Taeyangs Life Story

2006-08: Early beginnings and debut with Big Bang

2006–08: Early beginnings and debut with Big BangMain article:

Born and raised in , , South Korea, Dong Yong-bae's first contact with music was playing the piano, where he enjoyed classical music composed by and . When his family began struggling financially, Dong felt the need to find a job to help support them at a young age. In sixth grade, he auditioned and won the part of "mini Sean" in Jinusean's music video "A-yo," where he was introduced to and became fascinated with . On the occasion, Dong met CEO of the record label and begged him for a chance to become a singer. As he got no answer, he went to his office personally to achieve his intention. Yang gave him the opportunity to audition, where he was successful, and accepted by the record label as a .There, he met fellow trainee and future bandmate . Dong spent the first few years as a trainee cleaning the studio for the other artists in the company and fetching them water bottles during dance practices, later admitting that current artists at the time weren't friendly towards him or Kwon. In 2003, Dong provided the rap verse in singer 's single "Player" on the latter's second album.

Although Dong was scheduled to debut alongside Kwon as the hip hop duo GDYB (with Kwon choosing the stage-name G-Dragon), the plan was scrapped by their record label. Instead, they were joined by four other trainees (, , , and ) to form the group . Their formation was documented on television, but before their official debut, Hyun-Seung was dropped and their final lineup consisted of five members. Dong was initially hesitant about being placed in a band but eventually warmed up to the other members. Choosing the stage-name Taeyang (meaning sun) because "the sun is the brightest star from the incalculable stars in the universe," Taeyang abandoned the idea of rapping to focus on singing.

Following the release of several single albums, Big Bang's first album, , was a moderate success, and included Taeyang's first solo song "Ma Girl." The group achieved mainstream success with the release of the song "" (: 거짓말; : Geojitmal) from their first (2007). This was followed by "" (Korean: 마지막 인사; Revised Romanization: Majimak Insa) from (2007) and "" (Korean:하루하루; Revised Romanization: Haru Haru) from (2008); both were also chart-toppers.