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Pyo Kyung-min

Korea Times K-Culture Reporter

Stay tuned for Pyo Kyung-min's latest K-pop stories, where she digs into the backstories that matter. She’d love to hear from you — share your thoughts at pzzang@koreatimes.co.kr. After all, every article gets better with insights from those who love the scene, just like she does!

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K-pop

SF9 marks 10th year with new album 'TENACITY,' vows 6 more decades

K-pop boy band SF9 marks its 10th anniversary this year, but the eight-piece is measuring its career in a much longer unit: 60 more years, by the group's own reckoning, health permitting. The FNC Entertainment act returned Wednesday with "TENACITY," its second full-length album, led by the single "Without Wings," coming back to the scene with a decade's worth of added experience behind it. "We plan to keep this going for another 60 years or so, and we're a group with the will and the nerve to do it," Inseong said at a media showcase in Seoul, Wednesday afternoon. "As long as we stay healthy, it's possible." SF9 debuted in October 2016 with the single album "Feeling Sensation" and opened its 10th year in March with the special album "About Love." Wednesday's release caps off that run, with 10 tracks spanning a range of genres. The group, now made up of Youngbin, Inseong, Jaeyoon, Dawon, Zuho, Yoo Tae-yang, Hwiyoung and Chani, held the press event at Cube Convention Center in Seoul's Mapo District hours ahead of the release, performing the new song for the first time and reflecting on the

Aug 26, 2026By Pyo Kyung-min
SF9 marks 10th year with new album 'TENACITY,' vows 6 more decades
K-pop

Stray Kids' music chart milestone points to system, not luck, scholar says

Since its debut in 2018, K-pop boy band Stray Kids have released more than 20 albums, with all nine of their albums to make the Billboard 200 debuting at No. 1. — a first for any act. The group's latest release, "THIS & THAT," debuted atop the chart on Aug. 22. The eight-track EP also earned 369,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Aug. 13, according to Luminate. Traditional album sales accounted for 357,000 units, marking the biggest sales week of the group's career. By now, the pattern is familiar enough that the more interesting question is not how Stray Kids did it again, but why it keeps happening. Since its 2018 debut, the eight-member group has built its identity around an unusually high degree of creative control. Its inhouse producing unit 3RACHA — composed of members Bang Chan, Changbin and Han — writes and produces much of the group's music, while its relationship with its official fandom, STAY, has grown alongside its global reach. Those two elements have become central to understanding the group's sustained chart performance. Some 8,000 kilometers away from Seo

Aug 26, 2026By Pyo Kyung-min
Stray Kids' music chart milestone points to system, not luck, scholar says
K-pop

HYBE's new girl group TUIDE begins its journey with 'soultronic' music

TUIDE, the first act from ABD, a new HYBE subsidiary dedicated to girl groups, made its debut Monday with the EP "TUNE & PLAY," arriving with the stated ambition of becoming 2026's top new act. The seven-member group is made up of Seohee, Seoyeon, Elena, Jia, Saki, Seah and Yi Hani. Its name comes from the phrase "tune the tide," reflecting what the members describe as their intent to steer the currents of the music scene themselves. The group met with reporters Monday at YES24 Live Hall in Seoul's Gwangjin District, where the members introduced the album and spoke about their debut. They showed little sign of nerves, greeting the press in bright, assured voices. "I'm thrilled to be making the debut I dreamed of," Seah said. "I want to show refreshing performances and give audiences something to enjoy." Elena, who is from the United States, said she has loved singing since she was young and was drawn to R&B. "As a member of TUIDE, I want to show a lot of that groovy tone," she said. Saki, who is from Japan, said debuting in Korea had been her dream since childhood. "It feels like a dream to

Aug 24, 2026By Pyo Kyung-min
HYBE's new girl group TUIDE begins its journey with 'soultronic' music
K-pop

NCT 127 feels like it's starting over on 10th-anniversary album

NCT 127 releases its seventh full-length album "BLINGY" on Monday, opening a new chapter in its 10th anniversary year with three of its original members absent. The Seoul-based unit of SM Entertainment's sprawling NCT roster debuted in July 2016 with the stated ambition of taking the city to stages worldwide. Hits including "Cherry Bomb," "Kick It," "Sticker," "Fact Check" and "Walk" have kept the group in the sights of global fans over the past decade. The team is now operating as a five-member act made up of Taeyong, Johnny, Jaehyun, Yuta and Haechan. Vocalists Doyoung and Jungwoo are fulfilling their mandatory military service, while Mark left the group in April after his exclusive contract with SM ended. Hours before the album's release, the five members held a press conference Monday at Lotte World Tower in Seoul's Songpa District, where they spoke about the comeback and their 10th year in the industry. "We tried to find our way back to where we started," Taeyong said. "Because it's our 10th anniversary, we worked hard to make sure the members who aren't here still come through on t

Aug 24, 2026By Pyo Kyung-min
NCT 127 feels like it's starting over on 10th-anniversary album
K-pop

BIGBANG proves 20 years of K-pop chemistry at Goyang homecoming

GOYANG, Gyeonggi Province — Eight years and eight months away, and two missing founding members, counted for little at Goyang Stadium on Sunday. One of K-pop's longest-standing and iconic boy bands, BIGBANG packed more than 30 songs into two and a half hours. Roughly 40,000 fans answered with a roar loud enough to leave ears ringing. The three-night run, titled "XX : COSMOS," was the group's first concert in Korea since "LAST DANCE" at Seoul's Gocheok Sky Dome in December 2017. It marked BIGBANG's 20th debut anniversary and the opening leg of its first full world tour with G-Dragon, Taeyang and Daesung. Fans of all ages from around the globe filled the complex well before Sunday's 7 p.m. start. Daehwa Station on Seoul Metro Line 3, the nearest station to the venue, was already crowded. The late-summer heat matched the mood outside the gates. Just minutes later, the three appeared to the sounds of their 2012 song "Fantastic Baby." Following an intro video built around the latest album's cosmic motif, a red-washed screen split slowly down the middle and the members appeared in gleaming w

Aug 23, 2026By Pyo Kyung-min
BIGBANG proves 20 years of K-pop chemistry at Goyang homecoming
Music

Wave to earth shrugs off K-pop, indie labels: 'a band, that is enough'

For two years, wave to earth has been introduced abroad as proof that Korean music extends past K-pop, and at home as a band that never quite left the indie circuit. Asked which description fits, vocalist and guitarist Kim Daniel offered neither. "A band. That is enough," he said in a written interview with The Korea Times. The Seoul trio, made up of Kim, bassist Cha Soon-jong and drummer Shin Dong-gyu, who perform as Daniel, John and DongQ, released its new album "bad pieces" on Aug. 7, its first record in two years. The 11-track album arrives ahead of "the pieces tour," the band's largest run to date, which opens Sept. 4 in Vancouver. The album title is a play on the "Bed Peace" sign that hung behind John Lennon and Yoko Ono during their 1969 bed-in against the Vietnam War. "The photos of the Lennon and Yoko bed-in protests were something we stumbled upon while discussing the direction of this album early on," Kim said. "Lennon and Ono stayed in a bed and called it peace, and we liked that the gesture was that small. This album is a bed on a messed up earth." The band's 2023 debut album

Aug 23, 2026By Pyo Kyung-min
Wave to earth shrugs off K-pop, indie labels: 'a band, that is enough'
K-pop

ENHYPEN returns as 6 with music inspired by Brazilian funk

K-pop boy band ENHYPEN said Thursday it kept its attention on the music rather than its reduced lineup, a day before releasing its first album as a six-member group. The Belift Lab act drops its eighth mini album, "THE SIN : BLISS," on Friday, led by the Brazilian funk title track "Bloody Paradise." Jungwon, Jay, Jake, Sunghoon, Sunoo and Ni-ki met members of the press at a hotel in Seoul's Yongsan District in the group's first media conference since it began promoting as a sextet, following Heeseung's departure in March. "This is our first album as six," Jungwon said. "We always think about the finished work. Rather than the number of members, we focused on how to make the result better, on how the recording sounds and how the performance looks." "We had a show in Australia two or three days after the lineup change," he added. "Fans judge us by what they see on stage, so all we thought about was being professional and putting on a good performance. Whenever we talked about the new album and the result, all we had in mind was our fans." Jay was less measured about where he ranks it. "We pr

Aug 20, 2026By Pyo Kyung-min
ENHYPEN returns as 6 with music inspired by Brazilian funk
K-pop

BTS' Grammys boycott signals reversed relationship between artists, award shows

The Recording Academy's changed stance over its new Asian pop music category after K-pop superstars BTS opted not to submit music for consideration for the 69th Grammy Awards has shown the shifting dynamics between artists and award organizers, according to critics and industry figures. While acknowledging that such a boycott was possible only because it came from BTS, one of the world's most influential acts today, they say the controversy revealed a relationship in which award shows need artists with vast fandoms more than the artists need them. The Academy announced the Asian pop music category on June 16 as one of five new awards for the 69th Grammys, open to singles and tracks that make meaningful use of one or more Asian languages. On July 29, all seven members of BTS posted identical statements saying they would not submit music for Grammy consideration, expressing hope that music could be heard and embraced for what it is, beyond region or language. As the row grew, Billboard reported Friday that the Recording Academy leadership consulted representatives across the K-pop, J-pop,

Aug 19, 2026By Pyo Kyung-min
BTS' Grammys boycott signals reversed relationship between artists, award shows
K-pop

OURBIRTHDAY debuts as 1st JYP-affiliated girl group in 4 years

K-pop girl group OURBIRTHDAY made its official debut Wednesday with its namesake first single, "Our Birthday," ending a two-stage predebut rollout that split the seven members into separate units. The group held a press showcase at Blue Square in central Seoul's Yongsan District just hours before the release, sharing their thoughts on the debut and future plans. OURBIRTHDAY is the first K-pop girl group associated with JYP Entertainment since NMIXX debuted in 2022, and the first to launch under the company's subsidiary label, INNIT Entertainment. The group's name refers to the members' aim to treat ordinary days as if they were birthdays. "This is a moment all of us have been waiting for, so we're excited," member Cho Hye-jin said. "We prepared hard through the predebut period, and it means a lot to finally be promoting as a complete group." U said the team name shaped her expectations, noting, "When I first heard it, I thought every day would feel happy and special." Baby chimed in, adding the lineup only became real to her at that point. "It didn't sink in that the seven of us were debu

Aug 19, 2026By Pyo Kyung-min
OURBIRTHDAY debuts as 1st JYP-affiliated girl group in 4 years
K-pop

ONEWE talks longevity, fairy tale-inspired 17-track album

ONEWE, the K-rock band under entertainment label RBW, did not set out to make a 17-song album. The band's youngest member wanted to make a full-length record, and the idea kept returning. "It was a ball our youngest member set rolling," bassist Giuk said Tuesday at a cafe in eastern Seoul's Gwangjin District, just a day before the release. "It kept rolling until it became a big snowman. We all got more and more ambitious." The result, "面 : Unknown Atlas," closes a work the five-piece band has been building since May. Named for the Chinese characters for point, line and plane, it started with the single "點 : The Quiver" and the digital single "線 : The Wake" through to the full album. Twelve of the 17 tracks are new. The other five, including "Coordinates," "Compass" and "Neverland," carry over from the earlier releases. Every song from the new studio album reworks a fairy tale. "Lilliput" argues against measuring yourself against anyone else. "Laputa" imagines an island that begins moving on its own to protect what it treasures. "Pinocchio" follows a boy growing up while hiding his

Aug 19, 2026By Pyo Kyung-min
ONEWE talks longevity, fairy tale-inspired 17-track album
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