YG Entertainment is a giant of the korean music industry!

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In 1996, YG Entertainment was founded by Yang Hyunsuk, who paved the way for the emergence of K-pop with “Seo Taiji and Boys” in 1992. YG Entertainment established itself as a leader in the Korean music industry early on with stars like Jinusean, Seven and Wheesung. The label later conquered the charts with idol groups such as Big Bang and 2NE1 and still dominates the K-pop industry today. YG's more recent successes include Blackpink and Treasure! The company also manages actors and models and has its own cosmetics brand, a clothing line and more.

You've probably heard of the Big 3: SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment and JYP Entertainment. The three labels have this title because they have continuously produced successful K-pop artists since their founding and dominated the charts then and now. You also helped create the K-Pop genre yourself and have continued to influence the development of the music genre over the years. If you're interested in the history of K-Pop, you can't avoid the entertainment! That's why we're introducing them to you piece by piece.

So far we have given you an insight into the development of SM Entertainment and JYP Entertainment and now we are dealing with the third in the group:

YG Entertainment

The label is home to Big Bang, iKon, Blackpink, Treasure, AKMU and many other artists. It all started with the founder, who was once an active singer himself!

YG Entertainment's Gründer Yang Hyunsuk

Yang Hyunsuk became known in 1992 as part of the trio “Seo Taiji and Boys”. About a year earlier, he met Seo Taiji, who came to him to learn dancing. Hyunsuk, in turn, was impressed by Seo Taiji's musical talent and expressed interest in working with him. The two brought in a third - top dancer Lee Juno - and made their debut together in April 1992 with the first album, which, like the trio, is called “Seo Taiji and Boys”. Within a month of release, more than 1.5 million copies were sold; It is still one of the best-selling albums in South Korea today! Before Seo Taiji and Boys disbanded in January 1996, three more albums were released, all of which also sold over 1.5 million copies, two of them even sold over two million copies! This is a milestone that, then as now, only a few artists achieved. Seo Taiji and Boys were also the very first in Korean music history to claim double million sellers. The younger K-pop stars on the list who debuted after 2000 include only Seventeen, NCT and BTS.

But the greatest achievement of Seo Taiji and Boys is the fundamental change in Korean music. For example, her debut song “Nan Arayo” was one of the first Korean rap songs. The trio also experimented with Western music and, among other things, inserted English lines into their song lyrics. They then accompanied the new music with hip-hop choreographies and synchronized moves. With that, K-Pop was born! Subsequent artists were inspired to experiment with their music as well, and the very first K-pop idol group “H.O.T” debuted in 1996 under SM Entertainment. H.O.T is called the first idol group because they combined the new musical style developed by Seo Taiji and Boys with choreographed dances, coordinated outfits, easy-to-remember melodies and a focus on good looks.

Seo Taiji and Boys were also known for social criticism in their lyrics. This led to some of their songs being censored. For example, the song “Kyoshil Idea,” which criticized the Korean education system, was not allowed to be played on television or radio. When the Public Performance Ethics Committee rejected the song "Sidae Yugam" in 1995 because Seo Taiji and Boys criticized the government in it, Seo Taiji refused to change the lyrics and only included an instrumental version of the song on the album in protest. The fans' complaints were so strong that they contributed, among other things, to the abolition of the “pre-censorship” law in June 1996. This allowed the government to determine in advance what could be included in books, films and other media. Just a month after the abolition of the law, Seo Taiji and Boys released an album titled “Sidae Yugam” containing the original version of the song. The trio had already broken up in January 1996.

Two months later, Yang Hyunsuk founded his own record company: YG Entertainment!

In 1998 he also released his first and last solo album. One of the songs was composed by Seo Taiji.
The first artist YG signed was a hip-hop trio called "Keep Six", but they did not achieve success. The label next produced the hip-hop duo “Jinusean” in 1997 - the first Korean hip-hop artists to sell more than 700,000 copies of an album - and in 1998 the four-member hip-hop group “1TYM”, whose Debut album - One Time for Your Mind - was one of the best-selling albums of the year. With this, YG Entertainment successfully spread hip-hop into mainstream music in South Korea at the time.

This was followed by many more acts during the 1st Generation of K-Pop, which is generally believed to have lasted from 1996 to 2002/03: The solo artists Masta Wu (2000), Perry (2001), Wheesung (2002), Lexy (2003) , Gummy (2003), Digital Masta (2003) and Seven (2003), as well as the female groups Swi.T (2002) and Big Mama (2003) and the reggae duo Stony Skunk (2003). Quite a few of them played hip-hop, but of course there were exceptions. Wheesung, for example, is an R&B artist and Gummy is still known today for her soulful series soundtracks.

Seven was YG Entertainment's first idol. The singer made his debut at the age of 19 and his first album “Just Listen” was so successful that he won a number of New Artist Awards at the end of the year. With the next releases, Seven's popularity continued to increase and he also gained many fans in Japan. YG also tried to enter the US music industry with him, but failed to gain a foothold there.

With Seven, the 1st Generation of K-Pop ended for YG Entertainment, during which the label already achieved some major milestones and built the foundation for a successful future.

K-pop has been divided into “generations” since its emergence in the 90s. Each is characterized by certain characteristics. The exact year in which a generation began or ended varies by one or two years depending on the source, as opinions differ on this point. The first generation is generally understood to have begun in 1996 with the debut of SM Entertainment's boy band H.O.T. They are considered to be the very first K-pop idol group.

2003 - 2011: Big Bang & die 2nd Generation of K-Pop

After YG produced the rapper Brave Brothers (2004), the band Wanted (2004), the hip-hop trio 45RPM (2005) and the R&B group SoulStaR (2005) in the first years of the second generation, entertainment reached the stage with the debut of his very first idol group Big Bang in 2006 the next big breakthrough! The first three single albums, all of which Big Bang released in 2006, sold over 30,000 copies each. The boy band became one of the most successful K-pop acts of the second generation and also attracted international attention with their hit “Fantastic Baby” in 2012!

In 2009, the success of Big Bang was followed by YG Entertainment's first girl group: 2NE1. The four-member group quickly became one of the most successful and popular girl groups in South Korea! YG Entertainment celebrated many more milestones with them. Among other things, 2NE1's "New Evolution Global Tour" in 2012, which covered 11 cities in seven countries in Asia and North America, is considered the first world tour by a K-pop girl group!

In 2010, YG Entertainment moved: From an old building that was hardly distinguishable from the neighboring buildings to the much larger and modern building in Mapo-gu, a District of Seoul, which also has many universities. The move was a reward for the label's continuous success over the past few years! The new quarters remained the headquarters of the YG family for 10 years.

In 2010, YG Entertainment signed a contract with Psy, an already established singer who has been releasing music since 2001. In 2012, Psy's album “Psy 6 (Six Rules), Part 1” was released including the title song “Gangnam Style”. The song catapulted Psy to the top of the charts, not just in South Korea, but worldwide! Psy became the first Korean artist to top the American iTunes Music Video Charts! Not only Psy felt the success, but also YG. The value of the entertainment stocks had doubled!

2011 - 2020: YG fills the 3rd Generation of K-Pop with survival shows!

In 2012, YG again signed an already established artist: the successful hip-hop trio Epik High, which debuted in 2003. Newer K-Pop fans in particular are probably most familiar with the member Tablo. The singer, rapper and producer also works solo and appeared with his daughter Haru in the popular entertainment show “The Return of Superman” for two years.

About a year after the start of the 3rd Generation of K-Pop, it was finally time for a new artist to debut under YG, three years after 2NE1 in 2009! The solo singer Lee Hi took second place in the final of the talent show K-Pop Star , in which Yang Hyunsuk personally sat on the jury. It aired from December 2011 to April 2012 and attracted a lot of attention in advance. In addition to Yang Hyunsuk, JYP Entertainment's founder Park Jinyoung and solo singer BoA, who debuted under SM Entertainment in 2000, were also on the jury. It consisted of members of the Big 3 and the winner of the show received a contract with a label of his choice! (BoA was replaced by Antenna Music's CEO Yoo Heeyeol from season 3.) The winner Park Jimin chose JYP and YG signed Lee Hi. She debuted in October 2012 with her single “1, 2, 3, 4”. With the song, Lee Hi topped the Gaon Digital Charts, won on a music show and received Gaon's Song of the Year Award in November. So YG Entertainment continued to prove itself as a hitmaker!

A year later, in April 2013, the second season of K-Pop Star ended with both the winners - sibling duo AKMU - and the runner-up - 10-year-old Bang Yedam - were signed by YG. AKMU's first album "Play", released in April 2014, not only topped the Korean Gaon Charts, but even reached second place on Billboard's US World Album Charts! While the siblings climbed the career ladder, young Yedam trained under YG to make his debut once he reached the required age.

In 2013, after K-Pop Star Season 2, YG Entertainment presented its first survival show “Win: Who is Next”. The show pitted two teams of male trainees from the label against each other to debut. One of the trainees, Kang Seungyoon, had already successfully released three solo singles in 2013. The five-member Team A, including Kang Seungyoon, ultimately won and debuted four months after AKMU, in August 2014, under the name “Winner”. They lived up to their name and took the hearts of their fans by storm. Just five days after their debut, they won first place on a music show, setting a record!

Although YG added two popular new artists to the K-Pop scene in 2014, the label didn't take a break and produced its second survival show “Mix & Match” before the year ended. In it, eight trainees fought for a place in a new boy band; including the five trainees who competed as Team B in “Win: Who is Next” a year earlier and missed the chance to make their debut. This time all five emerged as winners from the show and, together with another trainee from the show, formed the boy band “iKon”. It debuted in September 2015 and topped several South Korean and Chinese charts!

YG Entertainment continued its successful streak in 2016 and perhaps even took it to the extreme! On the one hand, in May the label signed the boy band Sechs Kies, which debuted in 1997 and was one of the most successful artists of the 1st Generation of K-Pop. The boy band had already broken up in 2000, but reunited after 16 years under YG. She released her new single “Three Words” in 2016 and proved with massive chart successes and sold-out concerts that Sechs Kies fans are still behind the boy band.

In addition, the new four-member girl group Blackpink made its debut in August. They are one of only two girl groups that YG Entertainment has produced to date and only debuted seven years after 2NE1! Since 2NE1 disbanded in 2016, Blackpink is currently the label's only girl group.

The wait was definitely worth it, because starting with their very successful debut, Blackpink quickly became probably the most popular K-pop girl group in the world!

After the solo rapper One debuted in 2017, YG produced another survival show in 2018 to form the next boy band, as he did for Winner and iKon before. After some back and forth - two groups were actually planned - the show called “Treasure Box” created the twelve-member boy band Treasure. The members include Bang Yedam from Kpop Star Season 2! Treasure only debuted in August 2020. One of the reasons for the delay was the global Corona pandemic. The boy band released four albums in the same year, three of them single albums, and had already sold over a million albums before 2021! Treasure was a much-needed success for YG Entertainment after a series of scandals in 2019 severely damaged the label's image.

2019: One scandal after another rocked YG Entertainment

It started with one of the biggest scandals the K-pop industry has ever seen! The Burning Sun Scandal cost a number of famous idols their careers, and with good reason. In short, it emerged that a well-known nightclub called “Burning Sun” was involved in prostitution, drug trafficking and police corruption. One of the directors of the club was none other Seungri from Big Bang. He is currently serving a prison sentence that is expected to end in February 2023. He was found guilty, among other things, of arranging prostitution and distributing illegally filmed sexual content.

The discovery of a chat room in which singer and songwriter Jung Joonyoung shared secretly filmed sex videos without the knowledge and consent of the women filmed also played a large role in the Burning scandal. Seungri was also part of the chat as well as Yong Junhyung (Highlight), Choi Jonghoon (F.T. Island) and Lee Jonghyun (C.N.BLUE). All of them left the entertainment industry and with it their respective groups.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the next scandal followed in June 2019. B.I from iKon is said to have tried to illegally buy the drugs LSD and marijuana. As a result, B.I left iKon and YG Entertainment just a few days later. The scandal itself was relatively harmless, especially compared to the Burning Sun scandal. But it made waves when it was reported that YG's founder Yang Hyunsuk worked with the police to cover up the case. He and several other YG employees were later convicted of illegal financial transactions and had to pay a fine.

The scandals led to Yang Hyunsuk and his brother Yang Minsuk, who was CEO of YG Entertainment for a long time, resigning from all of their positions within the label in June 2019. However, it is believed that Yang Hyunsuk still owns most of the shares in the company and is still involved in decisions.

2020 to today:

Thanks to the artists' activities and a series of successful albums, YG Entertainment slowly recovered from the damage to its image from 2020 onwards.

In September, the label officially started the move to the new building, which was finally completed after four years. It stands right next to the old building and is considered the most luxurious and expensive entertainment building in South Korea! But above all, it offers much more space. In previous years, YG had to rent other buildings to accommodate all of its employees.

Then as now, YG Entertainment is one of the most successful labels in the Korean music industry and will certainly continue to influence the K-pop scene in the future.

YG Family

YG Family is simply the name for the music collective that includes all artists from YG Entertainment. The artists go on tour together under the name and release music videos. The YG Family's first album was released in 1999.

Subsidiaries

YG is not just a record label and talent agency. Over time, entertainment has taken on more and more tasks such as event management, concert planning and the distribution of their music. In order to achieve even better results, the label has founded a number of subsidiaries that operate independently.

This includes, for example, the label “The Black Label”, which produces artists such as Zion.T and Jeon Somi. Apart from that, there is YGX Entertainment, which manages several dance crews, and YG Plus, a media and advertising company that, among other things, takes care of the distribution and licensing of merchandise items.

With YG KPlus, a modeling agency is also part of the YG empire. In addition, YG also has a number of actors under contract.

In addition, the company founded a cosmetics brand called “Moonshot” in 2014, which revolves around the make-up and skin care of the stars. The brand is of course promoted by YG artists like Blackpink! There is also the clothing line “NONA9ON” and perhaps somewhat surprisingly: XGolf, an online golf platform. Years ago, YG secured an additional source of income with XGolf.

As you can see, entertainment is broad and not only successful in the music industry!

Social-Media

If you are a fan of the YG Family, you can follow the official accounts of YG Entertainment on Twitter as well as on Instagram and YouTube:

Youtube // Instagram // Twitter

Currently (June 2022) YG Entertainment has the following artists under contract:

Gruppen: Sechs Kies, Big Bang, AKMU, Winner, iKon, Blackpink & Treasure

Solo singers: As solo singers, entertainment lists members from its idol groups who have released solo albums. This includes Eun Jiwon from Sechs Kies, several members of Big Bang, Winner and Blackpink as well as Lee Suhyun from AKMU and Bang Yedam from Treasure.

Of course we can't forget KRUNK either! Admittedly, KRUNK isn't really a singer, but the mascot has his own YouTube channel on which he has been publishing music videos and dance covers, among other things, for 5 years. So KRUNK can somehow be described as an artist, right?