Former Clon member and popular local electronic dance music icon DJ Koo (Koo Jun-yup) has been picked as the music director at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games’ second round of test events. “We have selected Koo Jun-yup as the music director at the upcoming ‘2016 FIS Freestyle Ski-Snowboard World Cup’ second test event from the 18th to 28th at the Bokwang Phoenix Park in PyeongChang,” said PyeongChang Organizing Committee President Cho Yang-ho, in a press release Sunday. 

He’s no stranger to Seoul, but that didn’t stop British artist Mika from drawing in thousands on Friday night, performing at a sold-out concert in Seoul as part his three-day South Korean “Heaven” tour.British singer-songwriter Mika performs at a concert in Seoul last Friday. (Yonhap)The singer songwriter lit up Jamsil Arena with sparkles, sequins and confetti in his return to Seoul for the first time in 2016 on Feb. 12. “Good evening, Seoul,” the artist announced, stepping onto the stage in a g

Rock band N.EX.T, formerly led by the late Shin Hae-chul, held a concert at the National Assembly Members’ Office Building on Friday.　The concert was aimed at gathering the National Assembly members’ signatures to hold a public hearing for a medical law amendment called the Shin Hae-chul Act, according to KCA Entertainment, the late singer’s agency.The poster for the N.EX.T live concert is seen at the National Assembly Members’ Office Building on Friday. (KCA Entertainment)　Singer Hong Kyung-min

Veteran singer Insooni denied claims of tax evasion after singer Choi sung-su‘s wife, surnamed Park, accused her of evading about 5 billion won ($4.13 million) in taxes, the singer’s agency Blue Sky Entertainment said Thursday.　Park submitted documents to show tax evasion by the singer in 2008 to the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office and the National Tax Office on Feb. 5.  Insooni (Blue Sky Entertainment)　Park claimed that she had returned 4 billion won of the singer‘s 5 billion won investment in her

California knows how to party. So goes the refrain on 2Pac’s enduring rap favorite “California Love.” That love is on display in the form of an homage on “Cold Chilling: Compton,” an album of reimagined takes on West Coast rap classics.　Musically, the release is polished. The vocals are carefully crafted and the lyrics are true to their origins. But songs like Snoop Dogg's “Gin and Juice,” reworked by The Rooks, seem conflicted. The lyrics don’t seem a solid fit for the mature, lush vocals. More

On the song “Leaving Nashville,” singer Charles Kelley delves into the personal and professional struggles that a songwriter faces after tasting a modicum of success. The complex narrative establishes why this member of the country trio Lady Antebellum wanted to record a solo album: Kelley’s intimate, emotional performance would have sounded out of place with a group identified with vocal interplay and harmonies. Charles Kelley “The Driver” (Capitol Records Nashville)　Kelley's album, “The Driver

Singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams digs deeper into raw, mystical electric blues on her new double album, “The Ghosts of Highway 20.” Focused on faith, death, the afterlife and rural Southern settings, “Highway 20” sounds like a William Faulkner novel put to music.  Lucinda Williams “The Ghosts of Highway 20” (Highway 20 Records)　It's not a fun listen; it’s not something you'll sing along to; it’s not something you‘ll put on at a party. But it conveys a haunting gravitas that conjures spirits an

Universal Music vice president says Korea’s classical music scene has transformed quickly over the years

NEW YORK (AFP) - The Beatles were masters of concise yet catchy songs and now Paul McCartney is writing tunes that are even more succinct -- to accompany emojis.　The former Beatle announced Wednesday that he has written a series of sounds to go with emojis on video chat service Skype, mostly designed for Valentine‘s Day messages.　“At first I thought, hmm, strange proposition, is this for me? And then I thought, you know what, why not? Something fun, something nice and new,” he said in a video on

LONDON (AFP) - “It's like travelling in a time capsule,” enthused Jimi Hendrix’s former girlfriend, marvelling at their old London flat which has been painstakingly recreated to look exactly the way he left it in the swinging 60s.　The apartment where Hendrix and Kathy Etchingham lived between 1968 and 1969, which opens to the public on Wednesday, reveals the ordered domestic life behind the extraordinary U.S. rock star's mind-blowing music. Kathy Etchingham, the former girlfriend of U.S. musicia

　Bumkey“U-Turn”(Loen Entertainment)　R&B singer Bumkey is one of those artists who can rack up impressive chart rankings and music sales without going through the hamster wheel of radio and TV promotions that are obligatory for most artists to gain some traction. On “U-Turn,” his first studio-length album coming 11 years after his debut, Bumkey demonstrates why he has been able to survive with his music alone with eight tracks he wrote himself, as well as a new version of the hymn “Amazing Grace.

The Seoul Central District Court ordered K-pop rock band CNBLUE to pay 15 million won ($12,500) in compensation to indie punk band Crying Nut for copyright infringement.　Crying Nut had sued CNBLUE and its agency FNC Entertainment for unauthorized use of its song “Deathblow Off-Side,” which was written by its member Lee Sang-hyuk to mark the 2002 FIFA World Cup and was released by the band. Crying Nut claimed that CNBLUE used the music on Mnet’s “M Countdown” in 2010 without authorization. CNBLUE