Five guys with powerful voices, who can sing perfectly solo, but when put together in one band, make an explosion with every song. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Big Bang. They are not any theory or a television show, but a boy band from South Korea. While boy bands may have died here in the US, they are still lively in South Korea and Big Bang is far from the exception. The band is made up of leader G-Dragon, Taeyang, T.O.P., Daesung, and SeungRi. Making their first official debut on August 19, 2006, these boys are no strangers to the entertainment industry.

Two of the members, leader G-Dragon and lead vocalist Taeyang had signed with YG Entertainment since they were both twelve years old (thirteen years old Korean age), while a third member, T.O.P. was an underground rapper. Shortly after, the band released their first mini, mini album known as a single, on August 28, which reached #5 on the South Korea Monthly Chart. Exactly one month later, on September 28, the boys released another single, followed by a third in November of the same year. Big Bang finally released their first album, “Bigbang Vol. 1” on December 21, 2006, reaching #1 on the weekly charts and #10 on the monthly charts.

Since their debut in 2006, Big Bang has released four EPs, four concert albums, three singles, two studio albums, and one compilation album—and that is just the Korean discography. They have also debuted in Japan, releasing five singles, three studio albums, two EPs, and two compilation albums. Big Bang released their first live concert album “The First/Real Live Concert” in February 2007, which after the initial sell-out, the album continued to be in such a high demand that YG Entertainment were forced to repackage and resell the album by the end of 2007.

Riding on their success of their mini-album, the group received many awards, including “Best Male Group,” “Song of the Year” and “Artist of the Year.” In early 2008, the group ventured into Japan, releasing their first Japanese EP, which charted at #10 on the Oricon chart with little promotion. By 2009, and enough fans in Korea and overseas under their belts, the group decided to take a break and pursue solo activities. Leader G-Dragon, SeungRi, and Taeyang released one album each, while rapper T.O.P. and Daesung collaborated with other artists.

After two years on hiatus as a full group, Big Bang returned in 2011 with their Big Show concert along with their latest EP, “Tonight” on February 23, 2011. “Tonight” was the first album to reach the top 10 on US iTunes, and is the only non-English language album in the top 100. The album had a pre-sale order of over 10,000 copies. In a week, over 100,000 album copies were sold! The EP gained much popularity in countries all over the world, and was received quite positively. The group has also been the models for various commercial films (CFS) in Korea. From cell phones to cameras, beers, automobiles and even ice cream, Big Bang has endorsed a total of ten products from June 2010 to May 2011, ranking them second highest paid males in Korea, in terms of CFs.

From 2006 to present day, the members of Big Bang have been very busy. They have released a total of twenty-two albums and singles both in Korea and Japan. They have been in many CFs over the years, collaborated with many artists, and even traveled to Las Vegas to film their music video for their latest lead track “Tonight.” These boys have class, style, and skill, which will definitely take them as high as they possibly want.

Image Courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/deilaina/

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About the author

Eisha Vatsal
I enjoy a range of music and love to learn about different artists from all over the world. I love to read. My favorite season is a mixture of late spring and early summer (before it gets too hot).

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