Neon Bunny is an oddity in Korea. She is a successful indie artist. She belongs to no label, and doesn’t want to. For most artist in Korea this means very little exposure and very little success outside of Hongdae, which is the center of Korean indie music. But Neon Bunny shook up the whole music scene last year when she won Best Pop Album, beating out IU. IU is basically the nation’s sweet heart. For someone of her status to be beaten out by a no name newbie has literally never happened before, and that is how awesome that album was. There isn’t a very large Indie scene in Korea, and a lot of people believe that the only music in Korea is Kpop. That is just not true.
I will admit, I am not a huge indie fan. I like pop music in general and I am not ashamed of it. The whole garage band or rock music thing doesn’t really do it for me, even if it is more artistic. My brother and I argue about this all the time. He gets so frustrated because I like the music when the one performing it didn’t write or compose it themselves. Also, according to him, it all sounds the same. But just because a group writes their own stuff doesn’t mean I like what it sounds like!! I like the way pp music sounds and, quite frankly, I like the way Kpop artists look. So sue me! And, just because they didn’t write it themselves doesn’t make them less talented. They are amazing performers and that takes as much skill as writing a song, just a different one!
I digress… where was I? Right, Korean indie scene… its small. If you live outside of Korea it is really hard to get to know much of it because mostly Korean indie bands do live performances and aren’t a big presence on YouTube. One of the easiest ways to get to know any of it is to follow the site EatYourKimchi. Every week they do a K-indie segment on what is going on. They are actually the ones that first introduced me to Neon Bunny. My favorite song she has ever done is Oh My Prince. For those of you that can’t understand it this song is actually about her telling the “Prince” to GTFO. Don’t feel embarrassed, I had to look up the translation too!
If anyone feels like sharing, what are your feelings about indie vs pop music?
Alexandra Whalen 