From Bigbang to PSY to 2ne1 to Blackpink, YG Entertainment continues to produce phenomenal live Korean superstars and performers that represent Korea’s music industry to the world.
YG Entertainment just proved to the world that they are not yet finish creating worldwide stars after Bigbang, PSY, and 2ne1.
With Blackpink’s phenomenal success today, YG Entertainment just showed to the world how determined the company is to continue producing phenomenal music that people from around the world can surely enjoy.
What people do not know is that YG Entertainment is the home of phenomenal Korean songs that have been going viral around the world for almost a decade now.
Despite being a small company until the early 2000 founded by Yang Hyun Suk in 1996, YG Entertainment proved to the world that a small company like them can still rise to the top through their self-produced music.
YG Entertainment’s global success started when the company debuted their first boygroup, Bigbang.
Bigbang, who are known as the “Kings of K-pop” and a legendary group in Korea, gained breaktaking success and fame not just in K-pop, but Bigbang is one of the K-pop groups that introduced K-pop to the world even way before the existence of today’s social media hype.
Bigbang was able to achieve acknowledgement as global performers through their music just a few years after their debut in 2006, giving people a new meaning of Korea’s music industry.
Though Bigbang has already been popular in Asia a year after debut, but Bigbang even became more popular when Bigbang released Fantastic Baby in 2011. And continued their group’s popularity when they released Bang Bang Bang in 2015.
With Bigbang’s insane popularity in Asia, America, and Europe, Bigbang started gaining international awards like “Best Worldwide Act” awards at MTV EMA in 2011 and World Music Awards in 2014, beating Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and more. Not to mention how much international artists like Missy Elliott, Justin Bieber, Jaden Smith, Flo Rida and more, adore Bigbang’s music.
Even 10 years after their debut, Bigbang was still able to break records as they became one of the highest-paid groups in the world, beating Maroon 5. Bigbang is also the Korean group with the highest number of concert attendees. Until today, Bigbang is still considered as a wall in Korea’s music industry.
Aside from their global popularity as a group, Bigbang members are also individually successful on their respective music genre which is very rare in Korea. G-dragon, Bigbang’s leader, won Best Entertainer and Best Album at World Music Awards in 2014.
Bigbang are also considered as fashion icons, representing Korea to some international fashion shows like Chanel, Fendi, and more. Bigbang’s popularity goes beyond music and art.
Aside from Bigbang, YG Entertainment was the home of PSY back in 2011. Remember PSY’s legendary “Oppa, Gangnam style?” YG Entertainment co-produced PSY’s Gentleman and Gangnam Style.
PSY’s Gentleman and Gangnam Style are Korea’s phenomenal songs that brought Korea’s music industry to a global scale in 2012. The songs broke records, even broke Justin Bieber’s YouTube records, and gained billions of views in just a few months.
The songs were too popular that PSY performed the songs at AMA in 2013, even participated at Billboard Music Awards, got invited as a guest at X-Factor Australia, and more shows from around the world. Billboard introduced PSY as an international pop sensation.
While Bigbang and PSY started gaining global popularity, YG Entertainment’s only active girl group, 2ne1, also became one of Korea’s global legendary girl groups. 2ne1 is the first ever Korean girl group and Korean female artists to hold a world tour. With their mega hit song I Am The Best, 2ne1 became popular worldwide and started building success in America as well. With 2ne1’s global success, 2ne1 did a lot of collaboration with global companies like Intel, Mirosoft, Yamaha, Adidas, and more. Also, despite 2ne1’s disbandment, international media sites and artists just still couldn’t get over 2ne1’s legacy in the music industry.
After 2ne1’s disbandment, 2ne1 members are already focusing on their individual careers. CL debuted and gained popularity in America while Dara is now focusing on doing variety shows.
And now, Blackpink finally showed to the world their phenomenal popularity in America. Blackpink, YG Entertainment’s 2-year-old girl group, just debuted in America this year but YG Entertainment’s girl group is already making history by becoming the first ever Korean female act to perform at Coachella. Epik High, who was also part of YG Entertainment, was the first Korean act to perform at Coachella. Coachella must be a really huge fan of YG Entertainment’s music.
Despite not being that long yet in the industry, Blackpink’s massive popularity since debut until today is a proof that they are indeed the revolution.
Blackpink’s YouTube channel is the most viewed Korean channel on YouTube and just became the most viewed K-pop group channel on YouTube which was previously held by their senior group, Bigbang, for years. Blackpink is also the most followed K-pop group channel on YouTube. Blackpink also holds the most viewed music video for a Korean group for Blackpink’s Ddu-du Ddu-du in just a few months.
Hollywood superstars and international artists like Will Smith and family, the Beckham family, Ariana Grande, Harry Styles, Dua Lipa, Pharrell, Steve Aoki, Halsey, Diplo, DJ Snake, and more, couldn’t stop their excitement about Blackpink. Some international artists even mentioned they tried reaching out to Blackpink for collaboration but still haven’t received any reply yet. Well, with Blackpink’s busy schedules this year, let’s hope that they’d get time to check those messages in the voice mail.
Blackpink members were also chosen by different international fashion companies as ambassadors of their brand. All Blackpink members were individually invited as a guest at different fashion show events from around the world.
Other group from YG Entertainment like iKON has just successfully started their promotion in America last March and became the highlight of SXSW Music Festival which was held in Austin, Texas.
iKON, the three-year-old boygroup of YG Entertainment who spent most of their promotions in Asia, was called as a Monster Rookie as iKON won all the rookie awards in all Korea, Japan, and China’s music award shows in 2015. iKON consistently released record breaking self-produced songs even before they debuted.
Even before debut, iKON already proved their credibility as musicians when iKON’s rapper Bobby won Show Me The Money 3 and B.I.’s self-produced song, Be I, hit #1 and made it to the top 10 on all Korean music charts. Bobby and B.I. proved that despite being YG Entertainment’s trainees, they’re already prepared for Korea’s competitive music industry.
iKON now holds the record of the highest number of hourly Perfect-All-Kill with Love Scenario. Only iKON achieved a 204 hourly PAK in the entire Korean music industry. iKON is also the fastest K-pop group to hold a dome tour in Japan. Despite just being a three-year-old group, iKON is already in the list of top 10 K-pop groups with the highest number of concert attendees. iKON recently represented Korea at the closing ceremony of Asian Games in 2018.
Read: iKON’s Amazing Achievements Surprised New K-pop Fans
Another group under YG Entertainment is Winner. Winner is a four-year-old boygroup from YG Entertainment who focuses most of their promotion in Korea. Winner has always been popular in Korea, China, and Japan. They just started their international promotion and is currently doing their world tour.
Other artists from YG Entertainment that everyone should look forward to are Lee-hi, AkMu, One, and Sechkies.
With all these massive success, which I believe not all has been completely mentioned, it’s applauding to see a Korean music label like YG Entertainment who started as a small company, already gave and proved to the world that they can continuously introduce, not just one, but many world breaking record artists and live performers that can make those non-K-pop fans, embrace Korea’s music.
Indeed, with all these, YG Entertainment just proved that despite having different languages, music can definitely bring all of us together as one.
How come that WINNER has the shortest description among the groups/artists you mentioned? They had debuted before iKON and BLACKPINK. If Bobby’s participation and achievement in SMTM was mentioned, Mino’s has to be mentioned as well. Also, the history of WINNER’s group name should be discussed here.. Winning from YG’s survival show is already a big success.