggae is not a type of rock music.

[Guest robot_victim]

Reggae is not a type of rock music.

I should have said ska. You honestly don't know rock bands that infuse raggae in their songs? Try some of the oldest, 311, Sublime, Authority Zero and then one of the latest matisyahu ("king without a crown"). There's also a Brazilian band, O Rappa a friend introduced to me, whose music I like. Come on people, wake up.

Why is it every time I come here I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone.

[Guest Lebanese_Blonde]

can anyone tell me why jisun left loveholic??

i missed the memo ^^;

[Guest RACETRAITOR]

I should have said ska. You honestly don't know rock bands that infuse raggae in their songs? Try some of the oldest, 311, Sublime, Authority Zero and then one of the latest matisyahu ("king without a crown"). There's also a Brazilian band, O Rappa a friend introduced to me, whose music I like. Come on people, wake up.

Why is it every time I come here I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone.

Ska is not a type of rock music either. Reggae is a type of ska.