Artist Highlight: Taeyang

Second Generation’s Korean Prince of R&B and his timeless tracks.

BIGBANG

Taeyang began training under YG Entertainment at only 12 years old. After six years, he debuted in the company's new hip-hop boy group BIGBANG at age 18. He was originally set to debut alongside member G-DRAGON in the duo GD X TAEYANG (a.k.a GDYB) which was formed in 2002. Instead, BIGBANG debuted in place of the duo, and GD X TAEYANG later became a sub-unit of the group. The duo released the single Good Boy in November 2014, eight years after their BIGBANG debut. The song reached over a million digital sales and charted at No. 1 on both the South Korean Gaon Digital Chart and the Billboard World Digital Song Sales Chart. Taeyang is credited with writing and composing seven BIGBANG songs over the first 10 years of his career. All members contributed to writing the tracks “La La La” and “V.I.P” on the groups second EP BIGBANG is V.I.P, while Taeyang is the sole lyricist for the track “Good Bye Baby” from the group's EP BIGBANG 03. 

SOLO

Taeyang released his first solo album Hot in May 2008. The EP was received well and was awarded “Best R&B / Soul Song” and “Best R&B / Soul Album” at the Korean Music Awards. Hot was praised by many music critics across Korea as one of the best albums of the 2000s. Despite the praise he received, Taeyang expressed disappointment in the album as he did not write any of the songs. He went on to release his first full-length album Solar in 2010. This time around, he composed and wrote five of the 11 tracks. The title track “Wedding Dress” garnered international attention, landing it on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales Chart at a peak position of No. 3. Today, the music video has over 75 million views, and remains one of his most popular songs. In just a few months, Taeyang’s most viewed music video “Eyes, Nose, Lips” will celebrate its tenth birthday. The song won seven out of nine awards that it was nominated for in 2014 and 2015 including “Song of the Year”, “Best Vocal Performance - Male”, and “Digital Daesang”. Taeyang wrote the song as an expression of his love for his ex-girlfriend, Min Hyorin, shortly after they broke up. He now credits the song as the reason he was able to reunite with Hyorin, who he is now married to. 

2023

In 2023, Taeyang released his first EP since his military service Down to Earth. The EP features viral tracks such as “Vibe (feat. Jimin of BTS)” and “Shoong! (feat. LISA of BLACKPINK).” Of the six tracks on the EP, TAEYANG took part in writing all of them alongside a team of songwriters he has long worked with.

Edited by Lacey Diluvio