“Loser” by BigBang (빅뱅), Wednesday, June 5, 2024

June 05, 2024

BTS’s international success didn’t happen without precedent. One of the biggest international Korean pop successes before the boys in Bangtan Sonyeodan topped Billboard’s Hot 100 was YG Entertainment’s BigBang. The group has been called the “Kings of K-pop” especially with the hit singles following their 2006 debut album BigBang Vol.1. The group has had 11 number 1 singles in South Korea. The group has taken several lengthy hiatuses; however, each comeback proved the group’s lasting impression on Korean popular music. Throughout the group’s career, though, the members have endured scandal, from drugs to an infamous case of prostitution.

HONESTLY, THE WORLD AND ME DON’T MATCH. BigBang’s status right now is uncertain with all members fulfilling their contracts with YG Entertainment and being removed from the label’s roster. Seungri (승리)retired from music following his scandal in 2019. T.O.P (탑) left the group when he fulfilled his contract with YG. Remaining are Taeyang (태양), Daesung (대성), and band leader and chief songwriter G- Dragon(지드래곤). With only a single released in 2022 following the group’s finishing conscription and scandals, the group has experienced a fallow period far beyond any of the group’s previous multi-year hiatuses. The second longest hiatus lasted between 2013 and 2015, when G-Dragon said that he experienced a “career slump,” unable to write material for the group’s next project, which resulted in a delayed follow up record. But in 2015, the group was ready to make their comeback. The group hadn’t released a full record in 9 years, and had decided to release their third album in a series of singles. Eight of the eleven songs on MADE were released two songs at a time. These singles were called M, A, D, E— each one released a month apart starting in May 2015.

LIKE SAD CLOWNS IN A SCRIPT. “Loser” was the first single released on M, the first series of singles from MADE. The full album was delayed to December 2016 because the single series called the group back to touring and promotion. The songs on the group’s third album bend genres in ways that the group had become famous for. The group always identified with hip-hop more than teen pop. But MADE was a mature effort by a group of Korean mid-twenty somethings, outgrowing the last notions of squeaky-clean teen pop. Songs like “We Like 2 Party,” “Bang Bang Bang,” “Sober,” and 2016’s “Fxxk It”dealt with mature themes of drinking, sex, and shedding innocence. Musically, the album flirts with pop, rock, trap, and acoustic styles. The first single, “Loser,” feels like a 2015 evolution of emo. It’s a self-loathing song for the often optimistic group. It mimics a schoolyard bully’s chant, though the speaker is singing it as self-deprecation. Fortunately, BigBang doesn’t stay in this theme for long, touching on emo before picking back up with upbeat songs.