BLACKPINK

Blackpink set a record for first-week sales for a K-pop girl group with its third EP, “Deadline,” selling more than 1.77 million copies, YG Entertainment said Friday, citing a local tally. The newest set from the group surpassed 1.46 million copies sold on the day of its release, smashing through the first-day and weeklong marks for a K-pop girl group previously held by Aespa for its third EP, “My World,” released nearly three years ago in May 2023. The five-track mini album debuted atop iTunes

BLACKPINK has established a new first-week sales record for a K-pop girl group with its third EP, "Deadline," the group's agency announced Friday. The release sold more than 177,000 copies in the week following its launch last Friday, YG Entertainment said, citing data from local sales tracker Hanteo Chart. The figure marks the highest first-week sales for an album released by a K-pop girl group, registering 230,000 units more than its previous album, "Born Pink." Within the K-pop industry, first-week sales figures serve as a critical metric for gauging an artist's popularity and the overall size of its fandom. Highlighting its immediate commercial impact, "Deadline" surged to the top of Hanteo's monthly albums chart for February just 2 1/2 days after its release, with 1,468,894 copies, according to a chart update released Wednesday. The new album has also topped iTunes albums charts across 38 countries and regions since its debut.

SEOUL, March 6 (Yonhap) -- BLACKPINK has established a new first-week sales reco...

Approaching its second anniversary, K-pop girl band BABYMONSTER is struggling to establish itself as YG Entertainment's definitive flagship act. The group's momentum has been hindered by inconsistent recent releases and the agency's launch of a massive new audition project. The seven-member multinational group debuted amid high expectations in 2024. As YG's first new girl group since BLACKPINK, the highly promoted trainees initially stumbled with the 2023 pre-debut track "Batter Up." Released without member Ahyeon, the track underperformed and faced criticism for a dated concept. YG pivoted by bringing Ahyeon back for the group's official debut in early 2024. The strategy paid off immediately. The group's first mini-album, "BABYMONSTER," sold more than 400,000 copies in its first week. This set a record for the highest first-week sales of a K-pop girl group debut album at the time. The group gained traction with the title track "Sheesh" and the subsequent full-length album lead "Drip." Both releases shed the criticized elements of "Batter Up." They earned praise for showcasing YG's signa

With the release of Blackpink's long-awaited EP "Deadline," attention has shifted not only to the group's new music, but also to traditional Korean cultural elements woven into the music video for lead track "Go." Viewers quickly began dissecting the video's visual motifs, noting that several aspects appeared to draw heavily from traditional Korean aesthetics. The music video for "Go" includes ornamental patterns such as the "sujamun" — a stylized rendering of the hanja character for "su" — that