Black Pink

**Black Pink** is a South Korean girl group formed by YG Entertainment. The group consists of four members: Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé and Lisa. They officially debuted on August 8, 2016 with the single album Square One, which included their first number-one hit in the Gaon Digital Chart, "Whistle", and "Boombayah", which topped the Billboard World Digital Songs chart. Their first five singles have sold 113,000 digital downloads in the United States as of August, 2017. Additionally, they are the highest charting female K-pop act in Billboard's Social 50[1] and are also the first K-pop Act to be on YouTube's Top 25 Summer Songs of 2017 with their title track "As If It's Your Last". They are also the first K-pop act who has had all their albums hit the number 1 spot on the "Billboard's Top 100 Digital Albums".

History
2016: Debut with Square One and Square Two[edit]
With promotional preparation beginning in August 2012 with the release of teaser images and participation in songs and advertisements,[2][3] YG Entertainment revealed the final line-up and name of the group on June 29, 2016.[4][5]

Black Pink performing at the 31st Golden Disc Awards on January 13, 2017.
Black Pink became the first girl group that debuted under YG Entertainment in seven years after 2NE1,[6] with their debut single album Square One released on August 8, 2016.[6][7] The first title track, "Whistle", a "minimal hip-hop track",[8] was produced by Teddy Park and Future Bounce and written by Teddy Park, iKon's B.I, and Bekuh BOOM.[9][10] The second title track, "Boombayah", was produced by Teddy Park and co-written by Bekuh BOOM.[11] Its music video was directed by Seo Hyun-seung.[12] The two title tracks charted at number one and two on the Billboard World Digital Songs chart, and Black Pink are by far the fastest act to do so and the third Korean artist or group to hold the top two positions after Psy and Big Bang.[13] "Whistle" topped the digital, download, streaming, and mobile charts on Gaon in August 2016.[14] They also reached number one on the weekly, popularity, music video, and K-pop music video charts of China's biggest music-streaming website QQ Music.[15] Black Pink's first music show performance was aired on August 14, 2016 on SBS's Inkigayo.[16] They won first place on Inkigayo 13 days after their debut, and broke the record for the shortest time for a girl group to win on a music program after debut. They wrapped up their promotions for Square One on September 11, 2016 with another win on Inkigayo.

Black Pink released their second single album Square Two with the lead singles "Playing with Fire" and "Stay" on November 1, 2016. The songs are produced by Teddy Park with R.Tee and Seo Won Jin. They performed their comeback stage on Inkigayo on November 6 and on Mnet's M Countdown on November 10, 2016.[17] "Playing with Fire" was their second single to hit number one on the Billboard World Digital Songs chart.[18] In South Korea, "Playing with Fire" peaked at number three while "Stay" managed to reach the tenth spot.[19]

Black Pink's successful debut year earned the group several awards for Best New Artist of the Year at major Korean award shows, including the Melon Music Awards,[20] the Golden Disc Awards[21] and at the Seoul Music Awards.[22] Additionally, Billboard named them the second best new K-pop group of 2016.[23]

2017: "As If It's Your Last" and Japanese debut[edit]
On May 16, 2017, it was announced that Black Pink would debut in Japan in summer 2017, holding a debut showcase on July 20 at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo and releasing a mini album on August 9.[24][25][26][27] The showcase had an attendance of more than 14,000 people and it was reported that around 200,000 people tried to get tickets for it.[28][29] A snippet of the music video for the Japanese version of "Boombayah" was aired on TV in Japan on May 17. The album's release date was later changed to August 30.[30]

On June 22, Black Pink released a new digital single titled "As If It's Your Last". The song was described as a "mixed genre of house, reggae and moombahton music", a change of sound from their previous releases.[31] The song debuted at number one on Billboard's World Digital Song chart dated June 22 after only one day of tracking, making it their third number one on the chart.[32] Within 17 hours of release, the music video for "As If It's Your Last" gained more than 11 million views on YouTube, becoming the fastest music video to exceed 10 million views by a K-pop group, which broke the record previously held by BTS's "Not Today" of 10 million views within 21 hours.[33][34] Furthermore, the music video became the second most viewed online video in the first 24 hours by a Korean act, with more than 13.3 million views within 24 hours after release, second only to Psy's "Gentleman".[35] It later on broke the record for the most liked music video by a Korean girl group on YouTube.[36]

The group made their official Japanese debut on August 30, 2017, with the release of their self-titled Japanese extended play.[37] The EP debuted atop the Oricon Albums Chart with 39,000 physical copies sold in its first week, making the group the third foreign group to top the chart with a debut release after t.A.T.u.'s 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane (2002) and 2NE1's Nolza (2011).[38][39]

Endorsements[edit]
Within three weeks of debut, Black Pink placed second behind Exo for brand reputation based on a study by Korea Institute of Corporate Reputation in August 2016.[40] Another study targeting girl groups revealed that the group's brand influence had already surpassed that of Girls' Generation and Twice for September. The chief of the reputations research lab described the feat as a "first".[41] In May 2017, Black Pink became ambassadors for Incheon Main Customs.[42][43] The group also endorsed several brands including Reebok,[44] Moonshot,[45] St. Scott London,[46] and Lotte Trevi sparkling water.[47] They also modeled for major magazines including Nylon Japan,[48] South Korea's 1st Look,[49] and Singapore's Teenage.[50]