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Us and Them: Korean Indie Rock in a K-Pop World

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Stephen Epstein
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Précis

This article, intended as a companion to the recent documentary Us and Them: Korean Indie Rock in a K-Pop World co-produced by Stephen Epstein and Timothy Tangheriini, situates Korean indie and punk rock within a broader context in order to demonstrate how what may seem a byway within Korean culture serves as a useful index of important recent societal transformations. As the nature of not only global media flows and musical circulation but Korean national identity and economic structures all undergo significant change, how should observers understand “Korean” “indie” music and its meanings as of 2015? How have the local punk and indie scenes developed in concert with, and in contrast to, K-pop?

Keywords

South Koreapopular musicindie musicpunkK-pop
Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 13 , Issue 48 , November 2015 , e1
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2015

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