Anyone who has been a fan of Korean pop culture is familiar with the iconic K-pop boy group BIGBANG, and it is easy to see why. Ever since their debut on 19th August 2006, the iconic K-pop phenomenon BIGBANG which started off with five members, G-Dragon, T.O.P., Taeyang, Daesung, and Seungri, has changed the face of K-pop culture in many ways. Despite various members having controversies and criminal charges of varying degrees throughout the years, BIGBANG has a solidified international fandom that will support them through anything.
BIGBANG catapulted their managing agency YG Entertainment to the TOP-3 position in their country and is not only a pioneer in changing the way K-pop music is presented to the domestic as well as international listeners. By breaking various idol stereotypes and marketing themselves as “real artists” who wrote their own lyrics and produced their own songs, and taking the lore of K-pop into international territories that were previously uncharted during their times, BIGBANG has proven time and time again that they really are one of the most iconic K-pop groups to ever exist.
The Unique Discography Of BIGBANG
One of the reasons BIGBANG have been so impactful for the K-pop industry is obviously their music. At the time of their debut, there was no other boy band quite like them – BIGBANG meshed hip-hop into their music in a unique way that was appealing to international listeners of music, and that is the reason they were able to accumulate such a huge fan following simply through their discography. Since BIGBANG was created, one of the members of the pioneering K-pop acts Seo Taiji & The Boys, their attention was always towards interlinking western hip-hop elements in their songs while also keeping up with the Korean flavor just like their predecessors, but in a way which captured the international music market as was the need back then.
BIGBANG have not only written one of the greatest hype bangers ever known in the K-pop universe (like “BANG BANG BANG,” the legendary “Fantastic Baby”, G-Dragon’s “Crooked,” which is a club rock banger with the saddest lyrics ever), but also the most unique ballads. While nobody except Daesung is vocally trained enough to sing the traditional Korean ballads we often hear in OSTs, that doesn’t mean BIGBANG ballads pack any less of an emotional punch (in fact, their unique singing styles add more to the emotions attached to the song). From “If You,” “Haru Haru,” “Untitled” (G-Dragon solo song), “Eyes, Nose, Lips” (Taeyang solo song), there is no dearth of emotions in BIGBANG songs, and that’s why music listeners keep coming back for more.
A relevant example of how the music of BIGBANG withstands is the popularity of their latest (and probably last) comeback, ‘Still Life’. The 2022 single ‘Still Life’ has been PAKs (Perfect All Kill, which is a feature in Korean music charts), getting active unique active listeners close to 900K in South Korea alone, and they are achieving all this with a grand total of zero promotional efforts. Despite their controversies, it is obvious that their fans, V.I.P.s, and the Korean general public alike are still curious and receptive to the music BIGBANG put out.
Even though ‘Still Life’ has gotten comments like being “a sentimental song hiding self-pity under the guise of nostalgia” (by a renowned Korean Music Awards critic Jung Min Jae, the VIPs for whom the song was dedicated to, appreciated its multidimensional ballad structure with honest lyricism, as evidenced by the song dominating global charts and also being the highest-charting K-POP song so far in 2022 on Billboard Global 200.
The Iconic BIGBANG Are Not Your Usual Pretty Boys
While there is nothing to be said against the “pretty flower boys” of the K-pop industry, the debut of BIGBANG paved the way for K-pop idol aspirants who were not fully in line with Korean beauty standards. BIGBANG did not possess the typical idol “flower-boy” looks, and they were unapologetic about it.
While other K-pop bands managing companies put strict rules on their idols to behave a certain and a maintain a certain image to the tee (think of SM forcing TVXQ’s Jae Joong to be a brooding emotionless flower-boy when in reality his personality was more on the goofy side), the members of BIGBANG were given free rein to behave any way they wanted. Furthermore, BIGBANG songs don’t have the typical synchronized choreography that typical boy groups do and instead rely on steps that focus on the natural on-stage presence and swagger of the members. As a result of that, the authenticity of the BIGBANG members fetched them a hoard of unwavering and dedicated fans.
Back in the earlier days of the iconic BIGBANG being active as a five-member idol group, their variety show appearances caught the eyes of not only their fans but also the general Korean public who didn’t care about K-pop music. Owing to them letting the quirks of their personalities run wild in variety shows like SBS Family Outing, KBS2 2 Days 1 Night, KBS2 Happy Together, and MBC Infinity Challenge, BIGBANG was able to lock in everyone from Korean ahjummas to the youth into their fandom. YG also produced BIGBANG variety shows featuring only them, like their debut survival show documentary BIGBANG: THE BEGINNING (2006) and their 10-year Anniversary special RUN, BIGBANG SCOUT!
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BIGBANG Were The Inception of the Modern K-pop Style
The management for BIGBANG brought a lot of new things to the K-pop industry, which has now become the norms. Take the quintessential K-pop fandom lightstick, which is a device that is unique for every K-pop group and is used to cheer the idols in their concerts. Before the existence of lightsticks, balloons of different colors were used to cheer and differentiate between fandoms of different groups (think of Eunji with the white balloons cheering for her idol oppas in Reply 1997!) BIGBANG was the first idol group to introduce the modern version of the lightstick to K-pop – the nightstick is named Bang Bong, and it was designed by G-Dragon himself.
Of course, it is widely considered that iconic BIGBANG was the first idol group to majorly produce and write their own songs, with G-Dragon penning evergreen hits like “Lies” and “Haru Haru” that catapulted them to fame. T.O.P. was also the first underground rapper (named “T.E.M.P.O” ) to pursue a career as a K-pop idol, paving the way for many future rapping geniuses like Suga (BTS), RM (BTS), Mino (WINNER), Zico (formerly BLOCKB), LE (EXID), Yongguk (formerly B.A.P.) to bring in their underground hip-hop sensibilities to the Korean pop stage.
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Moreover, BIGBANG members G-Dragon and Taeyang also had a massively successful career as solo artists without disbanding BIGBANG, which was considered an anomaly back then. 2NE1 was also created by YG Entertainment because they wanted a female version of BIGBANG who were not all about pretty looks. If you were impressed by the abs-reveal choreography in BTS’s debut song “No More Dream,” guess what, BIGBANG were the first one to popularize that choreography in K-pop. G-Dragon was one of the first idols to experiment with out-of-the-world whacky hair colors that are commonplace in K-pop right now.
BIGBANG’s Face of The Group, T.O.P.
There is no one in the K-pop realm who is quite as similar to Choi Seung Hyung, AKA T.O.P. Leaving aside his quirky nature and whacky antics, T.O.P. brings a special spice to BIGBANG songs with his rapping talents. T.O.P. is also adept in singing ballads like no one else, thanks to his baritone voice, and brings much joy to V.I.P.s when he occasionally indulges in vocal singing (think of the craze for his parts in the 2015 song “Let’s Not Fall In Love” from the M.A.D.E. EP). But that is not all that T.O.P. brings. What makes him different than other K-pop idols is his refreshing and brash honesty about his feelings about working in the K-pop industry.
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It is well-known that T.O.P. almost didn’t make it into BIGBANG and had to lose a dangerous amount of weight to be able to debut. While all the YG Entertainment members maintain the image of the “YG Family” that Yang Hyun Suk has set up, T.O.P. has always taken the responsibility of taking off the rose-colored glasses of the delusional fans by saying that for him, YG is just a place of work, and not everyone is as close-knit as a family. T.O.P. is also adored for his on-stage swagger, where he puts his special dance moves to work when he forgets (or doesn’t bother to remember) the original choreography.
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