As Ryu Sujeong enters her late 20s, she continues her journey as a solo artist, deeply reflecting on the feelings she felt along the way, transforming them into songs. Ryu's songs, written as if they were her diary, fill her first full-length album “Archives of Emotions,” which was released on Thursday. “The tracks from my previous albums are more hopeful and mellow, filled with pretty words. But these recent ones embrace more realistic concerns that I’ve been having

진행자: 홍유/ Beth Eunhee Hong 1. For Choi Seung-yoon, ‘Riceboy Sleeps’ is about strength of mothers 기사 요약: 최승윤, ‘라이스보이 슬립스’는 어머니의 강인함에 대한 이야기 [1] There are many stories and films that depict the lives of immigrants, struggling to adapt to family life in a new country with an uncooperative child. *depict: 그리다, 묘사하다 *uncooperative: 비협조적인 [2] Canadian actor and filmmaker Anthony Shim’s “Riceboy Sleeps” (2022) is about So-young, a single mother from Kore

K-pop boy group iKON is making a comeback for the first time since they joined a new label. iKON is set to drop its third full-length album “TAKE OFF” on May 4, according to 143 Entertainment on Tuesday. All members of iKON joined 143 Entertainment on Jan. 1 after their exclusive contract with YG Entertainment expired in December last year. iKON, consisting of members Bobby, Jay, Song, DK, Ju-ne and Chan, debuted under YG Entertainment in September 2015. They were grouped together wh

K-pop girl group aespa is back, making its long-awaited return with a new album 10 months after the release of its last album. Aespa's new mini album, “My World,” will be out on May 8, according to an announcement by SM Entertainment on Monday. This is the group's third mini album following its previous mini album “Girls” which was launched last July. The new album comprises a total of six tracks in which aespa will continue to tell its story evolving around Kwa

K-pop performance queen Lee Chaeyeon is back to knock over the music scene with her second mini album, “Over The Moon.” This comeback comes six months after Lee Chaeyeon made her debut as a solo artist last year with her debut album, “Hush Rush.” “I tried to put my bold and adventurous characteristics into the album, in which the concept is to depict diverse identities, from a high school honor student to a wannabe,” Lee Chaeyeon introduced her new album at a

Singer-songwriter Grass started making songs when traveling because she wanted her music to be like a memory box that she can look into whenever she wants to bring back the experiences she had while traveling. “When I travel, I get a lot of ideas from the people that I meet. I write down the stories of these people, and I also write down the feelings and moments I want to remember. Then I look back at those notes and that’s when I have a piece of new music,” Grass told The Kore

K-pop girl group Ive is back ready to expand its narcissistic universe with its first studio album “I’ve Ive.” After a series of songs on self-love such as “Eleven,” “Love Dive,” and “After Like,” the hitmakers have returned with a different undertone. The members showed a more mature version of themselves through the new titular track “I Am.” The title of the titular track is self-explanatory, as Ive has outdone itself to show wh

K-pop girl group Kep1er transformed from heroes to love-struck girls for their fourth mini album, “Lovestruck!,” which dropped on Monday. The return comes six months after the group released its third mini album, “Troubleshooter.” The story of this new album is about the nine members landing on Earth due to a magnetic attraction towards someone that they all fall in love with. This is the first time Kep1er members encounter the feeling of love and sing about how being in

CJ ENM, a Korean entertainment giant and the parent company of the music channel Mnet, is being heavily criticized for rehiring its former Mnet producer, Ahn Joon-young. CJ ENM rehired the producer on Monday despite the fact that Ahn Joon-young, the producer of the channel’s flagship audition show “Produce,” is a convicted criminal. In March 2021, Ahn was sentenced to two years in prison and a penalty of 37 million won ($30,000) for manipulating the voting results to put certai

Just as the weather has been warming up, some of the major K-pop artists are gearing up for comebacks to warm up the music scene. Mark of NCT is returning with his second solo single, “Golden Hour,” on Friday. This track is the sixth to drop from SM Entertainment’s special archiving project, “Station: NCT Lab.” Mark took part in composing and writing the lyrics to this hip-hop song. The song is composed of strong guitar and drum sounds that harmonize with Mark&rsquo

AfreecaTV, one of South Korea’s biggest livestreaming service platforms, is exclusively broadcasting the K-pop idol survival program “Boys Planet” in Southeast Asia in real time with translations in various languages spoken in the region. The online platform, which airs the show every Thursday, has since garnered popularity across the region. The show, produced by Korean entertainment powerhouse CJ ENM’s music channel Mnet, involves evaluating K-pop trainees through vari

YG Entertainment is launching a mobile game utilizing Blackpink intellectual property with Takeone in the second quarter of this year. In Blackpink The Game, the player acts as the producer that nurtures Blackpink members into K-pop idols, YG said Tuesday. The player can run a training and business management simulations and decorate the avatars of Blackpink members. The players can also communicate with other users from around the world. Blackpink took part in the project by helping to creating

Rapper and producer Zico is gearing up for the debut of his K-pop boy group. The first K-pop boy group of KOZ Entertainment is set to enter the music scene on May 30, according to KOZ Entertainment on Tuesday. KOZ Entertainment is an affiliate of Hybe, the K-pop powerhouse behind BTS, which was initially launched by Zico back in 2018. The sub-label currently houses Zico and singer-songwriter Dvwn. All eyes are on whether this group will turn out to be successful among the many others to also deb

Thousands of people cheered as the lights of the KSPO Dome in Seoul shone bright, signalling the beginning of Red Velvet’s fourth concert, “R to V.” The excitement from the audience was palpable as the long-awaited concert kicked off after three years and five months of hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On a lift, the queens appeared on stage wearing stunning jet-black outfits that made them look like five black swans. Red Velvet began their last day of the gig on Sunday wit

K-pop diva Chungha is leaving her long-time nest, agency MNH Entertainment. MNH Entertainment, the agency that currently houses Chungha, announced Wednesday on the soloist’s online fan community cafe page that her seven-year exclusive contract with MNH Entertainment expires next month. “Our exclusive contract with Chungha who has been with us for the past seven years since her debut in 2016 expires on April 29, 2023. We want to thank Chungha for her hard work and also her fans for su

Jisoo of Blackpink’s debut as a soloist with her first-ever solo album “ME” is just a day ahead. The superstar plans to show a new version of herself never seen before through “Flower,” the album’s titular track, and also through the side track “All Eyes On Me.” “I put a lot of thought into how I can show the soloist Jisoo instead of the Blackpink Jisoo. I continuously developed music that only I can do and that I am good at. During the proce

K-pop girl group NewJeans has linked up with Apple to hold a special pop-up session for the Apple Gangnam store's grand opening on Friday. The 15-minute free session involved experiencing Apple’s spatial audio technology with NewJeans’ latest titular track “OMG.” “This was part of our effort to communicate with our fans. When you listen to our songs with Apple’s spatial audio, you will feel as if we are singing standing next to you. We wanted to give back

K-pop girl group Billlie transformed into teenage school girls for their new fourth mini album, “The Billage of Perception: Chapter Three.” Not only has their style brightened, but so have the tracks, as the group took the stage with lighter, more danceable tracks at a media showcase held in Seoul on Tuesday. “Our previous songs like ‘Ring Ma Bell’ and ‘GingaMingaYo’ were quite abstruse. But in this new album, we tried a different music genre. We want to

K-pop girl group CSR took off on a journey to find their true selves with their second mini album, “Delight,” which dropped on Wednesday. CSR, consisting of seven 18-year-olds, faced a “light” at the end of the tunnel before turning 18, and wanted to share their journey of discovering what that light is in this new album. The mini album comprises a total of four tracks led by the titular track, “Shining Bright,” and three sidetracks including “Signal,&rd

K-pop sensation NCT is launching a new unit with three of its members Doyoung, Jaehyun and Jungwoo. The trio will make their debut as Dojaejung with their first mini album “Perfume" on April 17, according to SM Entertainment on Monday. The mini album carries a total of six tracks led by the titular track “Perfume,” and five side tracks of diverse genres. Members of Dojaejung are renowned for their outstanding vocal and performance talents as well as for their good looks. T