The reasons that made Big Bang become a Kpop legend

Being one of the most famous idols in Kpop, despite many difficulties, Big Bang have no signal of going backward, in contrast, they are still loved by many audience in Korea as well as around the world.
Over 11 years since their debut, to have the unbeatable position like right now, Big Bang has owned many special factors that very few groups do.

Perfect debut strategy

Before their official debut, every member already had a certain success and fame in the entertainment industry.

The group leader G-Dragon and main vocal Taeyang had been trainees at YG Entertainment since they were 12 years old with stage names as GD and YB.

T.O.P was well-known for his stage name as “T.E.M.P.O” as a famous underground rapper. One of his most famous songs was “Buckwild” which was a combination with NBK Gray. After G-Dragon was targeted to be a member of a boy group by YG Entertainment, he contacted T.O.P and took him to the audition.

For the first time, Seungri appeared in the variety show series “Let’s Cokeplay: Mnet Battle Shinhwa”. In the show, the idol group Shinhwa was looking for members for “2nd generation Shinhwa”.

Big Bang was formed in 2006 in a variety show named “The BigBang Documentary”. “The BigBang Documentary” was a real film about the practicing and competing process of the group members. With the strategy of introducing a new group through a broadcasted variety show, YG partly brought Big Bang closer to the Korean audience though they did not debut yet.

Music style

Formerly, Big Bang’s music style was mostly hip hip with a little R&B. The Japanese Yahoo! Site used to compare their former songs to other hip hop artists such as The Black Eyed Peas and commented that, their music material included “attractive voice, rap and personality”.
Big Bang was always seen as a change in music style when they tried digital music and were the first artists to make this kind of music a new trend in Korea.The group was also well-known for being good at controlling their career and at contributing to music production themselves. G-Dragon started to write lyrics and compose melody for “Lies”, “Last Farewell” and “Day by Day”.

It was G-Dragon who described Big Bang as “an idol group who was not born thanks to talent, but efforts”.

The Japanese Yahoo! complimented the group for their contribution to their own music products and “probably, thanks to every member’s contribution to their music material, not only did the group work smoothly together, but every member also were very outstanding”.

All members own equal talents

Since their debut, the 5 boys of YG were considered as one of the most talented groups of Kpop due to their amazing voices, music styles as well as composing ability. The time proved that. After over 11 years since debut, all members had their own solo product with certain success which was not less famous than the group’s big projects.

The group leader G-Dragon participated in album production, writing and harmonizing some group-branded songs such as “Lies“, “Last Farewell“, “Haru Haru” and “Fantastic Baby“. He was complimented for his dedication, enthusiasm, creative style and his contribution in the fashion industry. G-Dragon solo career was also very admirable with 3 times winning daesang, including 2 awards for “Album of the year” with “Heartbreaker” and 1 award for “Artist of the year” in 2013.

Besides his success in music with the group as well as with small group GD & TOP, T.O.P also participated in some movies and films such as “I Am Sam” (2007), “IRIS” (2009), “Nineteen” (2009), “71: Into the Fire” (2010), “Commitment” (2013), “Tazza: The Hidden Card” (2014) and “Out of Control” (2017). All of his products were highly assessed and got certain success.

After publishing some EP and albums with Big Bang, Taeyang started his solo career in 2008 with EP “Hot”. In 2010, his 1st studio album “Solar” was released. His 2nd studio album “Rise” ranked 112th on Billboard 200 of USA, becoming highest ranking album among Korean solo artists’ albums which used to be on the chart. The theme song of his album, “Eyes, Nose, Lips” ranked first on Billboard K-pop Hot 100 and was his single which reached this position. “Eyes, Nose, Lips” also ruled Kpop music industry and brought Taeyang the honorable daesang for “Song of the year”.

Since his official debut, Daesung published many solo singles and participated in opera and variety show “Family Outing”. In 2013, Daesung released his first album name “D’scover” and started the first dome tour of his career in Japan. Daesung planned to hold 4 performances in total in Kobe and Tokyo to promote his album. However, on 28th February, due to the sudden increase of the audience, Daesung held 21 more performances in 17 cities, increasing the total number of performance up to 25 places in 18 cities.

His 2nd tour in Japan [D-LITE DLive Tour 2014 in Japan – D’slove] – also ended successfully on 27th July in Osaka. He had been to 8 cities and attracted up to 17.000 people, becoming the first Korean solo artist to reach 100.000 audience for every tour in Japan for 2 years in a row.

The youngest brother Seungri’s solo career was also admirable. In the beginning of 2011, Seungri published his 1st mini album “VVIP”. 2 years later, he released his 2nd mini album “Let’s Talk About Love” and his “Gotta Talk To U” song was nominated for “Male solo signer” at 15th Mnet Asian Music Awards in 2013. He also contributed hard to composing the group’s album.

Their management company

Big Bang worked under YG Entertainment which is one of talent companies and one of the best studio brands in Korea. YG Entertainment which was established by Yang Hyun Suk focuses on talent training, producing and publishing Kpop music products. They tend to produce R&B and Hip hop music style. This is one of the 3 biggest studio companies together with S.M Entertainment and JYP Entertainment in Korea because of their strong marketing strategies and international activities.

Moreover, YG Entertainment is also famous for appreciating artists’ talent over appearance. As an evidence, YG’s “chicken” do not have sparkling and shining appearance as SM or JYP’s artist, but their talents are not worse than anybody.

The support from a special company like YG clearly helps Big Bang to shine as much as they can. However, we still need to mention about Big Bang’s influence toward YG. Though YG has different strategies and orientation from other Korean entertainment companies, before Big Bang’s successful debut, YG was not really a “big boss” in Korea like it is right now. It is Big Bang’s over-expected success that contributes a lot to bring YG Entertainment become one of the current Big3.