In November, The Bangtan Boys, a.k.a. BTS, performed at the American Music Awards, the first K-pop band to gain this much popularity within the US. BTS arguably paved the way for other K-pop artists to gain popularity in Western culture. If you’re a fan of Korean dramas or K-pop music, I’ve got some other bands for you to check out.
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Blackpink
via celebmix.com
Blackpink is a South Korean girl group created by YG Entertainment on August 8th, 2016. They are the first group to be made seven years after 2NE1. This group includes: Jennie, Lisa, Jisoo, and Rose.
My favorite song is,“Don’t Know What to Do” and “Kiss and Makeup,” which features the UK’s own popstar, Dua Lipa.
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TWICE
via Pinterest
TWICE is a nine-piece girl group created by JYP Entertainment. They debuted on the competition show, Sixteen, on October 20th, 2015. In this girl band, there’s Nayeon, Jeonyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Dahyun, Chaeyoung, and Tzuyu.
I recommend listening to “Candy Bop” and “Heart Shaker.”
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Vixx
via allkpop.com
This is a six-member boy band formed by Jellyfish Entertainment. Vixx is an acronym for “Voice, Visual, Value in Excelsis.” The group members call themselves: N, Leo, Ken, Ravi, Hongbin, and Hyuk. If you’ve seen the Korean drama Moorim School, you are surely familiar with their song, “Alive.” Recently, they sang a song for the drama Are You Human, Too?
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Infinite
via kpophotness.com
Infinite is a group created by Woollim Entertainment consists of five members: Woo Hyun, Sung Kyo, Dong Woo, Sung Yeol, Sung Jong, L, and Hoya. However, in 2017, Hoya left the group. Two of the members, Woo Hyun and Sung Yeol, both sang and acted on the drama Hi! School Love On!. That drama, specifically, is a good way to introduce yourself to Infinite. This group also has two sub-groups called: Infinite H and Infinite F.
I recommend listening to their song “Heartbeat” by Infinite F on YouTube, as well as their song, “Destiny.”
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Monsta X
via Wikipedia
This seven-piece group, created by Starship Entertainment in 2015, is one of the most popular K-pop boy bands. Their members are: Jooheon, Shownu, Kihyun, Hyungwon, Wonho, Minhyuk, and I.M. They were recently the musical guests on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
I highly recommend listening to their tracks “Fighter” and “White Love.”
K-Pop bands aren’t for everyone, but I hope that if you’re a fan of BTS that I introduced you to some new bands… or, at the very least, gave some new, enjoyable song recommendations.