Seventeen won six awards at the 38th Japan Gold Disc Awards, according to the Record Industry Association of Japan on Tuesday. Established in 1987, the Japan Gold Disc Awards are presented by the Recording Industry Association of Japan to reward Japanese and foreign artists based on net sales of CDs, music videos, singles, downloads and streaming. This year, Seventeen won Best Asian Artist for the first time since its debut, Album of the Year for its 10th EP, “FML,” and three of this

K-pop March 13, 2024

A K-pop reality show will be launched in the US through a partnership between Titan Content, a US-based K-pop label launched by former SM Entertainment CEO Han Se-min, and The Gurin Company, a Los Angeles-based entertainment studio. The show, titled "K-pop Dreams" is a 10-episode reality show that delves into Korean fashion, Korean beauty and Korean dance as well as look for the next K-pop stars who want to realize their “American K-pop dream,” Titan Content said. The show

K-pop March 12, 2024

K-pop boy group Seventeen topped Oricon’s weekly album chart dated March 18 with its 11th EP, “Seventeenth Heaven.” This marks the third time the album has landed at No. 1 on the Japanese music industry standard album popularity chart. Seventeen is only the second artist to top Oricon’s weekly album chart three times with the same album following BTS. The EP “Seventeenth Heaven” was released on Oct. 23. Soon after its release, Seventeen made history by becomin

K-pop March 12, 2024

IU’s voice rippled through the KSPO Dome on Sunday as the lights dimmed to open the singer-songwriter’s final Seoul concert of her first world tour, "H.E.R.," which took place in the capital on March 2-3 and March 9-10. Reminiscent of dandelion spores, IU appeared from the ceiling wearing a glittering headset and slowly descended toward the stage, silently surrounded by her audience. When she landed on the stage to perform “Holssi,” meaning spore in Korean, the

K-pop March 11, 2024

Universal Music Group, one of the largest global music publishing companies, has pulled music created by its artists and songwriters from TikTok beginning February, as their licensing agreement had expired. This move comes in an effort by UMG to help its artists and songwriters attain fair compensation from TikTok. “TikTok proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay. Today, as an indication of how l

Culture March 10, 2024

There are 3,168 indie musician groups (7,545 individual indie musicians) in Korea as of February, according to a report by Xindie Lounge on Friday. Xindie Lounge is organization that helps promote indie music and is operated by the Record Label Industry Association of Korea. Musicians who have held at least two in-person shows were included in the survey. Most of the indie musicians, 2,806 groups, were based in Seoul. “The number of indie musicians continues to grow but they face difficult

K-pop March 8, 2024

Rapper Swings released “Upgrade V,” his first studio album in four years, on Friday. His fifth LP carries 17 tracks led by the title track “Work,” composed by Swings. “I wanted to make a song that is perfect to tune into when working out at the gym, a song that will give you a boost of energy when lifting weights,” Swings said on MBC’s variety show “Point of Omniscient Interfere” on March 2. Swings took 16 years to come up with the tracks for

K-pop March 8, 2024

Jennie of Blackpink is introduces her new single, “Slow Motion,” on Friday. The upcoming single is a collaboration between Jennie and Matt Champion, vocalist of American boy band Brockhampton. Matt Champion announced the release by posting a poster of the single in which he tagged Jennie. Jennie and Matt Champion had teased the single, each unveiling snippets of the single on their official social media channels. The single is a drum and bass song that will deliver a fresh and unique

K-pop March 7, 2024

Iconic K-pop artists were invited to the Paris Fashion Week F/W 2024 as K-pop broadens its reach to the fashion industry. Paris Fashion Week F/W 2024 for womenswear took place in Paris, France Feb. 26- March 5. Lisa of Blackpink attended the Louis Vuitton show on March 5. She posted a picture taken with Nicolas Ghesquiere, the women’s creative director of Louis Vuitton, and wrote that “the final fashion week show ended beautifully.” Hyein of NewJeans and Nayeon of Twice also at

K-pop March 7, 2024

Karina of aespa has apologized to her fans for surprising them with the news of her dating actor Lee Jae-wook. The artist posted a handwritten letter to her Instagram account Tuesday in which she explained that it took her some time to talk about dating the actor with the MY fandom as she wanted to be cautious about it. “I know how MYs who have supported me must be disappointed thinking back on the things we’ve said to one another. Because I understand your feelings, I feel even more

K-pop March 6, 2024

K-pop girl group Le Sserafim made its career debut on Billboard’s Hot 100 with the title track of their new EP “Easy” landing at No. 99. The song, released on Feb. 19, debuted at No. 99 with 5.2 million official streams and 1,000 downloads sold in the US in its first full tracking week (Feb. 23-29), according to Luminate. This makes Le Sserafim the sixth K-pop girl group to reach the Hot 100 following Wonder Girls, Blackpink, Twice, NewJeans and Fifty Fifty. The hit single &ldq

K-pop March 6, 2024

Cube Entertainment is launching a new boy group called Nowadays in the first half of this year. The launch was made official with the agency establishing social media channels for the upcoming boy group on Monday. Nowadays is the first boy group debuting from Cube Entertainment in eight years. Pentagon was its last boy group. Nowadays consists of five members whose details will be unveiled in the days leading up to their debut. Cube Entertainment dropped a clip of the group members roaming aroun

K-pop March 5, 2024

NCT Dream is set to unveil its first release of the year, “Dream()Scape,” on March 25. Led by the title track “Smoothie,” the new album will carry five side-B tracks: “icantfeelanything,” “Box,” “Carat Cake,” “Unknown” and “Breathing.” Through the EP, NCT Dream hopes to relate with young people and overcome shared difficulties together, according to a statement by SM Entertainment. NCT Dream released a teaser ima

K-pop March 5, 2024

NCT Wish, a Japan-based K-pop boy group of SM Entertainment, began promoting its debut single, "Wish," in Korea with a press conference in Seoul on Monday. BoA took part in the event, introducing the group as she took part in producing them, from selecting the final members through an audition, to directing the group's singing and dance. SM collaborated with the Japanese entertainment agency Avex Trax to introduce the six members through the “NCT Universe: Lastart” com

K-pop March 4, 2024

From getting good songs and choreographies to holding in-person concerts, things are tough for virtual idols in the highly competitive K-pop scene. “When our virtual idol group Plave was looking for songs, our group members said they felt the composers were not giving them A-level quality songs. That led the group to make their own songs,” said Lee Sung-gu, CEO of Vlast, during a press conference in Seoul last Monday. Vlast is a virtual intellectual property startup that created and

K-pop March 4, 2024