Big entertainment labels set to unveil K-pop bands

PSY Courtesy of P Nation

By Park Ji-won

This year will see a flurry of new K-pop bands debuting as some of the big four entertainment companies ― SM, JYP, YG and Big Hit ― and international music labels are preparing to unveil new acts. Some groups will be filled with the winners of TV audition shows and others will be launched with debuting performers who have honed their singing and choreography skills for years as trainees vying to become the next BTS or BLACKPINK.

Big Hit Entertainment, the management company of BTS, is planning to launch a K-pop girl group within this year. Details of the act, such as its name and the number of members, are unknown. It is the first time for the company to unveil a girl group in nine years since GLAM debuted in 2012. It was disbanded in 2015.

All eyes are on the new girl group of Big Hit Entertainment after the entertainment company bought Source Music, the management company of GFriend, in 2019 as part of efforts to diversify its business portfolio. It is also the first girl group project with the industry's leading visual director Min Hee-jin, chief brand officer of Big Hit Entertainment and a former visual director of SM Entertainment, who is known for setting visual concepts of a series of SM Entertainment's biggest K-pop groups including Girls' Generation, Exo, f(x), and Red Velvet.

Big Hit is also poised to launch a boy group targeting the Japanese market as JYP Entertainment did there with the training program Nizi Project last year which ended up producing the successful Japanese K-pop girl band NiziU.

P NATION, an entertainment agency founded in 2018 by PSY who swept international music charts with "Gangnam Style" in 2012, will join hands with JYP Entertainment to launch two boy bands representing both labels. Their members will be chosen in the SBS audition show "LOUD" which will premiere Jan. 15. It remains uncertain how many members will be chosen for each group.

Rain Company, an agency founded by K-pop star, actor and producer Rain, will also launch a seven-member K-pop boy group in March named Ciipher, with one Japanese member and six Korean members. They are being promoted as singer-songwriters. Rain previously produced K-pop boy band MBLAQ, who debuted in 2009.

Members of newly debuted T1419 pose during a debut event held online Monday. Courtesy of MLD Entertainment

International music companies are also set up to join the debut battle.

International music companies such as Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music have teamed up with Korean entertainment companies to select the members of the groups.

T1419, a nine-member boy band debuted on Monday, was made by collaboration between MLD Entertainment, NHN and Sony Music Entertainment. MLD Entertainment is the management company of Momoland, a girl group that has been active since 2016. The boy band is aimed to target both Korean and Japanese markets with five Korean members and four Japanese members.

Universal Music collaborated with Shinsadong Tiger, a songwriter and producer of EXID, to launch TRI.BE, a seven-member girl group, next month. It is a multinational group comprising of four different countries. There are three Korean, one Japanese, one Chinese and one Taiwanese in the group.

RBW, the management company of Mamamoo, will launch a seven-member girl group titled PURPLE K!SS. It consists of six Koreans and one Japanese.

S2 Entertainment, founded in 2020 by Hong Seung-sung, former chairman of JYP Entertainment and Cube Entertainment who produced Rain, 4Minute, BTOB, CLC, and (G)I-DLE, announced it will launch a girl group within this year.

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