Welcome to the first SB Week in Review of 2020! Here’s all the news you might have missed over the past week:
Headlines
- In July 2018, it was reported that a building owned by Daesung held illegal entertainment businesses, including prostitution services. The idol denied having knowledge of these activities. On January 2 this year, the police concluded that he was not to be charged. The police stated that they were unable to find evidence to charge him.
Debuts & Comebacks
- Brown Eyed Girls were captivatingly mellow in winter track “Snowman“.
- Hanbin (B.I., former iKon member) returned with a demo on his personal Soundcloud account.
Teasers & Announcement
- Ateez returns with “Answer” on Jan 6.
- Younha releases Unstable Mindset on Jan 6.
- SF9 drops their first full album, First Collection, on Jan 7.
- Verivery are making a comeback with “Lay Back” on Jan 7.
- Ong Seung Woo releases “We Belong” on Jan 9.
- Jaejoong makes a Korean comeback after 4 years with Aeyo, out on Jan 14.
Other News
- SBS aired an episode on sajaegi (chart manipulation) as part of investigative journalism show Unanswered Questions. It was revealed that
- Sajaegi is a lot more common that one would think.
- Melon and Genie are both involved in allowing chart manipulators to change rankings.
- A “pushing” type of sajaegi is a common technique, whereby a famous artist’s song would be pushed down in rankings by charting songs that are of a similar genre. This makes the track less unique.
- Getting into the top 100 tracks on Melon costs approximately 100 million won, getting into the top 50 tracks costs 150 million won, and the top position costs 300 to 350 million won.
(YouTube: [1] [2] [3] [4]. Naver: [1] [2], Nate: [1] [2] [3]. Instagram: [1]. Images via: KQ Entertainment, C-Jes Entertainment.)
