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Billboard selects YG head as one of the top power players in the world

January 21, 2014

Yang Hyun-suk

By Chung Ah-young

Yang Hyun-suk, founder and CEO of YG Entertainment, has been selected as one of the International Power Players by Billboard Magazine.

The U.S.-based magazine said in its upcoming issue that the list includes Yang together with European Live Nation President John Reid, Syco Entertainment co-representative Simon Cowell, Sony Music President Nick Gatfield, and Masato Matsuura, better known as Max Matsuura, a Japanese record producer and president of Avex Group.

Live Nation collaborated with YG for Big Bang and 2NE1’s world tours.

The first Billboard list of movers and shakers in the music industry, compiled in cooperation with Midem, the yearly international music exhibition, conference and festival, is aimed at shedding light on leaders in the business who have contributed to changes in the global scene.

Billboard described Yang as the K-pop star who made his debut in the iconic group “Seo Taiji and Boys,” and then reinvented the modern K-pop genre in 1992, turning himself into a music producer generating K-pop singers.

Yang’s stable includes Psy, the rapper and singer who made his name with “Gangnam Style” and “Gentleman.” Big Bang’s world tour drew some 800,000 people in 12 countries and 771,000 to Japan’s six dome stadiums, while G-Dragon’s Asian tour garnered some 570,000.