The Rise and Fall of G-Dragon
If you have been paying any attention to Korean news lately, the country is in drug-related peril. In response to growing drug use amongst younger Koreans, the conservative government is cracking down. And where best to start then with celebrities?
In loose affiliation with the actor Lee Sun Kyun’s drug related charges, Kwon Ji-Yong was pulled into the fray. For actor Lee, this was his first run with the law in relation to drugs. But for Kwon, better known was G-Dragon, this was not the first time.
In 2011, G-Dragon was suspected of drug use, and he admitted to taking the drug, but said he was unaware of it being a narcotic substance. The charges were eventually dropped and YG Entertainment’s influence was suspected to be highly involved.
Over the years, the members of Big Bang, who G-Dragon is the defacto leader, has been embroiled in many scandals. They have been heavily protected by YG Entertainment, but also the police have surprisngly come to their defense on several occaisions.
On the theme of drugs, fellow member T.O.P. was also involved in a marijuana scandal in 2017. In a very dramatic series of events, which involved a hospitalization due to sedative use (another popular drug amongst Korean celebrities) eventually, T.O.P. admitted to using marijuana on 4 occaisions and servered two years in prison.
However, the group of bad boys of the 2nd K-pop generation, has weathered many storms. The most dramatic and controversial scandal was the “Burning Sun” night club and sex trafficking case surrounding all the members, but mainly implicating Seungri. This scandal is particularly abhorent and has made it very difficult to support Big Bang for me personally. Seungri was implicated as a orchestrator of a massive human trafficking operation through the nightclub, but he only got a slap on the wrist serving only a year and half. Through a loophole he was able to serve prison time without it being on his permanent record. The Rotten Mango podcast has a comprehensive rundown of the scandal, which I highly recommend.
Despite these many scandals, the group has survived, and I believe this explains G-Dragon’s almost defiant cooperation with the police on his recent marijuana charges. He voluntarily submitted himself to questioning and drug testing. There is even a meme of him walking out of the police department skipping, making him look like he’s performing the “slickback” trend.
My appreciation for Big Bang actually came after their reign over K-pop. (Actually, most of my interest in K-pop comes after the wave and I’m just now trying to keep up with the new 4th and 5th generation groups.)
The bad boys really brought to K-pop, I think, a unique and fresh take on the genre. They were able to blend hip hop with mutant fashion styles from the end of the world and also add global dance music into their toxic mixture. They had the looks, attitude and the performance energy to really pull a lot of attention to themselves. Not to mention that they engineered a lot of the current fan interaction innovations such as the light stick and naming their fans “V.I.P.s“.
Their music videos are where I think they shine the most and where their creativity really shines. Of course, this is aided by a team of stylists and directors, but their vision seems to be at play on full display in music videos like “Fantastic Baby”, “Bang, Bang, Bang”, and “Bae Bae”. These three videos, in my opinion, form a triology of Big Bang and were all directed by Seo Hyun-seung.
Around 2017, their careers started to wind-down as each member started their mandatory military services. Seungri even officially retired from the “entertainment” industry in 2019 in response to the issues around the “Burning Sun” scandal. So, for several years the members all took a low profile. However, recently they have started to pop back up.
They came together in early 2022 with the single “Still Life.” This song took heavily from the Guns n’ Roses playbook and tried to stir the heart strings of fans. However, maybe too much time had passed for the bad boys to be received with warm arms by fans and it failed to strike a cord with the new generation of K-pop fans.
What has been interesting is to see G-Dragon play a quiet background roll. He took interesting brand ambassadorships with several brands, namely BMW. Unlike other YG labelmates like Blackpink, G-Dragon’s relationships to his ambassadorships have been quite low-key.
Yet, despite the swirling scandals, G-Dragon has held a certain poise, which he’s always had, but he’s conveniently displayed in this recent scandal. However, I have a feeling that despite his negative drug test results, his image just isn’t as fun anymore. As mentioned above, as a fan of Big Bang, it was incredibly hard to swallow the “Burning Sun” scandal and I find G-Dragon’s attitude quite uncomfortable.
I think it comes down to how the government, press and industry has treated them. They are the first real bad boys that were widely accepted for their rebellious attitude. They unfortunately took this reception as a reason to behave without abandon. In an already patriarchical society, Big Bang was given license to use their male privelege in ways that bent the laws and gave them a sense of immunity. In comparison, the guard rails around girl groups are so strict that they cannot even venture close to the scandalous actions of Big Bang. This is further evidence that so many exceptions are made for males in Korean society.
On one hand, I appreciate his defiance because the marijuana laws in Korea are ridiculous. Especially in a country that should actually take a few chill pills and edibles. But on the other hand, G-Dragon’s attitude just doesn’t help the understanding of drug use in Korea, making it something for the bad boys.
Signing off…