K-Pop
BTS Will Perform New Single “Dynamite” At 2020 MTV VMAs
For the first time, South Korean superstars BTS will be performing at the MTV Video Music Awards. The event takes place August 30th with “limited or no audience,” and the Bangtan Boys will be showing off their new English-language single, which has been officially titled “Dynamite”. While the VMAs aren’t… Please click the link below to read the full article. BTS Will Perform New Single “Dynamite” At 2020 MTV VMAs Wren Graves You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet r...
K-Pop Sensations BLACKPINK Officially Announce Debut Studio Album
Over the last four years, the K-Pop group BLACKPINK has been gathering momentum like a tidal wave just offshore. With the release of “How You Like That” last month, they suddenly rose above the world’s shores, blotted out the sun, and obliterated streaming records to the tune of 82 million views in 24 hours. Now, at long last, they’ve announced their debut studio album, and it’s coming October 2nd. Together Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa released a self-titled Japanese EP in 2017, and the Korean-language Square Up the following year. These were repackaged into the compilation album BLACKPINK IN YOUR AREA in 2018, and that project’s startling success allowed their label YG Entertainment to strike a bold new deal with Interscope. Suddenly, the quartet were global. They celebrated by rele...
BTS Announce New English-Language Single Due Out on August 21st
BTS are set to release a brand new single on August 21st. “We have prepared a new single for ARMY, set for August 21st. We are preparing an album for the second half of this year, but decided to first release a single because we wanted to reach our fans as soon as possible,” the K-pop group revealed on V LIVE, a Korean livestream broadcasting app. “Due to COVID-19, people around the world have been going through tough times and we wanted to share some positive energy with our fans.” BTS further divulged that the new song “is upbeat and sung in English, just like ‘MIC Drop’ and ‘Waste It On Me’. We thought that the song sounded perfect as it is in English. We recorded the guide version and felt that the result was something totally new and fresh.” “When we first heard and recorded the song,...
Song of the Week: BLACKPINK’s “How You Like That” Illuminates the Darkest Places
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify New Sounds playlist. A year ago, we were admittedly still trying to make sense of K-pop. We wondered how artists we had never heard of — or only recently came to know — were selling out arenas in record time. We tried to figure out what the deal was with those guys (BTS, btw) teaming with Lil Nas X at the Grammys. Finally, our own Alexis Hodoyan-Gastelum, a longtime K-pop fan and writer, broke it down for us: “K-pop is not a genre. A type of music? Sure. An industry? Yes. A musical scene? Definitely. But not a specific genre. Boom, now we can move forward.” Whether it was the bands, the fans, or the scope of the music itself, we were trying to fit some...
BLACKPINK Perform Record-Smashing New Single “How You Like That” on Fallon: Watch
Hours after unveiling their new single to the masses, the K-pop phenoms BLACKPINK performed it live for the first time on Friday night’s The Tonight Show. Appearing remotely via a soundstage, and accompanied by a troupe of backing dancer, BLACKPINK delivered “How You Like That” with the energy and choreography you’ve come to expect from the K-pop group. Catch the replay below. In the first 24 hours of its release, “How You Like That” set a number of world records. Most notably, the single was viewed 82.4 million times on YouTube, smashing the single day record previously held by BTS’ “Boy With Luv” (74.6 million). Additionally, a total of 1.65 million people tuned in to watch the video’s live premiere on Friday, topping BTS’ previous record of 1.54 million. As of publication, “How You...
K-Pop Fans Sabotaged Trump’s Under-Attended Tulsa Rally
Coming into Saturday’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Donald Trump proudly boasted that over one million people had signed up for tickets. But when the day actually came, there were plenty of empty seats to be found inside the arena, and literally not one person showed up for the outdoor events. Trump’s campaign blamed the low attendance on protestors who blocked the entrance to the arena. However, as the New York Times reports, the inflated ticket requests may have been the direct result of a prank carried out by K-pop fans. K-pop fans, along with their allies on TikTok, worked together to register potentially hundreds of thousands of fake ticket requests as a prank. One of the organizers behind the prank, a YouTube host named Elijah Daniel, told the Times that “It spread mostly ...
BTS Announce New Album Map of the Soul : 7 ~ The Journey ~
BTS can’t stop, won’t stop… even during a global pandemic. On the heels of their participating in the Obamas’ “Dear Class of 2020” digital graduation event, during which the k-pop group gave a commencement speech and headlined the afterparty, BTS has announced a new album. Map of the Soul : 7 ~ The Journey ~ marks BTS’s first Japanese album in over two years. It’ll be released digitally on July 14th with a physical release to follow in the U.S. on August 7th. The Journey expands on the tracklist of BTS’s most recent Korean album, Map of the Soul : 7, which was released back in February. Included on the new album are two original songs, “Stay Gold” and “Rasen no Meikyuu -DNA Kagaku Sousa-“, as well as newly recorded versions of “ON”, “Black Swan”, “Make It Right”, and “Dionysus” in Japanese...
ARMY, K-pop Fans Become an Unexpected Ally to American Protesters
As American protesters took to the streets to mourn the death of George Floyd, they found an unexpected ally: K-pop fans. Floyd died May 25 after a police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving. K-pop fans galvanized by police brutality and political disappointments swiftly mobilized, re-purposing their usual platforms and hashtags from boosting their favorite stars to backing the Black Lives Matter movement. They flooded right-wing hashtags and police apps with short video clips and memes of their K-pop stars. In a tweet Thursday to its 26 million fans, South Korean boy band BTS said it opposes racial discrimination and violence and announced a $1 million donation to Black Lives Matter. Fans quickly followed suit with the hashtag #MatchAMil...
BTS Headline “Dear Class of 2020” Post-Graduation Party: Watch
To close out the Obamas’ “Dear Class of 2020” virtual graduation ceremony, BTS and Megan Thee Stallion headlined a post-graduation party. BTS kicked off their mini-set with a high-energy, choreographed version of “Boy With Luv”. They then sat on stools for a soothing version of “Spring Day”, before closing out their performance with “Mikrokosmos”. Earlier on in the event, BTS gave a poignant commencement speech during which he member of the K-pop shared their own memories from graduation day. [embedded content] Meagan Thee Stallion delivered a medley of hits, including “Big Ole Freak”, “Hot Girl Summer”, “Captain Hook”, “Cash Shit”, and “Savage (Remix)”. [embedded content] The five-hour, festival-style event also featured performances from Katy Perry and Malmua. Perry sang her new sin...
BTS Donate $1 Million to Black Lives Matter
BTS aren’t just talking the talk; they’re walking the walk. Days after issuing a public statement in support of Black Lives Matter, the influential K-pop group has now pledged $1 million to the organization. In a statement to Variety, Black Lives Matter confirmed the donation: “Black people all over the world are in pain at this moment from the trauma of centuries of oppression. We are moved by the generosity of BTS and allies all over the world who stand in solidarity in the fight for Black lives.” In a tweet written in Korean and English earlier this week, BTS expressed their solidarity for the movement. “We stand against racial discrimination. We condemn violence. You, I and we all have the right to be respected. We will stand together. #BlackLivesMatter.” Along with BTS’...
Lady Gaga and BLACKPINK Drop Collaborative Single “Sour Candy”: Stream
Lady Gaga will drop Chromatica tonight at midnight, and yet the blockbuster star continues to rain singles on us. This morning, she’s unveiled her collaboration with BLACKPINK: “Sour Candy”. Stream it below via YouTube. The South Korean girl group truly takes over the track, allowing Gaga to slink her way in and out. Similar to lead single “Stupid Love” and her Ariana Grande collaboration “Rain on Me”, “Sour Candy” is another banger from the Oscar winner, proving Chromatica will bring the party to our pandemic. As the song suggests, take a bite, take a bite below. Editors’ Picks After a minor delay, Gaga’s fifth album Chromatica arrives tonight at midnight on May 29th. Sir Elton John is also expected to appear on the Joanne follow-up, which is said to be “a return” to Gaga’s dan...
Big Hit Entertainment, Home to BTS, Strikes Deal With Seventeen Label PLEDIS
Expanding its strategy to build a multi-label structure, Big Hit is now the largest shareholder of PLEDIS Entertainment. South Korea-based powerhouse Big Hit Entertainment has become the largest shareholder of record label PLEDIS Entertainment, home to K-pop superstars Seventeen and NU’EST, it was announced Monday. Under the terms of the deal, PLEDIS will retain its independence as a label, though its artists will now receive support from Big Hit’s business entities and support organizations to expand their reach into overseas markets — similar to the way Big Hit turned boy band BTS into a top-charting phenomenon across the globe. The PLEDIS deal is the latest move in Big Hit’s strategy to expand its multi-label structure following the company’s acquisition of Source Music last ...
