2005—2006: Formation
Before Big Bang's major debut, each member had his own degree of success and popularity in the entertainment industry. Leader G-Dragon and lead vocalist Taeyang had already been with YG Entertainment since they were both twelve years old, known as GD and YB back then. Member T.O.P was well known as Bounce - Big Bang"/> Big Bang made their official debut at the YG Family concert, held on August 19, 2006 at the Gymnastics Arena in Seoul Olympic Park.
Prior to the release of their first album, the group had a unique release schedule, with three EPs released within a span of a few months. Their first EP was The First Single Album, which spawned the top-ten[citation needed] hit single "This Love", a remake of the American boy band Maroon 5's own single.[3] The single debuted with over 17,000 copies sold in the month of August[4] and later went on to sell approximately nearly 40,000 copies[5]. The second EP Big Bang is V.I.P. was released a month later, selling 21,000 copies in that month.[6] It finally netted sales of 32,000 copies.[5] Their third and last EP, B I G B A N G 0 3, followed the success of their previous EPs with final sales nearing 30,000 copies.[5]
Later in the year, Big Bang's own official fan club was created, calling themselves the "V.I.P." (in reflection of their second single "Big Bang is V.I.P."). Unlike other fan clubs, Big Bang's fans do not have a balloon color for showing support at concerts; instead, fans wave black and white BB (standing for Big Bang) handkerchiefs/bandannas. At the end of December 2006, Big Bang held their very first concert titled The Real. The following month, their first debut album Since 2007, which was essentially a compilation of songs from their previous singles, was released; it sold 48,009 copies by the end of February 2007.[5]
2007—2008: Breakthrough success
On February 8, 2007, Big Bang released their live concert album entitled The First / Real Live Concert, which sold almost 30,000 copies by the end of 2007.[7] From May to July 2007, the group also held their first national tour concert in Korea, with the headline Want You, touring a total of five cities: Incheon, Daegu, Changwon, Jeonju and Busan.
In August, the group released what would become one of their first mini albums Always, with the group holding a Showcase/Fanmeeting for promotional activities. Taking control over their music, group-leader G-Dragon began producing and writing some of the songs on the album. The mini-album was released to positive reviews from fans and critics alike, especially the song "거짓말" ("Lies").[8] "Lies" became the group's first song to be a breakout hit, reaching number-one on SBS Hit Songs, their first to do so, followed by MBC's Music Core, KBS Music Bank and Mnet's Countdown and numerous online and offline charts for many consecutive weeks.
The mini-album was successful enough for Big Bang to collect numerous awards by the end of 2007, including "Best Male Group" and "Song Of The Year" from the 2007 M.NET/KM Music Festival.[9] Later in 2008, Big Bang also collected the prestigious "Daesang" from the 17th Seoul Music Awards.[10]
Their second mini album, Hot Issue, was released a few months after Always and yielded another strong single for the group, "Last Farewell" ("마지막 인사"). It mirrored the success of "Lies," topping various music charts, and winning "Song of the Month Digital Music Award" from Cyworld , beating strong competitors such as the Wonder Girls and F.T. Island. It also topped Juke-On's chart for eight consecutive weeks.[11] The group then held their second round of concerts from December 28 to 30, 2008, with the headline Big Bang Is Great, where tickets were reportedly sold out in 10 minutes.[12] Despite this, various members were hospitalized due to sickness and injuries from over performing and exhaustion,[13] thus halting and limiting their promotional activities. A representative for YG Entertainment then addressed the issue by stating that though the group would perform at the MBC Music Festival on the 31st, they would cancel everything else on their schedule for the first week of next year. It was later reported in the year that Big Bang's albums and singles had been in high demand, causing the record company to reprint and repackage it for re-releases.[14]
After the success in South Korea, Big Bang ventured out overseas towards Japan. Kicking off 2008, their first Japanese album For the World was released, with previous Korean singles appearing on the album, in addition to a Japan-only song, "How Gee" (a new remix version from "How Gee" by the Japanese group Black Machine). For The World debuted at #14 on the Oricon chart and eventually crawled its way to #10, despite lack of promotions.[15] On the 28th and 29th of March, Big Bang held a concert in JCB Hall in Tokyo Dome City. Additionally, the group also released a Japanese mini-album in late May titled With U, with a corresponding single of the same name.
The group returned to Korea mid-2008 after their activities in Japan ended. Despite their activities being delayed several time due to solo activities, Big Bang eventually released their third mini-album Stand Up — which featured collaborations with the group Daishi Dance, and the Korean rock-band No Brain with their latest punk rock single Oh My Friend. The band's first release was "Day By Day" ("하루하루"). Like previous albums, leader G-Dragon was heavily involved with the production of the album, having composed and written a majority of the songs with the exception of "A Good Man", which was composed by fellow group member T.O.P. The mini-album went on to exceed the 100,000 mark in sales and also yielded some of the group's strongest singles, with the lead single "Day By Day" topping several online charts and staying at the number-one spot for 6 consecutive weeks.[16] In addition, several of their songs also made it to the Top 20 of the charts, with "Heaven" at the number-two spot, "Oh My Friend" being ninth, "A Good Man" at twelfth and "Lady" being sixteenth — a total of five songs in the Top 20 for the group.[citation needed]
At the same time, Big Bang released the Japanese song "Number 1" from their album of the same name and introduced the song through Japanese radio programs and TV shows; the album peaked at #3 on the Japan's Oricon daily album chart.[citation needed] Towards the end of 2008, Big Bang released their Korean follow-up album, Remember, yielding the single "붉은노을 ("Sunset Glow"), which peaked at number-one on various charts in Korea. At the end of 2008, Big Bang collected their second "Artist of the Year" from the 2008 M.NET KM Music Festival award ceremony.[citation needed]
2009: Branching out
The group went on a break in early 2009, with all of them pursuing solo activities. During this time, they collaborated with 2NE1, a new girl group from their entertainment company and also being called The Female Big Bang, for the song "Lollipop"; they filmed a music video for it as well. Although it was a song used to promote a cell phone, it has since hit #1 on various online charts.[17]
After their success with "Lollipop", the group released their first Japanese single named "My Heaven" in May 2009, their major debut in Japan. The song is a Japanese translation of their song "Heaven" from the EP Stand Up.[citation needed], and was composed by acclaimed Japanese composer Daishi Dance. Due to an interesting promotional campaign in which the group performed on several Morning News programs, Big Bang's single debuted at a surprisingly high no. 3 on the Oricon Charts.[18]
Big Bang released their second Japanese single titled "ｶﾞﾗｶﾞﾗ GO!" (Gara Gara Go!) on July 8, 2009 which reached number 5 on the Oricon charts.[18] "Gara Gara Go!!" marked the group's first performances on some of Japan's major music shows, like Hey!Hey!Hey! Music Champ and Music Station. With the release of two successful Japanese singles, Big Bang released their first full-length Japanese album under Universal Music, aptly titled Big Bang, which charted in at No. 3.[18]
Almost immediately after the release of their first album, Big Bang returned to Korea. On August 18, G-Dragon released his first solo album titled Heartbreaker which was, despite fair amounts of controversy, a great success. Fellow member Taeyang is set to release his second solo early next year and the music video of his single "Where U At" has been released with his track.
On October 15, 2009, Big Bang announced their first tie-up with a Japanese drama; they will be providing the theme song for TBS's Friday night drama Ohitorisama starring Alisa Mizuki and Teppei Koike.[19] The official release of this new Japanese single entitled "Koe Wo Kikasete" (Let Me Hear Your Voice) was on November 4, 2009 and peaked at number 4 on the Oricon charts.[20]
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