Display MoreWhen it was the complete opposite. They promoted in the west BECAUSE of the demand for them there. They were already breaking records for K-pop artists since 2015 with their HYYH album.
A few examples and I will be underlining the word few here because this is hugely incomplete.
2014
- According to Latin media, BTS used to have the record for the most users in the first 24 hours in the Spotify official playlist (“This is BTS”) in 2014. It was later broken after 6 years by Mexican group RBD (“This is RBD”) in 2020.
- According to a 2014 report “Consumer Survey on K-Pop in the U.S.” by the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) and 2014 Hallyu White Paper by Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange (KOFICE), BTS was the most popular K-Pop artist of 2014 in USA, beating well-established K-Pop artists
- BTS had a hugely positive response at KCON 2014. Concert goers said their cheers were louder than established artists.
2015
- BTS made the record for the biggest concert stage for a K-pop idol group in Brazil for their “2015 BTS Live Trilogy Episode II: The Red Bullet” at Espaço das Américas, São Paulo with 6,000 attendance. This was the first time for a K-POP idol to hold a solo concert at this venue which is the largest concert venue in São Paulo with a 40-year history of accommodating up to 8,000. An article also reported that the initial venue was the Audio Club, but due to high demand, the concert was transferred to the larger venue.
- BTS became the first Korean Act to spend more than one week at #1 in the World Albums chart with HYYH Pt.2. The album stayed at #1 for four weeks with no official physical sales in the US and no other group broke that record before BTS did it years later in 2017
- BTS entered the Billboard 200 for the first time in 2015 with HYYH Pt.2 at #171. Not a record but they would break a record as the first Korean artist a year later
- First Korean Act to debut in the Canadian Albums with HYYH: Young Forever.
NB - With each new album, BTS gained growth in terms of ranking and weeks ! For example in the World Albums Chart they started from #3 Skool Luv Affair for 1 week; #3 Dark & Wild for 11 weeks, #2 HYYH Pt.1 for 14 weeks; #1 HYYH Pt.2 for 22 weeks. This was very rare for a Korean artist.
2016
- First Korean Act to debut in the Official Albums Charts of UK, Belgium, Ireland, Sweden, Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland, Scotland, Norway, New Zealand with a Korean album “Wings” (no physical sales).
- First Korean Act to get an album surpass 100M streams on Spotify.
- First Korean Act to get #1 in the US iTunes Albums with Wings.
- First Korean Act to debut in the Top 50 of Billboard 200 (#26 Wings) with no physical sales and no Friday release.
- First Korean Act to spend more than 1 Week on the Billboard 200 with Wings.
- First Korean Act to go #1 simultanously in both World Albums and World Digital Song Sales (Wings and BST).
- First Korean Act to enter the Top 50 of the US Top Album Sales Chart (#20).
- First Korean Act to enter the US Digital Albums with Wings.
- First Korean group to get #1 in the Social 50 (29th Oct 2016).
- First Korean Act to enter the Top 20 of the Artist 100.
- First Korean Act to get a Twitter Emoji.
Once again this is only a few of their records in 2016. This is before they became the first Korean act to have album distribution worldwide. This is before they were nominated for a BBMA, before they had their debut in the US at the BBMAs.
2017
- First Korean Act to have a total of 4 debuts in the Billboard 200.
- First Korean Act to have 3 consecutive charting albums on Canadian Albums.
EVER SINCE THEY ENTERED THE BILLBOARD ALBUMS CHART THEY NEVER LEFT. Which was RARE for a Korean artist and it was a testament to their ORGANIC GROWTH
- First Korean Act to get 4 songs occupy the Top 4 on the World Digital Song Sales.
- First Korean Group to enter the Bubbling Hot 100 with Spring Day.
- First Korean Act to chart in the Malaysian RIM Singles with Spring Day.
- First Korean Act to surpass 1M followers on Spotify.
- First Korean Act to sell out (100%) arenas / arena tour in the USA with The Wings Tour.
- Before they were nominated for the BBMA they were The First Korean Act to enter the Top 3 Most Weeks at #1 on Social 50.
- Then they became the first ASIAN Group to perform at the BBMA and win an award
Once again this is only a FEW firsts.
I will link you the entire list and all three parts here
Point here is, BTS followed DEMAND. They did not just debut in the US because they were chasing western validation. They debuted AFTER getting NOMINATED. So why do K-pop fans today say otherwise?
Someone tell me why this was in anons... Anyone?
Fine, I'll get the akorns for it. But I agree that BTS have only ever followed demand. This whole "western validation" spin was always overblown bullshit by kpop fans trying to spin things YET again.
