The success of hopelessness
the evolution of Korean indie music
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v12i2.147Keywords:
Hongdae, indie music, Korean popular music industry, Seoul, youth, space/placeAbstract
K-pop has been the most commercially successful music genre in South Korea since the mid-1990s, as noted by many Asian popular music scholars. By contrast, an underexplored topic is local indie popular music, which experienced a surge in popularity during the 2000s. This paper examines these indie scenes and Boongaboonga Records—a key organization that originated in the Gwanak region of Seoul, and later relocated to the Hongdae region, known as the hub for Korean indie music. It argues that the unique connection that the label and its indie bands have with these specific locations tie into their collective ability to give voice to a young generation affected by political and social change. It also considers the new business model for the record label and how this has developed from these circumstances and the cultural space it inhabits.
References
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——2010. ‘Hanryu Poppu No Genjou (‘The Present of Hallyu Pop’)’. In Ajia No Popyuraa Ongaku: Guroubaru to Roukaru No Soukoku (‘Popular Music in Asia: The Conflict between Global and Local’), ed. Takako Inoue, 49–77. Tokyo: Keiso Shobo.
Straw, W. 1991. ‘Systems of Articulation, Logics of Change: Communities and Scenes in Popular Music’. Cultural Studies 5(3): 368–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0950238 9100490311
Thornton, S. 1996. Club Cultures: Music, Media, and Subcultural Capital. Hanover: University Press of New England.
Tsai, Eva, and Hyunjoon Shin. 2011. ‘East Asian Pop/Rock Screen: Inter-referencing Gender and Cultural-industrial Conditions’. Paper presented at Current Issues in Inter-Asia Popular Music Studies, Sungkonghoe University, 30 April–1 May.
Webb, P. 2007. Exploring the Networked Worlds of Popular Music: Milieu Cultures. New York: Routledge.
Bennett, A. 2008. ‘Popular Music, Media and the Narrativization of Place’. In Sonic Synergies: Music, Technology, Community, ed. Gerry Bloustien, Margaret Peters and Susan Luckman, 69–78. Burlington: Ashgate.
Cohen, S. 1994. ‘Identity, Place and the “Liverpool Sound” ’. In Ethnicity, Identity and Music: The Musical Construction of Place, ed. Martin Stokes, 117–34. Oxford: Berg.
——1998. ‘Sounding out the City: Music and the Sensuous Production of Place’. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 20(4): 434–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/622974
Connell, John, and Chris Gibson. 2003. Sound Tracks: Popular Music, Identity, and Place. London: Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203448397
Despres, S. 2010. ‘Indie Breakout, “Kimchibilly” Rockers Bring Seoul to Japan: Can Chang Kiha or The Rock Tigers Win Fans on the Back of the Korea Boom?’ Japan Times, 12 November, available online at http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fm20101112a1. html.
Epstein, S. 2000. ‘Anarchy in the UK, Solidarity in ROK: Punk Rock Comes to Korea’. Acta Koreana 3: 1–34.
——2006. ‘We are the Punx in Korea!’. In Korean Pop Music: Riding the Wave, ed. Keith Howard, 190–207. Kent: Global Oriental Press.
Epstein, Stephen, and John Dunbar. 2007. ‘Skinheads of Korea, Tigers of the East’. In Cosmopartiots: On Distant Belongings and Close Encounters, ed. Jeroen de Kloet and Edwin Jurriens, 157–76. Haarlem: Rodopi.
Harrington, J. S. 2002. Sonic Cool: The Life & Death of Rock’n’ Roll. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corporation.
Hesmondhalgh, D. 1999. ‘Indie: The Institutional Politics and Aesthetics of a Popular Music Genre’. Cultural Studies 13(1): 34–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/095023899335365
Howard, K. 2002. ‘Exploding Ballads: The Transformation of Korean Pop Music’. In Global Goes Local: Popular Culture in Asia, ed. Timothy J. Craig and Richard King, 80–95. Vancouver: UBC Press.
——2006. ‘Coming of Age: Korean Pop in the 1990s’. In Korean Pop Music: Riding the Wave, ed. Keith Howard, 82–98. Kent: Global Oriental.
Hwang, O. 2006. ‘The Ascent and Politicization of Pop Music in Korea: From the 1960s to the 1980s’. In Korean Pop Music: Riding the Wave, ed. Keith Howard, 34–47. Kent: Global Oriental.
Jung, E.-Y. 2007. ‘Articulating Korean Youth Culture through Global Popular Music Styles: Seo Taiji’s Use of Rap and Metal’. In Korean Pop Music: Riding the Wave, ed. Keith Howard, 109–22. Kent: Global Oriental.
Jung, S. 2011. Korean Masculinities and Transcultural Consumption: Yonsama, Rain, Oldboy, K-pop Idols. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Kim, P. Ho, and Hyunjoon Shin. 2010. ‘The Birth of “Rok”: Cultural Imperialism, Nationalism, and the Glocalization of Rock Music in South Korea, 1964–1975’. Positions 18(1): 199–230. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/10679847-2009-028
Lee, J.-Y. 2009. ‘Contesting the Digital Economy and Culture: Digital Technologies and the Transformation of Popular Music in Korea’. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 10(4): 489–506. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649370903166143
Lee, K. 2006. ‘Looking Back at the Politics of Youth Culture, Space and Everyday Life in South Korea Since the Early 1990s’. iCAT International Conference, Cultural Space and Public Sphere in Asia, 96–127. Hallym University (Korea), 15-16 March, available online at http://asiafuture.org/csps2006/50pdf/csps2006_2b.pdf.
Ma, E. K.-W. 2002. ‘Translocal Spatiality’. International Journal of Cultural Studies 5(2): 131–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1367877902005002568
Maliangkay, R. 2006. ‘Supporting our Boys: American Military Entertainment and Korean Pop Music in the 1950s’. In Korean Pop Music: Riding the Wave, ed. Keith Howard, 21–33. Kent: Global Oriental.
Mori, Y. 2009. ‘J-Pop: From the Ideology of Creativity to DiY Music Culture’. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 10(4): 474–88.
Negus, K. 1996. Popular Music in Theory: An Introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Russell, M. J. 2008. Pop Goes Korea: Behind the Revolution in Movies, Music, and Internet Culture. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press.
Saria, O. 2011. ‘ROK Heavy: Inside Korea’s Indie Music Scene’. KoreAm 22(3): 46–51.
Shin, H. 2009. ‘Have you Ever Seen the Rain? And who’ll Stop the Rain?: The Globalizing Project of Korean Pop (K-pop)’. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 10(4): 507–23. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649370903166150
——2010. ‘Hanryu Poppu No Genjou (‘The Present of Hallyu Pop’)’. In Ajia No Popyuraa Ongaku: Guroubaru to Roukaru No Soukoku (‘Popular Music in Asia: The Conflict between Global and Local’), ed. Takako Inoue, 49–77. Tokyo: Keiso Shobo.
Straw, W. 1991. ‘Systems of Articulation, Logics of Change: Communities and Scenes in Popular Music’. Cultural Studies 5(3): 368–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0950238 9100490311
Thornton, S. 1996. Club Cultures: Music, Media, and Subcultural Capital. Hanover: University Press of New England.
Tsai, Eva, and Hyunjoon Shin. 2011. ‘East Asian Pop/Rock Screen: Inter-referencing Gender and Cultural-industrial Conditions’. Paper presented at Current Issues in Inter-Asia Popular Music Studies, Sungkonghoe University, 30 April–1 May.
Webb, P. 2007. Exploring the Networked Worlds of Popular Music: Milieu Cultures. New York: Routledge.
Published
2012-01-31
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Shin, H. (2012). The success of hopelessness: the evolution of Korean indie music. Perfect Beat, 12(2), 147-165. https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v12i2.147
