2025 K-pop H1 in Review Big 4 Company Scorecard

According to The Washington Post, the sound of summer 2025 is K-pop. With K-Pop Demon Hunters winning us all over, the return of BTS confirmed now that all the members have returned to civilian life, and major acts touring US stadiums, WaPo say it's a great time to be a K-pop fan.

Am I old, or does that not feel really like that's the case? WaPo is definitely going through it currently due to leadership change resulting in major impacts to journalism, so who knows if this is just an attempt to get clickbait, or if this is the reporter's actual thoughts. It doesn't necessarily feel like mine. But maybe I'm just a grump who is still waiting for the stream of hits that will define K-pop in 2025. We've definitely had a few of them, but all in all... K-pop in 2025? At best, the first half of the year has been okay.

But I think to say this is a glory year for K-pop is very odd, honestly. Maybe a great year for American K-pop fans in particular, but this isn't, so far, a make or break it year that we'll be talking about for decades the same way 2009 or 2013 were for the past generation. Maybe regarding the breakthrough of K-Pop Demon Hunters , but for K-pop generally? TBD.

Last year, K-pop had a lot of business drama but also some good moments. 2025 has been bigger on the scandal and crime front of things, but on the music side of things I think K-pop's hit a rough patch with only a few really great hits from this year so far. There have been a few FTC notices, though.

I think it says a lot that the most covered K-pop songs of the year aren't actually K-pop songs, but songs created by K-pop producers for a K-pop-themed movie musical. K-pop is, perhaps, missing its special sauce this year a bit.

As of publishing, it feels a bit like K-pop hasn't really kicked off yet. Or rather it has, just not within the Big 4, which means they have a lot resting on the rest of the year. Sitting down to annotate what I perceive to be the rank of the majors, I'm curious if everyone else agrees with me. Please feel free to disagree in the comments, I'd love to hear different opinions!

I'm not going to lie and say 2025 K-pop has been terrible. It certainly hasn't, and there have been a lot of good songs. Few "greats", but a handful of "pretty good", and was actually predicted to be a relatively safe year rather than an adventurous one. I'm having a solid time enjoying things, and saw some great concerts this summer. Concerts are certainly the big winners of 2025, though now nobody has any money to support them. As I began working on this, I was keeping an eye for day-of Blackpink tickets because I was trying to be fiscally more responsible regarding ticketing after an expensive summer so far, so as much as I'd love to see "Jump" live, I was trying to be An Adult and get something more affordable than the $500+ nosebleeds. I ended up not going, and I'm still moping that the tickets never dropping to an affordable* place.

So, with that said, I want to dive in and explore what exactly is going on in this year's first Notes on K-pop scorecard.

At the end of last year, I ranked JYP Entertainment as the top based on a few metrics I laid out, and YG Entertainment as the one with the poorest showing in 2024; SM Entertainment and Hybe were fairly close, with only a .15 points discrepancy. That feels a bit topsy-turvy at the moment, but the numbers may surprise us all, and we still have the biggest months of the year ahead of us to see how K-pop 2025 really pans out.

For those who didn't read the last scorecard, a quick overview of the standard categories I've created:

Music Quality - Based on my personal preferences and perception. This will be a score of the quality of a company's musical releases from my perspective.

Music Impact - Based on public and critical appeal, awards charts, etc. This will be a score of how well the company's musical releases fared. There are different metrics of album sales, so there may be some discrepancies, but generally the acts who sold a lot sold A LOT regardless of how it was reported.

Company Reputation - Based on general public perceptions of the company. This will be a score of the company's brand value.

Company Value - How the company is doing financially. This will be a score of the company's financial worth.

2024 K-pop Year in Review Big 4 Company Scorecard

As I mentioned in my year-end check-in post, I’m never quite sure what I want to accomplish with this newsletter, but I keep working on it. I could write yet another newsletter about the messiness of the business and legal sides of K-pop last year, or go on about trends

Notes on K-popTamar Herman

Please note: I'm writing this at the end of July 2025, so have a bit more than Q1 & 2 referenced here, as we're already into Q3.

PLEASE NOTE AGAIN: As I started working on this, some big news started coming out about Hybe. I didn't adjust the scorecard beyond a certain point, because we're firmly in H2, but since I'm publishing a week later than planned (because there was just so much to discuss) I did add some recent news items.

Hybe

Music Quality

I'm really wondering if one of the reasons I'm not feeling 2025 is because so few acts are putting out albums. Forget about full-length albums (and even those have become shorter), I'm just talking about EPs more than 3 songs. Hybe's been particularly egregious about this this year, with only a handful of acts putting out true EPs, and (unless I missed something major in my counting) only LPs from Seventeen and TXT, and BTS's live Permission to Dance album, which is a bit of a different beast.

I cannot tell you the laugh I just let out as I wrote that line. I am so goddamn tired. What do you mean Hybe only released two studio albums in eight months? Am I wrong? I feel delusional right now.e know if I miscounted or missed something. Please comment and let me know. (I feel like I keep saying that in this post, I apologize, but I'm really concerned maybe I missed some things.)

It's not that I think singles or shorter albums are a problem, it's just that even those feel watered down lately. The quality of just everything this year... Anyhow, this isn't just a Hybe rant, so let me focus on Hybe. There were a few of bright moments I wanted to highlight as personal faves.

First, one of my favorite songs of the year is Le Sserafim's "So Cynical (Badum)". Despite my recent cynicalness (is that a word?) in the previous graf, and the fact that I know some people may prefer "Ash" as the superior Hot b-side, I think this song is the epitome of what I look for in a classic K-pop EDM track; it feels like someone just humming to hype themselves up while getting ready for a chill night out with the girls, both a bit laidback while feeling on the edge of anticipation. Or going for a very specific nighttime drive. As I was writing this, I realized that it's actually co-written by Ejae, who recently blew up in recognition for voicing Rumi's singing voice in K-Pop Demon Hunters, but has had a really great run of K-pop songs (and is credited on this as a background singer, making me wonder if Ejae's actually the one who's doing the titular badum badum-ing.)

Then there was Jin's "With the Clouds", but especially the first minute of it. It really feels like that's Jin's happy place, and because of that it's my happy place. It also is an Adora co-written song, and Adora's always been one of my favorite BTS-collaborators, so it makes so much sense. I saw a lot of people comparing it to an anime OST and you know what? Jin is a protagonist, he does deserve his own anthem. "Rope It" was another truly fun moment.

Other than that, albums from Enhypen, ILLIT, Boynextdoor, Seventeen, TXT (plus solos) and &Team all offered great moments. I could rattle them off individually, but honestly... I enjoyed everything sort of in spite of how moderate it felt Hybe was being this this half, with some singles standing out more and some B-sides doing so. It is possible to enjoy music without thinking it's the greatest releases of all time, and that's generally how I felt about a lot of this year.

Somehow this year feels like it's barely kicked off for Hybe... That is, except for one act: Katseye, who have wow'd the world several times over, especially with "Gnarly", which feels like K-pop when it leans into how fun and experimental many of its hits have been. (Whether "Gnarly" is K-pop or not, I will not be addressing today!!!)

Music Impact -

Some days, it feels like Katseye's the sole powerhouse holding up Hybe in 2025. That's not really the case at all, but in H1 it certainly felt like that after the viral success of both "Gnarly" and "Gabriela", considering how they each took over algorithms, with the former even landing an Ice Spice remix.

Beyond Katseye, Happy Burstday, fronted by the single "Thunder", from Seventeen was one of many Hybe albums this half that saw a lot of love: it debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart, their third time doing so, after the album moved over 2.5 million copies in its first week. It's expected to hit 3 million albums sold by the end of this year.

The album was also one of the top-sold CDs in the US in H1, charting at No. 7 on Luminate's "U.S. Top 10 CD Albums" sales chart, accounting for 79,000 copies locally sold. Enhypen, with DESIRE: UNLEASH, was at No. 3 with 145,000 copies, and Le Sserafim's Hot was at No. 9, with 73,000 copies sold. DESIRE: UNLEASH peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and Le Sserafim's HOT hit No. 9 on that chart. TXT's The Star Chapter: Sanctuary also hit No. 2 on the Billboard chart, after selling over 1 million copies.

Enhypen in general did extremely well in the US regarding albums sold, second among K-pop acts only to Stray Kids' Hop. Internationally, they also sold over 2 million copies.

Jin and BTS generally had a big year, despite most of the members being in the army for much of it; Echo debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and BTS's first live album, Permission to Dance on Stage - Live debuted at No. 10 last week.

Rookies also did well, particularly in Japan. Illit's "Almond Chocolate" became the most-streamed song from a non-Japanese female act on Oricon, with over 50 million streams, and their album Bomb hit No. 2 on the daily and weekly charts. TWS has also been doing well there, with "Nice to See You Again" topping charts.

One other thing that I think that is a major coup for Hybe in the music biz is that over a dozen Hybe artists have officially joined the Recording Academy as voting members.

Company Reputation - I'm honestly not sure where to start with this one, because there's a lot of news coming out now around several investigations focused around Hybe and its stock. The highest priority one is that Chairman Bang Si-Hyuk has been accused of lying to investors ahead of a planned initial public offering (when a company first launches on the stock markets). He has been referred by an investigative arm of the Korean Financial Services Commission (FSC) to prosecutors over the allegations, saying he should face criminal charges, although Hybe has denied the accusations even amid a recent police probe. And, unrelated to him but of interest, he also had to testify in the trial against Kakao founder amid the SM Entertainment stock manipulation trial.

There's also the three former staff members who have been fined and received suspended prison sentences for insider trading ahead of the announcement that BTS's members would go on hiatus as a group in June 2022, ahead of enlistment. As former employees, this matters less to the company's overall reputation, but it's just not a good look generally.

Things got weirder after Hybe's US PR partners, Tag PR (you may know them as the crisis PR company involved in Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni's blow up last year, and they also have been working with Hybe), had asked for a correction from Music Business Worldwide claiming that these guys weren't former Hybe employees but instead one was an acquaintance of Bang. Then, Hybe's own PR team had to reach out to be like... no, that correction was wrong; they were former employees, and unrelated to Bang. To me, this points to internal struggles within Hybe about the PR around all of these situations, both at home in South Korea and internationally.

And on top of those things, there's also the confusion cloud of NewJeans and Min Hee-jin's situations' still hanging over Hybe. Min has since been cleared of criminal breach of trust allegations, though Hybe will appeal. But NewJeans has been directed that the members' contracts are still in-effect with ADOR, a clear loss that they've announced they won't appeal, as there's another more major lawsuit coming up.

The members are clearly reluctant to work with the company they've been fighting for alleged mistreatment, and they continue to say they'll only return if Min comes back. Meanwhile ADOR, and much of the South Korean music industry, has expressed concern over a group attempting essentially to walk away after hitting it big after getting training and support from the company. It's ongoing, as it has been.

I honestly don't know what's going to end up happening with NewJeans, but the only instance I can think of when a group returned to their label post-dispute was B.A.P, and things were never the same. NewJeans has consistently asked for the reinstatement of Min, but... Again, I honestly can't imagine things going back to the way they were after all this.

But the company is also doing well internationally, with plans for an upcoming boy band a la Katseye but put out by Hybe Latin America (presumably based out of Mexico). They just announced an upcoming full-length feature film with Paramount inspired by K-pop, and BTS has their long-awaited return next year, with what will surely be a major tour.

Hybe has also launched a China branch, as China reopens to the K-pop market for the first time since the 2016 THAAD dispute disrupted the casual flow of K-pop artists into and out of China.

Company Value -

There has been a lot of reporting about Hybe's stock price taking a deep dive in light of the Bang situation, but Hybe is still valued more a share today than it was at the same time of the year last year, following early year gains. There have been some recent dips, and there's a definite downslope recently given the legal issues, but investor confidence in Hybe still seems high ahead of BTS's return as a full group. Because company value is less about perception and more about finances, I have to admit that at least some finance folks think Hybe is doing well.

Concerts are seen generally as a major reason behind why so many K-pop companies saw a really good Q1, including Hybe. This is also why it may feel like there have been relatively few big releases: everyone's on tour, or preparing for a tour. According to the Korea Times, "HYBE’s concert revenue, which stood at 25.2 billion won in the first quarter of 2022, jumped to 44 billion won in 2023 and skyrocketed to 155.1 billion won this year, surpassing its album and digital music sales of 136.5 billion won." That was a 615% growth over two years, although it comes on a lot of hard work of the stars; artists have referred to the gruelling pace of things. Considering that BTS are returning in full soon, people are looking at Hybe promisingly, despite all the drama.

JYP Entertainment

Music Quality -

There were many decent songs from JYP this half, but like with Hybe I just don't think JYP has found its groove in 2025 yet. We're getting good ideas, but nothing absolutely mindblowing. The closest we've seen has been NMIXX's "Papillon" and "High Horses", and Yeji's "Invasion". To be honest, I wish the latter had replaced "Air" as the single as good as that is.

From JYP's guys, Stray Kids' Mixtape: dominATE is their typical show of brashness, but with paired units exploring a diversity of sounds. Kickflip honestly is a lot of fun, as the newest group from the company, and I think Xdinary Heroes are making a really great show of things. But I thought it was a bit telling overall that the company is looking for songwriters publicly, after no major singles in a while, except for NMIXX.

But I'm still not sure how I think about the long-awaited 10th anniversary album of TWICE... To the point that I realize as I'm editing that I just let loose a bit of a rant, so please bear with me... the production is phenomenal, but everything is short, it sounds like a whole lot of great ideas but I'm only offered a handful of songs that go past the 3 minute mark. I had to laugh a little bit when I saw that the extended version of single "This is For" on their This Is For deluxe edition was a whole 2:26 long, adding 15 seconds from the original; 2:11. I understand it is the algorithm, and not me, who these songs are necessarily targeting, but TWICE's discography is so strong, I want to hear more of them for this milestone.

I also wonder about a lot of these choices for their 10th anniversary, when I'd love to hear more of a classic TWICE sound rather than this (admittedly still very good) sexy and trendy hot girl vibe they're going for throughout it. But TWICE have grown up, and I love that for them. But I guess I'm a bit sad about not taking a moment for more nostalgia, and maybe just more generally something that feels more like Twice. I'm not saying they need to go back to "TT" or anything, but "Strategy", their prior most-recent single, and a collab with Megan Thee Stallion, simply sounds more like Twice to me than "This Is For".

I also can't stop a small laugh whenever I listen to the album, over the cognitive dissonance of a girl group made with no American members in it singing the very US-feeling line, "She came from out of state".

Music Impact -

Speaking of "Strategy", well, a major strategy has paid off for TWICE: the song was featured in K-pop Demon Hunters, and debuted this week on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at 92. K-pop songs usually chart at time of release, but "Strategy" came out in December, so this is quite a major moment, even if people aren't talking about it that much: JYP understands the power of sync, and how it can provide impact longer than a single on its own.

I imagine that "Strategy" may keep steadily appearing on the chart or other Billboard charts as people continue to listen to the soundtrack, and TWICE's version of "Takedown" will also keep garnering them attention from the film's aficionados. This follows after This is For debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 album chart, their seventh consecutive release to break into the top 10 in the US.

On the album side of things, Stray Kids won this first half of the year overall for sales: 2024's Hop recorded over 2 million albums sales overall, while dominATE was the best-selling K-pop album in the US in the first half of the year, with 149,000 copies according to Luminate, and the 8th best-selling album overall.

Otherwise... That's kind of it? I feel like I'm missing something. Please let me know if I am, and leave a comment so I can update this asap.

Company Reputation -

This year has not been so good for JYP, but also not so bad. There have been definite issues, but mostly it's just a pretty quiet half, with no major wins or losses, aside from two moments.

The biggest issues the company has faced all happen relate to treating fans and artists fairly. I think these are particularly interesting because JYP's brand always has had a stereotype of taking care of its employees, so these things may seem less serious (to some) than multi-million legal cases, but feels more like they're issues at the heart of where JYP Entertainment is in 2025.

Starting last year, the reason behinds VCHA's hiatus became apparent when KG Crown announced she was leaving the act and suing JYP, particularly subsidiary JYP USA, for contract termination, alleging abuses and mistreatment. The court case continues, but earlier this month a second member, Kaylee, left the act. VCHA allegedly will return as a four-member act, but as JYP's first attempt at a Western-oriented K-pop-inspired act, it is less than a stellar success out the gate and has raised concerns about treatment of artists, especially minors.

This is particularly interesting in relationship to what is now a ongoing habit of mistreating minor fans at Day6 fan meetings in Korea. Apparently, attempts to reduce scalping and overpriced ticket re-sales led to overzealous ticket checking, with minors getting refused entry to Day6 concerts because they don't have official government IDs.

One went viral, and opened a floodgate of issues being reported, because she went to the police to get them to confirm her identity and was still refused entry despite a police officer going to the venue to verify her identity. It's opened up a floodgate of conversations about identification verification for tickets, scalping safeguards, and fan treatment, especially in an industry that generally targets female, oftentimes younger, audiences in South Korea.

There's also three Boy Story members who participated on Mnet's Boys II Planet, which appears to be a sign that they're essentially a less-than-successful, or at least underdog, group who are aiming for redemption with the potential of joining a group like Zerobaseone or Kep1er. This, paired with VCHA's situation, have led to a less-than-promising show of force for JYP internationally.

Company Value -

JYP's value has generally been perceived to be lower than the other Korean majors this year, after a pretty successful last year. According to Billboard, JYP Entertainment's operating profit fell 42% in the first quarter of the year, due to lack of high-profile albums and large tours. This isn't necessarily a terrible thing, since revenue was still strong and saw an increase of 3% between this year and last year, but there is growing concern about how the company is investing, especially in international markets where its investments aren't paying off and losses are increasing.

But shares are still in the green, with JYP's year-to-date shares still showing improvement. And if I were a betting girl, I'd bet that the positive response to TWICE at Lollapalooza, especially because they performed the K-pop Demon Hunters collaboration "Takedown", plus Itzy appearing alongside the Spice Girls in the new Apple TV+ series KPOPPED, is going to lead to a bigger half 2, especially since JYP is (once again) the only one of the Big 4 represented in this show.

SM Entertainment

Note: I'm not going to be discussing solo releases by artists under non-SM labels, such as Baekhyun, Onew, etc.

Music Quality -

Someone's going to come and shout at me about this in the comments, or drag me on TikTok (please don't), but I have to admit that don't really feel like any SM acts have really made 2025 their year yet. The hits aren't hitting quite high enough, and I'm not quite sure what a lot of releases are attempting to do.

Like JYP and Hybe, I think that SM had some really good releases, but few major hit making moments that are making me run back to listen to things on repeat. I find myself constantly wondering this year what SM actually wants its legacy to be in 2025, and it feels like that played out musically this year as well; there were, like with Hybe and JYP, good releases, but only a handful I find myself truly gravitating for over and over again

Red Velvet's Irene & Seulgi Tilt, Mark's The Firstfuit, Ten's Stunner, and RIIZE's Odyssey albums stood out to me, while SHINee's "Poet |Artist" homage to Jonghyun was beautiful, and Super Junior's 20th anniversary album was meaningful and fun (but so, so short that it felt like every amazing moment you got on it was over before it began).

But aespa's "Dirty Work" didn't really work for me, and I much preferred their PUBG: Battlegrounds tie-in song "Dark Arts". Oh, and shoutout to Hyo's "Yes", which I've enjoyed more than expected and really want to go dancing to.

And I'm still am thinking about how I feel about the remake album, 2025 SMTOWN: The Culture, The Future", which feels like it came out 100 years ago but was in fact a February release.

I've spent some of the past week listening to albums from solo artists like Kai and Doyoung, and boy groups like NCT Dream and NCT Wish, on repeat, and they all seem solid but nothing that really is pushing me towards the place where I feel like SM's A&R deserves all the awards this year. They're good, I like them, but I don't know if there's anything particularly to love beyond the reliability of quality sound and artistic style.

One thing I'm thinking about at the moment is that RIIZE and the many NCT groups aren't diversified enough sonically; I've noticed this with Hybe acts as well lately, but this year especially I feel like can hear, so-to-speak, other voices on songs that feel like they definitely were created for a different boy band under each company's larger roster. SM has always passed along songs for one artist to another act, but I think this is less that and more company's styles are becomming so specific that they're not getting diversified voices as much as they used to, but rather typecasting for the company's style.

As for the newest act under SM, I do hope that this year doesn't end before Hearts2Hearts releases an album so we can gain a real sense of what they sound like beyond the three songs they've released so far. "The Chase" and "Style" honestly still feel a bit like pre-debut teasers to me.

Music Impact -

I don't know what it says more about that it took me a bit to figure out what SM's impact was in 2025: my not being as on top of things as I once was since I'm not longer a full-time journalist, or SM's limited reach at the moment. I think the answer is a bit of both. Mostly, this half has been focused on SM acts touring, whether with the SMTown concert or solo, and a lot of that has just been big money making but not necessarily history making.

The one big win that I can confidently state is that Luminate pegged aespa as an Emerging Artist based on its data, and was interestingly the only artist from a K-pop company recognized for their impact. Emerging artists are defined by Luminate as "artists who Luminate Index value is below 60, with more than 50% of their newer streaming coming from tracks newer than 36 months." You have to imagine that last year's successes for aespa brought them their laurels.

On the sales side of things, NCT Dream's Go Back to the Future became the groups seventh album to sell 1 million copies in first-week of releases, joining only Seventeen to mark that milestone.

Company Reputation -

The biggest issue among SM this year was artists expressing unhappiness with the company, which some are blaming on the company's lack of cohesion after ousting founder Lee Soo-man.

This goes back to the ongoing battle between some EXO members leaving and suing SM, but also saw other artists, like Wendy and Yeri of Red Velvet, leave SM. On the bright side, we're seeing artists go solo but remain with the larger act, aside from the CBX crew due to the severity of their lawsuits. We'll see how the next EXO album pans out.

Some artists who did neither of those things just were very public with expressing how upset they were, such as Taeyeon, of Girls' Generation, and Super Junior's Yesung who frequently expressed upset about apparent neglect as a veteran artist.

But on the contrasting side, newer artists are getting more of a chance to continue careers despite issues, like Xnghan, formerly known as Seunghan of RIIZE, re-debuting in collaboration with dance duo Xoul.

Beyond the internal drama, SM came to represent what feels like this year being one when K-pop entered a new era of supporting or disavowing politicians, South Korean celebrities historically typically do not show support for elections, even showing up wearing gray so as not to be seen in a color of one party or another, but this year changed things, even if they were allegedly accidentally done and ultimately walked back and denied.

SM Entertainment acts in particular got in a lot of backlash for showing what people felt to be supports to conservative politicians. First, at SMTOWN LA in May, Leeteuk of Super Junior caused an uproar after shouting his love for many American entities, including In n Out and Tim Cook, but also for Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Some people got extremely upset, and others debated the potential intent, but it died down fairly quickly.

What didn't die down was upset that same month after Karina showed apparent support for South Korea's conservative party the week of a highly tense election following a coup and impeachment. She posted on Instagram showing herself wearing a red jacket showing with the number 2, the ballot rank of the conservative People Power Party's presidential candidate Kim Moon-so. Karina has denied any intent, but the intensity of it all felt to some people like it would be career ending for her, and others speculated that aespa's "Dirty Work" comeback didn't do as well as it could have because of backlash.

The other biggest news relating to SM this year related to Taeil, formerly of NCT, though he's no longer under SM so not technically part of SM's brand reputation at the moment. He was sentenced to jail for 3.5 years for being part of the gang rape of a Chinese tourist.

On a more lighthearted note, some people got mad at Seulgi and Irene, and led to removing a pretty non-problematic artistic teaser representing feminine sexuality.

Company Value -

I wish I had a legitimate answer here, but there's a lot going on with SM as always. Concert growth led to big wins in Q1, and Hybe is selling its stake of SM to Tencent (and a Tencent competitor is suing SM for alleged market abuse in China), so now SM is mostly owned by Tencent and Kakao at the same time that Tencent is gaining majority shares in some Kakao subsidiaries. This is less about SM itself and more what's going to happen in the future with China and Korea, so I'm sitting here keeping an eye on things.

On things that we can discuss legitimately in the here and now, SM's share prices have nearly doubled since last year in the summer, showing investors see value in continual investment. This is likely because of a strong tours planned for Q3, with touring coming out with a stronger showing in 2025 than album sales (for all companies, not just SM).

YG Entertainment

Music Quality -

A complete turnaround from last year, some of my favorite releases of the year so far are from YG. I particularly enjoyed Jennie's Ruby and Jisoo's Amortage albums, and have spend the last few weeks addicted to Blackpink's "Jump", with each of those releases expertly showing the soloist, and group's, style.

But beyond my favorites, there were some other engaging releases from the newer girl group Meovv and Lee Chan-hyuk's solo album, Eros. But I think when it came to other acts, that's where YG floundered a bit... It felt especially obvious that between Babymonster and Somi's releases, and even Meovv and Blackpink's to some degree, I'm not hugely convinced that YG and the Black Label knows what to do with its female acts aside from Blackpink.

Also, please note that due to some feelings of mine, I'm not going to incorporate G-dragon's Ubermensch in this qualitative discussion.

Music Impact -

Between G-Dragon's return bringing him back into the spotlight, Jennie's album dominating, Rosé and Bruno Mars' "APT." still charting immensely well at the start of the year, and Allday Project arriving this summer to a lot of attention for being the first co-ed group put out by any of the Big 4 in ages, it feels like everyone's talking about YG music again for the first time in a while.

Jennie landed four songs from Ruby on the Hot 100 this year, while Ruby itself stayed on the Billboard 200 album chart for 10 weeks after peaking at No. 7. Considering that K-pop albums usually drop after a week or two, this is a big moment for Jennie, though people are questioning her performance on Blackpink's tour.

Blackpink in general have done very well this year, with their music and their tour has garnered a lot of attention for them, and raising YG's presence internationally for the first time in several years.

Company Reputation -

Aside from YG's ongoing corporate messiness, such as YG founder Yang Hyun-suk being found guilty of threatening a whistleblower regarding B.I's drug investigation, YG is doing extremely well this year. Blackpink's members, both individually, and as a group, have come to be representatives in the music industry, least of all because "APT." was one of the most popular songs of the first half of the year, with Luminate counting over 1.624 billion streams.

Luminate also used Lisa as a case study in its midyear report to analyze how her music charted in comparison to her appearance in HBO's The White Lotus, showing the value of her and her fans (who are perceived to be big travel spenders).

The company, for the first time in a long time has multiple active acts between YG itself and subsidiary the Black Label making waves and actually releasing music. I'd love someone to count up how many more songs will ultimately be added to YG's database in 2025 versus the past five years.

Yang himself issued a video in May sharing how many new releases are planned for 2025, and announcing plans for two new boy bands and girl groups, the first in-house YG one since Babymonster debuted in April 2024 (Meovv and Allday Project are newer, but under the Black Label). The company allegedly went through a new internal restructuring, which may hint to the speed of things picking up so far of this year.

Of course, it wouldn't be YG without some scandal: not only did G-Dragon's usage of the term Ubermensch raise some eyebrows, but Allday Project's Tarzzan appropriative style and manner (following shortly after Kiss of Life had to apologize for the very same thing, and that's still ongoing) is pretty classic of YG artists. What's not classic is that there's Annie, a literal Samsung heiress. K-pop has increasingly become less a route for people to rise up the economic ladder, bringing their families with them, ever since the second generation when expensive training became part of the norm, and the last few years have seen many nepo babies whose parents were major hitmakers in their own right, but this is a new one.

Company Value -

Given that this year has been so succesful relative to last year, YG's stock has also done extremely well, and is currently valued at more than 2x the amount it was at this time of the year last year.

But a lot of the wins are based on Blackpink, G-Dragon, or Black Label groups, while newer YG acts aren't necessarily taking off in their own right as consistently and successfully as the company, or competitors, tend to. Since the company is refocusing, it's too early to say if YG can really turn things around by the end of the year, but already 2025 is looking much better than 2024.

I will also say, The Black Label's role in K-pop Demon Hunters is also a big win.

BONUS: some stories showing about what's going on beyond the Big 4

North Korean defectors make K-pop debut

North Korean defectors make K-pop debut

NBC News

K-Pop Idol BAIN Came Out Because He was Tired of ‘Hiding’

“I want to be an artist who is loved for being true to who I am.”

K-Culture with Jae-Ha KimK-Culture with Jae-Ha Kim

K-pop takes over Britpop: KPop Demon Hunters tops UK Official Charts - KED Global

KPop Demon Hunters, Netflix’s most-watched original animated film of all time, continues its record-breaking streak. Its fictional girl group Huntrix claimed N

KED GlobalYeonhee Kim

*Re BP tickets... I'm sorry, I love Blackpink a lot but I refuse to pay half a grand for nosebleeds... I saw Beyoncé recently with nosebleeds and a side view seat for $100, and just couldn't pay $500 for that same seat, as much as I'll be devastated that I'm going to miss this tour. I guess my poor planning (for tickets and fiscally) is just part of my journey towards being more of a fulltime fan and less of a fulltime journalistic professional... I hope they come back soon, or have a comeback soon. We all could use more BlackPink in our lives. Maybe I'll do an overnight trip to Europe for one of their shows. I'm joking! Or... am I?