[RANK AND TALK] 3 Popular Korean Indie Bands
Korean music is one of the culture loved by young people, especially in Asia. The presence of female and male idol groups with various concepts and genres succeeded in making people into Korean music. But Korea not only has idol groups, there are also many talented people playing musical instruments and forming bands. Along with the development of the era, people are increasingly easy to access Korean music that is not even too popular widely. Here are 3 famous indie bands in Korea.
- Jaurim
Jaurim is an indie rock band active in indie world before 1997. Jaurim means ‘Rain Forest Purple’. The band has 4 members: Kim Yoon Ah fills the vocals, guitar, keyboard and is also a songwriter, Goo Tae Hoon fills drums and percussion positions, Kim Jin Man as the bass and guitar player, and lastly Lee Sun Kyu is a vocalist and guitarist. They became famous through their first song, ‘Hey Hey Hey’. Currently, they have released 9 full albums, 3 unofficial albums, 2 soundtrack songs, and 1 concert album. Their 9th album, titled ‘Goodbye, Grief’ was released on October 14th, 2013. The band got a lot of praise for the arrangements and lyrics of the songs and sounds owned by Kim Yoon Ah.
- Nell
Nell is an indie rock band formed in 2001. The group’s name is inspired by the movie starring Jodie Foster entitled Nell. The band consists of Kim Jong Wan as lead vocalist, keyboard player and guitarist Lee Jae Kyong as lead guitarist, Lee Jung Hoon as bass player, tambourine and keyboard and Jung Jae Won as the drummer. The band is famous for its sad and psychedelic music. Until now there are 9 albums released by Nell. They have created many popular songs including ‘Stay’, ‘Thank You’, ‘Good Night’, and ‘Time Walking On Memory’. Their fourth album entitled ‘Healing Process’ successfully earned first place in various charts in Korea.
- Hyukoh
Hyukoh is one of the indie bands officially formed in May 2014. The band consists of Oh Hyuk, Im Dong Geon, Lim Hyun Jae, and Lee In Woo, all of whom were born in 1993. Oh Hyuk is a songwriter, guitarist and vocalist, Im Dong Geon as a bass player, Lim Hyun Jae as lead guitarist and Lee In Woo as a drummer. The band began to be widely known after their presence in the Summer Music Festival held in one of Korea’s famous programs called ‘Infinity Challenge’. They received a lot of praise from the public and made it into the top 10 ‘Billboard World Albums Chart’ two months after the release of their second mini album titled ’22’.