Corney will tell you about K-pop: [Corney`s K-pop Talk] YG Begins (1)

Hello, people over the world who love K-pop. I`m Corney Hwang and I`m about to tell you many interesting stories related to K-pop through this blog. And this is my first column. I hope you would enjoy this article.

Before you read this, I got to tell you that, I`m a Korean who not use English as mother tongue, so please understand if there are somewhat awkward sentences or expressions in this article. Then let`s get started!

I`ll start with YG Family`s story as my first column. YG is a representative major entertainment agency of Korea with SM and JYP. If you put a little interest in K-pop, you might know YG is a entertainment agency having 2NE1, Bigbang etc, and they have their identical color which are differentiated from other Idol bands. Then, how did YG start their business at first and how did they make their own style? Before the real start of the article, Take a look at YG`s works.

[ 2NE1 / Fire MV ]

[ Bigbang / Lies Live performance IN YG Concert ]

Probably many people know YG is a company which was build by C.E.O, Yang Hyeon-suk. Then, let`s know about who YG is. He was a member of Taiji Boys which went down in music industry history of Korea. However, as you can guess just from the band`s title, Taiji Boys was a band mainly focused on Seo Taiji and YG was more like dancer in the team with another member Lee Ju-no in that team.

Taiji Boys declared the retirement in 1,996 when their popularity peaked and the each members started to go to separate ways. Seo Taiji went to America to focus on his music works, and Lee Juno and YG started their career as producers.

But, despite the reputations he got from Taiji Boys, his start as a producer didn`t go smoothly. He produced a boy band called “Keep-six”, but they were like a imitation group of Taiji Boys in their 1st album period, and didn`t have their identity. So they failed with negative assessment of public.

[ Keep-six / Forgive Me MV ]

On the other hand, Lee Ju-no, another member of Taiji Boys, made a big success producing a band called “ Young Turks Club”, one of a popular dance group of 90`s with a unique concept “Ugly” among most handsome and pretty bands in 90`s K-pop industry.

[ Young Turks Club MV ]

YG who tasted failure as a produce, published his solo album after that, but it didn`t make a big success as well even though it became an issue because of participation of Seo Tai-ji.

[ YG / Smoke of Devil MV ]

But he didn`t give up at all, and tried collaboration with Lee Hyun-do in D.EU.X. Finally they made a hip-hop duo “Jinusean” consisted of member “Jinu” and “Sean”

In a sense, Jinusean was a beginning of these day`s YG Family. They made sensation with trendy hip-hop sound in a Korea music market of the day that Idol bands like H.O.T and Sechskies were mainstream. Actually, when I listen to their music in these days, after about 15 years passed, I do not feel it`s like old fashion or outdated. Now, Jinusean do not work as singers but they`re training a kind of apprentices who want to be a singer in YG. Check out the Jinsean`s video clip.