g.o.d

g.o.d (지오디, ji-oh-dee) is a five-member South Korean pop music group. The name is an acronym for Groove Over Dose.^[3] They were one of the few K-pop groups to have more than one album become a "million seller".^[4][5][6] Debuting in 1999, the group became one of the most popular boy bands of the early 2000's.^[3][7] The members had gone on to solo careers in the entertainment industry after indefinitely discontinuing group activity in 2005. However, they regrouped and made a comeback in July 2014.^[8]

As one of the most recent million album selling groups in South Korea prior to the digital era, they are often referred to as "the Nation's idol",^{[9][10][11][7]} and considered as the "Legends of K-Pop"^[12] with other first generation idols such as Shinhwa, H.O.T, Sechs Kies, Fin.K.L, and SES.

Career

Beginnings

In 1997, Park Joon-hyung flew to South Korea with the goal of creating a group which blended Western and Asian influences.^[13] He and JYP Entertainment founder Park Jin-young held auditions with the intention of adding another four members to create a mixed-gender band. Joon's cousin Danny Ahn, the latter's friend Son Ho-young, Yoon Kye-sang and another female singer were recruited. The female singer was dropped and Kim Tae-woo, who was still a high school student, was the final member added.^[14][15] The planned name was GOT6 but was changed to g.o.d instead when it became a five-member band.^[16] JYP Entertainment would eventually form a boy band named Got7.

1999: Debut

The group made their debut appearance in January 1999, performing "To Mother" (어머님께) from their first album live on television.^[15] The music video for the song featured actor Jang Hyuk. Although it has since become one of their most famous songs, the initial televised performance did not earn a positive response from those in the music industry.^[17] g.o.d also gained attention for their "boys next door" persona and vocal talent, a stark contrast to the trend of the era which was largely focused on groups with visually appealing members and highly sophisticated and energetic choreography.^[15][18]

2000–2006: Mainstream success, Chapter 4, Kyesang's departure, and hiatus

In January 2000, the five members appeared in a reality TV series, called "Baby Diary" (ko), in which they acted as a family to take care of a little baby named Han Jae-min.^[19] Every one of them had a duty (i.e. Son Ho Young acted as 'mommy' and Park Joon Hyung as 'daddy').

Just a year after debuting, g.o.d saw success with the release of their third album, which sold over a million copies.^[19] Its promoted track "Lies" (거짓말) dominated the #1 spot on music programs and also won the Daesang ("Grand Prize") at the KBS Music Awards. In 2001, g.o.d launched their fourth album Chapter 4, their second album to hit a million in sales.^[20] It won the Disk Daesang (Grand Prize) at the 16th Golden Disc Awards. The title track "Road" (길) topped the rankings on several music shows and has since become a classic hit. They began a "100-day Human Concert" where all the shows were sold out and each day had a different theme.^[21] They were chosen as the country's representative artistes to be featured in the 2002 FIFA World Cup soundtrack Fever Pitch, for which they recorded the track "True East Side".

Yoon left the group in 2004 and g.o.d continued promoting as a four-piece band. They went on hiatus from 2006 after holding their last concert in December 2005. Various media outlets and sources have described them as having disbanded between 2006 and 2014. At that time, the remaining members stated that they did not use the term "disbanding" as they had promised fans they would reunite as a five-piece at some point in the future.^[22][23] All members remained in the entertainment industry: Park returned to the United States to pursue acting, Ahn hosted KBS Cool FM's Kiss the Radio before going into acting while Son and Kim continued as solo artists.

2014–present: Reunion

g.o.d. announced that they would be reuniting in mid-March 2014 after nearly two years of discussion and organizing due to the individual members' separate managements and schedules.^[24][25] Following Yoon Kye-sang's confirmation to rejoin the group,^[26] they re-signed with their former agency SidusHQ.^[27] On May 3, 2014 their 15th anniversary concert through a TV advertisement which aired on Korean cable channel JTBC, followed by confirmation from their management agency.^[8]

The album Chapter 8 was released on July 8, 2014.^[1] Several songs were pre-released as teasers for their official comeback tour. The pre-released singles, "The Lone Duckling" (also "The Ugly Duckling") (미운 오리 새끼) and "Sky Blue Promise" (하늘색 약속), both achieved "all kills" in the digital charts.^[28][29] The music videos for "Saturday Night", which contained references of their hit "Friday Night", and the ballad "Story of Our Lives" were uploaded on YouTube.^[30][1] The album was repackaged and released in October as the "Thank You" edition and included a new song "Wind" (바람), whose lyrics were written by Yoon to express his gratitude to fans.^[31]

The group began their 15th anniversary tour on July 12, 2014 at Jamsil Sports Complex with around 14,000 fans in attendance. It was their first concert as a five-piece in 12 years. Initially they had planned to hold two concerts over two days in Seoul but extended it to eight more dates in four other cities due to popular demand.^[32][10][33] They also made their first televised performance together in 12 years on September 5 as exclusive guests on You Hee-yeol's Sketchbook,^[34] the only guests who have been granted the honor.^[35][36] In November they extended their tour overseas for the time, holding concerts at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California and Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, and became the first single South Korean group to play at stadiums in the United States since BIGBANG (Alive Galaxy Tour).^[37]

The group made a rare live televised performance as a five-piece, performing at the "I Am Korea" Gala Concert celebrating 70 years of independence which was broadcast live on KBS1.^[38] On December 9, 2015, they released the single "A Funny but Sad Day" (웃픈 하루) and the music video was uploaded by CJ E&M in anticipation of their upcoming year-end concerts.^[39][40] Although the group did not promote the song at all, it remained the top 30 most downloaded singles that month.^[41] They held a series of concerts in Seoul before heading to Daegu and Busan to celebrate the Christmas holidays and New Year's Day with fans.^[7] They took a break in 2016 while the members returned to their solo activities.

For the first two months of 2017 g.o.d embarked on their second nationwide tour since reuniting. Entitled g.o.d to MEN the tour began in Seoul^[42] and went to five other major cities.^[43][44]

Members

• Park Joon-hyung (박준형) — rap
• Yoon Kye-sang (윤계상) — rap, vocals
• Danny Ahn (데니 안) — rap
• Son Ho-young (손호영) — vocals
• Kim Tae-woo (김태우) — lead vocals

Discography

• Chapter 1 (1999)
• Chapter 2 (1999)
• Chapter 3 (2000)
• Chapter 4 (2001)
• Chapter 5: Letter (2002)
• An Ordinary Day (2004)
• Into the Sky (2005)
• Chapter 8 (2014)

Concerts

^{[46][47] [48] [49] [50]}

Awards

Artistry

g.o.d is known for their versatility and their songs reflect a combination of a variety of genres, such as R&B,^[51] hip hop, rap, and pop.^[52] Park Joon-hyung has stated that from the beginning he had intended for the group to effectively combine Western and Asian influences into their music.^[13] Their hit songs reflect this diversity: their debut single "To Mother" (어머님께) is a R&B ballad interspersed with lines rapped by Danny Ahn while the upbeat and rhythmic "Friday Night" heavily features funk elements.^[53] They were one of the few first generation k-pop groups to successfully incorporate elements of African American genres such as rap and hip hop into their music and utilize lines rapped entirely in Korean, which was uncommon at that time. In contrast to their contemporaries such as Shinhwa, H.O.T. and Sechs Kies whose repertoire was largely either "feel-good" or hard rock or was choreography-based, g.o.d was focused on lyrical content, garnering them a wider demographic of fans.^[54][55][3]

A notable feature of g.o.d's repertoire is the subject matter of their lyrics. Their songs often reflected relatable topics or were based on their personal experiences:^[54] their debut single "To Mother" was partly based on leader Park Joon-hyung's childhood while "The Story of Five Men" (다섯 남자 이야기) described their frugal living conditions during their first year as struggling young singers.^[56] Other songs were much more humorous and parodied the members themselves, such as "Sky Blue Balloon" (하늘색 풍선), in which rapper Danny Ahn refers to himself by his nickname Skinny Pig.

Critics and media have noted the group's unique blend of five distinctly different voices.^[57][7][58] Mnet's 100 Legends series noted that "[The] synergy created by these five people began a page of popular music history that has never been seen before."^[57] Billboard described their sound as being a mixture of "rap flow and belting styles".^[59] Their ability to seamlessly transition between rap and R&B is apparent in their hit songs, most of which are classified as R&B ballads but contain several lines that are rapped, and this combination has been described as their "signature".^[60][1][61]

Legacy and popular culture

g.o.d was the first boy band to be dubbed "the nation's idol group", a sobriquet popularized by the media due to their appeal to not only the teenage demographic, but across a much broader age demographic compared to their contemporaries.^{[25][62][57][27]} In contrast to their contemporaries, who were primarily targeting a teenage audience, they were known as the boy band which "appealed to both teenagers and their parents".^[57][19] The group is widely acknowledged within the Korean music industry as "legends of K-pop" and are the only guests to perform on You Hee-yeol's Sketchbook as exclusive guests and the first K-pop group to be the featured legend on Immortal Songs: Singing the Legend.^[62] In 2013 the group was selected and featured in "Legend 100 – Artists", a Mnet documentary series highlighting 100 legendary Korean artists (both solo artists and groups) active from 1933 to 2002 selected by a panel of fifty professors, music critics and other music professionals for their contributions and achievements.^[63][57]

At the time of its release, "To Mother" (어머님께) was the most requested track on radio stations.^[3] Other songs, such as "One Candle" (촛불하나),^[64] "Love and Remember" (사랑해 그리고 기억해), "Lies" (거짓말)^[65][66] and "Road" (길) are considered classics^[55] and regularly covered.^[67]

See also

• List of South Korean idol groups (1990s)
• List of best-selling artists in South Korea
• List of best-selling albums in South Korea

References

External Links

• Official YouTube channel
• Artist Profile on Mnet (in Korean)