by Ra Hwak Jin/Jiwon Woo
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| ▲This photo shows Girls' Generation during media conference. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
◇ Girls' Generation came back with studio album marking 15th year (on Friday)
Girls' Generation, one of the longest-running K-pop girl groups, made a highly anticipated comeback Friday, the anniversary of the day of its debut in 2007, with "Forever 1."
"Forever 1," the group's seventh full-length album, marks its first group project since its previous LP "Holiday Night."
"Today is the birthday of Girls' Generation," member Sooyoung said during a press conference at a hotel in southern Seoul to promote the upcoming album. "Actually, we had been discussing the comeback since we celebrated the 14th anniversary. But we felt we would like to roll out the album properly on the 15th anniversary."
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| ▲This photo shows Girls' Generation. (Yonhap) |
The title track is an upbeat pop-dance number with a festive mood about eternal love for the people who are precious to them.
Friday's comeback will be remembered as an important event in K-pop history as it marks the end of the band's extended hiatus.
NHN Bugs also released special promotion package to celebrate Girls' Generations’s 15th debut anniversary.
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| ▲This photo, provided by Big Hit, shows J-HOPE at Chicago's Lollapalooza. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
◇ BTS J-Hope closed Chicago's Lollapalooza festival (on Monday)
J-Hope of the K-pop superband BTS has performed as the final act of Chicago's annual Lollapalooza festival, becoming the first Korean artist to headline a major U.S. music event, his agency said Monday.
The rapper-dancer closed the four-day festival that drew a total of 105,000 music fans with an hourlong performance on its main stage July 31 (KST Aug. 1), Big Hit Music said in a release.
The 28-year-old performed 18 songs, including tracks from his solo debut album, "Jack in the Box," his mixtape "Hope World," "Chicken Noodle Soup" featuring Becky G and BTS hits.
Becky G, who collaborated with J-Hope on "Chicken Noodle Soup," appeared on the stage as a surprise guest when he sang the song. The two hugged each other after finishing their performances.
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| ▲This photo, provided by Big Hit, shows J-HOPE at Lollapalooza. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
J-Hope's participation in Lollapalooza drew great attention in the United States while K-pop's stock price was soaring and BTS' popularity remained.
"The ticket demand for a single artist has never been this high," said an official from Lollapalooza. J-Hope's official merchandise stores were also set up separately throughout Grant Park, Chicago.
His performance at Lollapalooza led the positive feed backs to line up after one another.
One of Chicago’s biggest news outlet from Chicago, Sun Times, posted J-Hope’s photo on the front page of the news paper and wrote “K-pop star demonstrates his own distinctive sound with help from Becky G and a live band.”adding “The BTS Army was ready on the front lines to welcome J-Hope to Chicago for his solo debut at a U.S. festival.”
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| ▲This photo, provided by Coupang Play, shows poster of drama "Anna." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
◇ Controversy over editing of ‘Anna’ continues
Accusation against South Korean Over The Top service Coupang Play has surfaced regarding the shortening of the episodes of S. Korean drama “Anna” from 8 episodes to 6, without director’s consent.
Director Lee Joo-young who wrote and arranged the scenario of “Anna” claimed “Coupang Play has ignored directors opinion on the drama and tampered with ‘Anna’ by editing without consent, therefore ruining the series.” on Wednesday.
Coupang Play refuted all the accusations by addressing, “I asked the director in the beginning for a modification as it was very different from the original production intention, but it was not accepted. So we edited the work based on the contract.”
Director Lee Joo-young immediately rebutted Coupang Play's statement and announced to take a legal action against the company.
Director Lee said, “Author’s moral right is exclusive to the creator of the work, and even if the drama is transferred, that right does not transfer together,” adding, “There exists domestic precedent which recognizes compensation for unauthorized editing that excluded creator.”
Six production members of drama “Anna” also wrote a statement on Thursday supporting the director Lee Joo-young, who publicly criticized Coupang Play for editing the drama without consent.
They said, “Result earned by the sweat of our brows was edited by Coupang Play without consent,” adding “Please take down our names from the credit,” adding, “Using our names on the work (that was edited without no consent) is the biggest disrespect to the production crews.”
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| ▲This photo, provided by AStory, shows drama "Extraordinary Attorney Woo." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
◇ Popularity of 'Extraordinary Attorney Woo' continues
The popularity of South Korean broadcasting service ENA’s drama “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” airing every Wednesday and Thursday continued this week.
“Extraordinary Attorney Woo” returned to the top of “Non-English” segment of “Netflix Top 10” chart by scoring over 65.63 million hours of viewing time.
Episode 11 of “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” hit ratings of 14.1% in viewership, while episode 12 scored viewing rate of 14.9% in S.Korea.
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| ▲This photo, provided by AStory, shows drama "Extraordinary Attorney Woo." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
Park Bo-gyoon, minister of culture, sports and tourism also mentioned “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” while saying "Ultimately, contents is the most important" during media contents and Over-the-top (OTT) industry meeting conducted at Seoul office of Korea Copyright Protection division on Thursday.
However, Webtoon of “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” which was expected to make synergy effect with the drama’s popularity, is showing poor performance.
Webtoon “Attorney Woo” ranked 7th among Thursday webtoons on Naver Webtoon, while only receiving ratings of 8.23 out of 10 stars. This is extremely low considering the fact that most of the Webtoons on Naver Webtoon have ratings around 9.
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