K-pop boy band Seventeen will be releasing its third single album in Japan in April, the band's management said Wednesday. The new album, titled "Hitorijianai" in Japanese, meaning "you're not alone," will be released on April 21, according to Pledis Entertainment. It comes a year after the act dropped its second Japanese single "Fallin' Flower," also in April last year. Pledis explained that the upcoming album carries three songs, including the namesake new Japan

Here are today's major events that you may have missed out

Hui, a member of K-pop boy band Pentagon, will start his alternative military service later this month, his management agency said Tuesday. The 28-year-old group leader and producer will enter a boot camp on Feb. 18 for four weeks of basic military training and then serve as a social worker, according to CUBE Entertainment. All able-bodied South Korean men are required to serve in the military, but those judged unfit for active-duty service are allowed to serve an alternative one. The agency

Japanese art collector and YouTuber purchase the top-selling items at the auction

Blackpink wrapped up its virtual concert “The Show” to much fanfare in Seoul on Sunday. The group’s first pay-per-view livestreamed show, which ran for about 90 minutes on YouTube, featured the four bandmates performing a total of 19 songs, including their biggest hits “How You Like That,” “Don’t Know What to Do,” “Love Sick Girls,” “Whistle” and “Boombayah.” Songs from the group’s latest “The Alb

US magazine Esquire picks best pop bands ever; others include Beatles and Queen

At a time when online concerts featuring live communication with fans and state-of-the-art technology have become a new norm in the K-pop industry, BLACKPINK decided to go back to the basics in its first livestream concert Sunday, urging the audience to focus solely on its music and performance. The 90-minute gig, livestreamed for subscribers of a paid YouTube membership, showed the act's four members -- Jennie, Jisoo, Rose and Lisa -- singing some of their best hits and previously unperformed

“Big Hit has chosen to increase pie of industry rather than expand just its shares.”

Communicating freely with K-pop stars is every fan’s dream. The dream came true for many fans in February last year, when S.M. Entertainment launched a new service called “DearU bubble,” often shortened to just bubble, on community app Lysn. The service provides a private space that looks a lot like a private chat room, connecting fans with the artists they love. When an artist sends text messages, voice messages, photos and videos through this service, all fans who subsc

HyunA says her new album is a personal diary she wants to gift to fans

K-pop boy band Tomorrow X Together (TXT) has topped the latest Oricon weekly music chart with its first full-length Japanese album, its management agency said Wednesday. Released on Jan. 20, the 10-track album "Still Dreaming" landed in the top spot on the weekly albums chart this week with TXT's all-time high first-week album sales of 86,892 units in Japan, according to Big Hit Entertainment. The album has also stayed in the top spot on the daily albums chart for seven consecutive d

Superstar BTS has earned five nominations for the 2021 Korean Music Awards with its record-breaking albums and songs released last year. BTS has been named in the Musician of the Year, the Album of the Year, the Song of the Year, the Best Pop Album and the Best Pop Song categories, becoming one of the five acts with the most nominations, the awards' selection committee said in an online press conference held Tuesday. The four other most-nominated acts were Leenalchi, a sensational alternative

NCT 127, a sub-unit of the popular K-pop boy band NCT, is set to release a new EP in Japan next month, its agency said Tuesday. The band will be releasing the Japanese EP "Loveholic," its first new Japanese album in two years, on Feb. 17, according to SM Entertainment. The six-track album features five songs themed on love -- all sung in Japanese -- in addition to "Kick It," the lead track of the act's recent full Korean album "Neo Zone." The lead track is "g

IKON’s Bobby dropped his second solo studio album Monday. In “Lucky Man,” he sings of the diverse emotions he experienced in his youth. “The key was threading the tracks into an agreeable story. I worked on arranging the order of the songs and the lyrics so that they could make listeners want to listen to the next song when they finish the previous song on the track list,” Bobby said during a press conference held in Seoul on Monday ahead of the album’s rele

D.O., member of K-pop boy band EXO, has completed his mandatory military service and was officially discharged Monday. D.O., whose legal name is Doh Kyung-soo, was recently on his final leave and was discharged without having to return to his base, according to the military's COVID-19 guidelines, according to SM Entertainment. In a handwritten note posted on fan community Lysn, the 28-year-old thanked fans for waiting and said he will do his best in upcoming activities. D.O., who enlisted in