K-pop royalty Bigbang greets 2012 with a fiercer and stronger appearance, music and style with their 5th mini-album, Alive. The return of G-dragon, Taeyang, T.O.P., Daesung and Seungri created a lot of buzz not only in Korean music arena but also around the world.
Bigbang’s comeback after nine months of being away from the public’s eye solidifies the group’s stint as the Kings of Korean Pop. Alive boasts six title tracks which includes Blue, Bad Boy, Fantastic Baby, Love Dust, Ain’t no Fun and Wings, Daesung’ s solo - the first in Kpop history. Likewise, this comeback is regarded as the most extravagant in YG Entertainment’s history in their 15 years of existence in the Korean music biz. Eventhough it was just a mini-album, BIgbang’s individual color are vividly seen on each song. Alive displays Bigbang’s musical maturity, flexibility, uniqueness and distinct talent which set them apart from any other K-pop idol. Bigbang has already surpassed Korea’s idol group category. They are the only group that creates and produces their own music, the very reason why the group is always on top. Alive songs were mostly penned by G-dragon and the rap parts were written by fellow member T.O.P. Deasung also shared his writing skills with his solo effort Wings. Alive was produced by BIgbang’s leader G-dragon alongside fellow YG producer Teddy of 1TYM.
A week before the official release of the 5th mini-album, Blue, the first track off the six title tracks immediately become an infectious syndrome in and out of Korea via Youtube and other music portals and sites. Blue’s music video which was filmed in New York City, received over a million hits in less than 24 hours of its release via Bigbang’s official Youtube channel and even gained two gold medals. It also achieved a perfect all-kill status in the seven major digital music sites’ daily rankings including streaming sites proving the success and popularity of the song. As a testament to Blue’s popularity around the globe, many countries through iTunes charts in the United States, Canada, France, United Kingdom and Mexico have the single ranked #45; Australia #51; New Zealand #61 and Finland where the song made it into top 3. The song was also released in the same time worldwide and has managed to make it into the Top 100, quite an accomplishment for a K-pop artist.
Upon Alive’s official release on the 29th of February, Bigbang right away got a “Perfect-All-Kill” standing. The six title tracks plus the Intro dominated the charts on Melon, Bugs, M-net, Olleh, Soribada and others. The seven songs ranked 1st to 7th place, practically owning the charts - a rare feat for a K-pop idol and a proof that Bigbang songs are well-received and loved by their fans. Alive embodies different genres such as pop, hip-hop and electronica. Aside from this, Bigbang received endless calls from different variety programs; pre-orders of the 5th mini-album exceeded the 260,000 mark.
At the hype of the group’s successes, Bigbang just kicked-off their world tour entitled Alive Tour 2012, at the Olympic Park Stadium in Seoul, South Korea last March 2 to 4 with 40,000 fans and spectators in attendance. Live Nation together with the world renowned tour director Lauriean Gibson are the producers of the said tour which will hit 16 different nations and 25 cities in Asia, Europe, North and South America respectively for the rest of 2012.
Bigbang’s 5th mini-album, Alive, which has been released more than a month now, is still currently receiving enormous attention and notable reviews from various music analysts and bloggers around the world were simulataneously published online and offline. Bigbang has attracted worldwide media. An article posted last March 7 at TIME.com entitled “South Korea’s Greatest Export: How Kpop is Rocking the World,” talks about the success of the group and the effect of Kpop explosion in South Korea’s economy. Two days after the article was posted, TIME once again mentioned Bigbang in the article “Watch Your Back Bieber, the Boy Band is Making a Comeback.” In this article, Bigbang was noted as one of the groups expected to dominate the 2012 charts.
Gawker news magazine/blog author article entitled “The Real Perfect New Pop Song is this Kpop Hit, Bad Boy” foresees a potential for Kpop to conquer America with the help of Swizz Beats, a hip hop mogul, who recently signed a collaboration deal with one of South Korea’s biggest entertainment companies.
Letras, one of Brazil’s biggest music websites, highlighted and even gave an impressive introduction to Bigbang’s Fantastic Baby music video. Fantastic Baby music video recently received two gold medals on Youtube.About.com, an online information website administered by North American writers and is owned by the New York Times Company ranked Alive at #2 on the website’s Top 10 Pop Album Charts.
Bigbang’s global dignity was once again attested. Recently, the group was featured on Grammy’s main page, a first time for any Kpop star to appear on the main page and main photo session of Grammy’s official website. The featured photo with the caption, “South Korean Quintet Bigbang Go Kaboom During a Performance in Seoul, South Korea,” was taken at the K-Collection, a fashion + music show held at the Olympic Park Gymnasium last March 11.
Bigbang’s musical talents were acknowledged by the Americans. Alive debuted at #150 at the U.S. Billboard Top 200 right above Justin Bieber’s My World 2.0. Alive also charted #4 on the Heartseakers album chart, #22 on independent album chart and #4 on World Album chart.
Bigbang’s achievements don’t end there, the VIPs, Bigbang’s fandom are nominated for “Best Fan” category on MTV Italy’s TRL (Total Request Live) Awards. TRL Awards was established last 2006 to give recognition to the most popular artists and music videos in Italy. Winners of the said award giving body will be revealed on May 5 of this year.
Alive Japanese edition was released on March 28 and debuted at #2 on the Oricon charts. The album contains 2 new tracks, Feeling and Ego, in addition to the seven tracks on the Korean Album. Feeling will serve as the opening theme song for the animated version of Transformers: Prime, a film based on Steven Spielberg’s hit movie, Transformers which will be broadcasted as a full 3D CG series in over 140 countries and will be shown on various channels in Japan, including Tokyo.
Feeling was co-produced by the German DJ and producer Boyz Noise and G-dragon. In addition to this, Alive Japanese Album has 10 songs which includes Japanese versions of Blue, Bad Boy and Fantastic Baby. Lyrics of the Japanese songs were penned by Verbal of the Japanese hip hop duo M-Flo. This coming May, Bigbang will have their five-city of Bigbang Alive Tour 2012 in Japan, making it the second stop of Bigbang’s world tour. However, YG has yet to announce the other countries included in the Bigbang World Tour. The group’s performance at the 2012 Springroove Festival last March 31 received praises from fellow musicians and fans.
Although Daesung’s accident and G-dragon’s incident last year created controversies in the Kpop community and raised a lot of questions on whether the band will continue as a group or disband, these issues strengthened the relationship of the true-blooded VIPs who remained loyal to them despite of these low lights. A proof of this is Bigbang’s triumphant win over Britney Spears and the other international singers at the 2011 MTV EMA Worldwide Act Category. Bigbang’s 5th mini-album literally translates that the group is still Alive and is step by step advancing into the world recognition and dominance.
credits: @theREALshhh
THIS ARTICLE SAYS EVERYTHING!! THANK YOU TO UNNIE WHO SHARED THIS<3 BIG BANG CANNOT BE CONSIDERED AS AN IDOL ANYMORE GUYS! THEY HAVE A LEVEL FOR THEIR OWN!
TAEYANG always VIP*.*
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