Big Bang, The World’s Largest K-Pop Band, Are Coming To Australia. Here’s What You Need To Know.

Over the past fifteen years, a rather large musical revolution has been brewing in South Korea. While the West has been distracted by Miley, Kanye and the many Justins of the world, Korean performers have been slowly plotting a worldwide cultural takeover — known in the region as the Korean Wave (Hallyu in Korean).

The ’90s saw an influx of Korean dramas (K-drama) into the Japanese and Chinese markets. Previous Asian cultural productions were typically very modest, and were soon surpassed by risqué Korean content that highlighted female sexual confidence and male attractiveness. Add increased access to the Internet and illegal DVDs into the mix, and you have yourself a formula for sales.

The Korean government soon saw the Wave as a chance to subtly spruce their agenda and wares (mostly cars and tech products), and injected billions of dollars into cultural funding to prop up the industry. Benefiting from this cash flow was another arm of the Wave — Korean pop music (K-Pop). Building on the success of K-dramas in Japan, Korean groups began releasing albums in Japanese and built a fan base from touring, advertisements and appearing on local TV.

The male and female performers became known for their upfront, confident attitude, which again was a refreshing contrast to the strait-laced popular music of days gone by. The sexual undertones of their dancing, fusion of pop, R&B, hip hop and dance, as well as the high quality of their video productions all bolstered the genre’s influence throughout China and southeast Asia. By the late 2000s, and again with the help of the internet (particularly YouTube), K-Pop was well positioned to make a move internationally.

In July 2012 a relatively unknown performer named Psy brought K-Pop screaming into the West with his now infamous hit ‘Gangnam Style’. Still the most viewed video ever on YouTube (2,428,752,473 views and counting), the track illustrated a novelty element to K-Pop, and paved the way for other Korean performers to increase their exposure internationally.

Now one of the genre’s largest exports, Big Bang, are riding the Wave all the way to Australia this month. Known in Korea as the ‘Nation’s Boy Band’, the group consists of five members: established rappers and song writers G-Dragon and T.O.P, and younger members Taeyang, Daesung, and Seungri. Since their official debut in 2006 they’ve released three studio albums in Korea and four in Japan, as well as various collabs and live performances that have made them one of the highest paid and most in-demand groups on the peninsula.

Their 2012 release ‘Alive’ was the first ever K-Pop album to chart on the US Billboard 200, and videos from their new album [MADE] have already amassed 300 million views on YouTube in 2015. The standout hit ‘BANG BANG BANG’ was released in June this year and landed at Number 1 on Billboard’s World Digital Chart. As of this week it remains at Number 3 – and you can see why. It’s a banger.

Terrible puns aside, the Korean Wave is well and truly coming. But never fear if you’re late to the K-Pop party. To start you on the journey we’ve prepared a handy guide to get you up to speed on all things Big Bang:

–

Enter the G-Dragon

Something of an androgynous K-Pop deity, Kwon Ji-yong (better known as G-Dragon, or simply GD) is a founding member of Big Bang — and quite the ladies man in South Korea.

But he is also a bit of a rebel. The rapper was once busted for smoking weed (which he denied), and he is notorious for his multiplying body art — often fodder for the local press (tattoos are frowned upon in Korea). In addition to all the body art, GD knows how to wear Chanel tennis gear like a pro — just have a squiz at his solo track ‘One of a Kind’:

–

Their Clips Are Amazing, And Terrifying

Did someone have a baby by Usher? Check out the younger band member Taeyang wipe the floor with his dance moves in this track with GD, ‘Good Boy’:

Next level dystopian sets? Dyed blue hair? Incredibly catchy anthem? You must be thinking of ‘Fantastic Baby’! Their 2012 hit brings the house down with one of the best K-Pop music videos out there:

They also made a trailer for their 2015 world tour. There is absolutely no reason for the excess in this video aside from throwing shade at Jay-Z and Kanye for their lazy depiction of capitalism in the film clip for ‘Otis’ (not you Aziz – you were perfect).

–

Can You Hair That?

It’s no secret that Korean idols are big on outrageous hairstyles. But what happens when your favourite K-Pop stars sign up to do their mandatory (usually 21-month) military service? While few male stars try to get out of it, the national service has been known to cause quite a crisis when idols undertake their prescribed crew cuts.

The boys from Big Bang are yet to do their service (cut off age is 31), so stay tuned for that Korean drama. There is talk the group may commit to staggered enlistment periods which allows the band to continue to release work as solo artists. As an Idol’s career does not usually run into their late twenties, the enrolment predicament is quite unique to Big Bang.

–

They Have Famous Fans

Naturally, Diplo wants in on this whole K-Pop thing — and rightly so. He collaborated with G-Dragon and T.O.P in 2012’s ‘Knockout’, which got banned from all three national broadcasters in Korea for using ‘slang’.

Even Karl Lagerfeld is a fan of G-Dragon; here he is participating in the Chanel Haute Couture Show in Paris earlier this year.

To get you in the mood for their Australian arrival, here’s a little clip from the boys themselves:

Too cute! But if like me you can’t make it to their show, there is always SBS Pop Asia on a Sunday — the best thing in morning television since Recovery, quite honestly.

–

Madeleine Allen is a writer from Newcastle, NSW. She has worked at several media organisations including SBS and ABC TV.