2NE1 sells out arenas around the world
and even did an Adidas commercial
with Nicki Minaj, while the video for
“Gangnam Style,” from pop-rapper Psy,
holds the all-time YouTube record,
with 2.6 billion views since its 2012
debut. That sort of virality wasn’t pos-
sible a decade ago, when K-Pop was
available beyond Asia mostly via illegal
download or at specialty record stores.
“In the past there were limitations
to distributing and accessing music,”
says Yang, whose company is on pace
to do a quarter-billion dollars in
revenue this year. “Now in the digital
age those geographical boundaries are
insignificant.”
If the rise of K-Pop seems a relative-
ly recent phenomenon, that’s because
it is. American influence came to the
peninsula in earnest during the 1950s
with the Korean War and its aftermath,
as troops staying in the area exposed
locals to Western pop and rock ’n’ roll.
But it wasn’t until the 1990s that those
influences combined with European
electronic music, American hip-hop
and existing traditional Asian genres,
coalescing into the beginnings of mod-
ern K-Pop.
Yang grew up in this milieu, spend-
ing his high school days emulating the
music of Soul Train and practicing the
dance moves of Michael Jackson. In
1992 singer Seo Taiji came to Yang to
learn how to dance; they teamed up
with a third member to create Seo Taiji
and Boys, which married hip-hop and
catchy melodies.
Their first hit, “Nan Arayo (I
Know),” made Rolling Stone’s list of the best boy
band songs of all time.
At the height of Seo Taiji and Boys’ popularity in
1996 Yang walked away to launch YG, where he cre-
ated a K-Pop factory. One of his early charges was G-
Dragon, who started receiving musical training from
him around age 12, along with future group member
Dong “ Taeyang” Youngbae.
After the pair survived an American Idol-style TV
competition, Yang did what Simon Cowell would
later do with One Direction: pair them with fellow
contestants to form a boy band calibrated for maxi-
mum appeal.Fortunately the group’s finances are being guided
by much more than a mommy manager. The real
force behind Bigbang is former K-Pop idol Yang “YG”
Hyun Suk and his namesake company—a $630 mil-
lion publicly traded record label, talent agency and
concert promoter with fingers in pies from fashion
to marketing to film.
The company and its founder are responsible for
creating not only Bigbang but also, to a great extent,
the modern K-Pop movement, which is in the midst
of a transformation from regional staple to interna-
tional craze.
Within YG’s roster, examples abound. Girl group
52 | FORBES ASIA JULY 2016
FORBES ASIA
BIGBANG
Bigbang boss Yang “YG” Hyun Suk: “In the past there were limitations to distributing and
accessing music. Now in the digital age those geographical boundaries are insignificant.”