State Champ Radio magazine
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The world of collecting societies used to be simple: The French SACEM was pronounced “sa-sem,” the German GEMA was pronounced “gay-ma,” the international organization CISAC was pronounced “si-sak” (except in Europe, where it’s usually “see-zak”), and the American SESAC was pronounced “see-sak” (except in Europe, where it’s usually “say-zak”). Then the passage of the 2014 European Union (EU) collecting society directive made things really complicated.
That landmark legislation made the collecting societies compete to represent songwriters and publishers in the online world in Europe. While the European societies would continue to collect from the bars, concert venues and TV and radio stations in their home territories, they would now license to streaming services across Europe compositions from the rights holders they represented. And over the past decade, many other countries — much of the world, with notable exceptions that include the United States, China and Japan — have adopted this system. “All of the societies now compete to sign publishers and creators to represent,” says SACEM CEO Cécile Rap-Veber.
Two global licensing giants are emerging from this competition: SACEM and ICE, a licensing hub formed as a joint venture by GEMA, the Swedish STIM and the British PRS for Music; Peter de Mönnink has run the Berlin-based ICE since early 2022. SACEM, the oldest songwriters collecting society in the world, collects for Universal Music Publishing online in most territories outside the United States, while ICE collects similar royalties for Sony Music Publishing; Warner Chappell Music’s rights are split between the two.
The societies behind ICE are also formidable on their own. Under CEO Andrea Martin, PRS for Music collected 777.1 million pounds ($960.3 million) in 2021, the last year for which results are available — a 22.4% increase over the previous year on a constant currency basis. Also in 2021, GEMA revenue increased 8.4% to 1 billion euros ($1 billion); the Munich-based society is expected to name a new CEO by summer because Harald Heker, who has helmed it since 2007, is said to be retiring this year. (By comparison, SACEM took in 1.1 billion euros [$1.2 billion] in 2021.) STIM had 2.2 billion kronor ($213.2 million) in 2021 revenue, up 13%, although Sweden is a far smaller country. (These financial results reflect 2021, since not all of the societies have released their 2022 numbers.) STIM has always been more important because “there is an exceptional demand for Swedish music,” says CEO Casper Bjørner, “and STIM has a strong focus on innovation of digital services for our members.” Besides its work with ICE, STIM also has a deal with a PanAsian licensing hub run by the Australian society APRA.
The budgets these societies possess give them the ability to compete globally — not all the smaller societies have the budgets to develop the technology to handle all the data that digital service providers offer. But the growing number of works they represent also give them more negotiating leverage. The interests of big and small societies alike, as well as those of creators in general, are represented by CISAC, a trade organization of collecting societies led by director general Gadi Oron.
Competition is usually collegial but fierce. SACEM has made deals to represent rights holders and societies from the Middle East and Francophone Africa, while ICE and PRS for Music have done better in English-speaking Africa. And, much as the EU envisioned, that competition among societies gives them an incentive to aggressively represent the interests of their clients. “We want to be the best collecting society in the world,” says Rap-Veber, “both in terms of revenue and also getting creators the most money possible.”
This story originally appeared in the April 22, 2023, issue of Billboard.
This story is part of Billboard‘s K-Pop Issue.
Los Angeles-born and -raised choreographer Kyle Hanagami has worked with pop stars like Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Lopez and Dove Cameron. But in more recent years, his résumé has started reading like a who’s who of K-pop’s biggest names: TWICE, aespa, Red Velvet, Girls Generation, NCT and NCT Dream, TOMORROW X TOGETHER and, most notably, BLACKPINK. All have enlisted Hanagami to help craft the fierce moves that power their music videos and stage performances, define their brands and now are oft-imitated on TikTok. He has also worked with members of BLACKPINK on their solo efforts — including with Jisoo on the video for her single “Flower,” which has over 118 million YouTube views. Currently choreographing the forthcoming Mean Girls musical movie, Hanagami spoke from its East Coast set about what it took to become K-pop’s most in-demand dance-maker.
Were you a K-pop fan before becoming enmeshed in this world?
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I actually used to listen to K-pop in high school — I had a friend who was really, really into it. But I never in a million years imagined I’d be working in it, especially because I didn’t start dancing or choreographing until after high school. It’s a total fluke.
How did you start working with K-pop acts?
I’d been posting videos on YouTube back when I had maybe 500,000 subscribers [He now has over 4.5 million], and one of the entertainment companies reached out to me. Then more artists and entertainment companies started reaching out. When I first started working in K-pop, there weren’t very many American choreographers. It has been a process figuring out that style and what it looks like and kind of creating it. I think that’s why so many artists I’ve worked with have gone on to become so successful — they have amazing teams who work with them, but it really has been about me developing styles for these people from scratch.
In the United States, it has been a minute since choreo-driven girl groups and boy bands were popular. Does that make working with K-pop acts especially fun?
I used to choreograph for a Latin boy band, CNCO, that was hugely into dance breaks. And then I did *NSYNC’s surprise appearance at Ariana Grande’s Coachella performance, and that was again [a lot of] dance breaks. I’ve always loved that style. It has been cool to figure out how to adapt it to these amazing artists who come out of Korea.
Why is dance so important to the identity of K-pop groups and their members?
It’s about really identifying what makes their music different and bringing it to life. I remember the first time I heard BLACKPINK, when I heard “Boombayah” [for which Hanagami choreographed the video]. I remember thinking, “Oh, this is different. I’ve never heard a K-pop group come out like this, especially as their first single. This group needs to look different than everyone else.” I had the opportunity to choreograph and give visuals that hadn’t been done for K-pop before, and I loved making that a signature of BLACKPINK.
How would you describe that signature?
They’re so innovative as a K-pop group, and I was able with the choreography to really lean into their individuality. They should dance the way they sing — and each of their voices are so unique. I really have to bring that out when I give them solo moments in choreography, but at the same time, it has to work together as a whole. I think what has helped make them successful is all four girls are relatable in their own ways, but they feel like a supergroup when they come together.
Are there certain things you would do with an American act that you wouldn’t with a K-pop act?
Obviously, I make sure there is that element of cultural sensitivity. There are definitely American artists who’ll go way overtly sexy in a way a Korean artist might not be comfortable with, and it’s something I keep in mind. I want to make sure if a 9-year-old is watching [a video] at home and they want to follow along, their parents feel comfortable.
But in general, the artists that come out of Korea train so hard to be where they are, [they’re] becoming these superstars before they even hit the stage, whereas in America, it’s often about finding existing talent versus talent development. Any time I get a new [K-pop] artist, it’s starting with what they have — if someone is a great vocalist, or a great rapper, or a great dancer or very charming — and knowing how and when to make them shine. Using the choreography to show what they do best.
This story originally appeared in the April 22, 2023, issue of Billboard.
This story is part of Billboard‘s K-pop Issue.
As one of the few non-English-speaking students at an American international academy in Singapore, the artist born Lee Seung-joo rarely talked to his peers, and he would often skip lunch to avoid eating alone in the cafeteria. Even his stage name is an anagram for “loner,” and his Instagram handle is “lorenisalone” — but as he laughs over Zoom through coughs of smoke while puffing on an orange vape in his Seoul studio at 1 a.m. local time, he says that listeners shouldn’t take those gestures seriously. “Some people DM me like, ‘You’re not alone.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s just my Instagram ID.’ ”
Still, LØREN says being dragged to the academy “kicking and screaming” by his parents — and having to learn English — planted the seed for becoming a global star. “I think being miserable at school is not a necessity,” he explains, “but I feel like if I had been very happy, I wouldn’t have been so eager to make something of myself.”
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Instead of playing basketball and beer pong with his more popular peers, LØREN spent his time learning to play instruments in the band room and listening to Green Day and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Too shy to form a band of his own, after graduation in 2013, he forged a more insular musical path: making beats as an EDM producer. He soon connected with other musicians by DJ’ing on the Seoul nightclub circuit and found mentors within The Black Label, an associate company of YG Entertainment, founded by producer Teddy Park. With his help, LØREN leveraged a career as an in-demand producer-songwriter, scoring major credits with K-pop sensation BLACKPINK on tracks like “Lovesick Girls” and “Pretty Savage.”
Saint Laurent sweater, pants and shoes.
Ssam Kim
But his attention kept drifting back to rock music. “It kind of got tiring for me,” he says of his start in EDM. “Not that I don’t like [that music], but I grew up so heavily on rock, there was dissonance between what I created and what I really liked. I had an epiphany: Being a frontman of a band doing rock music has been my dream all my life.”
In 2021, he launched his solo career with a pair of singles: the bilingual, early-2000s-inspired rock tracks “NEED (ooo-eee)” and “Empty Trash,” followed by the more pop-facing “All My Friends Are Turning Blue.” LØREN self-released the three songs on his independent label, Fire Exit Records, in partnership with The Black Label.
Now, at 28 years old, the artist is committing to his vision. He signed a record deal with 88Rising earlier this year (still in partnership with The Black Label), saying he knew he needed to be on its roster, which is full of Asian artists with global reach like Joji, NIKI, Rich Brian and more. “I like how their artists, you can just tell they’re doing their own thing without being pressured to create something they don’t f–k with,” he says.
But none occupy the punk-rock lane like LØREN. As he points out, the genre isn’t as popular in South Korea as it is in the United States — and, in a previous interview, went as far as to call rock “dead” in his home country. He now admits that might have been a slight overstatement, though he’s eager to lean on 88Rising’s expertise in finding a larger audience to connect with.
After discovering LØREN’s string of singles, 88Rising executive vp John Yang knew the multi-instrumentalist would fill a sonic gap on the label’s lineup. He says he wasn’t even aware of LØREN’s work with BLACKPINK until after the deal was done. “When we sign artists, we always vibe out with them. What really matters is the person, their personality,” says Yang. “We’re not in this business just to become big or make money out of it. We’re here because we love music, and we want other people to enjoy music, too. LØREN’s character, his storytelling and his passion really got us into him.”
Saint Laurent top, pants and shoes.
Ssam Kim
LØREN’s first 88Rising release, the raucous five-track EP Put Up a Fight, was finished by the time he signed his contract. After polishing touches and strategy talks, the project arrived March 24 — and he’s already looking ahead. He has “five or six” tracks completed for his upcoming full-length and is in the throes of practicing something entirely new: playing with other people, for other people.
One of 88Rising’s first orders of business for LØREN was to book a series of U.S. shows, including sets at Coachella and Head in the Clouds, a two-day label-curated festival in New York. He has been hard at work translating his songs for the stage with a band of close friends, which he reveals can be difficult at times, given he records every guitar and drum line on his songs without writing anything down. “Sometimes [my guitarist] asks me, ‘How did you come up with this sound? What pedal did you use?’ I’m just like, ‘I don’t know, dude,’ ” he says with a grin.
But even as everything around him — from his team to his band to his fan base — grows, the inward focus that shaped LØREN early on keeps him grounded. He holds out his hands, nails chipped with black polish, seemingly visualizing the vastness of his future: “I’m a musician at the end of the day,” he continues. “I just want to put out as much music as I can in my lifetime, literally until I die.”
Ssam Kim
This story originally appeared in the April 22, 2023 issue of Billboard.
This story is part of Billboard‘s K-Pop Issue.
When J.Y. Park and Monte Lipman announced their forthcoming competition series A2K — standing for America to Korea — in July 2022, the respective founders of JYP Entertainment and Republic Records vowed to jointly produce “the first American artist made out of the K-pop system.” It was something of a full-circle moment for Park, who has eyed South Korean-to-American crossover success since JYP’s Wonder Girls became the first K-pop act to enter the Billboard Hot 100 in 2009. American artists are now clamoring for Park and other top Korean labels to notice them — and help them achieve their big break — in what has become a global race to launch a first-of-its-kind K-pop act.
While K-pop is short for “Korean pop,” genre fusion has always been one of its pillars and a big part of what has helped it reach new audiences — as has cultivating groups with members from countries outside of South Korea. Today, it’s common for trainees to come not only from China, Japan and Thailand but also countries like Australia, New Zealand, Canada and, now, the United States.
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“The whole strategy often started with having a member able to speak the language for the targeted market,” says John Yang, a U.S.-based entertainment executive who has spent 15 years in the Korean music business. “The K-pop industry realized the power of having members of that nation propelling more of the engagement among the fans and a much quicker local expansion.”
Now, with the genre’s growing popularity in major markets, K-pop stars are defined not by nationality, but by industry standards: years of rigorous training, contracts signed under a Korean agency, visual hallmarks (glossy videos, coordinated choreography) and release strategies involving multiple album drops each year.
“K-pop means ‘Korean popular music,’ ” Yang says. “I see this less as where it’s made, but more of who made it and how it’s produced. I may compare this with the restaurant business: It’s not the location defining it as ‘American,’ ‘Italian’ or ‘Korean,’ and also not about the ethnicity or race of its CEO, managers or even customers that defines cuisine, but more of cuisine consisting of the ingredients, recipes and techniques developed across that respective country.”
Despite the growing number of countries represented in K-pop, nearly all the artists are from Asia or of Asian descent. But the expanding definition of who can be a K-pop star is now seeing Korea’s industry leaders incorporating America’s diverse young talent into their system, regardless of race or ethnicity.
Initially, HYBE was the front-runner in this global gamble. A month before Big Hit Entertainment rebranded as HYBE in March 2021, chairman and then-CEO Bang Si-hyuk, alongside Universal Music Group chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge, revealed a strategic partnership that included assembling a “global” K-pop boy group in the United States under a new joint-venture label between Big Hit and Geffen Records. The plans to air worldwide auditions in 2022 with a “major U.S. media partner” changed a bit: HYBE and Geffen subsequently announced five American cities holding auditions for a “global girl group” in March and April 2022 before expanding the auditions to Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom and South Korea for December 2022-January 2023.
In that time, A2K launched its own American Idol-style auditions, bringing Park to Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Dallas and Los Angeles to select contestants to attend an L.A. “boot camp” reminiscent of The X Factor’s, with semifinalists then flying to JYP Entertainment’s Seoul headquarters for what A2K described as “intensive training” with music, dance and business executives. Winners will be part of a supergroup under JYP and Republic Records for all music releases — just like TWICE, Stray Kids and ITZY, which have earned seven top 10 albums on the Billboard 200, including two No. 1s by Stray Kids, since the companies partnered in 2020. TWICE, Stray Kids and JYP’s Japan-based girl group NiziU were all created on similar competition shows and officially debuted three to six months after their respective finales.
While JYP and HYBE worked directly with label partners, SM Entertainment connected directly with MGM Worldwide Television Group for its global venture. SM announced a partnership in May 2021 with MGM and its then-chairman, Mark Burnett, for a competition series forming NCT-Hollywood, a U.S. offshoot of SM’s boy band collective NCT, which has splinter groups across Korea, China and Japan. At the time, an insider told Billboard the show had been in development even before the pandemic — but Burnett’s late-2022 exit from MGM, Lee Soo-man’s controversial ousting from SM earlier this year and an announcement from SM’s new CEOs that the NCT system would halt expansion after a Tokyo-based team launches in 2023 raise questions about the project. (SM declined to comment for this story, as did Republic Records and Geffen Records — a reluctance likely born out of the high degree of competition and similar timelines to launch that they’re operating on.)
While no major U.S. label has made an earnest attempt, American and British “K-pop” groups have been launched before. Dubbed “the world’s most controversial ‘Korean’ band” by the BBC, EXP EDITION began in 2014 as Columbia University student Bora Kim’s master’s thesis that explored the meaning of K-pop music. Kim held auditions to form a band of six non-Korean men who would undergo a truncated version of the years of rigorous training K-pop hopefuls commit to in Seoul with voice coaching, dance rehearsals, language lessons and media training. Supporters donated $30,000 through Kickstarter and, with the help of a private investor, Kim and four of the six EXP EDITION members moved to Korea.
EXP EDITION booked prime K-entertainment TV slots like Mnet’s M Countdown and KBS2’s Immortal Songs, but experts criticized its inability to achieve captivating, onstage perfection — and the group’s 2018 debut EP, First Edition, was its sole release.
KAACHI, created by Frontrow Records and branded as the first London-based K-pop group, faced similar criticism. Unlike EXP EDITION, KAACHI did have one Korean member. Its 2021 music video “Get Up” was sponsored by a Seoul theme park, and the group performed publicly alongside top K-pop stars at the time. Still, the group disbanded in less than two years.
But crucially, today’s ventures to create global K-pop groups have the backing of some of the most powerful companies — Korean and American — in the music business. Whether or not the artists these initiatives yield break through on the Billboard charts, Yang sees future group launches as the ultimate indicator of a healthy, locally grown K-pop presence in America — much in the same way SM, JYP, HYBE and their counterparts have done for decades now in Asia.
“The most obvious indicators of the success of these projects would be Billboard charting, which will only result with the support of their fans without doubt,” he says. “However, the longevity of these partnerships and the birthing of more groups consistently will be the significant historical marker.”
This story originally appeared in the April 22, 2023, issue of Billboard.
This story is part of Billboard‘s K-Pop Issue.
For the multitude of K-pop acts amplifying South Korean culture on the global stage, it’s fair to say BTS and BLACKPINK have set the bar, with BTS in particular achieving many records. Now as both bands open new chapters with their members’ solo careers, they’re establishing more precedents.
Ten years ago, solo debuts from within such groups might have signaled trouble: perhaps an imminent disbanding, or one member being considered more successful than the others. But for BTS and BLACKPINK, solo projects are additive, supplementing the groups’ journeys while highlighting new artistic dimensions. For BTS, solo ventures have given the members room to experiment sonically, visually and lyrically (including expletives largely avoided in group releases). And in 2018, BLACKPINK’s Jennie upended the norm for when a band’s first solo act might break out when she released her debut single, “Solo” — two years before BLACKPINK dropped its first studio album.
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The path to solo stardom hasn’t necessarily replicated the levels of success the bands have achieved. No member of BLACKPINK has cracked the Billboard Hot 100 above No. 70. And when BTS’ Jimin recently debuted at No. 1 on the chart with “Like Crazy,” it was a first for a solo member of the group. But as these artists explore their individual identities, single releases are far from the only metric defining them. Here, a look at both bands and their recent solo endeavors.
It cemented its stake in the K-pop zeitgeist with viral hits like “DDU-DU DDU-DU” and “BOOMBAYAH,” but BLACKPINK didn’t release its first studio album until 2020, four years after debuting. Album track “Ice Cream” (with Selena Gomez) became the group’s highest-charting U.S. single, peaking at No. 13 on the Hot 100. After making history in 2019 as the first K-pop group to perform at Coachella, BLACKPINK just became the first such act to headline the festival.
Jisoo
Although she was BLACKPINK’s first member to try acting (with a role on JTBC series Snowdrop in 2021), Jisoo was the last to make her official solo debut, following Jennie (2018), Rosé and Lisa (both in 2021). Released in March, ME is a two-track set featuring “(FLOWER),” blending pop and trap with traditional Korean melodies, and the upbeat “All Eyes on Me.” “(FLOWER)” debuted at No. 2 on Billboard’s Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts.
Jennie
Jennie’s solo journey broke the traditional K-pop model: Her debut single, “Solo,” was released in November 2018 — before BLACKPINK’s own debut studio set, The Album, arrived. “Solo” topped Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales chart for one week, and less than a year later, Jennie became the first Korean solo artist to perform at Coachella. Her follow-up, “You & Me,” was first heard in October 2022, when she performed it during BLACKPINK’s Born Pink World Tour; it has yet to be officially released. Next, she’ll make a foray into acting on HBO’s The Idol.
Lisa
The charismatic rapper-singer released her debut two-track project, LALISA, in September 2021. The eponymous lead single entered the Billboard Global 200 at No. 2 and the Hot 100 at No. 84; B-side “Money” received some radio airplay but peaked at No. 90 on the Hot 100. In 2022, Lisa became the first solo K-pop winner at the MTV Video Music Awards and the first female soloist to win the best K-pop artist category.
Rosé
The second member of BLACKPINK to release solo material, Rosé put out the two-track R in March 2021. “On the Ground” debuted at No. 1 on both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts, staying there for one week. (It peaked at No. 70 on the Hot 100.) “Gone” reached No. 17 on Global Excl. U.S. and No. 29 on Global 200.
BTS
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During the last decade, BTS released nine albums and over 230 songs (many of which it co-wrote or produced), making history along the way as the first Korean group to hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 (“Dynamite”) and the act with the most No. 1 hits on the Hot 100 this decade. Proof, BTS’ most recent album, was its sixth to debut atop the Billboard 200.
Jin
When late 2021’s “SUPER TUNA,” an unofficial gag gift for fans, went viral, Jin was so embarrassed that he asked listeners to stop dancing to it. Days after BigHit Music announced BTS would fulfill its military service — starting with Jin — the song (along with “Tonight” and “Abyss”) was officially released. The week his single “The Astronaut” debuted, Jin topped Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart for the first time, the sixth BTS member to do so; co-written by Jin and Coldplay, the song peaked at No. 51 on the Hot 100 and debuted at No. 1 on the Digital Song Sales chart.
V
V has yet to announce an album and released one single, “Christmas Tree,” for K-drama Our Beloved Summer’s original soundtrack; it peaked at No. 79 on the Hot 100 and No. 1 on Digital Song Sales in January 2022. Recently, he joined famed Korean actors Park Seo-joon, Choi Woo-shik, Lee Seo-jin and Jung Yu-mi to film tvN reality show Jinny’s Kitchen, in which they open a pop-up Korean restaurant in a small Mexico town.
SUGA
The only member to go solo under an alternate name, Agust D — a portmanteau of “D-Town” (his hometown of Daegu) and “Agus” (SUGA backward, and an abbreviation of “shooting guard,” his favored basketball position). The prolific producer-songwriter has penned tracks for popular Korean artists like IU and PSY. His mixtape, D-2, was a runaway hit with fans, though it was only released digitally. His full-length debut, D-DAY, just came out with an accompanying documentary, SUGA: Road to D-DAY. SUGA is the first BTS member to embark on a solo tour; his nine-city trek across the United States and Asia begins April 26 in New York.
Jung Kook
He hasn’t released a solo album yet, but Jung Kook has been busy. His “Stay Alive,” produced by SUGA, was released as the theme for Korean webtoon series 7Fates: Chakho. (It peaked at No. 95 on the Hot 100.) In summer 2022, he featured on Charlie Puth’s “Left and Right,” which reached No. 22 on the Hot 100. At the 2022 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony, he sang “Dreamers,” part of the tournament’s official soundtrack, and since then has been highly visible on billboards worldwide as a global brand ambassador for Calvin Klein Jeans and Calvin Klein Underwear.
RM
On his solo endeavors (including features with Balming Tiger and So!YoON!), RM has made a concerted effort to showcase the diversity of Korea’s non-mainstream artists. His debut, Indigo, featuring collaborators ranging from Erykah Badu to Epik High’s Tablo, arrived on digital and streaming on Dec. 2, 2022, two weeks before a physical version was released. Fans worried its chart prospects would suffer, but Indigo still peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 — setting a record for the highest album charting position for a K-pop artist at the time — and at No. 1 on the World Albums chart.
Jimin
In April, Jimin became the first Korean soloist to top the Hot 100 with “Like Crazy,” the lead single from his March debut album, FACE, which explores loneliness and finding freedom. He co-wrote all five tracks on FACE, which entered the Billboard 200 at No. 2, making it the highest-charting album by a K-pop solo artist. (Previously, RM held the record.)
j-hope
The first Korean artist to headline Lollapalooza, j-hope dropped his debut album, Jack in the Box, in July 2022 as a digital-only release. Fans claimed the lack of a physical version put him at a charting disadvantage; nonetheless, the album peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard 200 and No. 4 on Top Rap Albums. Tracks “Arson” and “= (Equal Sign)” peaked at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, on World Digital Song Sales. He recently released “on the street” (with J. Cole), a role model of his, and has confirmed he will be BTS’ next member to enlist for military service.
This story originally appeared in the April 22, 2023, issue of Billboard.
This story is part of Billboard‘s K-Pop Issue.
In March, HYBE founder/chairman Bang Si-hyuk issued a dire warning: “K-pop,” he concluded, “is in crisis.” HYBE is the music company behind BTS, the group that spearheaded K-pop’s dramatic international growth in recent years, but Bang sounded alarmed about the genre’s health. K-pop’s momentum was faltering, he said, claiming fewer tracks from the genre charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022 than in 2021. The following month, BTS’ Jimin released his solo debut album, and the single “Like Crazy” arrived at No. 1 on the Hot 100. Still, his comments dovetailed with general industry anxiety about the dearth of new acts breaking into the mainstream and the challenge of maintaining growth in a ferociously competitive landscape, where around 100,000 new songs hit streaming services daily.
Within K-pop, some executives are concerned about the extent to which the genre can continue to produce massive international hits without BTS’ firepower while the group is on hiatus. “Although I wouldn’t go so far as calling it a ‘crisis,’ I do share [Bang’s] underlying sense of urgency that the Korean music industry is very much at an important crossroads,” says Bernie Cho, president of DFSB Kollective, a Seoul-based artist and label services agency.
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K-pop’s ascent to global prominence was, Cho says, “inextricably linked [with] and heavily reliant on the singular artistic visions” of executives at a few key companies — notably SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment and JYP Entertainment. “It has become an open source of debate these days, from boardrooms to chat rooms, that steadfastly sticking to this single-lane approach may no longer be the right direction” if the industry hopes to “futureproof” K-pop.
Executives who work in and around the genre are quick to pinpoint one big reason for the recent lack of K-pop in the upper reaches of the Hot 100: In June 2022, BTS — which has topped the chart four times on its own and twice more as a collaborator with Western artists — announced its potentially yearslong hiatus. “Their vacancy is definitely going to put a bit of a hole in the market,” says Eddie Nam, CEO of EN Management (Eric Nam, Epik High).
But there’s disagreement on whether hit singles in the United States are the best gauge of the genre’s health in the first place. On the Billboard 200, K-pop albums continue to hit No. 1 thanks to robust physical sales of CD variants; last year, K-pop groups topped the chart four times — Stray Kids twice and BTS and BLACKPINK once each — setting a new high-water mark for K-pop. “Most K-pop groups are built on a strong fan base, and their loyalty and support for their artists is much more organized than in the past,” says YG Entertainment USA’s former president Joojong Joe. “These fandoms know that Billboard chart positioning is important to their artists, and they organize album purchases and promotion within their fandom in the first week of an album’s release in order to get it to the top of the charts.”
But recently, K-pop acts haven’t scaled the same heights on the Hot 100. The biggest recent non-BTS K-pop hit was BLACKPINK’s “Pink Venom” last year, which peaked at No. 22. In the United States, the genre’s singles often perform phenomenally on the downloads chart — mirroring their dominance in physical sales — but less well on the streaming and radio rankings. “Like Crazy,” for example, sold 254,000 downloads, easily topping Digital Song Sales, but clocked in at No. 35 on the Streaming Songs chart. BTS’ previous No. 1, the Coldplay collaboration “My Universe,” also topped Digital Song Sales in its first week but landed at No. 21 on Streaming Songs.
Getting airplay in the United States remains K-pop’s biggest challenge: BTS has spent 17 cumulative weeks atop the Hot 100 but hasn’t made it past No. 5 on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart, and BLACKPINK hasn’t even cracked the top 20 on Pop Airplay. The airplay audience for “Like Crazy” is the lowest for a Hot 100 No. 1 this decade. “I don’t think we’ve seen Korean music take over U.S. radio in any way,” Nam says. This remains true even as most of the biggest K-pop acts now work with American major labels, which have long-standing radio promo teams.
As Joe points out, K-pop artists aren’t necessarily so different from others outside the United States when it comes to that airplay disadvantage. “You’re in the country for promotion for only a short amount of time,” he explains. “You have to prioritize — you have a late-night show on TV; you have a concert; you have a photo shoot. It takes a lot of time to build relationships at radio, and it has not been easy for Korean artists to do that in the short amount of time they have here.”
In addition, many K-pop singles are only partially in English, which may make them a tougher sell at radio — a medium not known for taking risks. (Bad Bunny is one of the biggest artists in the world, but he has never made it past No. 19 at pop radio as a lead artist.) Three of BTS’ biggest hits were entirely in English; two others were collaborations with prominent Western acts singing in English.
Others, like Michael Martin, senior vp of programming for Audacy, the second-largest radio company in the United States, dismiss the idea that language might be limiting K-pop’s airplay. Representatives for two other prominent radio conglomerates, iHeartRadio and Cumulus, declined to comment on K-pop airplay, though iHeart has been supporting rising acts like NewJeans, especially in cities on the West Coast, and had some of the few stations that played “Like Crazy” during its debut week.
However, there’s also an argument that in an increasingly global music marketplace, hits are no longer the most important indicator of a genre’s health — and that K-pop’s difficulty getting U.S. radio play ultimately doesn’t matter to its momentum. “I don’t think K-pop groups must have hit singles in the U.S. to succeed globally,” says Inkyu Kang, an associate professor at Penn State and the author of K-Pop: The International Rise of the Korean Music Industry. “K-pop had already been enjoyed by people around the world with diverse backgrounds before it reached the U.S.”
Those listeners continue to seek out music from the genre: K-pop groups accounted for four of the top 10 albums in the world last year, according to the most recent report from IFPI, up from two in 2020. Looking just at sales rather than overall consumption, K-pop acts have a whopping eight out of the top 10, up from four in 2020. “Last year, the K-pop industry had the highest album sales overseas in history,” though growth in album sales slowed significantly, says Stephanie Choi of SUNY Buffalo’s Asia Research Institute, who is working on a book on K-pop. Japan, China and the United States were the three biggest importers of K-pop albums.
“You have to look at the whole pie,” says Lucas Keller, who manages Jenna Andrews, co-writer of BTS’ runaway hit “Butter.” “K-pop has one of the most committed fan bases in the history of music. You have to look at the touring, the merchandise and the audience, not just the charts.”
“When I speak to folks in the industry,” Keller adds, “we all believe that Korean pop acts have a real seat at the table now — including a shot at Western success in a way that was more difficult in past years.”
This story originally appeared in the April 22, 2023, issue of Billboard.
Daniel Caesar holds himself to a predictable and impossible standard: “perfection,” he says.
It explains the title of his upcoming third album, NEVER ENOUGH (out April 7), which is the Toronto native’s first release since signing with Republic Records two years ago. It will also usher in a new, more alternative sonic chapter for the 27-year-old singer-songwriter. “If I was a punk artist, then I would want to be something else,” he says. “It’s really just not wanting to be boxed into anything.”
Caesar veered close to perfection in the early days of his rise, entering the industry with his 2017 debut, Freudian, which positioned him as R&B’s burgeoning golden child from north of the border. Freudian landed two singles on the Billboard Hot 100: “Get You,” featuring Kali Uchis and “Best Part,” alongside H.E.R. The latter — one of three Adult R&B Airplay chart-toppers for Caesar — earned him a Grammy Award for best R&B performance (“I crossed that off much sooner in my life than I ever thought I would,” he says of the win).
By year’s end, he landed two songs on former President Barack Obama’s favorite tracks of the year list. Perhaps most impressively, Caesar did it all as an independent artist working alongside a tight-knit team of fellow Canadian creatives and close friends. Together, they founded Golden Child Recordings after attending a handful of label meetings and realizing they already had all the resources to succeed. “The music was making some money, so we just kept reinvesting in ourselves,” says Caesar. “I’d never made any sort of music without them. It was everything I knew.”
Daniel Caesar photographed March 16, 2023 in New York.
Lea Winkler
But Freudian’s follow-up, 2019’s Case Study 01, struggled to replicate its predecessor’s success after Caesar shared controversial opinions on race relations on Twitter and Instagram Live. During one particular livestream, where he said he was drunk, Caesar questioned why the Black community was being “mean” to white people, saying, “That’s not equality.”
The subsequent backlash took him by surprise, and Caesar says he underestimated the reach and impact of his opinions. “I understand why it happened. I understood it then as well. I’m just so combative, and I didn’t think that I was wrong,” he admits today. “I was trying to move through the world [according to] how I think it should be and not how it is.”
It’s his comfort with vulnerability that makes Caesar’s introspective take on music feel like a deep sigh of relief, each sonic exhalation breathing new life into the R&B space. It is also what made his fall from grace an even harder pill for fans to swallow.
“I try to keep my privacy and not to speak too much to the public [out of] fear of being misunderstood,” he explains today. “My best mode of communication is music.”
Daniel Caesar photographed March 16, 2023 in New York.
Lea Winkler
Despite the overshadowing controversy, Case Study further cemented Caesar’s avant-garde take on R&B and proved a cohesive, replay-worthy body of work that boasted a No. 1 record on the Adult R&B Airplay chart, the Brandy-assisted “Love Again.”
Less than a year later, as the pandemic hit, Caesar took refuge at the “middle-of-nowhere” 36-acre farm he had bought his parents, located in a town two hours outside of Toronto. It was there that the Bajan-Jamaican artist began reconciling the last few years of his come-up — and contemplating how to advance his career.
Like many, Caesar maintained sanity by picking up quarantine hobbies, such as chess and studying Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. He also went back to work: In 2021, he scored a Hot 100 No. 1 for his feature on Justin Bieber’s smash “Peaches” (alongside Giveon), and last year, he featured on Omar Apollo’s “Invincible.”
At the same time, he was focused on NEVER ENOUGH. Unlike the star-studded Case Study 01, Caesar returned to what he knows best: working both independently and with Toronto collaborators like badbadnotgood, Jordan Evans and Matthew Burnett and even his little brother, Zachary Simmonds, who co-wrote and co-produced “Valentina.”
The tracklist went through three iterations, with Caesar saying he initially felt anxious ahead of the album’s release. But he found reassurance in remembering why he makes music in the first place: “For me,” he declares, “it’s literally just to get these feelings off my chest. To make myself proud.”
Caesar’s demeanor is refreshingly self-aware. As he sits at a desk in his sunlight-soaked Manhattan loft, he weaves through the questions that kept him up at night and inspired the 15-track set. “If you dangle enough money in front of me, will I change my belief system? Can a woman make me change my world view? Or the proposition of sex? What do you fold on yourself for?” he asks rhetorically. “I’ve [folded] on myself and it’s hard. Those are the things that I beat myself up over.”
NEVER ENOUGH centers the introspective bars, soothing blend of woozy guitar and hypnotic harmonies fans have come to expect from Caesar, with hints of cross-genre influences. Phrases like “Do I titillate your mind?” do just that while suspended chords and R&B structure on tracks like “Always” and “Cool” resonate with purist listeners.
“When people ask me what kind of music I make, I always say R&B. Just to simplify things,” he says, adding that he senses a lack of innovation in the space. Luckily at Republic, Caesar has even more resources to continue expanding the genre space.
“I was finding it hard at Golden Child to be a record exec and an artist at the same time,” he says. “This was something I needed to do for myself for my development. I was like, ‘If I don’t do it, it’s because I’m scared.’ And I hate living in fear.”
Daniel Caesar photographed March 16, 2023 in New York.
Lea Winkler
Caesar met with eight or nine labels, saying he considered Columbia and Warner before signing with Republic. “Republic was actually the label where I said, ‘I would never go there,’ ” he recalls. “It’s just such a big label. They have all the biggest acts. I would be the least important person there.” But after meeting with label founder/CEO Monte Lipman and then-senior vice president of A&R Julian Swirsky, it became clear the label’s help would allow him to do exactly what he wanted: focus on his craft — and his fans. “I felt for a while, especially over [the pandemic], like I didn’t have a relationship with them, or it was severely fickle,” he says. “Like they love the songs, but they don’t care about me — which is completely reasonable. Why should they care about me?”
To reconnect, he met fans where they were: from the favelas of Brazil during Carnival (a country where he realized he has a large listenership) to his newly launched Discord channel (“It’s some Gen Z sh-t for real,” he jokes). He’ll celebrate the album’s release by kicking off his intimate North American and European underplay tour, One Night Only: An Evening With Daniel Caesar, which will begin April 7 in Los Angeles.
For Caesar, NEVER ENOUGH chronicles his path to becoming his own man while finding a balance between longtime trusted collaborators and welcoming well-established executives into the mix. “I always tell people, ‘I don’t believe in God. I believe in myself and the people around me that I love,’ ” he says. “I believe in our capabilities.”
A version of this story originally appeared in the April 1, 2023, issue of Billboard.
In February, Karol G and Shakira unleashed their first collaborative effort called “TQG” (short for “Te Quedó Grande,” which loosely translates to “I’m Too Good For You”) part of Karol’s fourth studio album Mañana Será Bonito.
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The star-studded team-up is powered by a somber, hard-hitting reggaetón beat helmed by artist-producer Ovy on the Drums and packed with fierce and unapologetic lyrics about successfully moving on from an ex. “It hurt me to see you with the new one, but I’m already doing my own thing,” chants Shakira. The long-awaited collaboration finds the two Colombianas in a sultry music video, confirming once more that there’s no messing with them (and their hearts).
“We always have a good time creating music,” Ovy (born Daniel Echavarria Oviedo) tells Billboard of the song’s creative process, which was partly done virtually. “Karol spoke highly of Shakira and told me she was incredible. And this is the result of two of the biggest artists in Colombia. It’s awesome being part of this process and this hit because it’s a collaboration for the books.”
In March, “TQG” became both Karol G and Shakira’s first No. 1 on both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts. It also reached the top slot on Hot Latin Songs, where it has since spent five weeks leading the chart.
Below, Ovy explains how the foundation for the international hit, reacts to the song’s success and more.
A collaboration between Karol G and Shakira had long been anticipated by fans. How did those conversations begin, and what was your initial reaction once it was confirmed?
Sometime in January 2022, we were working on “MAMIII” — [Karol G’s] collaboration with Becky G — and after we finished, Karol and I stayed in the studio. That’s when the first version of “TQG” was born. Honestly, when we had the first version, I never imagined Shakira on the track. Karol was the one who, out of nowhere said, “Ovy, Shakira on ‘TQG’ will be a hit!” She was the one who envisioned it and I got really excited. At the same time, rumors of a collaboration began making the rounds. I already knew that Karol was going to reach out to [Shakira’s] team but when different media [outlets] interviewed me, I would say that I didn’t know anything.
Karol sent it to Shakira, and she added her verse. It was a beautiful team and a song that surprised me. I even got a tattoo of “TQG” because it’s my first No. 1 hit [on the Spotify Global Top 50, as well as the Billboard Global 200] as a producer.
So you never actually met Shakira in person?
I didn’t have the opportunity to meet her, but I would be in touch with her thanks to the voice notes she sent me through her manager. Nowadays, there’s no need to get together in person, though I think it’s best to all be in the studio together. Sometimes, because of distance and time, it’s not possible — and thanks to technology, we can create things virtually. Shakira and Karol didn’t meet in person until the filming of the music video, but Karol did record with me and Shakira recorded with her team.
From the first day in the studio to the day of release, how quickly did you finish the song?
The first version was ready for almost a year, but when Shakira stepped in, we changed it around. She brought her ideas, and we joined them with Karol’s ideas and began reworking the song as a team. Shakira entered the collab around December 2022, and in January, the song was mastered and ready to go because we had to submit Karol’s album, [Mañana Será Bonito].
Did this song ever have another title in mind or was it always going to be called “TQG”?
I wanted it to be called “La Nueva” (“The New One”) but Karol thought of “TQG.” Like “Tusa” and other titles, she’s really good at thinking of song names. She’s a genius, and the title is perfect.
Are there any interesting anecdotes you can share about the process of “TQG”?
We always have a good time creating music, but I know they both connected and had a good [working] relationship. Karol spoke highly of Shakira and told me she was incredible. This is the result of two of the biggest artists in Colombia. It’s awesome being part of this process and this hit because it’s a collaboration for the books.
What is your favorite line or verse from the song?
The part that says: “Es como tapar una herida con maquillaje/No se ve, pero se siente” (“It’s like covering a wound with makeup/It is not seen, but it is felt”) — I love that part!
The song has been extremely successful on the Billboard charts, including a fifth week at No. 1 on Hot Latin Songs on charts dated April 8. What’s your reaction to such accolades?
The day I’m not surprised of having another hit, I’ll quit and focus on something else. I do music with so much passion and so much dedication to see these types of results. I want people to enjoy it and for the song to become a hit — I want it to reach places I’ve never imagined. The day Karol made history as the first woman to have a No. 1 with an all-Spanish-language album [on the Billboard 200], that day I cried. Every song has a different story, a different meaning and is born in a different way. They’re all my babies and I like seeing each of them succeed. I’m very happy with everything’s that happening. I’m going to continue creating music and work hard for everything that’s coming.
A version of this story originally appeared in the April 1, 2023, issue of Billboard.
Libianca will always remember last year’s Friendsgiving — after all, she ran to the bathroom sobbing in the middle of it.
The former contestant on The Voice had recently quit her job as an independent living skills worker, and had been questioning her future as a professional singer. She was no longer interested in covering already established hits; she wanted to create a life-changing one of her own.
“I was talking to God, [thinking], ‘This life is so hard.’ I don’t know what the next step is, but I was working, working, and working, and not seeing anything in return,” she recalls over Zoom.
But the Friendsgiving breakdown left her inspired, and later in November, the embattled singer — who has been diagnosed with cyclothymia, a rare mood disorder that can cause extreme emotional highs and lows — chose to detail her pain through songwriting. She went on YouTube and found a beat that captured her discomfort, then recorded on Apple’s Logic Pro. Within a day, what began as a therapy session formed the foundation for “People,” the 22-year-old R&B-Afrobeats artist’s breakout hit and long-awaited ticket to stardom.
Born in Minnesota, Libianca Kenzonkinboum Fonji moved to Cameroon with her family when she was 4. There, she drew inspiration from her first babysitter, who enjoyed singing while cleaning around the house. Their relationship sparked Libianca’s initial love for singing, and by the age of 10, she began writing her own songs.
At 13, she moved back to Minnesota and joined a local choir, learning how to engineer, record and mix her vocals soon after. By her late teens, she was covering songs like SZA’s “Good Days” and Billie Eilish’s “Everything I Wanted,” the latter of which she also performed on The Voice in 2021.
Though she was ultimately eliminated after making the show’s top 20, her departure was soon followed by a string of independent one-off releases, including her cover of “Everything I Wanted” at the end of 2021 and a spin on Doja Cat’s “Woman” the following spring.
Libianca photographed on March 17, 2023 in Los Angeles.
Liam Woods
Yet the original single “People” is the one that cut through — and is a shining example of how sourcing your pain can have impactful results. While the track bursts with Afrobeats flavor, poignant lyrics like the opening line “I’ve been drinking more alcohol for the past five days/Did you check on me? Now, did you look for me?” ground the song while addressing the impact of substance abuse on mental health.
Libianca played the song for her manager M3tro, whom she met five years ago during her time as a student at the University of Minnesota (the two creatives became fast friends, and eventually roommates). And while he raved about the record, he instantly became concerned while listening to the lyrics. “Once she played the song, I asked her, ‘I know something’s going on, but what’s up?’ ” M3tro remembers. “That’s when I was like, ‘I really have to pay more attention.’ ”
Several days after writing and recording the breakthrough hit, Libianca posted a teaser clip on TikTok in which she was holding a bottle of wine as a snippet of the song played in the background. According to M3tro, within 30 minutes of uploading the clip, likes and comments started flooding her notifications. “Waking up the next morning to so many people feeling so connected to the song [was special],” Libianca says. “I saw families sending me videos of their babies singing the song, and [had] women messaging me about the sh-t that they go through in their homes and how this song needs to drop ASAP because it’s calling to their hearts.”
To date, the viral clip has compiled more than 4.8 million views on TikTok. Less than a week after the initial post, she upped the ante with a live rendition of the track in front of a simple color backdrop. The DIY clip has since earned 1.3 million views on Instagram and 2.5 million on TikTok.
The buzz surrounding the unreleased track soon caught the attention of acclaimed U.K. producer Jae5, who quickly reached out in hopes of signing Libianca to his 5K Records label, and did so last December — just one month after her memorable Friendsgiving. Once the deal was done, Jae quickly mixed the record and helped with the song’s final arrangement before its official release on Dec. 6.
“When it comes to music, that man is my big brother for life,” says M3tro of Jae5. “Not only is he that, but he’s also humble and genuine. He comes in like, ‘How can the music be the best way it needs to be?’ And we applaud him for that.”
Libianca (left) and M3tro photographed on March 17, 2023 in Los Angeles.
Liam Woods
“People” debuted on the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart in mid-December — where it has held at a No. 2 high since January — and has 288.7 million official on-demand global streams through March 30, according to Luminate. The song also became Libianca’s first entry on the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl U.S. charts. And in March, she dropped multiple remixes to maximize the crossover momentum, including one with fellow Afrobeats stars Omah Lay and Ayra Starr and another with Irish singer-songwriter Cian Ducrot.
“We were very particular about who else was gonna hop on this song, because the message is very crystal-clear,” says Libianca. “[‘People’] is very vulnerable, and anyone that comes on there has to be vulnerable as well in their own way.”
Libianca says that her next single, due later this month, will be about “a bunch of real sh-t we don’t like to talk about.” An EP will soon follow. “It doesn’t have to be sad, per se, but if it’s not something I can feel, I’m not gon’ release it,” she explains. “I want every single one of my songs to be an experience rather than just doing what I need to do to get the next check.”
A version of this story originally appeared in the April 1, 2023, issue of Billboard.
Mexican pop band RBD, which scored five top 10 hits on the Hot Latin Songs chart in the early 2000s, performed its last show in 2008, during which the act announced it was disbanding. Its members — Anahí, Dulce María, Christian Chávez, Maite Perroni and Christopher von Uckermann — haven’t stepped onstage together since. And yet, when RBD recently announced it was reuniting for 40-plus shows in arenas and stadiums around the world, dubbed the Soy Rebelde Tour, over 1.5 million tickets were sold in just 24 hours, according to RBD’s manager, Guillermo Rosas.
RBD is the latest in a string of Latin reunion tours that are raking in millions of dollars. The trend started in 2020 when bachata supergroup Aventura reunited after 10 years for its Inmortal Tour. Its first leg posted $24 million after 14 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore. And in 2021, iconic ’80s Mexican grupero band Los Bukis reunited after 25 years for its own stadium trek; the nine-date stint entered at No. 6 on Billboard’s Top Tours of 2021 with nearly $50 million in grosses.
“What makes these nostalgic touring concepts powerful is that it’s multigenerational,” says Hans Schafer, senior vp of global touring at Live Nation, the promoter behind RBD’s upcoming trek. In 2006, RBD — conceptualized from the Mexican telenovela Rebelde — had the No. 1 Latin tour, with a gross of nearly $31 million across 51 shows. “The music has been passed down generations and continues to live on. Now we are seeing more artists interested and excited to tap into the nostalgia of fans.”
But, as Rosas notes, it’s also risky, considering the uncertainty in booking acts that haven’t toured in decades and don’t have massive streaming numbers. “Just because you have 50 million listeners doesn’t mean you’re going to sell 1.5 million tickets at the box office,” he says. “It takes a lot more than streams to become part of culture. As managers and promoters, you learn how to cross those bridges and not go blindly based on numbers.”
When Adolfo Romero, vp of programming for SoFi Stadium, Hollywood Park and YouTube Theater, booked Los Bukis for their back-to-back shows at the SoFi, it never crossed his mind that a nostalgia act wouldn’t be able to sell over 70,000 tickets. “I come from [major league] soccer. If we can sell 70,000 plus for soccer here, what’s the difference?” he previously told Billboard. “It’s the same demographic. We have disposable income. A lot of our community was working in the service industry. Now, many of their kids are college grads.”
L.A.’s Bésame Mucho (like the nostalgia-fueled When We Were Young festival) inaugural event last year sold out in 12 minutes when the 2000s-inspired lineup — which included Juanes, Hombres G and Los Tigres Del Norte — was announced. Come December, Los Bukis will headline the fest’s second edition.
“We focused only on what the fans wanted to see and not what was playing on radio,” says John Frias, producer of Bésame Mucho and president of Frias Entertainment. “A ton of people brought their parents to the festival. It was a smash.”
Frías is hesitant to label these shows as simply “nostalgia” tours since they’re not only appealing to an older generation of fans. There’s a new generation that’s discovering and embracing these bands, too. “In this day and age, fans won’t be subjected to only today’s music. They liked yesterday’s music and they like today’s music,” he says categorically.
Music discovery could be a significant contributing factor to RBD’s massive success on the touring front. In September 2020, RBD’s catalog became available for the first time ever across digital streaming platforms, including Spotify. “Context is so important for data,” says Schafer. “You have to understand where things come from. And tours like these, they’re an emotional response to something that was lived years ago and you’re now able to inspire and remind people of those moments.”
A version of this story will appear in the April 1, 2023, issue of Billboard.
