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Rising K-pop star to watch for: B.A.P

February 14, 2014

Six members of the K-pop group B.A.P pose in this promotional file photo.

By Kim Ji-soo

The six member boy band B.A.P’s first full-length album “First Sensibility” has soared to the top of the Billboard World Albums Chart.

The group known for featuring hard rock and pop sounds has previously climbed this chart with the mini-albums “One Shot” and “Badman.”

But the traction its first studio album is gaining portends well for the group. The “First Sensibility” rose to 44th on iTunes Top 100 Album Chart upon its release, and then ranked high in the iTunes Store Top 10 Hip-hop Albums chart category.

The group also took the honor of the “year’s discovery and world rookie” at the third Gaon K-pop Awards that took place on Feb. 12, immediately after its single “1004(Angel)” topped the cable music chart. It was the group’s first No.1 since its debut in 2012.

But the group’s songs stand out from the sweet K-pop or electronic music featured by other groups. Its song “One Shot” steadily remained on Germany’s K-pop chart for a year since its release in February. In its K-pop column, Billboard evaluated the “First Sensibility” album showing diverse genres of music that overcomes boy bands’ sounds.

The B.A.P’s emergence may well signal that the array of new K-pop groups are becoming possible blue chips in the landscape where existing groups such as TVXQ, Super Junior, SHINee and Beast reign.

B.A.P will hold a two day concert on March 8-9 in Seoul.