Are we about to witness a K-pop live album renaissance?
This summer, it feels like all at once we saw live albums from across the industry: in July, BTS marked their return from hiatus with a several-year-old concert album from a date in Los Angeles in 2021. Then a few days later, Winner released a Best of Album featuring performances from Japan in 2019 and 2018. Then a few days after that, the Japanese K-pop inspired hitmakers XG released their live album.
These are all great albums, bringing listeners into the moments of each acts' shows. But I can't help but pause about the fact that they felt like they were all coming out at once, whereas according to the K-pop fandom.com page, only around 40 live albums exist from K-pop acts. There are definitely some not listed there, though that may be because only true concert CDs are listed, not CDs that are a part of a concert film DVD set. Adding three (or two, depending on how you count XG) in the span of a month is the sign of a trend.
But I think these live albums hint to an important thing happening in K-pop (and adjacent acts, like XG) in 2025: these new live albums in 2025 are coming out instead of albums, and at a time when the entire K-pop industry is focusing more on concerts than on album releases.
Due to military enlistment, both BTS and Winner haven't had a joint album in some years: Winner hasn't released a group album since 2022; BTS has been on hiatus, and aren't expected to release an album until next year. XG have released some new songs this year, but their only album of 2025 so far has been a remix album, XDM Unidentified Waves.
None of these acts have released music this summer, and potentially may not even release new music this year, though it's only September so I feel we'll at least hear some songs from these artists. But in the meantime they're letting us relive the live concert experience, audibly sharing around the concert experience.
This trie of back-to-back releases isn't necessarily a trend as much as it is a sign of the times, and potentially what's to come: tours are everything, and if you're not releasing music, using previously recorded music from a concert is a minimal effort way to get a release, and make concerts even more lucrative for companies. SM Entertainment acts have often released concert albums, and honestly feels like they've fallen off that in recent years, but I generally expect we'll see more live albums from across the industry in the coming months or years because of the lucrative nature of these album sales. Any possible way to make concerts more lucrative means that K-pop companies and artists can invest more in concerts and less on new releases that are less surefire profiteering efforts than ticket sales.
This isn't to say that I don't think there isn't an art to live albums, and these are just results of corporate greed. In fact, I think the opposite: I'm excited about the potential renaissance of live K-pop albums from a corporate perspective because I'd like to hear more and more of them.
I personally love listening to live albums, especially K-pop ones that lean into incorporating the fan energy, which each artist and production team does in different ways; I know a lot of INFINITE's fanchants because their fans' voices are part of the albums, whereas Winner's The Best of Winner Live focuses more on featuring the members and their backing band, with fans mostly heard in major cheering moments. The WINNER album was also a compilation, versus the other albums mentioned that are single concerts from start to finish.
Another reason I'd bet big on K-pop acts releasing concert albums is that we're at a tipping point of album releases: album sales are down, and by offering more albums, fans who may not buy multiple variants of one album may very well buy a live album in addition to any new releases from throughout the year. Live albums are relatively cheap to orchestrate, and have been relatively underutilized, especially at a time when K-pop concert documentary films are booming, which means these things are all getting recorded at very high audio standards.
I potentially could be totally off here but, well, I'll still be happily listening to these albums regardless of if I'm proven wrong or not.
In the News
Kep1er postpones China fan concert, dashing hopes of easing Korean Wave ban (Korea Economic Daily)
Prosecutors seek 15 years in prison for Kakao founder over SM acquisition (Korea Joongang Daily)
'The details were almost perfect': Kpop Demon Hunters sparks pride in Korea (BBC)
Stray Kids surpass BTS with record 7 straight No.1 albums on Billboard 200 (Korea Economic Daily)
K-Pop industry calls for South Korean music to get tax breaks (Music Ally)
Revolutionary girl group tripleS are pushing the boundaries of K-pop (NME)
Nobody Can Stop Stray Kids, Especially With Their New Album ‘Karma’ (The Hollywood Reporter)
What I'm Listening to
If you can't tell from some of the links, I'm listening to Stray Kids' KARMA album as I write this.
I recently began listening to a lot of K-pop club nights while I work, like this one from DJ Yuka. Please recommend me your favorite remixes in the comments!
What I'm Reading
The power of fandom (Mekong Review)
Not all women (are influencers) (Embedded)
The Fan, the Pro, and the Spaces In Between (Fansplaining)
My KPop Demon Hunters sing-along screening surprised me on every level (Polygon)
What it’s like to start out as a music writer in 2025 (Dazed)
How 831 Stories Is Building A Fandom-First Book Brand (Ad Week)
'They scream the choruses': How Japanese anime songs became Gen Z's latest musical obsession (BBC)
What I'm Watching
I watched the first two episodes of Apple TV's Kpopped, which features K-pop artists and western artists collaborating. I liked the collaboration stages and the rearranged songs, but I felt like the Korean artists were getting little interview time, and the only perspective the camera cared about was "Wow, look at these amazing icons recognizing the talent and hardwork of K-pop!" Apparently I'm not the only one who feels like it's lackluster because of the cheesiness and lack of depth featured. I'll finish it eventually.
