K-Pop
BLACKPINK’s Second Album ‘Born Pink’ Has Arrived: Stream It Now
Blinks, the wait is finally over. After several months of teasers, tour announcements and tantalizing campaigns, BLACKPINK‘s highly anticipated second album, Born Pink, officially arrived on streaming on Friday (Sept. 16). In addition to the album, fans were also treated to the vibrant, neon-colored visual to accompany “Shut Down,” the lead single (also known as the “title track”) from Born Pink at the stroke of midnight. Though Born Pink is mere hours into its infancy, BLACKPINK’s previous Billboard successes provide some indication on how the album may fare on the charts. “Pink Venom,” the first taste fans got of the album, netted the four piece its second-highest charting song on the Billboard Hot 100 after debuting at No. 22 on the Sept. 3-dated chart. (“Ice Cream” with Selen...
NCT 127 Drops New Album ‘2 Baddies’: Stream It Now
NCT 127 unveiled their new album 2 Baddies on Friday (September 16) via SM Entertainment. The 12-track collection is the K-pop group’s first full-length studio set since 2020’s Sticker: The Third Album (which was repackaged last October as Favorite) and contains tracks like “Faster,” “Time Lapse,” “불시착 (Crash Landing)” and album closer “1, 2, 7 (Time Stops).” While the nine-piece act hasn’t shared a single from the project yet, they have hinted at its concept and aesthetic with teaser videos filled with sleek luxury sports cars — just like the one that appears on the album’s birds-eye cover shot featuring all nine members. The album’s sound, meanwhile, shows off the idols’ eclectic versatility as they run through R&B, pop, electronic dance and hip-hop-leaning sounds. To support 2 Baddi...
Stanning BTS: “Sexy Nukim” and Our BTS Favorites
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Radio Public | Pocket Casts | RSS RM is bringing “Sexy Nukim” back! BTS’ leader has teamed with Balming Tiger on their latest track, and Kayla and Bethany have some thoughts. Advertisement Related Video Also on this episode of Stanning BTS, the hosts pose some questions to themselves about their favorite BTS highlights. The run through their favorite “sexy” songs, band eras, concert moments, photo shoots, and more. All these questions will be asked to listeners during the next ICONIC hangout on Monday, September 19th at 7:00 p.m. ET, but you can learn what the hosts think now. Listen to their thoughts on all this and “Sexy Nukim” in the episode above, then make sure to like, revie...
Fan Chant: Talking to Jackson Wang About a Jackson Wang Party
Welcome to Fan Chant, a weekly column for K-pop fans, stans, and newbies alike. Each week, I’ll be rolling out interviews, lists, and all kinds of content to keep you in the loop on the latest and greatest from our friends in Seoul and beyond. Also, make sure to subscribe to my companion newsletter! A few weeks ago, I had the joy of jumping on the phone with the one and only Jackson Wang to chat about his wonderful new album, MAGIC MAN. We had a really lovely conversation that spanned almost an hour, and for today’s column, I wanted to share a bit more about more about the experience, along with some full quotes from our chat that didn’t make it into the final interview. I should’ve known when the conversation started like this: Mary: Hello, Jackson Wang, I’m so happy to be talking to you....
Becky G Reflects on Her ‘Really Badass’ Trilingual Collab With BTS’ J-Hope on ‘Chicken Noodle Soup’
Becky G looked back on what it was like to work with BTS’ J-Hope in a new interview with Teen Vogue released on Wednesday (Sept. 14). “We were one of the first to do Korean, Spanish, and English. It’s really badass,” she said of the pair’s 2019 collaboration “Chicken Noodle Soup.” “I’m so happy that it happened the way it did. To this day, it’s one of those, ‘I see you, you see me, and even though we may not necessarily have the deepest conversations, we get it’ [relationships].” The trilingual bop, which sparked a viral dance craze with its funky choreography, earned Becky G and the K-pop idol a top 10 hit on the Digital Song Sales chart and also peaked at No. 81 on the Billboard Hot 100 — making J-Hope the first member of BTS to chart on the tally as a solo artist outside the group. Expl...
SEVENTEEN’s ‘Be the Sun’ Tour Was the Collective Concert Experience We’ve Been Waiting For Since COVID
While 2022 has marked the full-fledged return of concerts since the global pandemic put a lengthy pause on touring, SEVENTEEN’s new tour could arguably be the first live show that recaptures the collective feeling of togetherness that makes the live experience so magical. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news As various safety measures like masking and limited crowd interactions have understandably been at the forefront of artists’ and promoters’ minds, the final night of SEVENTEEN’s Be the Sun tour at Newark’s Prudential Center was a display in how audiences can reconnect with each other thanks to technology, production and, of course, the members that made up the K-pop boy band. What most clearly created the inclusive environment came thank...
Fan Chant: TWICE Are Talking the Talk
Welcome to Fan Chant, a weekly column for K-pop fans, stans, and newbies alike. Each week, I’ll be rolling out interviews, lists, and all kinds of content to keep you in the loop on the latest and greatest from our friends in Seoul and beyond. Also, make sure to subscribe to my companion newsletter! It feels strange to say that there’s ever a “light week” as someone on the K-pop beat, but this past week was maybe as close as we are going to get for a while. A week without any huge new releases meant I had some space to dig into some recent albums that I hadn’t spent dedicated time with just yet — it’s absurd how good this NewJeans debut EP is! I finally had a moment to venture beyond “Attention” and learned that every track on the mini-album is, in fact, a gem. Similarly, this week gave me...
Surprise! BTS: PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE – LA Is Now Streaming on Disney+
Surprise! As part of the Disney+ Day celebration, BTS’s PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE – LA is now streaming on the platform as of today (September 8th). PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE – LA is described as a “stage-focused” concert film, showcasing the enormous event held at So-Fi Stadium at the end of 2021. The four concerts, November 27th-28th and December 1st-2nd, saw the 70,000-seat arena entirely sold out for all four nights. (Read our recap of the spectacular show here.) While the timing is a surprise, this concert film was announced without a release date in July as one of multiple projects created for Disney+, alongside a spin-off of BTS’s In the Soop (In the Soop: Friendcation, which was released on Disney+ in South Korea) and a still-to-come docuseries called BTS Monuments: Beyond th...
KEY Shares the Family Stories & ‘Little Freaks’ That Inspired His ‘Gasoline’ Album: Exclusive
From the monster under the bed to clowns and bugs, most childhood fears become irrelevant — and laughable —a s we mature. For KEY‘s latest album, the boy band member revisits some of the freakiest parts of his adolescence with a playfulness and curiosity that inspired his latest collection of K-pop creations. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Released on Aug. 30, Gasoline is KEY’s second full-length album and the SHINee member’s first new body of work after his retro-tinged Bad Love EP from last fall. While Bad Love saw him taking creative lead by spotlighting his interest in sci-fi movies, the new LP also highlights a love of film but with his personal childhood stories and reflections mixed within. Born in 1991, the core kids movies of KEY’s ch...
The Ledger: Buying Into the K-Pop Craze Just Got Less Risky for US Investors
The Ledger is a weekly newsletter about the economics of the music business sent to Billboard Pro subscribers. An abbreviated version of the newsletter is published online. An exchange-traded fund, or ETF, focused on Korean music started trading on the NYSE Arca exchange on Thursday, giving American investors a means to buy shares of companies that trade on exchanges in South Korea. But the ETF stands out for another reason: a bundle of K-pop stocks will carry less risk than standalone companies that rely on dozens of labels, each with a handful of top artists as well as deep catalogs. Trading under the aptly named ticker KPOP, the ETF includes the stocks of 30 corporations, including several music companies: HYBE, the home of K-pop megastars BTS and up-and-coming acts Tomorrow X Together ...
Fan Chant: Spiraling Into SEVENTEEN and a Q&A with an Industry Expert About Spotify’s K-POP ON! Campaign
Welcome to Fan Chant, a weekly column for K-pop fans, stans, and newbies alike. Each week, I’ll be rolling out interviews, lists, and all kinds of content to keep you in the loop on the latest and greatest from our friends in Seoul and beyond. Also, make sure to subscribe to my companion newsletter! Readers of Fan Chant, you are going to be among the first to hear of a new journey I’ve somehow found myself on. The rumors are true — I’m tiptoeing into my CARAT era. I’m not sure if any other K-pop fans feel this way, but I try very hard to be a casual listener a lot of the time. When it comes to groups I really and truly take the time to dive into — learning names, choosing a bias, etc. — I’m just not sure I have the time for more wonderful people to add to the mix. I’m busy! Advertisement …...
BTS’ RM Joins Korean Musical Collective Balming Tiger for ‘Sexy Nukim’
While BTS continue upon the “Chapter 2” in their careers, group leader RM makes his latest move by teaming up with the award-winning Korean musical collective Balming Tiger. The self-described “multinational alternative K-pop band,” Balming Tiger is made up of nearly a dozen different creatives — including musicians, producers, directors, visual artists and writers — working together since 2018 to represent the younger generation and popularize Asian culture on a global level. While the members simultaneously balance their own projects and careers, Balming Tiger releases feature various members coming together with new single “Sexy Nukim” marking their first in a year-and-a-half. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news For their new hip-hop track...
