Sales of K-pop albums have once again reached an all-time-high in the first half of this year, a local market tracker said. According to Kim Jin-woo, head researcher of Circle Chart, which reports accumulated sales and streams, combined sales of the nation‘s top 400 physical albums have risen to 34.9 million copies in the first half of 2022, up 34.6 percent from a year ago. It was the highest ...

A decade into career, group Ulala Session hits refresh

Fans create their own fandom on social media through dancing, says author of new book “K-pop Dance”

IST Entertainment’s new boy band ATBO has embarked on their journey with debut album “The Beginning.” Formed through the TV survival show “The Origin - A, B, Or What?,” the seven-member group finally entered the K-pop scene and conducted a debut showcase a few hours ahead of the album drop on Wednesday. Making their first appearance in front of the media, the band’s leader Oh Junseok said, “Our...

BTS’ anthology album “Proof” extended its stay on the Billboard 200, sitting at No. 37. The compilation album debuted at No. 1 on the chart, its sixth album to achieve the feat. The album sold close to 3 million copies as of the first week of July, after selling over 2 million in the first week of sales. The septet had four songs each on the Billboard Global 200 and Global Chart excluding the...

New K-pop girl group CSR made its debut on Wednesday with its first EP, “Sequence: 7272” under the label Pop Music. The seven-piece act – with members Sua, Geumhee, Sihyeon, Seoyeon, Yuna, Duna and Yeham -- is comprised of 17-year-old girls under the Korean age system. CSR is an abbreviation of “cheotsarang,” the group’s Korean name, which means “first love.” CSR held its debut media showcase i...

Boy group CIX will return next month with its fifth EP, “‘OK’ Episode 1: OK Not.” CIX‘s label, C9 Entertainment, on Wednesday announced the date and details of its August return by unveiling an image showing the band’s schedule via its official social media. The upcoming album marks the group‘s first release since its debut album “’OK‘ Prologue: Be OK,” released in August last year. Prior to th...

South Korean superband BTS has won four nominations at this year's MTV Video Music Awards, the US TV station said Tuesday (US time). The septet was nominated in the categories of Best K-pop, Best Choreography, Best Metaverse Performance and Best Visual Effects. The band has been awarded at the MTV awards ceremony for the past three years. It won two titles in 2019 and took home four prizes in 2...

Jackson of GOT7 surprised fans with news that he will drop a digital single on Friday. He uploaded a teaser image for the single “Cruel,” which was first unveiled at the Coachella music festival in April. The musician also opened the friendly match between Manchester United and Liverpool held in Bangkok earlier this month with the song. The digital single, along with previous single “Blow...

As the days are getting long in summer and the weather is getting hotter outside, Nicole, a former bandmate of the now-disbanded girl group Kara, returned with a new digital single, “You.F.O“ to put music listeners in a sunny mood. This marks the singer-turned-soloist’s return to the music charts in nearly eight years since she last dropped her first EP, “First Romance,” in 2014. “It’s been eig...

K-pop powerhouse JYP Entertainment has teamed up with Republic Records, an American music label owned by Universal Music Group, to launch a joint audition in search of a new global girl group. On Tuesday, the two labels announced the launch of “America2Korea,” a new global audition project that will scout for talent in the US and Canada. Kicking off on Sept. 10 in Atlanta, the A2K auditions wil...

J-Hope of K-pop superband BTS made a good start high on the US Billboard's main albums chart for this week. The rapper-dancer placed 17th on the Billboard 200 with his first formal solo album, "Jack in the Box," Billboard said on a social media Tuesday. "Arson," one of the two main singles off the album, landed at 96th on the Hot 100 main singles chart. "Jack in the Box," featuring 10 songs, i...

Girls’ Generation will make a comeback with its seventh full album on Aug. 8, announced label SM Entertainment on Monday. The LP “Forever 1” comes after about five years since the veteran female group released its sixth LP “Holiday Night.” It will be comprised of 10 tracks and marks the group’s 15th anniversary. The band debuted in 2007 with the single “Into The New World.” All the me...

“At first, the instruments sounded strange because I felt a lot of classical elements and worried about how our performance would turn out. But there was no need to worry because the dance moves were superb,” she laughed. Other tracks on the album are: “Intro: Bye Bye Bully,” “FireFlower,” “Can‘t stop dreamin’,” “Love Is Dead” and “SuMMer RaiN.” Among the many themes of the EP, the idea of bein...

Former figure skater Kim Yuna announced Monday that she will marry Ko Woo-rim, member of the quartet Forestella. According to Kim’s management firm, All That Sports, the two plan to tie the knot at the end of October in Seoul. “Kim Yuna and Ko Woo-rim met for the first time at the celebration performance of the 2018 All That Sports ice show, where Forestella performed. After dating for three ye...