Indie artists have not just arrived in the spotlight, they¡¯ve kicked in the doors to claim space in the public imagination, unthinkable only a few years ago.

Auteurs Win Recognition

Korean cinema has a well-deserved reputation for letting its auteurs have free reign while also treating the resulting films as worthy of mainstream interest. And just outside the spotlight, smaller films without the big budgets and backing from major studios are finding more than just quiet success both in Korea and abroad.

Kim Bora¡¯s sensitive character study of a teenage girl¡¯s self-discovery, ¡°House of Hummingbird¡± found a home not just in theaters and international film festivals, but also at Netflix. Erick Oh, a director and artist, personifies the ability to flow between indie and mainstream work, as well as the ability to flow between cultures. He won praise for his animated work for the Oculus platform with ¡°Namoo¡± for Baobab Studios, and his most recent work, ¡°Opera,¡± is a contender for best animated work for the 2021 Academy Awards.

The indie band Standing Egg uses social media to communicate with fans. © Standing Egg

Erick Oh¡¯s ¡°Opera¡± is a contender for best animated work for the 2021 Academy Awards. © BANA

Networking Success

The ability to move back and forth, and to network with other artists, is also key in the success of Sunwoo Jung-a, a singer, songwriter, composer and producer whose sound found its way to mainstream audiences through collaborations with YG Entertainment and many contributions to original sound tracks for films and dramas. Her ability to create unique sounds and moving lyrics brings sophistication to some of mainstream Korean pop music¡¯s biggest artists and TV shows, which in turn brings light to her own independent work while still giving her space to create work that would have a hard time finding a place within conventional K-pop productions.

Director Kim Bora¡¯s ¡°House of Hummingbird¡± has earned the praise of critics and audiences alike. © ATNINEFILM

The Popular Acoustic

Sometimes, the mainstream is transcended along more than one vector. The genre-bending surprise success of Leenalchi¡¯s fusion between pop music and traditional Korean pansori music was one of the great delights of 2020, as their album ¡°Sugungga¡± took listeners by storm. While they¡¯re by no means the only group to successfully combine traditional and pop music, they¡¯re one of the most intentional about their project and the most willing to experiment with pop sensibilities while introducing sounds that lie radically outside the mainstream of Korean pop.

While other bands use the internet to bring their music to new listeners, few indie groups have harnessed the power of social media like Standing Egg. The indie trio have broken into the charts doing next to no promotion, relying on on Twitter to communicate with fans and expand its audience.

Another group straddling the indie-mainstream line is Love X Stereo, whose origins sit more firmly in the traditionally independent punk genre. Toby Hwang had been involved in one of Korea¡¯s most legendary punk groups when he decided to start experimenting with some other styles. Once he met Annie Ko, the pair figured out quickly which directions to move artistically, transitioning into a widely hailed music that experiments with electronica and trip hop for an electro-pop sound that has made them major stars without needing to abandon their indie roots.