Back in July, Pink Sweat$ released his EP The Prelude, a six-track album full of soulful pop, including the track “17.” On September 17, he teamed up with K-pop group Seventeen to remix the lucky-numbered track, creating a cross-cultural collaboration with two of the members, Joshua and DK. “It’s a beautiful thing,” Pink Sweat$ told Forbes about connecting with Seventeen and creating a song together after reaching out when he saw DK had done a cover of his song “Honesty” in May. “It’s almost li

Fans of BTS can now enter the band’s creative universe in the new game BTS Universe Story, which launched globally on Thursday (Sept. 24) in South Korea (Wednesday, Sept. 23 in the U.S.). The mobile game, which will be available on Apple’s App Store and Google play worldwide, is inspired by the South Korean septet’s BU, or BTS Universe, a narrative woven into the act’s music, performances, social media, merchandise, etc. that tells the time-looping story of seven men struggling with life in the

In late June, Ariel Rechtshaid scored a Hot 100 Number One in the unlikeliest of ways, he says. "It was another random phenomenon in a series of random phenomena that I've witnessed in my life—and another thing you couldn't possibly control or cook up." The 41-year-old songwriter and producer is talking about "Trollz," a splashy chart-topping collaboration by New York meme-turned-rapper 6ix9ine and actual New York legend Nicki Minaj, which was co-written and produced by Jeremiah Raisen, who’s s

Twitter has changed the way fans, and the world, engage with K-pop over the past few years, and is commemorating a decade of K-pop Twitter this month. Through a series of events this month, including a discussion between fans and artists held on the social media platform, Twitter Korea is celebrating its impact on the way the world has engaged with South Korean pop artists through it since 2010, when K-pop acts and fans first started to engage with the app in impactful ways that would ultimatel

In recent years, K-pop has become increasingly visible globally. Foreign-language music has never had an easy time climbing the charts in the U.S., but K-pop was able to have a stronger presence, thanks to its devoted fandom. Now, K-pop has found a better strategy to break through and sustain success in the West: composing songs with English lyrics. BTS wrote history again this month by becoming the first K-pop act to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart with its first English language song "Dynami

It’s been a few years now since Lay Zhang (also known as Zhang Yixing) released his debut EP Lose Control in 2016. Already a prominent star throughout Asia after debuting as part of K-pop boy band EXO back in 2012 and becoming a prominent television personality in China, Zhang – who is usually known mononymously as LAY – started down a path that year that would turn him into one of the biggest musical players in Asia less than half a decade later: in 2018, he broke onto the U.S. Billboard 200 al

As the global corona pandemic set in during the first half of 2020, live music events came to a standstill. While socially distanced concerts began to take place upon occasion, and there are those who refused to adhere to guidelines, digital concert events have become the mainstay of the music world in 2020. And nobody’s doing it better than the K-pop industry, which has managed a near-seamless shift to online concerts that offers an experience that multitudes of fans across the world can enjoy,

Just days after BTS made history with their first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the company behind the South Korean superstars announced its plans to go public. Big Hit Entertainment, founded in 2005 with a mission to create “Music & Artist for Healing,” has long been rumored to go public and in recent months took steps to pursue an initial public offering (IPO). According to a statement from the company, Big Hit's first offering will list 7,130,000 shares on South Korea’s KOSPI, each e

At 13-years-old, Kwon Bo-ah released her first album ID; Peace B on August 25, 2000. Two decades later, the South Korean pop star known as BoA has gone on to become one of the country’s, and Asia’s, most beloved pop divas, with over a dozen albums in Korean, Japanese and English, and so many hit songs that it would be hard to fit them all in one paragraph. Recognized as the first South Korean artist that broke into the Japanese music scene, the second-largest music market in the world, and led

"What do you want to do? What are you going to become? / Don't know, it's my first time. I think I'll have to live a little longer to know." This query and answer sets the stage for ATEEZ’s “Thanxx,” released through a music video on August 23. The second lead track on their recently released ZERO: FEVER, Pt. 1, out on July 29, the anthemic swagger of “Thanxx” was preceded by the alternating moods of the melodic hip-hop and EDM maelstrom of last month’s dramatic “Inception.” As a pair of single

BTS has made history yet again, this time with the best-ever 24 hour debut of a music video on YouTube with their new song “Dynamite,” out on August 21. “We can confirm that BTS (방탄소년단) 'Dynamite' Official MV set a new all-time 24hr record, surpassing 100M views with 101.1m views in the first 24 hours,” a YouTube spokesperson tells Forbes via a statement. “Dynamite,” the septet’s first-ever all-English single, arrived last week to bring its bright disco pop vibes to heat up the end of summer 2

TWICE are back today (August 21) with their first-ever English song, a new version of June’s “More & More.” Originally released as the lead single of an EP by the same name, the new English variant of the song marks a new stage of TWICE’s career as the first release from the group since partnering with Republic Records in February to expand their reach into global music industries. As the best-selling K-pop girl group of all time regarding physical album sales ever since their formation under

BTS is hoping to ignite happy emotions and energy within listeners who hear their new song, “Dynamite.” Their first original English-language single, the disco pop tune dropped at midnight EST on August 21, just in time to ring out the summer of 2020 on a high note. “A lot of people are going through some tough times right now. I hope that ‘Dynamite’ will be a healing song, a therapeutic song to make lots of people happy,” said Jungkook during a press conference held in Seoul on August 21, held

On any given day, major English-language media outlets may be covering a handful, if any, topics relating to South Korea’s pop music industry industry. And while there are K-pop-specific English-language news sites, many fans of Korean pop acts turn to fan translators on social media platforms as the most accessible news source. These fan translators on Twitter are shaping the way South Korean entertainment news is disseminated to non-Korean-speaking fans, and doing it for free. Acting like rea

From "2 COOL 4 SKOOL" to "Dynamite," BTS has captivated fans around the world.

It’s been nearly a year since “the world had stopped” for K-pop star Wonho. Formerly a member of boy band Monsta X, the singer-songwriter parted ways with the group at the tail end of October 2019 amid a series of allegations about his behavior prior to the act’s first single in 2015. After an investigation by South Korean police cleared him of all wrongdoing, he returned to the spotlight on August 14 with his first single as a soloist, “Losing You.” Working with Highline Entertainment, a subsi

K-pop journalist Tamar Herman’s first book, BTS: Blood, Sweat & Tears, out today, offers some critical course correction. The text gives a full image of RM, Suga, Jin, Jimin, V, Jungkook and J-Hope—their seven-year career, their music, and most importantly, a clear breakdown of cultural references that may bypass most listeners unfamiliar with South Korean history. It’s also a borderline-academic read, a fascinating text on how a boy band from Seoul became a global obsession, and a necessary primer for anyone curious about their story. Full disclosure: Herman is a friend, as all boy band fanatics seem to find one another.