In Korean music market, generallly much more attentive and high-budget albums're done. Even the release process of any average album is very detailed. Almost every group (or solo artist) pre-announcing their albums and releasing many teasers in the countdown process until the album released. Generally, the concept photos are followed by the video teaser, which is a short section of the music video, and finally the music video is released. These are the basic steps we see in almost every group. But there are some albums that are quite "one of a kind". I've listed albums that I find different as the publishing process or the album itself:
5) ATEEZ - TREASURE EP.3: One To All (2019)
The rookie group Ateez followed a very different method for their 3rd mini album. They gave the fans the right to choose the title song to be promoted.
The fan votes given after the instrumental teasers were 40%, the fan votes given after the short choreography videos were 40% and the votes of the group members in the last stage had an effect of 20% on selecting the song to be promoted. The pre-comeback voting system has made the teaser releasing process very interactive. For more information, click HERE.
4) G-DRAGON - Kwon Ji Yong (2017)
Kwon Ji Yong is GDRAGON' real name. The name of the album is Kwon Ji Yong because it tells the real Ji Yong behind Gdragon who has a strong and harsh image on the stage. The album tells Ji Yong, not Gdragon. The physical album was released in the form of USB, contrary to ordinary. Fans bought this USB as an album. They could download songs from the official site with serial numbers on USB and also be able to watch "Bullshit" music video which was released later. So USB album owners were able to follow the updates and new uploads closely. Since the album was not in the usual format, it was not accepted as a physical album on music platforms.
GD publicized his stance through Instagram: “What’s the problem?”
“Of course there are pros and cons, but music’s physical forms continue to change over time, from tapes to CDs to downloadable files. Isn’t the most important thing creating music that lasts, that will stay with people?”
Rather than mass printing the red on the USBs, the USBs have hand-colored in red ink to get the red smear and vintage scratched look that G-Dragon wanted for the “birth” concept, which is furthered by the print on the USB, which says “Kwon Ji Yong, Blood type A, 1988, August 18”; the print was handwritten by G-Dragon’s mother when he was born.
3) YONGGUK - BANGYONGGUK (2019)
This is a very frank, so to speak handicraft album. The whole concept of the album has been thought out by Yongguk and everything is completely out of his hands. The lyrics of the songs in the album consist of what he wrote in his diary over the years. What's even more sincere is the physical album is in the form of his personal diary which includes his real handwriting, doodling, brainstorming! Although there are MVs of 4 songs in the album consisting of 15 songs, the title song does not have any MV.banGilagid
2) BTS - WINGS (2016)
We're used to seeing short video teasers before an album, but before the WINGS album inspired by Hermann Hesse's Demian, a series of short films were released for each member in the group, and each short film was a musical and visually elaborate videos. Likewise, "Intro: Boy Meets Evil", which was released just days before the album, was an effective intro that put an end to the teaser period and excited everyone for the upcoming album.The released physical album also had four versions: W, I, N and G.After these short films and clips released for WINGS album, MVs in the kpop jumped to another level in terms of cinematography. More experimental and artistic music videos began to increase.
1) BIGBANG - MADE (2015-2016)
MADE, with its publication process, has achieved a first in kpop and even in the world. There are 11 songs on the album, at the beginning of each month in 2015, 2 MVs of the songs from the album were released. When M, A, D, E single albums were completed in 4 months, a total of 8 songs were released. The remaining 3 songs were released in 2016 and the album was completed. In this process, 9 of 11 songs were promoted in music programs. 9 MVs were released for the 11-track album. I don't need to mention the all teasers released for each MVs. The process, which normally works for a single title song of an album, has worked for 9 songs in the MADE album.
After MADE, complementary mini albums series fury started in kpop. We see more and more consecutive mini-albums that are part of the same story in the same year.
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Don't you think these albums are quite innovative and unique ? What are the albums you want to add to this list?
Source: Korezin
(*The content on the source site is also mine.)
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G-Dragon album literally change the rules of Gaon, made them change how they count their albums and what's accepted and what's not. Made Billboard criticize them publicly for not counting it, made international media talk about it which lead to huge change in Korean music industry!
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BIGBANG with made as always start new trends. In 2007 they were the first Korean artist to bring the term "mini album" and releasing EP instead of popular LP, and after that majority of artists released EP it became a trend and till this day they still call it mini album. With Made they break all hate against them, people said the project was impossible to achieve, first 2 songs will be hit but the others will fail as hype will go. But they achieve 4 number one and 4 number two songs, breaking the rules, and winnings Gaon songs of the year for 4 months. The only artist in history to do that. And now artist still follows their footsteps. BIGBANG creates the trends and other follows.