As a child, Dong Young-bae used to hide from his parents to dance to cassettes of Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder. He says he was too shy to tell anyone he wanted to become a famous singer and dancer. Not anymore. Today the 22-year-old South Korean singer and dancer known as Taeyang is in the spotlight as an international pop star. Thanks in no small part to a long-standing trend in Asia that renders all things Korean cool, Taeyang is going global, riding the so-called Korean wave all the way out West.
Taeyang, who is better known in South Korea as the voice of the Korean boy band Big Bang, released his first solo album, Solar, online last month. It hit No. 2 on iTunes’ R&B sales charts in the U.S. and No. 1 in Canada — a first for an Asian artist. “In the beginning, it was hard to believe I had fans buying my album so far away,” says Taeyang, whose name means “sun” in Korean. He says he didn’t do any promotion in North America for the album, which was recorded in Korean and targeted fans in South Korea and Japan. “The world is smaller now.”
K-pop’s online buzz has become a way for artists to make a name for themselves at home. Kim Yeo-hee, 22, became a YouTube star in March when she posted three videos under the name Apple Girl. In her first video, Kim played music with the applications of four Apple iPhones and sang Beyonc’s “Irreplaceable.” Two days later, her name became the most searched word in all major Korean search engines. In May, Kim released her debut digital mini-album. She is now preparing a single for release in September. Kim, who went from making music on iPhones to selling her own music on iTunes in less than six months, says, “I wanted to become the Korean version of Justin Bieber. But I never imagined so many people could be interested in what I do.”
Of course, once your face becomes known overseas, you still have to control your image. On a recent day this month, Taeyang was working nonstop at the YG studio in Seoul to get ready for his upcoming concert that might be streamed live on YouTube. The young celebrity massaged his shoulder, yawned and, with bags under his eyes, looked through the photos that will appear on his new album. He frowned at an image of himself in which his well-groomed goatee had been Photoshopped out. “Call the printer and tell them to change the picture,” he told the designer. He gestured to the photo of his digitally clean-shaven face. “I want to look a bit tough,” he said. “In the U.S., like this, they’ll think I’m too nice.”
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