Gain Essentials

Rising to fame in the mid-'00s with Korean girl group Brown Eyed Girls, Son Ga-in (famously known as Gain) quickly grew into a sleek performer pushing the boundaries of K-pop. Gain shaped her early hits by balancing personas of the sultry femme fatale, the funky temptress, and the hip, urban songstress. Her assorted EPs, released almost once a year since 2010, weave modern K-pop with more sophisticated waves of icy synth-pop and even tango and bossa nova. Her 2015 EP, Hawwah, signaled that the West was beginning to take note—it cracked the Billboard World Albums top 10 that spring.