Why YG’s Yang Hyun Suk Has Turned into a Morning Person?
[OSEN=손남원 기자] YG’s head Yang Hyun Suk has been wholly changed in this new year. Most notably, he turned himself into a morning person. He complains, “It is really hard (to change my life style that I maintained for decades.) It is even harder than quitting smoking.”
Nevertheless, since January 1 this year, he wakes up at 7am every morning. As Yang Hyun Suk is practicing the early-bird life style himself, all YG people including its employees are facing the same difficulty. Now, YG is not like other entertainment agencies where employees do not follow a strict working hours. Yang used to go to work late in the afternoon, work overnight, and then leave in the morning, but now, he comes to work in the morning and leaves late in night. So, YG employees say, “We have now entered a thorny path.”
Yang confesses, “In fact, it is really hard to wake up early in the morning. However, now I have more YG artists who need by care and so much more work to do, so I don’t even have a time to complain.”
Lately, Yang expressed his strong resolution for the new year, saying, “I will spend every day of this year like Monday.” Indeed, he has worked on even Sundays at the YG office alone for recent weeks, making employees a little tensed.
Yang’s such transformation is the first step for his plan to make YG, now a global enterprise, evolve into the next level. For example, the Japan dome tour of YG’s biggest idol star BIGBANG, which has recently been successfully rounded off, has attracted 770,000 audience and seems to have produced more than 100 billion won (estimated) of revenues. Five BIGBANG members earned such a big profit that amounts to the yearly revenue of a medium-sized company, during a short period of time. Such an achievement was possible because BIGBANG was recognized as an able musician by the local media, not just as a K-Pop star.
Yang has piles of works and tasks as the practical leader of YG, a listed company. A series of major YG singers’ comebacks from TAEYANG to BIGBANG, Psy, and 2NE1 are waiting for him. Fans’ strong calls for comeback of YG artists put a big burden on him, so he is pushing himself harder, saying, “I’m up to my neck in work these days. I’m just concentrating to work and work.”
It is not just the comeback of existing YG stars that is waiting for Yang. WINNER from “WIN”, Akdong Musician from “K-Pop Star”, and a new girl group are waiting for their debut. The work for production of capable rookies with different colors is a big pressure that cannot be put off any longer.
In addition to new albums of Psy, BIGBANG, and 2NE1 who did not release a new album other than new songs in 2013, new boy group WINNER formed eight years after BIGBANG’s debut, new girl group to debut five years after 2NE1, and Akdong Musician from “K-Pop Star”, as well as Lee Hi are all waiting for their debut or comeback. As YG usually does not produce new artists frequently, YG now has a schedule busier than ever.
Busy schedules and plans of the series of comebacks of big stars and a good-will competition between YG musicians are waiting for YG this year, so music insiders and fans are paying keen attention to year 2014 of the company.
2014. 1. 15.
