G.o.d
g.o.d is a South Korean boy band formed by SidusHQ. Debuting in 1999, the group became one of the most popular boy bands of the early 2000s in South Korea. The members had gone on to solo careers in the entertainment industry after indefinitely discontinuing group activity in 2005 following the departure of a member. However, they regrouped as a quintet and made a comeback in July 2014. Although the group is largely known for their "storytelling" lyrical style and signature blend of R&B and rap, their repertoire features a diverse array of genres ranging from hip hop to funk.
As one of the best-selling artists in South Korea prior to the digital era, they are one of the few idol groups to have more than one album become a "million seller". Often referred to as "the nation's idol" due to the broad popular appeal of their hit songs, they are regarded as "legends of K-pop".
Due to their extended hiatus and lack of overseas promotions, their popularity and fame has been largely limited to the domestic market or within the Korean diaspora overseas. However, their songs remain some of the most recognized and well-known within South Korea and their hits such as "To Mother", "Road" and "One Candle" are considered classic Korean language songs.
History
Beginnings
In 1997, Park Joon-hyung flew to South Korea with the goal of creating a group which blended Western and Asian influences. He recruited his cousin Danny Ahn and the latter's friend Son Ho-young, Yoon Kye-sang and Kim Tae-woo were later recruited through auditions. Their formation was fraught with difficulties from the beginning as their talent management company EBM had been affected by the 1997 Asian financial crisis and was forced to cut financial funding for its trainees. After over a year, executives allowed them to continue with the project due to their persistence and introduced singer-songwriter and JYP Entertainment founder Park Jin-young to be their producer and mentor. Kim Sun-a had been briefly part of the project group before leaving to pursue acting and Kim Tae-woo, who was still a high school student, was the final member added, joining the group in July 1998. The group was to be called "Got6", but their name was changed to g.o.d instead when it became a five-member boy band; Park Jin-young has since revealed that Got7's group name originated from Got6.1999: Debut
The group made their debut appearance on January 13, 1999, performing "To Mother", the title track of their first album, live on the SBS late night show One Night of TV Entertainment. 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. 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. They released their second album at the end of the year and it garnered a much better response and also earned the group their first ever #1 win on a music program.2000–2006: Mainstream success, Kye-sang's departure, and hiatus
In January 2000, the five members appeared in a reality TV series, called g.o.d's Baby Diaries, which aired as a segment of MBC's "Achieve the Goal Saturday" weekend program. The members acted as a family to take care of an eleventh-month old boy named Han Jae-min. Every one of them had a duty. The show was popular due to the fact that it was the first time an idol group had starred in their own reality show and its high ratings reportedly forced the sketch comedy show Gag Concert, which aired at the same time on MBC's competitor broadcaster KBS, to switch time slots.Just a year after debuting, g.o.d saw success with the release of their third album, which sold over a million copies. Its promoted track "Lies" dominated the #1 spot on music programs and also won the Daesang at the KBS Music Awards. Following the success of their third album, g.o.d held their first national tour beginning in February 2001 and became only the second K-pop group to hold a concert in the largest sports venue in South Korea, the Seoul Olympic Stadium. In November that year, g.o.d launched their fourth album Chapter 4, their second album to hit a million in sales. The title track "Road" topped the rankings on several music shows and has since become a classic hit. The album won the Disk Daesang at the 16th Golden Disc Awards. Additionally, the group achieved a rare feat by sweeping the Daesang awards at the respective year-end music awards run by the country's three major broadcasting stations KBS, SBS and MBC.
The group nearly broke up in September 2001 after Park was discovered to be dating, which was considered to be taboo for most pop stars in South Korea at that time. Their management announced, without informing him or the other group members, that he was to leave the group and g.o.d would continue as a quartet. It was met with strong objection from fans, who repeatedly signed petitions, threatened to boycott concerts and stated their intentions of returning purchased merchandise for refunds. Ahn, Yoon, Son and Kim held their own press conference, without the knowledge of their management, to show their support for Park. By November, their management eventually backed down.
Having established themselves as the country's best selling idol group of 2001, g.o.d was invited to perform at the inaugural MTV Asia Awards held in Singapore as the Korean representative and was nominated for the Favorite Artist Award. While in Singapore, the group was interviewed by Time magazine and featured on the cover of the Asian edition for July 29. However, the article they were featured in was met with criticism by Korean music critics, local media and g.o.d's management agency SidusHQ as the author used a misquote attributed to Yoon Kye-sang to segue into an opinion editorial about corruption within the K-pop industry rather than focus on g.o.d as one of the country's most popular pop groups. They were chosen as the country's representative artistes to be featured in the 2002 FIFA World Cup official album Fever Pitch, for which they recorded the song "True East Side". In July they took a break from television promotions and began their "100-day Human Concert" series where all the shows were sold out and each day had a different theme.
Yoon left the group in 2004 and g.o.d switched to JYP Entertainment after their group contract with SidusHQ expired. They continued promoting as a quartet, releasing another two more albums. 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. However, the remaining members stated that they chose not use the term "disbanding" as they had promised fans they would reunite as a five-piece at some point in the future. 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 while Son and Kim continued as singers and musical actors. The remaining four members unofficially reunited to perform in 2012 at the Korean Music Festival in Los Angeles and on SBS MTV's The Stage Big Pleasure.
2014: 15th anniversary reunion
Beginning in 2013 there was already speculation that the members of g.o.d were discussing the possibility of reuniting. Following Yoon Kye-sang's confirmation to rejoin the group and lengthy discussion and organization with the members' individual managements, they recommenced group activities under their original management agency SidusHQ. On May 3, 2014 their 15th anniversary concert was announced through a TV advertisement which aired on Korean cable channel jTBC, followed by confirmation from their management agency. Despite the low-key announcement and the group's refusal to promote on music programs, their comeback received extensive media coverage and became a trending topic on the internet within South Korea as they were the first inactive K-pop idol group to make a comeback with all of its original members.The album Chapter 8 was released on July 8, 2014. Several songs were pre-released as teasers for their official comeback tour. The pre-released singles, "The Lone Duckling" and "Sky Blue Promise", both achieved "all kills" in the digital charts. 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. The album was repackaged and released in October as the "Thank You" edition and included a new song "Wind", whose lyrics were written by Yoon to express his gratitude to fans.
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 quintet 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. They also made their first televised performance together in 12 years on September 5 as exclusive guests on You Hee-yeol's Sketchbook, the only guests who have been granted the honor. They concluded their national tour with an encore concert in October at the 40,000-capacity Seoul Olympic Stadium, the second time they have held a sold-out concert at the venue. 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.
2015–present: post-reunion activities
The group made a rare live televised performance as a quintet, performing at the "I Am Korea" Gala Concert celebrating 70 years of independence which was broadcast live on KBS1. On December 9, 2015, they released the maxi single "A Funny but Sad Day" and the music video was uploaded by CJ E&M in anticipation of their upcoming year-end concerts. Although the group did not promote the song at all, it was the top 30 most downloaded singles that month and remained in the Gaon Digital Chart for six consecutive weeks. They held a series of sold-out concerts in Seoul over five days before heading to Daegu and Busan to celebrate the Christmas holidays and New Year's Day with fans. 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 and went to five other major cities. The Incheon concert on January 13 was extended by several hours as it coincided with the 18th anniversary of their debut and culminated in a special fan event hosted by DinDin.
On September 19, 2018, jTBC released a trailer of Shall We Walk Together, a 10-episode travel variety-reality show which documented the members' trip to walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain. It began airing on October 11, as part of a series of projects to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their debut. On November 27, they released the single "Snowfall" to little fanfare and it debuted at #63 on the Gaon Digital Chart that week with over 9 million downloads and streams despite intense competition from their much younger counterparts. From November 30 to December 2 they held a series of concerts entitled "Greatest" at the KSPO Dome before playing in Busan and Daegu on December 22 and 25 respectively. In a positive review, the Kukmin Ilbo noted that the concerts were appropriately named as g.o.d was one of the few K-pop groups who could put together a full concert set list exclusively consisting of songs that won number 1 on music programs. On January 10, 2019, the album Then & Now was released. It contains a mixture of new original material, including a title track composed by Park Jin-young, as well as remixed and re-recorded songs from previous albums. On January 13, they held the last of their anniversary concerts, playing to a sold-out crowd at the KSPO Dome.
On September 30, 2022, after COVID-19 restrictions on large-scale performances and events were lifted, it was announced g.o.d would be holding their year-end concerts at the KSPO Dome from December 9–11. Due to popular demand, December 24 and 25 were added and would take place in Busan.
In anticipation of their upcoming 25th anniversary, g.o.d planned a series of projects beginning in late 2023. KBS honored them as the featured legend for its annual KBS Grand Project, the station's flagship televised Chuseok special. The sold-out special concert took place outdoors in Songdo Moonlight Festival Park and was aired on September 28. In November, they began their "g.o.d's Masterpiece" tour with three consecutive nights in Seoul, followed by December dates in Daegu and Busan. A concert film of the tour was produced and screened in cinemas nationwide on January 10, 2024.
g.o.d made a well-received appearance at KCON Los Angeles in July 2024, the first time they performed at an overseas K-pop festival as a quintet. Due to the rarity of a first-generation K-pop group appearing at KCON, the surprise announcement of their participation drew much media attention in South Korea and among the Korean diaspora in the United States. Their 25th anniversary concerts, entitled "Chapter 0", took place at the KSPO Dome in September 27–29. The members made a rare appearance together on television through Park and Kim's managers featuring in the reality show Omniscient Interfering View. Footage of the rehearsals and some of the performances from the September 29 concert were shown on the program.