2023 would be recorded as the year where individual BTS members tried to fight to stay relevant in the Western market.
Only the efforts of Jimin and Jungkook were somewhat successful, and Jungkook went further but is now whipped by none other than the Beatles, and is now running back to Korea.
Jimin had beaten Miley Cyrus, but his song had no staying power.
Jungkook beat Jason Aldean, the country singer, but it might be the last gasp of KPop.
It seems western acts now have found how to fight BTS or its members, by clustering all of their comebacks at once , so at least one of them would beat it.
If the crazed Korean incels were not pushing for Jungkook's enlistment, and Bang did not want to have a comeback in 2025, Jungkook might have chosen a better date to fight the Western acts. But now Jungkook falls against the arrayed forces of The Beatles, Taylor Swift, Drake, Doja Cat and SZA.
It is likely that when BTS is likely to make its return, some acts will be waiting for it to return so it could soot the comeback song down, like what Paul McCartney did to shoot JK's Standing Next to You.
When BTS was at its height it walked over everyone on the Western Market, and the only person it feared was the then-owner of Edam Entertainment, who could not be dissuaded to not throw shit to BTS' path whenever she felt like.
But since she held no sway outside of Korea, BTS had no one to worry about in the Western World.
Now it will face an uphill battle. There will be determined efforts to prevent BTS from winning #1 in Billboard Hot 100 again.
With Fifty Fifty no longer a factor, there is only NewJeans to challenge #1 in Hot 100 at this point of time.
However, given how Min Heejin produced Kim Taehyung's album, it seems Min Heejin's emphasis is more relevance in Asia, not going for the jackpot in the West.
She still seems to have the SM mind of emphasizing success in Asia first.
So, even if NJ gets tour next year, it will probably emphasize its Asian activities first and have American and Australian activities as a second thought.
Which means there won't be any #1s from acts originating in Korea at Hot 100 for quite a long time. How long, I don' t know, but it won't be soon , I am afraid to say.
