K-Pop’s Artist Family…Past, Present, and Future of YG
[파이낸셜뉴스=신진아 기자] Along with Hanteo Chart, Financial News will be looking back on the history of K-POP, based on the agency that led the globalization of K-Pop. Hanteo Chart, which is seeing its 30th yea, is the only music chart that aggregates K-Pop big data and will be holding the ‘30th Anniversary Hanteo Music Awards 2022’ on the 20th of February. -Editor.
The birth of Seotaiji and Boys was a huge turning point in the history of Korean pop music. The group’s success led to the birth of another legend, YG Entertainment (hereinafter referred as YG). Yang Hyun-suk, a former member of Seotaiji and Boys, has been making history within the industry by leading YG Entertainment.
YG artists have been known as ‘Stars for Stars’, and drew attention for their artistic aspects and skills. In other words, many artists equipped with production skills have been part of the agency, creating a strong, unique personality of the so-called ‘YG FAMILY’. Yang Hyun-suk made his debut in 1992 and started the history of YG under the name of ‘HYUN PRODUCTION’ in 1996.
HYUN PRODUCTION’s first idol KEEP SIX did not receive much spotlight from the public. However, with the debut of JinuSean, they changed their name to MF production and started listing their songs on music charts. According to Hanteo Chart, JinuSean’s 1st album ‘JINUSEAN’ sold 620,000 copies in a year, and was listed 12th on the yearly album chart.
After that, group ITYM made its debut in 1998. TEDDY, who currently holds the title of YG’s main producer, was part of this group. Due to his producing skills, YG’s musical identity of specializing in hip-hop becomes very clear. This was when YG changed its name to ‘YANGGUN PRODUCTION’.
The term ‘YG GROUP’ was born with the release of their album ‘YG FAMILY’ in 1999, and they officially changed their company name to ‘YG Entertainment’ in 2001. Under their new name, legendary K-pop artists started to appear in rows.
The 2000s were all about ballads and solo artists. It was all YG artists that led this culture. Whee Sung made his debut in 2002, and only stayed on 27th on the yearly artist chart, but climbed to 6th by selling 368,431 the next year. His 2nd album ‘It’s Real’ was listed as 4th on the annual album chart.
2003 was a year where they successfully debuted the greatest number of new artists. Big Mama, Gummy, SE7EN and LEXY made their debut, and artists with strong vocal powers and performance abilities took over the K-Pop scene.
In 2003, where Whee Sung was listed 6th on the yearly artist chart, Big mama was listed 7th by selling 323,019, and SE7EN was listed 12th with 212,317 copies. YG artists who recorded phenomenal performances in the year of their debut continued to enjoy their popularity by listing themselves on the yearly chart even up until the mid-2000s.
In 2006, YG’s mega project BIGBAG was introduced to the world. Member G-DRAGON took part in almost most composition, lyrics, and arrangement processes for BIGBANG’s songs.
In the year of their debut, BIGBANG was listed 9th on Hanteo Chart’s yearly artist chart, 2nd on 2007, and 1st in 2008.
In particular, their 3rd mini-album ‘STAND UP’, and 2nd full album ‘REMEMBER’ enjoyed enormous popularity, allowing them to record a total of 911,898 sales in the year 2008, proving their overwhelming record power even in the heyday of digital music.
In 2009, G-DRAGON from BIGBANG released his solo album, which was also another great hit. He was listed 9th on the yearly artist chart by recording a total of 257,510 that year. In the same year, BIGBANG was listed 3rd on this chart, proving their popularity both as a group and as a solo artist.
The same year, 2NE1, which portrayed YG’s strong unique personality, made its debut. Starting with their debut song ‘Fire’, the 4-member girl group enjoyed enormous success every time they released a new song such as ‘I Don’t Care’ and ‘Go Away’. Not only this, but their solo songs such as PARK BOM’s ‘YOU AND I’, and Sandara Park’s ‘Kiss feat.CL’ was also loved by the public.
2NE1’s performance was particularly outstanding on yearly digital music charts. Not only their music but their album in 2009 and 2010 was listed on the yearly album chart as 3rd (2nd mini-album) and 7th (1st full album) respectively.
In 2010, PSY signed with YG, and his ‘Gangnam Style’ in 2012 became a worldwide phenomenon through YouTube. ‘Gangnam Style’ was listed on his 6th full album, and it recorded phenomenal performances on YouTube and various music sites as it shook up the whole world.
‘Gangnam Style’ reached 1 billion views on YouTube for the first time in the world, and 2 billion views in 2014, two years after its release. In 2021, it surpassed 4 billion views, leading to YouTube celebrating the unprecedented records of ‘Gangnam Style’. They even displayed symbolic images on the accumulated views it showed.
Around this time, something that was popular just as ‘Gangnam Style’ was audition programs, and through these programs, LEE-HI and AKMU became part of the YG family. AKMU, who won SBS’ ‘K-POP Star Season 2’, made their debut in 2014 with their 1st full album ‘PLAY’, and swept music charts with their songs ‘Give Love’ and ‘200%’.
Not only this, but TAEYANG’s solo album and EPIK HIGH’s full album saw great success, leading to a festive year for YG as all their group and solo activities did well. In 2015, JinuSean’s comeback in 11 years and BIGBANG’s return in 3 years and 2 months heated up the K-Pop scene. In that year, BIGBANG released new songs in an unprecedented way, releasing a double single every month from May till September. All albums were a huge hit, and they listed themselves as 3rd on Hanteo Chart’s yearly artist chart.
Group WINNER made their debut in 2014, and in 2015, group iKON was born into this world. WINNER’s ‘REALLY REALLY’ from their first single ‘FATE NUMBER FOR’ in 2017 swept all major music charts. For the first time as a boy-group idol, they hit 100 million streams.
In 2018, iKON saw huge success with ‘LOVE SCENARIO’. Living up to YG family’s reputation of having strong individual talents, BOBBY, MINO, JINU, and YOON also made successful debuts as solo artists.
Just when there weren’t much activities from YG’s girl-group, BLACKPINK finally made their debut in 2016. They took over all domestic music charts with their debut song ‘WHISTLE’, and ‘PLAYING WITH FIRE’ which was released soon after, also became a huge hit.
BLACKPINK’s record power blossomed in the 2020s. It ranked 6th on the annual artist chart by selling a total of 1,052,233 albums in 2020. In particular, their first full album ‘THE ALBUM’, released in 2021, sold nearly 600,000 copies within a day of the album’s release, breaking the record for the first time in Korea’s girl group’s history. Hanteo Chart officially announced the album’s initial sales to be 689,066 copies.
This record was broken again by BLACKPINK themselves, and this history of initial sales was rewritten with ‘BORN PINK’ which was released in 2022. Their initial sales were 1,540,950 copies. BLACKPINK is the only girl group in history to record more than 1.5 million copies in initial sales.
Adding to this, BLACKPINK members JENNIE, ROSÉ, and LISA debuted as solo artists. All their songs were loved by global fans, and this showed immediately on global charts. In particular, LISA’s ‘LALISA’ album, which was released in 2021, recorded initial sales of 736,221, ranking first among all female solo artists.
BLACKPINK also proved its continuing global popularity last year by topping the Hanteo Chart’s weekly world charts for the third, fourth, and fifth weeks of September, and the monthly world chart in September.
A 4th generation artist also made an appearance within the YG family as well. The starting point was TREASURE, which made its debut in 2020.
From their debut album, TREASURE recorded more than 160,000 sales for their initial sales. Through their Hanteo Global K-pop REPORT, Hanteo Chart said “They showed enormous growth for each of their album”.
The debut album “THE FIRST STEP: CHAPTER ONE” recorded 166,614 initial sales, which was quite an outstanding record for a rookie. Their 2nd single recorded 169,586 initial sales and their 3rd single recorded 171,773 initial sales. They renewed their own record with their first full album recording 205,575 initial sales. The initial sales of the four albums alone amount to 702,548 copies.
TREASURE then became an initial half-million seller with its first mini-album “THE SECOND STEP: CHAPTER ONE released in 2022 by selling more than 530,000 initial copies, proving how they’re leading the 4th generation K-Pop scene.
And now, on the 2nd of January, YG Entertainment announced the emergence of their next-generation girl group. BABYMONSTER, released through ‘YG Next Movement’, is YG’s first girl group in 7 years ever since BLACKPINK. Attention is now being drawn to what kind of star YG will produce with their unique ‘hip taste’.
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