Big Bang (Korean: 빅뱅), commonly stylized as
BIGBANG, is a Korean boyband made up of five Korean singers. Although their debut was somewhat successful, it was not until the release of "거짓말" ("
Lies") that the group gained mainstream success.
2005—2006: Formation
Before Big Bang's major debut, each member had his own degree of success and popularity in the entertainment industry. Leader G-Dragon and lead vocalist Taeyang had already been with YG Entertainment since they were both twelve years old, known as GD and YB back then. Member T.O.P was well known as an Bounce - Big Bang"/> Big Bang made their official debut at the YG Family concert, held on August 19, 2006 at the Gymnastics Arena in Seoul Olympic Park.
Prior to the release of their first album, the group had a unique release schedule, with three EPs released within a span of a few months. Their first EP was
The First Single Album, which spawned the top-ten hit single "This Love", a remake of the American boy band Maroon 5's own single.
The single debuted with over 17,000 copies sold in the month of August
and later went on to sell approximately nearly 40,000 copies
. The second EP
Big Bang is V.I.P. was released a month later, selling 21,000 copies in that month. It finally netted sales of 32,000 copies. Their third and last EP,
B I G B A N G 0 3, followed the success of their previous EPs with final sales nearing 30,000 copies
.
Later in the year, Big Bang's own official fan club was created, calling themselves the "V.I.P." (in reflection of their second single "Big Bang is V.I.P."). Unlike other fan clubs, Big Bang's fans do not have a balloon color for showing support at concerts; instead, fans wave black and white BB (obviously standing for Big Bang) handkerchiefs/bandannas. At the end of December 2006, Big Bang held their very first concert titled
The Real. The following month, their first debut album
Since 2007, which was essentially a compilation of songs from their previous singles, was released; it sold 48,009 copies by the end of February 2007.
2007—2008: Breakthrough success
On February 8, 2007, Big Bang released their live concert album entitled
The First / Real Live Concert, which sold almost 30,000 copies by the end of 2007.
From May to July 2007, the group also held their first national tour concert in Korea, with the headline
Want You, touring a total of five cities: Incheon, Daegu, Changwon, Jeonju and Busan.
In August, the group released what would become one of their first mini albums
Always, with the group holding a Showcase/Fanmeeting for promotional activities. Taking control over their music, group-leader G-Dragon began producing and writing some of the songs on the album. The mini-album was released to positive reviews from fans and critics alike, especially the song "거짓말" ("
Lies").
"Lies" became the group's first song to be a breakout hit, reaching number-one on SBS
Hit Songs, their first to do so, followed by MBC's
Music Core, KBS
Music Bank and Mnet's
Countdown and numerous online and offline charts for many consecutive weeks.
The mini-album was successful enough for Big Bang to collect numerous awards by the end of 2007, including "Best Male Group" and "Song Of The Year" from the 2007 M.NET/KM Music Festival
. Later in 2008, Big Bang also collected the prestigious "Daesang" from the 17th Seoul Music Awards.
Their second mini album,
Hot Issue, was released a few months after
Always and yielded another strong single for the group, "Last Farewell" ("
마지막 인사"). It mirrored the success of "Lies," topping various music charts, and winning "Song of the Month Digital Music Award" from Cyworld , beating strong competitors such as the Wonder Girls and F.T. Island. It also topped Juke-On's chart for eight consecutive weeks.
The group then held their second round of concerts from December 28 to 30, 2008, with the headline
Big Bang Is Great, where tickets were reportedly sold out in 10 minutes.
Despite this, various members were hospitalized due to sickness and injuries from over performing and exhaustion,
thus halting and limiting their promotional activities. A representative for YG Entertainment then addressed the issue by stating that though the group would perform at the MBC Music Festival on the 31st, they would cancel everything else on their schedule for the first week of next year. It was later reported in the year that Big Bang's albums and singles had been in high demand, causing the record company to reprint and repackage it for re-releases.
After the success in South Korea, Big Bang ventured out overseas towards Japan. Kicking off 2008, their first Japanese album
For the World was released, with previous Korean singles appearing on the album, in addition to a Japan-only song, "How Gee" (a new remix version from "How Gee" by the Japanese group Black Machine).
For The World debuted at #14 on the Oricon chart and eventually crawled its way to #10, despite lack of promotions.
On the 28th and 29th of March, Big Bang held a concert in JCB Hall in Tokyo Dome City. Additionally, the group also released a Japanese mini-album in late May titled
With U, with a corresponding single of the same name.
The group returned to Korea mid-2008 after their activities in Japan ended. Despite their activities being delayed several time due to solo activities, Big Bang eventually released their third mini-album
Stand Up — which featured collaborations with the group Daishi Dance, and the Korean rock-band No Brain with their latest punk rock single
Oh My Friend. The band's first release was "Day By Day" ("
하루하루"). Like previous albums, leader G-Dragon was heavily involved with the production of the album, having composed and written a majority of the songs with the exception of "A Good Man", which was composed by fellow group member T.O.P. The mini-album went on to exceed the 100,000 mark in sales and also yielded some of the group's strongest singles, with the lead single "Day By Day" topping several online charts and staying at the number-one spot for 6 consecutive weeks.
In addition, several of their songs also made it to the Top 20 of the charts, with "Heaven" at the number-two spot, "Oh My Friend" being ninth, "A Good Man" at twelfth and "Lady" being sixteenth — a total of five songs in the Top 20 for the group.
At the same time, Big Bang released the Japanese song "Number 1" from their album of the same name and introduced the song through Japanese radio programs and TV shows; the album peaked at #3 on the Japan's Oricon daily album chart.Towards the end of 2008, Big Bang released their Korean follow-up album,
Remember, yielding the single "붉은노을 ("
Sunset Glow"), which peaked at number-one on various charts in Korea. At the end of 2008, Big Bang collected their second "Artist of the Year" from the 2008 M.NET KM Music Festival award ceremony.
2009: Branching out
The group went on a break in early 2009, with all of them pursuing solo activities. During this time, they collaborated with 2NE1, a new girl group from their entertainment company and also being called The Female Big Bang, for the song "Lollipop"; they filmed a music video for it as well. Although it was a song used to promote a cell phone, it has since hit #1 on various online charts.
After their success with "Lollipop", the group released their first Japanese single named "My Heaven" in May 2009, their major debut in Japan. The song is a Japanese translation of their song "Heaven" from the EP Stand Up., and was composed by acclaimed Japanese composer Daishi Dance. Due to an interesting promotional campaign in which the group performed on several Morning News programs, Big Bang's single debuted at a surprisingly high no. 3 on the Oricon Charts.
Big Bang released their second Japanese single titled "ｶﾞﾗｶﾞﾗ GO!" (Gara Gara Go!) on July 8, 2009 which reached number 5 on the Oricon charts.
"Gara Gara Go!!" marked the group's first performances on some of Japan's major music shows, like Hey!Hey!Hey! Music Champ and Music Station. With the release of two successful Japanese singles, Big Bang released their first full-length Japanese album under Universal Music, aptly titled Big Bang, which charted in at No. 3.
Almost immediately after the release of their first album, Big Bang returned to Korea. On August 18, G-Dragon released his first solo album titled Heartbreaker which was, despite fair amounts of controversy, a great success. Fellow member Taeyang is set to release his second solo early next year and the music video of his single "Where U At" has been released with his track.
On October 15, 2009, Big Bang announced their first tie-up with a Japanese drama; they will be providing the theme song for TBS's Friday night drama
Ohitorisama starring Alisa Mizuki and Teppei Koike.
The official release of this new Japanese single entitled "Koe Wo Kikasete" (Let Me Hear Your Voice) was on November 4, 2009.
Controversy
Big Bang was accused of plagiarism by Sony Music, as their track "With U" from album
Number 1 was alleged to sound similar to Joe's "Ride Wit U" from his
And Then... album.
Artistry and influences
Musical styles
Big Bang's music style can be classified for the most part as hip pop music (as seen with the songs "La, La, La" and "Goodbye Baby"), with a little vibe of R&B (as seen with the songs "We Belong Together" and "Forever With You"), dance ("Shake It") and mainstream ("This Love") music. Rock with "Oh My Friend". Finally, becoming the greatest hit songs of 2007, (as seen with the songs "Lies", "Last Farewell", and "Haru Haru (Day By Day)") electronica is seemingly becoming the new music trend in Korea.
However, the members have branched out into different genres in their solo work, including singing ballads and mainstream pop music. Big Bang even once mentioned in an interview that if they want to, they might do trot someday.
Daesung's first digital single, "Look at Me, GwiSun" ("
날 봐, 귀순"), was a trot song, which had been somewhat controversial considering Big Bang's primary focus on hip-hop.
The members of Big Bang often contribute to writing lyrics for their own music as well as composing
despite only debuting in 2006. The most notable from the group to compose and write is leader G-Dragon, as he has composed and written numerous songs for the group, including "Lies" and "Last Farewell." Aside from G-Dragon, the others members have contributed to writing lyrics as well. T.O.P has also written a song for their third mini album
Stand up, called "Good Man". On a whole, Big Bang has received praises from critics, fans, and other singers alike for contributions to their own materials.
Dance style
Big Bang often rely on free style and street dancing (as evidenced in their music video for "Good Bye Baby"). They are choreographed by world-class choreographer Shaun Evaristo, (as seen in "Number 1" and "With U" music videos) who also choreographs their concerts and Taeyang's solo projects. Like the popular boy band Shinhwa, Big Bang's own unique style of dancing is credited to a member of theirs, Seungri. Seungri has choreographed some of Big Bang's moves (such as the jump rope dance from "Last Farewell") and has been noted for this.
Image and cultural impact
Big Bang adopted the "hip hop" image concept, with some of the members slanting their caps in many promotional photos, live performances, music videos, and even having cornrows (most notably Taeyang) during the early days of their career. The group continued this image concept for the rest of 2006 and into 2007 until the release of their mini-album Always, which showcased the group in a more preppy-ish punk style, sporting modern day fashion (such as the skinny jeans with Converse or high-top sneakers as seen within the music video of their song "Lies"). Moving further away from the "gangster" look, Taeyang also cut off his cornrows into a faux hawk. Additionally, Big Bang has been noted for being a fashionable group,inspiring teenagers with street-originated flamboyant style.
Big Bang's unique and urban hip-up sense of style has quickly become popular in Korea as a result, known as the "Big Bang fashion". Usually, the group prefers brands such as Bape, 10 deep, Louis Vuitton, Phenomenon, and others and are often seen in customized printed hoodies. The group has been noted as well to have brought back the old school fashion, high-top shoes, such as the Nike and Reebok high-top shoes.
Leader G-Dragon is consider by many to be the most fashionable one of the group,
where he tends to wear triangular scarves (shemagh/keffiyeh) around his neck, known as "Big Bang scarves" or "Jeong Ryeo-won scarves", when the actress of the same name began to sport them as well. Additionally, member T.O.P. is also seen sporting sunglasses, most notably shutter shades, which are worn by American rapper Kanye West. Big Bang's fashion trends are well known throughout the internet fashion portals,
thus making them one of the most sought after artists for endorsement products.
The group's unique imagery and fashion has led them to release their own fragrance, entitled "BB Bud's My First Fragrance (나의 첫번째 향기)" in early 2007.
Big Bang endorsed a Korean online FPS titled Sudden Attack. All 5 members will have their own characters with special dialogue and sound effect
