Mina ParkRosé will perform at LACMA's Art+Film Gala
LACMA booked Rosé as the musical guest for its November 7 Art+Film Gala, honoring Vija Celmins and Denis Villeneuve. She has already attended the dinner twice.
Image: SWinxy (CC BY 4.0)
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Music
72 stories on music across film, TV, music, fashion, food, and diaspora culture.
Browse Goldscene coverage tagged music. For how we source and write stories, see our editorial standards.
Music stories
YG wouldn't license BLACKPINK's music for 'Always Lalisa'
Sue Kim says YG would not license BLACKPINK's music or footage for Always Lalisa. The documentary opens in IMAX and theaters October 12, then on YouTube Premium later this year.
Image: Outhere505 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
i-dle's Soyeon wins Music Core with 'I'm gonna TOESA'
Jeon So-yeon won Show! Music Core on October 10 with I'm gonna TOESA, 6,670 points to BOYNEXTDOOR's 4,667. It is the song's third music-show win.
Image: K-POPIT (CC BY 3.0)
Anika RaoILLIT's Wonhee sat Chanel in Paris. Fans call her a princess. The house has not made her an ambassador yet.
ILLIT's Wonhee attended Chanel's Spring/Summer 2027 show at the Grand Palais on October 5, her first Paris Chanel seat after the house's Métiers d'Art show in Seoul last May. Fans call her a Chanel princess. Chanel has not named her an ambassador.
Image: Chanel / Belift Lab
BTS’s Arirang tour just crossed $500M. No pop group had done that before
Billboard Boxscore says BTS’s Arirang world tour has surpassed $500 million in ticket sales, the first pop group to hit that mark on one tour. About 40 shows remain, with a possible path toward $1 billion.
Image: Elwin594 (CC0)
Stray Kids sat out the Grammys. The Academy kept its Asian pop category anyway
JYP confirmed Stray Kids filed nothing for the 2027 Grammys, joining BTS after Harvey Mason Jr. said Best Asian Pop Music Performance will proceed. The group can still vote. Their music will not compete.
Image: K-POPIT (CC BY 4.0)
Inside the K-pop star machine: where the stars come from and how they get big
Private academies, years of trainee contracts, and survival shows. That is still how BTS, BLACKPINK, TWICE, and the HYBE groups after them reached a stage this size.
Image: Big Hit Music
Stray Kids open STRAYCITY in Mexico City tonight
Two sold-out nights at Estadio GNP Seguros, Sept. 25-26. NEXZ plus Mexican openers RENEE and Andrés Obregón. Mexico's president named the show Thursday and floated a BTS 2027 return that HYBE has not confirmed.
Image: Live Nation
The age of Wasians and Blasians in the American mainstream
Half-Asian stars are filling American pop, sports, and fashion because the audience already looks like that. Gen Z is the last barely-white-majority generation. The kids behind them are decreasingly single-ethnicity.
Image: Bosideng
TUIDE just topped Billboard's Emerging Artists chart
HYBE's new girl group TUIDE just got its first Billboard week: No. 1 on Emerging Artists, World Albums No. 3, Top Album Sales No. 8. The debut EP already cleared 112,000 first-week copies at home.
Image: ABD / The Korea Times
Why Asia may be the next media and entertainment epicenter
Asia already takes the largest regional slice of global box office and posted double-digit music growth in 2025. Hollywood still mints event movies. It is also selling fewer seats, thinner slates, and a merger stuck in court.
Image: I Dare U JK (CC BY 3.0)
HYBE Cine Fest goes global, with BTS live from South America
BTS is in Argentina for the first time, and HYBE is selling that night to multiplexes worldwide. Oct. 24-31, more than 60 territories, tickets Sept. 30.
Image: HYBE / Trafalgar Releasing
The Goldscene DeskKATSEYE: the multicultural girl group still built on K-pop training
KATSEYE is a six-member Los Angeles girl group formed by HYBE and Geffen through Dream Academy. The lineup is multinational. The training, fandom tools, and stage discipline still come from K-pop.
Image: Warmtoned (CC BY 4.0)
Rhea Raj just got the first Republic × HYBE joint deal
The older Raj sister signed the first joint Republic × HYBE America deal, with 5 Junction Management in the room. Lara is already at HYBE × Geffen. Rhea spent a decade getting there on her own terms.
Image: Angel Rivera
Kakao Entertainment just partnered with Disney Korea on K-pop IP
Kakao Entertainment and Disney Korea announced a strategic partnership for about 10 mid- to long-term projects mixing K-pop IP with Disney stories and characters, plus talks on a provisional K-Culture Fund.
Image: Walt Disney Company Korea
Stray Kids just headlined a rock-festival main stage. Here's what that means for music
Stray Kids became the first K-pop act to headline Rock in Rio's Palco Mundo, drawing about 100,000 fans on a night that also let lightsticks into the grounds for the first time since 1985.
Image: Rock in Rio
McDonald's just put G-Dragon on a gochujang butter Asia campaign
Korea McDonald's named G-Dragon the face of a gochujang butter campaign across 13 Asian markets, starting September 17 in Korea with McCrispy and McSpicy builds plus PEACEMINUSONE merch later this month.
Image: Korea McDonald's
Dolce&Gabbana just made TXT's Soobin a global ambassador
Dolce&Gabbana named TXT leader Soobin a global ambassador on September 8, with Fall/Winter 2026 portraits after his Milan men's show seat in June. The house is buying HYBE Soft Power ahead of Global Citizen NYC.
Image: Dolce&Gabbana
After Heeseung left ENHYPEN, EVAN sold 461,000 copies on day one
Six months after leaving ENHYPEN, EVAN's DEATH OF ME sold 461,488 copies on Hanteo day one. He stayed at BELIFT, rebranded, dropped Ride or Die in June, and wrote across the mini.
Image: SBS Radio 에라오 (CC BY 4.0)
KATSEYE's first Billboard 200 No. 1 asks what counts as K-pop now
Wild opens at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 dated Aug. 29 with 170,000 equivalent album units, the biggest week an all-woman group has posted since the chart switched to consumption units in 2014. Two of KATSEYE's six members are sitting out the victory lap.
Image: HYBE x Geffen / Julian Song
Lara Raj finally got her name in the credits
Unloveu is Lara Raj's first songwriting and production credit on a KATSEYE release, written with Amy Allen and Ross Golan and buried on the Target edition of Wild. It landed the same week the EP hit No. 1.
Image: David Lee (CC BY 4.0)
Stray Kids’ 3.28 Million Week Makes Nine-for-Nine Look Inevitable
THIS & THAT sold 3,289,269 copies on Hanteo and is tracking toward Stray Kids’ ninth straight Billboard 200 No. 1, with the group’s biggest U.S. week yet.
Image: JYP Entertainment
A Baby Shark child star is trying to become a singer without staying a meme
Park Geon-roung, the boy from Pinkfong’s 17-billion-view Baby Shark Dance, returns Aug. 20 as Baby Shark Boy with WAVE, featuring Monsta X’s Joohoney. The harder job is building an adult voice next to the internet’s biggest kids’ clip.
Image: The Pinkfong Company
TEMPEST’s Hanbin is rising by putting Vietnam on the solo frame
TEMPEST’s first soloist drops No Fear on Aug. 24 with a modern áo dài concept and the HEU’NG HANBIN coinage. Vietnam is in the styling, not just the bio line.
Image: YH Entertainment
KATSEYE’s new concert film wants to replace pop perfection with something messier
KATSEYE: WILD HEARTS hits theaters August 12, two days before the WILD EP and weeks before the Wildworld Tour, with Sophia and Manon on mental-health hiatus. The film is selling raw authenticity from a group built by HYBE and Geffen’s Dream Academy machine.
Image: Trafalgar Releasing / HYBE x Geffen
Hanbin: the first Vietnamese male K-pop idol, from Hanoi dance floors to TEMPEST
Ngô Ngọc Hưng, known as Hanbin, left Hanoi dance crew C.A.C. for I-LAND, debuted with TEMPEST in 2022 as the first Vietnamese male K-pop idol, and opens a solo lane with No Fear in 2026.
Image: 권현진 / News1
Spotify is building its largest Seoul pop-up yet, and Seongsu is the point
Spotify House returns to Anderson C in Seongsu September 10–13 for four days of concerts and experience programming, billed as the platform’s largest Korea footprint yet. The story is less the lineup than why a streaming app keeps renting Seoul’s pop-up laboratory.
Image: Spotify
Audrey Nuna is converting Mira fame into her own era
After singing Mira in KPop Demon Hunters and riding Golden through the Hot 100 and awards season, Audrey Nuna drops superHuman on Republic with Cirkut, her first solo since Trench and a VCT Pacific Stage 2 anthem.
Image: Ajt9 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
BTS is boycotting the Grammys’ new Asian pop category. Do they have a point?
All seven BTS members will not submit for the 2027 Grammys after the Recording Academy created Best Asian Pop Music Performance. The fight is whether a dedicated spotlight expands recognition or contains artists who already compete as global pop.
Image: Dispatch (CC BY 3.0)
The concert is only the beginning. K-pop is turning cities into destinations.
Around BTS’s Arirang tour, host cities stack hotels, pop-ups, welcome centers, and stamp rallies onto stadium nights. Fans stay longer, spend more, and treat the show as the center of a temporary destination economy.
Image: Ganbaruby (CC BY-SA 4.0)
BIGBANG’s 20th is stadium infrastructure with a sold-out clock
BIGBANG’s XX:COSMOS tour opens Aug. 21–23 in Goyang after a 210,000-person ticket queue, with a free Han River anniversary night on Aug. 19 that sold out in six minutes.
Image: YG Entertainment
Stray Kids are not teasing a comeback. They are booking like a stadium economy.
Stray Kids drop THIS & THAT on Aug. 7 mid-RUN IT tour, with five Seoul sellouts already done and Japan National Stadium, Rock in Rio, and STRAYCITY still ahead.
Image: JYP Entertainment
Cortis is rising as a capacity problem, not a discovery problem
Big Hit Music's first boy group in six years is under a year old and already selling out arenas, hitting Billboard No. 3, and spilling into 870 movie theaters. Cortis is rising as inventory math, not a slow-burn debut.
Image: Big Hit Music / The Korea Herald
Jihyo told ONCE her heart is heavy. TWICE's JYP renewal is the story.
TWICE leader Jihyo posted on Bubble that her heart feels heavy while JYP contract renewal talks continue, promising a careful decision and affirming she loves the group.
Image: David Lee (CC BY 4.0)
BTS's Arirang is back in the Billboard 200 Top 10. The World Cup helped.
Arirang jumps 26 to 9 on the Billboard 200 dated Aug. 1 after a special vinyl push and BTS's World Cup final Dynamite set, putting the March album back in the Top 10 four months later.
Image: Big Hit Music
Cortis is taking its LA tour stop to 870 movie theaters
Big Hit Music and Trafalgar Releasing will broadcast Cortis's Aug. 13 YouTube Theater show to more than 870 cinemas in 29 countries, with tickets on sale July 31 and Lollapalooza plus a North American theater run first.
Image: Ten Asia (CC BY 4.0)
BTS fans blame reverse streaming for SWIM's Melon drop. Old posts cut both ways.
After IVE’s Bang Bang took Melon daily No. 1 from BTS’s SWIM, some ARMYs alleged a multi-fandom reverse-streaming plot. Melon showed no UL spike. Netizens dug up 2023 reverse-stream calls aimed at NewJeans’ Ditto.
Image: Big Hit Music
While Dracula owns the Hot 100, Jennie wants a little less than a lover
Jennie’s first solo single of 2026, Less than a Lover, lands while her Tame Impala remix still sits at Hot 100 No. 5 and Pop Airplay No. 1. Festival soft-launch, then a quiet song about wanting less intimacy.
Image: Odd Atelier / Columbia Records
NewJeans opens summer as four, before ADOR opens a schedule
On their fourth debut anniversary, NewJeans dropped 2026 Summer of NewJeans films and photos with Minji, Hanni, Haerin, and Hyein. ADOR calls it a gift for Bunnies; the schedule still waits on finished talks.
Image: ADOR / NewJeans
HITC headlined by KATSEYE asks who Asian pop is for now
Head in the Clouds returns August 8 at Brookside at the Rose Bowl with KATSEYE headlining a one-day bill that also includes XG, Rich Brian, Dabin Remix, and UMI. The interesting part is the identity flip: HITC used to prove Asia could top an LA festival; the top of the bill is now a HYBE-Geffen global group already fluent in Coachella and Hot 100 math.
Image: Goldenvoice / 88rising
5 rising Asian indie artists for your late-summer playlist
Five Asian and Asian-diaspora artists making the season more interesting, from Jemerine Chan's self-produced pop to HANRORO's searching Korean rock and Wasia Project's after-dark chamber pop.
Image: HANRORO
How RESCENE turned a two-year-old song into a Melon No. 1
RESCENE's 2024 single LOVE ATTACK reached No. 1 on Melon's Top 100 after a viral catchphrase led listeners back through two years of music and more than 1,500 pieces of fan content.
Image: THE MUZE Entertainment
Olivia Rodrigo is the Filipina American star we've been waiting for
Olivia Rodrigo has been open about her Filipino family for years, from Disney Channel heritage videos to lumpia, calamansi, and a sold-out Philippine Arena stop. The scale of her career is why that honesty now lands differently.
Image: Live Shows (CC BY 3.0)
Taeyeon's Korean "Bansanka" remake tops Melon's Hot 100
Taeyeon released a Korean remake of tuki's "Bansanka" on June 29. By early July it hit No. 1 on Bugs and topped Melon's 30-day Hot 100, the first entry in a J-pop cover project built for domestic streaming.
Image: Pabian (CC BY 4.0)
Jennie: the BLACKPINK star who charted through remix culture
Jennie Kim built BLACKPINK's rap and fashion lane, then proved solo stardom could ride Chanel campaigns, Ruby-era releases, and a Tame Impala remix that re-entered the Hot 100 top 10 in June 2026.
Image: D4cgrapher / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Group Chat Verdictmusic7 min
Is Secret Flavor nostalgia product or a new group?
Secret dropped Secret Flavor on June 18 with a three-member lineup and new vocalist Yebin after a 12-year gap. Goldscene weighs whether RBW is selling catalog comfort or betting on a second-generation reboot.
Image: RBW / Photo via Soompi
ATEEZ takes Daesang at the 35th Seoul Music Awards as BTS wins Hallyu honor
The 35th Seoul Music Awards crowned ATEEZ with the Daesang on June 20 at Inspire Arena, while BTS received the Korean Wave Special Award and LE SSERAFIM took Best Song.
Image: lexatiny / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
How idol fandom logistics shape U.S. chart weeks
Hot 100 weeks are not only about streams. For K-pop and global idol acts, chart life depends on release clocks, fan purchasing coordination, vinyl variants, and U.S. time zones stans treat like shift work.
Image: Dayron Villaverde / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
Lisa: the Blackpink star who turned Vegas into a K-pop residency lane
Lisa Manoban, born in Thailand and raised as Blackpink's main dancer and rapper, built a solo lane through luxury fashion, global chart hits, and a 2026 Las Vegas residency that treats K-pop like a permanent Vegas headliner category.
Image: LG전자 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
ATEEZ drops eerie BAD music video trailer ahead of Golden Hour Part 5
ATEEZ unveiled a music video trailer for BAD on June 19, the title track from GOLDEN HOUR Part.5, their 14th mini album due June 26 at 1 p.m. KST before a British Summer Time Hyde Park headline debut.
Image: KQ Entertainment / Photo via STARNEWS
Secret returns after 12 years with Secret Flavor and new member Yebin
Secret released the special mini album Secret Flavor on June 18 at 6 p.m. KST, marking a 12-year group hiatus with a trio lineup of Jeon Hyosung, Jung Hana, and new vocalist Yebin under RBW, led by the title track Ice Cream.
Image: RBW / Photo via STARNEWS
U-Know Yunho launches his first solo Asia tour with SCENE#1
TVXQ's U-Know Yunho announced U-KNOW PROJECT 26 : SCENE#1, a seven-city Asia solo tour opening with three sold-out nights in Seoul before stops in Macau, Singapore, Bangkok, Taipei, Jakarta, and Hong Kong.
Image: The Korea Times
Katseye's Pinky Up climbs back to No. 85 on the Hot 100
Katseye's Pinky Up rose five spots to No. 85 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the chart dated June 20, staying on the list for an eighth cumulative week after peaking at No. 28 in April.
Image: Dthomas246 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
BTS unlocks Come Over on streaming for FESTA and a Busan anniversary weekend
BTS released Come Over on global streaming June 12 as the centerpiece of FESTA 2026, after the track had been vinyl-only on ARIRANG since April.
Image: Monbmon / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
LE SSERAFIM, Illit, and Katseye drop Hybe's triple-group single Iconic by Mistake
LE SSERAFIM, Illit, and Katseye released the joint single Iconic by Mistake on June 12, after debuting the track on M Countdown as a rare cross-group Hybe project.
Image: Wikimedia Commons contributor
Jung Kyung-ho and Sooyoung end 14 years without a scandal attached
Actor Jung Kyung-ho and Girls' Generation's Sooyoung ended their 14-year relationship in June 2026. Both agencies confirmed the split and framed what comes next as collegial, not chaotic.
Image: Composite (modified): 셀러게이트; 티비텐 (CC BY 3.0)
TREASURE's NEW WAV sweeps Japan and Korea in the same comeback week
TREASURE's fourth mini album NEW WAV debuted at No. 1 on Oricon and Billboard Japan while crossing one million first-week copies on Hanteo, ahead of three Seoul arena shows June 19–21.
Image: YG Entertainment
Jennie's Tame Impala remix puts Dracula back in the Hot 100 top 10
A Tame Impala remix featuring BLACKPINK's Jennie rose to No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, making her the second BLACKPINK member with a solo top-10 hit after Rosé.
Image: The Korea Times
Cha Eun-woo shipped one more Netflix role before military service went dark
Netflix's The Wonderfools is the superhero comedy-drama Cha Eun-woo finished before beginning South Korean military service in July 2025.
Image: Ten Asia / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
Warner Music Korea partners with Feelghood Music on BIBI
Warner Music Korea formed a global partnership with Feelghood Music to represent BIBI for worldwide release and promotion, timed to her single BUMPA and more than one billion streams in the past year.
Image: Hipposonic Studios / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Korean Gen Z is tuning into Taeko Onuki and classic Japanese city pop
Korean Gen Z listeners are showing growing appetite for Taeko Onuki, Japanese city pop, and J-rock, framing a cross-border listening shift rather than a single domestic trend.
Image: Tomasz Sienicki [user: tsca, mail: tomasz.sienicki at gmail.com] / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
Major labels are betting bigger on South Asian music in the U.S.
Investors and major labels are buying into the South Asian music market in the U.S., with Warner Music Group, Anjula Acharia, and 5 Junction part of the narrative.
Image: Dayron Villaverde from Miami, USA / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
BTS set for 2026 iHeartRadio Music Festival
BTS is among the performers lined up for the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Festival.
Image: Monbmon / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Group Chat Verdictmusic7 min
Did ATEEZ deserve the Seoul Music Awards Daesang in summer 2026?
ATEEZ took the Daesang at the 35th Seoul Music Awards while BTS won the Korean Wave honor and LE SSERAFIM swept song categories. Goldscene weighs whether the trophy matches the summer 2026 sales and touring map.
Image: lexatiny / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Group Chat Verdictmusic7 min
Are HYBE's joint girl-group singles fan magic or roster overload?
LE SSERAFIM, Illit, and Katseye shared Iconic by Mistake in June 2026 while SMA trophies and Hot 100 heat stacked the same week. Goldscene weighs whether HYBE's cross-group singles help fans or fatigue them.
Image: @_TV10 (CC BY 3.0)
What Lisa's Colosseum ticket math means for K-pop travel season
Lisa's Viva La Lisa run at Caesars Colosseum priced like legacy pop residencies with presales in April 2026 and resale listings starting around $200. Goldscene maps what that sticker shock signals for K-pop fans planning November trips.
Image: Supercarwaar / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Goldscene Desk briefing: spring 2026
A spring briefing on Asian entertainment and luxury: Lisa's Vegas residency milestone, BTS FESTA logistics, prestige beauty retail expansion, luxury ambassador stacking, and the streaming stories diaspora group chats kept passing around.
Image: Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Today's Radar: five things worth watching
Five stories on Goldscene's radar today: tour infrastructure, fandom logistics, beauty moodboards, luxury casting, and streaming debate fuel.
Image: Christian Bolz (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Group Chat Verdictmusic2 min
Group chat guide to Asian pop culture this week
The Goldscene Desk rounds up the Asian pop culture moments most likely to dominate diaspora group chats this week, from tour news to red carpet returns.
Image: Zequn Gui / Unsplash
China's unofficial K-pop ban is still shaping BTS's world tour map
BTS's comeback tour skips mainland China because of a decade-long entertainment restriction a decade after Beijing quietly restricted most South Korean entertainment.
Image: Monbmon (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Fandom is the new distribution strategy
For Asian pop acts and their teams, organized fan communities now function like distribution partners, shaping chart performance, tour demand, and brand heat.
Image: Manudesu (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The multilingual star on the rise
Entertainers who move easily between languages are building careers that skip the old crossover waiting period, especially in music and digital content.
Image: Lerdsuwa / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)