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· Editorial Staff
SM Entertainment launches K-pop academy for aspiring idols
SM Universe Academy, a K-pop educational institution co-founded by SM Entertainment, has recently opened its doors to its first-ever cohort of students. Earlier today, the school, located in Daechi-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, welcomed aspiring stars to the start of a three-year…
· Bryan Ke
K-pop boy group’s first major award ends up for sale at Philippine flea market for $3
A Filipino TikTok user upset several social media users after posting about a special K-pop trophy that their mother allegedly found at a flea market in the Philippines. On Sunday, several K-pop fans quickly identified the award as appearing to be the first and only MAMA (Mnet…
· Daniel Anderson
Aespa to be first-ever K-pop act to take stage at Outside Lands music festival
Aespa will be the first K-pop act to perform at the Outside Lands music festival in San Francisco this August. The K-pop girl group will be the only K-pop artist at this year’s lineup, which includes notable performers such as Sza, Foo Fighters, Kendrick Lamar and ODESZA.
· Daniel Anderson
K-pop’s newest hit: mental health support through audio therapy
The manager of a legendary K-pop artist once asked me to exclude the words “mental health” in any context from a pending interview profile. It’s still a taboo subject for many, and more so in the colossal entertainment industry of K-pop. Swaths of articles have been written…
· Daniel Anderson
S. Korean politician in hot water for resurfaced fanfic featuring K-pop star IU
Controversy is swirling around South Korean politician Jang Ye-chan after a fanfiction he authored years ago allegedly referenced singer IU in a lewd manner. Jang is a 34-year-old candidate for the head position of the youth division in South Korea’s conservative People Power…
· Daniel Anderson
Why ‘K-Pop Dreaming’ podcast host Vivian Yoon kept her love of Korean music a secret for years
“K-Pop Dreaming,” a new podcast series by LAist Studios that explores the rise of K-pop and the Korean diaspora in Los Angeles, released its first two episodes on Thursday. Listeners are guided by host, writer and actor Vivian Yoon, a second-generation Korean American immigrant…
· Bryan Ke
SM Entertainment CFO warns HYBE’s ‘hostile takeover’ will hurt K-pop fans
South Korean entertainment company SM Entertainment has released a new statement video addressing what it describes as a “hostile takeover” from competitor HYBE after the latter became the label’s largest stakeholder. The video, uploaded on SM Entertainment’s YouTube channel on…
· Daniel Anderson
K-pop quartet Brave Girls say ‘Goodbye’ to agency with final song
K-pop quartet Brave Girls are departing from their long-time label Brave Entertainment following the expiration of their contracts. Brave Entertainment announced the girl group’s split and the release of their final single, “Goodbye,” in a statement posted on the group’s fan…
· Daniel Anderson
K-pop supergroup GOT the Beat declined invitation to perform at Coachella 2022
Girls’ Generation member Hyoyeon shared that GOT the beat had to decline an invitation to perform at Coachella 2022 due to a logistical reason. SM Entertainment supergroup GOT the beat is a subunit of the label’s special project Girls On Top. GOT the beat consists of Girls’…
· Daniel Anderson
Interview: K-pop boy band ONEUS promise to show their ‘dark side’ on ‘Reach for Us’ world tour
RBW Entertainment’s K-pop boy band ONEUS embarked on their “Reach for Us” world tour on Jan. 12, starting at the Apollo Theater in New York. The quintet will perform at 13 more stops along the way, spanning both North America and — for the first time ever — South America, with…
· Editorial Staff
BLACKPINK set to make history as Coachella’s first K-pop headlining act
Coachella has recently announced its 2023 lineup and its three headlining acts, with one of them being K-pop girl group BLACKPINK. On Wednesday, organizers of the annual world-renowned music and arts festival, which takes place in Indio, California, made the announcement on…
· Iris Jung
K-pop idols make their mark on ‘The 100 Most Beautiful/Handsome Faces of 2022’ lists
K-pop stars dominate this year’s “100 Most Beautiful” and “100 Most Handsome Faces” lists by TC Chandler and The Independent Critics. Nancy Jewel McDonie, Momoland’s Korean American visual, took the No. 2 spot on the “The Most Beautiful Faces of 2022” list.
· Editorial Staff
Exclusive: K-pop stars, paranormal romance, high school genres top Asian content, Rakuten Viki reports
K-pop stars, paranormal romance and high school are among the most popular themes to appear in K-dramas, C-dramas and Taiwanese dramas that debuted on Rakuten Viki in 2022. Rakuten Viki, which holds the largest collection of Asian content for both free and subscription…
· Daniel Anderson
K-pop Weekly: BTS’s RM releases solo, KARA makes 15th anniversary comeback, fourth gen wins big awards
BTS’ RM, JYP Entertainment’s ITZY and SM Entertainment’s Red Velvet all made comebacks this week, but there were a good handful of other noteworthy releases, namely KARA’s 15th anniversary return. This week also saw two big award shows, the Melon Music Awards and the MAMA Music…
· Editorial Staff
K-pop power couple HyunA and DAWN call off engagement
K-pop power couple HyunA and DAWN have called off their engagement and are no longer dating. On Wednesday, HyunA posted about their split on Instagram. “We broke up. We’ve decided to be good friends and coworkers. Thank you all for being supportive of our relationship,” the…
· Daniel Anderson
K-pop Weekly: Queen BoA returns, NMIXX gets glittery, BTS’s RM reveals album tracklist and featured artists
Happy holidays! This week was a bit lighter on music, but there were still a handful of noteworthy releases, starting with the long-awaited return of K-pop queen BoA and her album “Forgive Me.” KANGDANIEL released a repackage album titled “The Story : RETOLD,” and NMIXX got the…
· Iris Jung
The hottest male and female K-pop stars, according to Japanese teens
To determine the hottest K-pop idols in Japan, a community brought together 20,804 teens to vote on the matter. The hottest male K-pop stars from first to last were: BTS’ Jin, Enhypen’s Niki, Stray Kids’ Lee Know, BTS’ V, BTS’ Jungkook, Astro's Cha Eun-woo and Shinee’s Taemin.…
· Daniel Anderson
K-pop star AleXa dishes on being ‘Back In Vogue,’ her viral pride flag moment
K-pop soloist AleXa released her first EP “Girls Gone Vogue” on Nov. 11, a six-song album led by the title track “Back In Vogue.” AleXa spoke with NextShark on Monday to discuss her album, her first U.S. tour and her viral support for the LGBTQIA community. Earlier this year,…
· Daniel Anderson
K-pop Weekly: OMEGA X takes legal action against label; BIBI releases first full album; The Rose rocks Seattle
So much happened in the K-pop world this week. Boy group OMEGA X took unprecedented action and held their own press conference to detail alleged incidents of physical, verbal and sexual abuse from their company CEO. The K-pop group are terminating their contracts, trademarking…
· Daniel Anderson
K-pop Weekly: BTS’ RM, Red Velvet, BoA, ITZY, New Jeans announce new albums; Spire CEO resigns; SEVENTEEN debuts Japanese EP
K-pop Weekly took a hiatus last week with respect to the tragic incident in Itaewon. This week, there has been a slow but steady stream of new music releases from the likes of AleXa, OH MY GIRL member YooA, SEVENTEEN and more. Additionally, fans can soon expect new music from an…
Answer
BTS connects to HYBE, Weverse, memberships, merch, and tickets.
People & Works
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Artist · K-pop
&TEAM
&TEAM is HYBE's first homegrown Japanese boy group -- a localization play that plants the HYBE system directly inside the world's second-biggest music market rather than exporting Korean acts into it.
Artist · K-pop
2PM
2PM invented the 'beast idol' -- JYP's masculine, acrobatic counter-brand that opened the Japanese arena market for K-pop boy groups and made Thai member Nichkhun one of the first non-Korean idols engineered as a pan-Asian sales asset.
Artist · K-pop
aespa
SM's flagship 4th-gen group turned streaming dominance into arena-scale global touring — the clearest sign K-pop's next tier can headline, not just chart.
Artist · K-pop
AKMU
AKMU are the sibling duo who won K-Pop Star and picked YG on their own terms -- 'The Nation's Siblings' whose songwriting-first model gave YG a rare non-idol prestige asset that outlasted a full 12-year label run.
Artist · K-pop
BABYMONSTER
YG built BABYMONSTER as its designated BLACKPINK successor, and the pressure is the point -- the label bet its next decade of revenue on a seven-member group that had to shatter rookie sales records just to justify the comparison.
Artist · K-pop
BIGBANG
BigBang were the original architects of K-pop as a global export business -- the first mainstream Korean hip-hop idols whose stadium tours and merch empire proved a Korean act could out-earn Western pop stars and became the template YG monetized for a decade.
Artist · K-pop
BLACKPINK
The genre's biggest girl group returned as a group after years of solo dominance — testing whether K-pop's Western peak was a moment or a plateau. 'GO' answered.
Artist · K-pop
BOYNEXTDOOR
BOYNEXTDOOR is rapper Zico's KOZ Entertainment absorbed into the HYBE machine -- an artist-founded label that HYBE bought and turned into a hit factory, showing how HYBE grows by acquiring creative shops, not just building them.
Artist · K-pop
BTS
BTS didn't just come back — they re-coronated K-pop's top tier. 'Arirang' fuses Korean folk roots with global pop, and the tour proved the machine HYBE built scales to stadiums worldwide.
Results
Culture · artist
BTS
BTS connects to HYBE, the company behind BTS, Weverse, albums, merch, memberships, tickets, and concerts.
Company · Korea · KOSDAQ:035760
CJ ENM
CJ ENM is behind TV, music, film, award shows, and major cultural exports that shape what people watch.
Company · Korea · KRX:352820
HYBE
One of the layers behind BTS, SEVENTEEN, TXT.
Company · Korea · KOSDAQ:035900
JYP Entertainment
JYP is tied to groups that drive albums, tours, subscriptions, merch, and international fan activity.
Company · Korea · KOSDAQ:041510
SM Entertainment
SM is tied to idol groups, tours, fan clubs, and the long-running system behind some of K-pop's most recognizable acts.
Company · Korea · KOSDAQ:122870
YG Entertainment
YG connects global K-pop attention to touring, brand deals, fan demand, and artist-centered entertainment revenue.
Company · Korea · KRX:251270
Netmarble
Netmarble is Korea's mobile-game powerhouse that turns pop-culture IP into games — from BTS titles to Marvel — and is one of HYBE's largest shareholders, linking K-pop and gamin...
HYBE · K-pop · KRX:352820
A BTS comeback is not just songs. It’s albums, merch, tickets, and Weverse.
A BTS comeback can start with one stream on your phone, then turn into a fan-club sign-up, merch order, livestream ticket, and more time spent inside Weverse.