Covers popular music of all genres and periods from 1900 to the present day, including jazz, country, folk, rap, reggae, techno, musicals, and world music.
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An audio and video collection for classical, opera, jazz, world, popular music, and American music. Also includes theatre, dance, and film resources.
Blackpink, often stylized as BLACKPINK, is an all-girl K-Pop group formed in 2016 with YG Entertainment. The group is made up of four members - Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa. The group’s music video for their song “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du'' is the most viewed music video on YouTube for a Korean girl group, amassing 1.8 billion views as of March 2022. Blackpink has seen success in the past few years in particular, with their single “Ice Cream” with Selena Gomez reaching number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and their premiere studio album The Album (2020) reaching number 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. The Album was preceded by their compilation album Blackpink in Your Area.
Beyond music, Blackpink also has a sizeable filmography for a group of their age, starting with the variety show Blackpink House in 2018, followed by multiple tour documentaries made by the group or by outside directors, from Blackpink Diaries in 2019 and 24/365 with Blackpink in 2020 that can be found on their YouTube channel or on the South Korean streaming service V Live, to a cameo on YG Future Strategy Office and Blackpink: Light Up the Sky on Netflix, to Blackpink: The Movie which was released in August 2021.
2NE1 was a South Korean girl group with YG Entertainment. Consisting of four members - Bom, CL, Dara, and Minzy, the group made their debut in 2009 on the single “Lollipop” with the boy band Big Bang, also on the YG label. Later that year they released their self-titled EP 2NE1, followed the next year by their first of three studio albums To Anyone in 2010. They would follow To Anyone with Collection in 2012 and Crush in 2014. The group has made cameo performances and appearances in the 2009 South Korean TV series Style, film Girlfriends, and in the 2014 seasons of America’s Next Top Model and The Bachelor.
In 2015 the group went into hiatus and each member began working on solo projects and 2NE1 was relatively silent until the announcement of Minzy’s departure from the group in April 2016, with YG announcing the group would continue as a trio. This trio would never be realized however, and 2NE1 would disband in November. The group has been heralded as an iconic girl group of that time of the Korean Wave, and each member has gone on to have a solo career of their own.
Red Velvet is a girl group formed in 2014 with SM Entertainment. Originally debuting with four members - Irene, Selugi, Wendy, and Joy, the group added a fifth member, Yeri, the following year. Their musical style is representative of their group name, with some songs more ‘Red,’ fitting within genres like pop, electronic, and hip hop while the ‘Velvet’ side is made up of ballads and R&B. As of 2022 they have released three albums. 2015’s The Red and 2017’s Perfect Velvet are in Korean, and 2022’s Bloom is in Japanese. Red Velvet has also appeared on their own variety show Level Up Project! that ran from 2017-2020, in the 2015 biographical film SMTown: The Stage, and as the voices of The K-Pop Gang in Dreamworks’ 2020 film Trolls World Tour.
Red Velvet, as well as a few other girl groups, are known for subverting the norms of the K-Pop industry with the audiences they attract and their performance. Dazed Magazine has noted that while many girl groups have primarily male-dominated fanbases, Red Velvet and others like 2NE1 and Girls’ Generation are known for having mostly female fans, breaking away from traditional stereotypes for female pop artists to be sexy or innocent.
Twice, often capitalized as TWICE, are a South Korean girl group that formed on the reality competition show Sixteen . The show had sixteen performers compete for the nine spots in the group. The winners were Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Dahyun, Mina, Sana, Chaeyoung, and Jihyo with Tzuyu being added to the group by audience vote and Momo being added to the group at the decision of label founder J.Y. Park. The name for the group came from the idea that the group touches their audience’s heart twice, through the ears and the eyes. In 2017 TWICE became the first female K-pop group to have the number one album and number one digital song for Billboard’s World charts at the same time. The album and song were Twicetagram and “Likey” respectively.
Since their debut and breakthrough in South Korea, TWICE has gone on to make three Japanese albums and “The Feels” which was the groups first English language song released in October 2021. The group's fashion, music videos, and music are based on bright colors, cuteness, and bubblegum pop aesthetics. While other groups are also known for their dancing, TWICE has especially been known for the popularity of their choreography with the trends based around recreating the dances of “The Feels”, “Feel Special”, “What is Love?”, and “TT” all going viral on various social media websites.
There are numerous entertainment and management companies in the K-Pop industry. In the late 90’s however three rose to the top and dominated the growing landscape. The ‘Big Three’ consist of SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment, and JYP entertainment. SM was founded by record producer Lee Soo-man, who observed the American music industry while studying in the United States. The other two companies were formed by K-Pop stars, with Yang Hyun-suk founding YG Entertainment and the singer Park Jin-young establishing JYP Entertainment. While these companies dominate the industry, they are far from the only entities in K-Pop. Other companies like Big Hit Music have BTS signed with them and PSY of “Gangnam Style” fame left YG to form his own company P Nation in 2019.
Groups and performers signed to YG Entertainment
GD & TOP
Bands and performers signed to JYP Entertainment
(1) "Blackpink" by Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. , used under CCAS License 3.0
(2) "2ne1" by Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., used under CCAS License 3.0
(3) "Red Velvet" by Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., used under CCAS License 3.0
(4) "Twice" by Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., used under CCAS License 3.0