Music / Idols
gd why won't you look at me like that

Big Bang’s Six Song Strategy

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Written by On February 19, 2012

YG has announced that Big Bang are going to have a six title song strong comeback, something not dissimilar to what 2NE1 did with the tracks off of their 2nd mini-album. But is this taking the idea of making a bang, so to speak, too far?

Being a V.I.P I have great faith in the boys’ ability to perform well, but I am also aware that promoting one or two title songs at a time is hard enough as it is, and idols should not be confused with superheroes.

There is the risk that, no matter how talented the composers and performers may be, it might just be too hard to ensure that all six knockout singles are successful all at once.

The public has a limited attention span, and its collective potential for hype can be weakened when spread out too thin.

Look again at 2NE1’s last promotions: “Lonely” and “I Am The Best” did great, but it felt like “Ugly” and “Hate You” were fill-ins to keep the operation moving, leaving less time to promote the songs that the public seemed to prefer.

In addition, Big Bang will have to perfect six different choreographies for the six different legs of their promotion… needless to say, it’s going to be exhausting month for the boys. Papa YG has a reputation for always putting the health and care of his idols first, but business is business and just because he’s letting Bom and Dara date and hasn’t whipped out the 13 year contract doesn’t mean he isn’t going to try to cash in on his artists as much as possible.

Even YG has admitted it’s going to be tough, saying:

It will not be an easy promotion, but we are carefully planning various strategies so that all of Big Bang’s songs will be able to show off their unique styles.

It’s been hard for Big Bang recently, and after the events of the last 12 months I can see why they want to come back bigger and better than ever before. I’ve always thought there must be a certain frustration between comebacks, having to watch your contemporaries shine and wanting to go out and do the same. But does this strategy smell of a bit of desperate marketing; fear that Big Bang will fade away? Is it a smart gamble to make? Perhaps only time will tell.

I must say though that despite my cynicism and worries about this strategy, the pure fangirl inside me is really, really excited. I’m always wishing some groups promoted more songs off their albums (I’m looking at you Brown Eyed Girls) so this is pretty much like a dream come true.

Although there are potential downsides to promoting all six tracks, we should look at the positives as well. YG’s strategy puts the message out there that none of the songs on their upcoming album are intended to be filler songs, and this move will force the public to take a journey through all the different colors of their album and truly see everything that the boys have to offer for this comeback.

How often is it that when an artist makes a comeback, based on how iffy you might feel about their title track, you don’t even bother checking out the rest of the album (potentially missing out on great songs)? By promoting all six songs as once, YG deftly sidesteps the issue of whether a good song off the album will get buried simply due to obscurity. This in turn broadens the appeal of the album itself, because it heightens the possibility that someone will like at least one of their promoted songs (and thus want to check out the rest of their album), by sixfold.

If Big Bang does succeed, it’s going to be incredible and could catapult them to new heights. It’s often the norm for Western artists to promote several songs per album – Rihanna successfully took seven singles from her Loud album — so maybe this is a further attempt to keep up the Big Bang appeal for the West.

No matter what, I admire their determination, and if any band can do it, I’m pretty sure it’s Big Bang. I just hope they can get the right balance between giving it their all and spreading themselves too thin.

What are your thoughts on Big Bang’s six-song promotional strategy? Do you think that it’s a good idea?

(Osen)

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  • Green Onion

    I am really excited as well. How they will pull this off will be quite a sight. 

  • http://twitter.com/polinchka polinchka

    I love GD and the songs he writes but if these songs are similar to the previous album, then they’ll have to put on quite the performance to get through a 6 song promotion. And then think of the repackage album. Yeah, it’ll be tough. I’m not even a VIP but I trust them. I just don’t think promoting them all at the same time is the best way to go. Western albums have year long promotions so it works for them but a month for 6 songs? I don’t know. I like Big Bang songs and they are one of the few groups whose albums I listen to in entirety so we’ll see.

  • happyslip

    If there’s a group that can pretty much pull this off, it’s Big Bang. They have the popularity, production cred and resources to do this. I’m actually excited for it. 

    The thing with 2ne1′s is, they had a five-track promotion strategy but they rarely promoted all of those tracks.  They didn’t even do YG On Air completely. Sure all of them had MVs but  overall the tactic was not executed very well. Hoping that it won’t happen to Big Bang.

  • Anonymous

    like everyone is saying, big bang are the only ones you can see doing this

  • Ljn

    Honestly idgaf about their sales or what not Im just glad they finally come back after a year full of heart attack (for me as a fan). But i do really worry about their schedule as a whole, I mean they have korean comebacks, japanese comebcaks, bigshow korea, japan tour, alive tour, daesung/gd/taeyang solos, top doing his acting thing in 2012, CFs contracts, attending shows here &there. I just hope they are physically really prepared, they have HUGE plans and I hope YG is smart enought to spread out their schedule evenly so they wont be overworked.

    i wish them lots of luck :)

    • munkie

      sadly, i highly doubt top will end up doing any acting this year, or at least not until near the very end. he already canceled a drama that he had been working on for 3 months. but i guess it makes me happy that he’s choosing his members over his personal work at the moment. 

  • Guest

    I’m really looking forward to it because as a fan, I want to see the artist perform and promote as many songs as they can. I’m also interested in seeing how yg is going to do this.

    I don’t think this is like 2ne1′s last promos though, more like the one before that when they promoted 3 title tracks at once. At that time, it became fairly obvious that the public had a face (go away, I think) and pretty soon, that’s the song they were regularly performing.

    I hope they do what gd&top did i.e. perform each song at least once on different programmes and via different mediums – tv, radio, concerts etc. though that was unplanned because they hadn’t anticipated the album’s popularity.

    Not worried about them having to learn choreography because they would have done that any way for big show. And they’re always exhausted when they promote, so that’s not a new thing either unfortunately.

    Re: desperation/try hard/overzealous marketing or any other similar accusation. Bigbang sold every single track on their mini last year with only one title song. It’s why they had the 3rd-most downladed album on melon last year and were the highest idol group on the list. They’ve been charting non-title songs fairly consistently over the years and they’re the only kpop group that can do this. So, this strategy is not meant to push up sales. They would’ve done it
    anyway.

    Even if this is all a big sham and they only perform 30 secs of each track on inki, the strategy has already paid-off. The hype that this news has caused is off the charts. Bigbang has been on naver’s top 10 most-searched list every day for the last 2 weeks but after this news, they stayed on that list for over 24 hours, which is unheard off. The newsmedia has reported several variations of the news but the thing that was most reported was that they’re the only group in the world to promote every single track off an album (MJ came very close with Thriller). Koreans always eat up this best/first/only one in the world and it’s no different this time. YG stock has risen over 22% in 3 days and even financial journalists have jumped on the hype bandwagon.

    YG has used some very interesting and very un-yg-like marketing and promotions strategies this time around and so far, it’s working in terms of generating buzz. And we’ll know the impact on sales on Feb. 22, when the first track is released.

  • Smiley

    honestly, we still don’t know how they are going to promote all these songs. i’m sure their marketing team has plan and strategy to make this happen, and they already think about all the pros and cons for doing this. they dare to take the risk and i wish them best of luck. 

  • lisaVIP

    if there are 3 or so music stations, and they have 6 songs…..how about 2 per show rotationally..

    or maybe 2 a week so they have a week to prep for the next and that way we always see something new….

    i remember there being an article about hoe seoulbeats wished artists could promote more than a mediocre title some vs some hidden jems in the album….looks like YG heard and BIGBANG is delivering :P

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_6NR4CWLS6RLSC6PCXOWJ2HQLJA PasserBy

      ”
      if there are 3 or so music stations, and they have 6 songs…..how about 2 per show rotationally.. ”

      ^we’re on the same wavelength *high five*

      • lisaVIP

        *high five*

  • lisaVIP

    if there are 3 or so music stations, and they have 6 songs…..how about 2 per show rotationally..

    or maybe 2 a week so they have a week to prep for the next and that way we always see something new….

    i remember there being an article about hoe seoulbeats wished artists could promote more than a mediocre title some vs some hidden jems in the album….looks like YG heard and BIGBANG is delivering :P

  • Streby

    Though the fangirl in me still loves them promoting all 6 tracks at once, Im a little afraid that the quality of their performances might have to take a slight backseat because of this. I mean, though everything Bigbang has done so far has quality stamped all over it, it will be very difficult to have them performing at their best when they are promoting 6 songs at once…

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LL4QDJLVFDT2RDIZYBALSE75JE angel29

    More than big, this year’s comeback is PERSONAL.  It’s a statement of the will and an expression of their passion for what they do.

    My head hurts just thinking about the scenarios on how they will promote all six songs because it just seems too tedious.  But I do agree that none of the songs will be fillers if YG is confident enough to promote all of them.  That is the hype right there and fans are going crazy just knowing that.  I’m looking forward to Dae’s solo “Wings” the most. 

    As to what I expect, I’m hoping it will be two fast songs, two mid tempos and two ballads, a lot of TOP and a little less TaeYang (relative to previous releases) in their group songs.       

    It will still be one music show per week, if YG is to be consistent with their policy so it will be interesting to see which show gets to get BigBang week after week for a month.  I’m guessing Inkigayo will get the first and for 10 minutes, at least.

    • Katherine

       I’m actually hoping for more Daesung/Seungri and less GDTOP/Taeyang.

      • http://twitter.com/Laava90 Lava

        that’s what I was thinking lol, TOP gets a lot of parts in their songs but I hardly ever see a focus on Seungri/Daesung
        Really looking forward to Daesungs solo

  • http://www.twitter.com/hipployta Hipployta

    They performed the entire album last time around on a couple of shows. They were Big Bang specials lol. I often watch those lives of Cafe because I adore that song.

    Rotating songs each week, every music show, or a medley. GTop promoted/performed four songs and the intro on shows.

    I already preordered all 6 versions so I can’t wait to see what they do.

  • http://chizzyrei.livejournal.com/ chizrei

    I don’t even know why this is a big deal.
    I love BB but seriously? I dunno maybe I’m used to Chinese artists
    and their habit of releasing a full album and
    promoting every song in that album. I mean, Jay Chou, Jolin,
    Leehom
    and others release music videos for all of their songs. So this doesn’t really
    sound revolutional for me.

    • Anonymous

      I think it’s revolutionary because it really has not been done in S.Korea ^__^
      Although it is the norm in other Asian countries to promote all songs in their album.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/WWZG7BQSH2OQPQMJXMBYTQRPQU Ghdksd

    Another article with with no background story, incorrect facts, wrong assumptions based on those incorrect facts, blah blah blah … Why is it the writers here in SB cant be bothered to learn the sales and business strategies that are behind these decisions?  

    Bigbang’s strategy isnt even comparable to what 2NE1 did last year in 2011.  2NE1 released many of their songs digitally MONTHS before their album (2nd Mini-Album) release while Bigbang is promoting (according to media reports) 6 songs at basically all the same time as ‘title tracks” from their new album release.  

    COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.

    So why isnt YG taking the same route with Bigbang as 2NE1 did with their last release?  Lets take a look at the numbers of how 2NE1 did with their ’2nd Mini-Album’.  With releasing their many of songs digitally first, it depressed the physical sales of 2NE1′s album

    Total Album Physical Sales 2011 (GAON)
    ============
    2NE1′s 2nd Mini Album = 86,259 (released 7/28) 
    For comparison sales : Girls Generation The Boys = 385,348 (in 2 months)

    The above is just physical sales and do not include digital sales.  In the era where album sales have been rising in Korea, 2NE1 sold 1/2 (physically) of what their previous album did.  Obviously, YG saw something financially they didnt like with 2NE1′s release strategy and are doing something different.

    In addition, YG will be releasing 6 (!!!) different versions of the album “Alive” to maximize their album sales (aka ‘fleece’ their fans for $$$).  Why all the BIASED writers here on SB dont write about this is beyond me unless they want to hide this fact?      

    Why are all the writers here on SB (and all the readers/commentators also) so UNINFORMED about the basics of kpop?

  • Musik 사랑해

    Hmmm idk if I like the strategy, but if they’re willing to go for it, then I have faith in them. Best of luck to my oppas

  • Anonymous

    I´m sure it´s carefully planned.

  • http://twitter.com/simpledm xelo truo

    When a group promotes the same song over and over again for months, each and every week, and on different stations; the song gets really annoying/old and loses its meaning.

    I usually only watch debut stage or special stage, I don’t bother watching a group weekly
    stage unless they’re my bias.

    Promoting one or two song is probably common in Korea; because they have to
    promote it weekly – it would be too difficult to make/learn new choreography and remembering lyrics. Also it’s probably not worth the cost of concept outfits and props for each different songs.
    I have faith in BigBang though; I think they can pull it off.

  • http://twitter.com/Laava90 Lava

    I think they could do it quite easily, simply because they’ve had nearly a year to prepare for this comeback, it’s not like they’ll do this every comeback but this ones a big one. They’ve had more than enough preparation time right? Most groups comeback every 3 months or so, bigbang have been away for 10 months and regardless of whats happened this year, they’ve never had as many activites as other idol groups so I don’t see how they would be spreading themselves thin.

  • Johnny

    You also have to remember YG currently is boycotting KBS music bank so that means one less show to promoto songs on. How are they gonna promote six songs at once? Their promos will have to last a couple of months for each song to get its full attention.

    • Anonymous

      promotions doesn’t have to be music shows though. it could be music shows or shows like sketchbook/ mnet soundplex or yg on air (which would make so much sense since naver is their yg on air partner and naver is also handling all bb’s comeback promos) or mini concerts/fan events or guerilla concerts or something else.

      in fact, music shows are not really that big in terms of promos. despite airing on weekend evenings, their ratings range from 5-8%. sbs’ the bigbang show aired at midnight and had nearly 6% ratings. and imo a music show defintely falls short compared to a “yg on air”-type promo. naver has 70% market share in a highly-wired nation and would give you more eyeballs with less effort. 

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/SH72CUAGH4VBXYBXCAMUI4DCAI Fhsd

    Another article with with no background, incorrect facts, wrong assumptions based on those incorrect facts, etc etc etc.  Why is it the writers here in SB cant be bothered to learn about the music sales charts in Korea and business strategies that are the main driving force behind these decisions? 

    Bigbang’s strategy isnt even comparable to what 2NE1 did last year in 2011.  2NE1 released many of their songs digitally MONTHS before their album (2nd Mini-Album) release while Bigbang is promoting (according to media reports) 6 songs at basically all the same time as ‘title tracks from their new album release. 

    COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.

    So why isnt YG taking the same route with Bigbang as 2NE1 did with their last release?  Lets take a look at the numbers of how 2NE1 did with their ’2nd Mini-Album’.  With releasing their many of songs digitally first, it depressed the physical sales of 2NE1′s album

    Total Album Physical Sales 2011 (GAON)
    *************
    2NE1′s 2nd Mini Album = 86,259 (released 7/28)
    For comparison sales : Girls Generation The Boys = 385,348 (in 2 months)

    The above is just physical sales and do not include digital sales.  In the era where album sales have been rising in Korea, 2NE1 sold 1/2 (physically) of what their previous album did.  Obviously, YG saw something financially they didnt like with 2NE1′s release strategy and are doing something different.

    In addition, YG will be releasing 6 (!!!) different versions of the album “Alive” to maximize their album sales (aka ‘fleece’ their fans for $$$).  Why all the YG-stan writers here on SB dont write about this is beyond me unless they want to hide this fact?

    Actually ‘scratch that above statement’, I do know the reason why they dont …

    • GSun

      Correct me if I’m wrong (send a source link my way) but the sales you listed are total album sales. Not just physical. Also, comparing SNSD sales to 2NE1 sales doesn’t make much sense. SNSD is far more popular than 2NE1, with their lowest selling studio album sales being comparable to 2NE1′s highest selling anything.

  • http://twitter.com/PhanTheHotness Jenny

    i agree that the songs might actually be good enough to promote. no fillers!!!
    but i really don’t understand why they feel the need to promote 6
    3 would be ok like 2ne1, but 6??? i wonder how they would do it.
    it’s not like in the US, where you can just put out 6 singles from the album
    they would actually have to perform it, but we’ll see how it’ll work out

    was kinda disappointed with their last album. i actually prefer GD&TOP’s album more

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ORSXPERTNAEPCKZBGEZMP7A3NU Bianca

    I see it as them letting everyone know the massive effort that was put into the making of this album. And how proud they are of it. This is them overdoing things to atone, give back and maybe prove a point (and obviously, make money. cynics!).

    I just wish that they wouldn’t half-ass promotions for the songs. Not like 2NE1′s simultaneous promotion. Hopefully, more like GD&TOP’s. So that each song will actually have its time to shine, if they’re really that confident that all of them are deserving as title tracks. But I guess with the scheduled world tour, a longer promotion cycle is not possible. 

    OWEL. It’s just great to have something to look forward to again. 

  • Anonymous

    I’m really curious and excited for this. Though a full album promo is definitely not a revolutionary idea as many international artists have been doing this for years, heck, decades, but it is something that’s new for S. Korea’s music scene. If done well and is effective, I think we’ll be seeing a new wave change in terms of album promotions. 

    My biggest concern for them is two fold. One, that the quality of the performance will suffer as a result. BB as a group is not known for their dance/perf (which is perfectly fine) and six separate choreos has got to be overtly taxing. Two, I hope that BB’s songs will be heading towards a new musical direction. Please, I think I’ve had enough of GD/TOP techno dance tracks. There’s lots of room for musical exploration. I want more of Daesung’s awesome vocals and MORE harmonization please!

    • http://twitter.com/nowheregirl1993 Fatouma

       I agree with your point on the music and choreo. As much as I luff them, their last album really disappointed me (nearly threw me off the bandwagon). Under Big Bang, there’s a complete halt right after Stand Up, on my iPod. I refuse to let a single song on that tracklist touch the edifice that is my iPod.

       Some BB-stans might tell me that I was disappointed because it was another Haru Haru or Lies, but I’ve listened to each of their albums, after falling in love with LOLLIPOP 1&2[hehe], and I continue to listen to them extensively. Their previous albums for that matter.  Their 4th album was lacking the harminization and balance that made me fall in love with Big Bang in the first place. GD and Top should focus on rap and pulling off “swag” for a lack of a better term, that can ebb and flow in sync with Taeyang, Daesung, and Seungri’s vocals. [NEVER, GD, NEVER ATTEMPT A FALSETTO EVER AGAIN!]

       I got into Big Bang right before the 4th album, declared myself a VIP in a few short months, but then got a huge wake call with the 4th album. That was not the big bang I fell in love with. My butthurtedness from their other album, and music therapy with some other music, is helping me listen to their next release with a much clearer mind. ^.^

      • Anonymous

        Their last album wasn’t my favorite from them definitely. However, I think out of everything from that EP, Cafe was actually my favorite track from them and I feel like I need to defend it a little here. LOL It was something fresh and new from them. The piano melody was catchy and TOP’s voice was just…. *sigh* Plus, it featured Daesung! :D Actually, all of the 5 members had their highlights in the song.  Although the song did lack harmonization and GD’s voice surprised me, I wasn’t too turned off by it – the song had a lot more good points. 

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ORSXPERTNAEPCKZBGEZMP7A3NU Bianca

      Not that I hate dance/techno tracks, but I find myself hoping for something sexy sounding like “Baby Goodnight” or “A Fool’s Only Tears”.

      I’m all for music exploration, but some things are just too good to let go of.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/KFOLAJLXYHOCHDRFCSECACDGFI Lisuh-chan

    I know Big Bang has been getting a lot of hype because of their long awaited comeback, but I feel like promoting 6 songs isn’t the best idea. Big Bang has their unique talents, but their live performances, to be honest aren’t as great as they can be, vocal-wise. I remember watching Seungri’s promotions of “VVIP” and “What can I do” and wow, even though I love him and his songs, his live performance wasn’t that good. He couldn’t hit the high or low notes and he was out of breath pretty fast. I have also seen Taeyang’s and even though their lives can be very charismatic, they can also be very tiring. promoting 6 tracks means 6 times the lives and even if they are Big Bang, no matter how epic they can be, their live performances won’t leave a mark on the audience if they can’t pull it off with the same amount of energy and effort. Plus, i feel that YG is shoving Big Bang down my throat like there’s no tomorrow. (pun not intended) I don’t know if it’s just me, but I don’t like it when people try to create so much hype that i feel it gets in my face and as a result backfires on me wanting to anticipate their comback or debut. (COUGHEXOandyour4574875395teasers) But, we shall see. Who knows, if Big Bang can pull this off well, props to them. Let’s see if they really are THE Big Bang that can get me back into their music again.

    • Anonymous

      taeyang is very, very hit or miss live but seungri was sick pretty through his entire promo period and it showed. he did much better with strong baby and is generally aon-point in concerts.

  • Anonymous

    I’m really excited for their comeback because as a new Kpop fan that ironically got into Big Bang during their scandal period (one of my roommates showed me the Haru Haru MV from a while back that got me sucked in into their music), this will be the first album that I will have a “complete” experience, if that makes sense – aka truly experiencing the hype, anticipation, and release of the album from a present day-perspective (and not reading news articles from years past to find out how it really was in that time).

    To be more on topic though, I have a feeling Big Bang perhaps wants this full album promotion just as much or even more than YG does, to those of you who think it’s all about money, desperate marketing and the business. IMHO last year must have been pretty tough to just immediately halt all promotions (GD&TOP in Japan for example) and lay low out of the public eye by ditching MAMA and other premieres to let the scandals die down. I believe as musicians/entertainers, they are happiest when they are onstage and making music/their fans happy – and I believe they miss the stage as much as we miss them performing on it. As tiring as it can be to memorize six songs + choreos along with preparing for the world tour, I truly think they will be able to pull it off. Back in 2008 when they started picking up in popularity with Lies, I remember when GD admitted on Strong Heart that they planned to run away because their schedule was packed.

    But I think this case is different, and there’s a far larger chance that they will be up to the challenge this time. Why? For one, I think the hectic schedules in 2008 took them by surprise since after a few years being the rookie group that did “okay” success and struggling to break out of the criticisms that were thrown on them (not being pretty boys, not having the typical “idol” image, going full on hip hop style while people were still coming out of the bubblegum pop 90s phase, etc.), suddenly they were propelled to the height of stardom and had to deal with maintaining that. They were also much less experienced with heavy workloads (YG also had never had a group so successful before and had to do trial-effect in terms of management) and much younger, and we all know that with youth comes impulsive behavior.

    I think in the face of possibly losing their music career forever, these boys now truly understand what’s important to them and by all means they will take this chance to promote extensively by the reins and run with it as far as they can. Now they are seasoned professionals that have much more experience than they’ve ever had before and have blown over countless scandals in the past. Will it be difficult for them? Probably very much. But I have no doubts that this is what they want. Big Bang have always been pushing the envelope ever since their debut and this is no exception.