Ok, I know this sub forum is mainly about rock and indie and all that good stuff...

But lately I've entered a ballad phase. Unfortunately, the mainstream ballads coming out these days (like those by SeeYa and SG Wannabe) bore me...

So I've decided to look for less popular "undergroud" ballad singers and songs...

Can you guys recommend any?

I perfer classical ballads, perferably with real insturments like violions instead of sounds sythesized by the computer, but I'm open to ANY suggestions!

Examples of ballads I like: Heart Disease by Lee Seung Hwan, Snow Flower by Park Hyo Shin or Mika Nakashima, Gloomy Sunday by MC Sniper (i know, its hip hop, but the violin is beautiful), Never Again by Lee Soo Young. I know all these are pretty mainstream, but LATELY there haven't been any memorable catches in that stream.

I don't know if ballad can be considered underground. May be "underrated" instead? I listen to all kinds of Korean ballads, and truly there are a lot of good songs not being known to a lot of people because their singer did not perform too often.

Here are some new songs I like recently:

Sol Flower - 아프고 아프도
Cherry - 편지
Park Ki Young - 그대 때문에
Im Jae Bum - 가로수 그늘 아래 서면

Older songs earlier this year:

Park Sun Joo - 남과여 (FEAT. Kim Bum Soo)
Replay - 지독한 사랑
Page - 다시사랑해줘요
Moon Glass - 마미마미
F&F -발버둥
EG - 아파도 사랑합니다

Something that's hard to explain to Koreans is that "ballad" is not a genre, just a song structure. I could probably find several songs by various bands done in a ballad format, which simply means it tells a story.

By "underground" do you mean...like ballads sung by undiscovered artists who don't have a record deal?
Or do you mean ballads which are, like the person said above, "underrated"?

If you meant the first, try www.millim.com and look under ballad section.

vintage blue
he's awesome
too bad coldplay sued

i think you're looking for more people whose name doesn't appear on music charts regularly - ballad style is for sure not underground in korea. lol.
i'd also second edward1849's pick on park kiyeong and page. there's also han kyungil; brown eyed girls's 'dagawaseo' (though they're r&b that's the only song from them i like lol ) . park hwa yo bi???? (lol trying to pull names from the top of my head is harder than i thought)

the ...ing OST had some nice ballads but I don't know if they're considered underground or not.

I especially liked the song at the beginning.

Soompi has the OST in the resources forum =).

EDIT: Here's the link: ING ost

one group that i really liked was voice.
they only put out one album like 8-10 years ago but i really liked their song "nuh-mahn-ae chun-sa-ga-dwae-yuh"
off the top of my head that's all i can think of
oh, another one is kang sung hoon (lead singer of jekki)
he's mostly all ballad and has lotta piano, violin, etc...
he wasn't as big when he went solo but i thought his albums were pretty good

hey is G Gorilla Band in this catagory? If not, can someone direct me towards it...? O_o

Toy. Actually, he's pretty popular, but the younger folks probably won't know who he is, like Seo Taiji.

He always has a lot of singers featuring on his songs that he produces.

Here are some videos:

Toy - 투명인간 (performed by Lucid Fall)
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=nU5nQ2uQKZ4

Toy - 뜨거운 안녕 (performed by E Z Hyung)
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=X4z2P6oxpLQ

Toy - 나는 달 (performed by Lee Kyu-Ho) *Lee Kyu-Ho was an underground pop artist in the late 90's.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=UsIyC5-vKyk

Toy - 안녕 스무살 (performed by Kim Min-Kyu of Delispice)
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=DGOQ4v3_P4I

He's underrated for sure, but I'm not sure he's considered underground or not. His new album has been topping the sales chart for almost 3 weeks now, so quite a lot of people knows him.

I haven't had a chance to listen to his new album yet, but I really like "Good Person" from his last album, feat. Kim Hyung Joong, who later launched a successful solo career.

It's true. I mentioned that he is popular. But, if Seo Taiji can have a thread on this side of the forum, i think Toy should too. He's just well-known among Koreans in their 20's and older. a lot of the kiddies at ZD had absolutely no idea who this guy was... it made me feel my age.

EDIT: here's another one...

Toy - 프랑지파니
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE0NDMiGY00

EDIT2: and another one...

Toy - 해피엔드
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=xt0wFakJ46s

EDIT3: and another one again...

Toy - 오늘 서울은 하루종일 맑음 (Performed by Younha)
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZeZ7QC2hOU