Abstract

This paper highlights the indie-music origins of the composers who are responsible for the majority of music scores of post-2000 South Korean films and dramas, and explores the sociocultural and economic implications of this phenomenon. It is interesting that all globally successful South Korean works contain music by indie musicians despite the availability of professional film music composers. Indie musicians have been actively using new music technologies for their experimental music without being constrained by the control of the music industry. For indie musicians, this is a way to reduce music production costs while simultaneously elevating the level of musical perfection. The flexibility of quickly acquiring and using new technologies, which they have internalized, has changed the mindset of indie musicians. Contrasting with the fact that working conditions, treatment, and safety measures in the South Korean film industry have not improved to keep pace with the expanding scale of the industry, the indie music industry’s ingenuity in creating high-quality music at a low cost, has ironically aligned it with the neoliberal film industry that reduces costs through fragmented labor. Many indie musicians avoid becoming full-time film composers. Rather, their strategy is to take advantage of their freedom by parallelly engaging in multiple kinds of musical activities.