K-POP Highlights of 2009

2009 was a big year for K-POP, lots have happened both negative and positive. I want to try to stay with the positive so here are my 10 highlights of K-POP in 2009.

1) To start off the year, Girls’ Generation AKA SNSD made a comeback with their hit song “Gee”. The song set the record for the longest #1 on KBS’s Music Bank for 9 weeks.

2) In early March, Epik High departed from their major recording label and founded there own independent label “MapTheSoul”. This is a risky move because in the US when an artist leaves their record company, they are unlikely to be as “famous” and “successful” as they were. However, Epik High is still just as successful and even got a chance to tour in the U.S.

3) Se7en, BoA and the Wonder Girls, along with Utada Hikaru (a Japanese Artist) were featured in People Magazine. Asian artists are starting to be recognize more and more in America.

4) In May, the now infamous girl group 2NE1 debuted. During the time many girl groups were cute and bubbly, but 2NE1 didn’t follow that trend, they had a different style. They were more hip hop, instead of Pop. M.net is a Korean TV program that stands for Music Network, and they have chosen 2NE1 as their Artist of the Year.

5) Se7en wanted to expand to the U.S., working on an English album. In June, Se7en became the first Asian artist to have a music video premiered on BET, with a song featuring Lil’ Kim.

6) In September, Jaebeom was in the middle of a myspace controversy, which sadly ended with Jaebeom leaving 2PM. Although this is not a positive event, I added this because 2PM recently released an album titled 1:59PM, due to Jay. Jay is missing, therefore the group is incomplete. 2PM is a role model for all groups, although they are going through hard times, they will never turn against each other. And on a positive note there are rumors that Jay will be returning, due to his contract.

7) The Wonder Girls have been working very hard on expanding their music to the U.S. The move payed off with the Wonder Girls getting featured in magazines, and touring with the Jonas Brothers. In October the Wonder Girls made it to the Billboard Top 100 Chart.

8) In November, Bi Rain made a big Hollywood debut in Ninja Assassin.

9) The biggest highlight event of 2009 is all the girl and boy groups debuting. In the U.S, I can barley name 2 current music groups, all the groups I know like N'Sync are either broken up or no longer producing music. However, I can probably name more groups than solo artists in the K-POP world. In 2009, girl groups were debuting left and right. Not all of them are successful, but many have caught K-POP fans attention, such as 4minutes, T-ara, Secret and Lady Collection. And you can't forget the the two recently debuted boybands MBLAQ and BEAST/B2ST.

10) Big Bang is my group of the year. Big Bang has accomplished a lot since they debuted in 2006. This year, each member has worked on their own solo project. Taeyang is working on a full solo album. TOP is working on the drama “IRIS” and along with Seungri in “19”. Seungri and DaeSung were working in the musical “Shouting", but unfortunately Daesung was in a car crash and was unable to be apart of it. DaeSung is now recovered and is continuing in the show Family Outing.
But, no one in Big Bang is creating more headlines in 2009, than leader of Big Bang, G-Dragon. GD has been in controversy involving lyrics, plagiarism and stage performance. G-Dragon is not only in headlines due to negative news, but positive as well. Heartbreaker is the top selling album of 2009 in Korea and GD has been in magazines noted for his fashion.
Although everyone is working on their own projects, they are still a group and Big Bang released a Japanese album this year. This shows that they are truly a group and family.

{Source:Youth Radio.org}

By Melody Or, Youthradio,org