TS Entertainment / Choi Sejung

B.A.P
Club Nokia
5-7-13

Better Than: Middle-school dances

There's a lot to live up to when your group name is an acronym for "Best Absolute Perfect." The six-member K-pop boy band B.A.P. performed last night at Club Nokia; featured was their elaborate fictional backstory about how they hail from the war-torn, alien planet Mato, which is ruled by a giant bunny who's tasked the group with harvesting positive energy from Earth. (The full name of the show is -- take a deep breath -- "Verizon Presents APAHM Concert Tour 2013: B.A.P Live on Earth.")

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The Wonder Girls

A few years ago, none of the Wonder Girls spoke English; today they are all nearly fluent. Formed in 2007, the five woman K-pop group was on the forefront of the cultural crossover phenomenon with a string of hits. All in their early twenties, the Girls -- Sun, Lim, Sohee, Yenny and Yubin -- have opened for the Jonas Brothers and Justin Bieber and were the first South Korean group to have a song on the Billboard chart, with their '50s girl group-influenced "Nobody" reaching #76 in 2009.

See also: Top Ten Sexiest Album Covers
Top Ten Awkward Coachella Dance Move GIFs

The group formed via an audition process and have led the highly-structured lifestyle of K-pop stars ever since, including rigorous training in singing, dancing, style and language. They're managed by Korea's JYP Entertainment, one of the largest management firms in the K-Pop arena, and are the company's most successful female act.

But behind the sequins, makeup and slick music videos, there was turmoil in Wonder Girl world. In late November, JYP issued this statement:

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S.E.S.

By Michelle Woo

Before there was SNSD, 2NE1, Big Bang, and Wonder Girls, there was S.E.S., g.o.d., and H.O.T. Familiar with these names? You must be an O.G. K-pop fan.

See also:
*K-pop Till You Drop: The Skinny on the Korean Boy and Girl Groups That Get Major Play in Koreatown
*Our review of 2NE1 at Nokia Theatre, August 24, 2012

Today, the manufactured genre has flooded the global consciousness (perhaps you've heard of a little video called "Gangnam Style?"), but the roots were planted more than 15 years back, when the first crop of fresh-faced boy and girl bands stepped onto the stage in Seoul and captured the hearts -- and charged up the hormones -- of a teenage generation. The was no autotune, no off-the-wall costumes and dizzying special effects, just catchy tunes, fun dance moves and surprising talent. Here then, are the top 10 old school K-pop groups.

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Tiffanie Lee

Xia Junsu
Hollywood Palladium
09-02-2012

At 25-years-old, "Xia" Kim Junsu has seen more than his share of drama. He ascended to pop royalty in the wildly successful five-member boy band TVXQ (aka DBSK). Following the success of their iconic single "Mirotic" in 2009, he and two other members filed a lawsuit against their label, citing unfair profits margins and an unreasonably long 13-year contract.

They won. Sort of.

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Timothy Norris

By Tiffanie Lee

2NE1
Nokia Theatre
08-24-12

See also:
*Our 2NE1 slideshow
*K-pop Till You Drop: The Skinny on the Korean Boy and Girl Groups That Get Major Play in Koreatown

2NE1's first international tour brought the K-pop girl group to Nokia Theatre on Friday. The show felt like a stellar girls night out, and you could tell they were feeling quite at home, too.

There's no denying that group leader CL is a star, and not just back at home. While it's true that another K-pop star PSY is hot in America right now with his song "Gangnam Style," CL is arguably the crossover messiah K-pop has been waiting for.

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Garion's MC Meta and Naachal

See also:
*K-pop Till You Drop: The Skinny on Korean Boy and Girl Groups"
*Reviewed: Drunken Tiger at the Jungle Concert In L.A., 12-02-11

This just in: The best South Korean music to get international play is not K-pop. Sorry. Much like J-pop, and their American cousins, y'know, girl bands and boy bands, K-pop is mostly sickly sweet, overproduced R&B with a smidge of manufactured edge here and there.

But for all the attention it's getting over here lately, you'd think that was all the music South Korea had to offer. Fortunately, under the well-groomed fingernails of that sugary pop scene, there's a thriving, decades-old hip-hop community, and we're late to the party. Benefiting from some solid cross-pollination between Korean communities in L.A., New York and Seattle (and the magic of the Internet), Korean hip-hop has spent 20 years evolving into something distinct. For a country the size of Kentucky, there's a myriad of amazing MCs, DJ collectives, producers. Admittedly we're just scratching the surface (and are relatively new to the scene), but here are five albums we dig so far.

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Illustration by Fred Nolan

Story by Tiffanie Lee

K-pop has become a worldwide phenomenon, and one of its great hubs is Los Angeles. Walk into any Koreatown club, dive, noraebang (karaoke bar) or, hell, even a bakery, and you'll hear the genre's famous slick jams and infectious dance beats. Importing elements of American R&B and hip-hop, as well as Euro dance beats, the strain's popularity surged in the new millennium after picking up steam in the Japanese and Chinese markets. Through YouTube, it has gained a strong foothold in the United States as well.

Like Japanese J-pop, the genre's star players often come from rigorous training camps, something like a cross between the old Hollywood studio system and a Battle Royale. Few cadets make it out, but the ones who attain stardom are worshipped as idols.

Here's the lowdown on five groups that are near-ubiquitous in their own country; you're also likely to hear all of them in Koreatown.

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