Beatles' British invasion began on Feb 7, 1964.
I have grown up listening to pre-Beatles songs (don't ask me why) and have heard more older style pop than most people around.
Before Beatles, the slower, older style of pop dominated, and in 1963 even a Japanese singer, Kyu Sakamoto, won #1s in Billboard Hot 100 in a song no one could understand in the West and whose promoter put the title "Sukiyaki" to it. (Its official Japanese title means "I look up as I walk".
Popular conception leads to the notion that Beatles' arrival ended all older style of Pop, but in 1964 a bitter fight between the previous style of Pop and Beatles took place.
Beatles did NOT lose any moment, and promptly fired off one hit after another.
Beatles Hot 100s in 1964 and 1965
I want to hold your hand
She loves me
Can't buy love
Love me do
A Hard Day's night
However, after they returned to prepare a new album, the old style of music returned with a vengeance, and songs like Oh Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison, or Baby Love by Diana Ross and the Supremes returned.
Beatles ended 1964 with I feel Fine at the #1 of Billboard hot 100, but as soon as the year changed, Petula Clark, a British but someone who did NOT like Beatles' style, won #1 at Hot 100 with her song "Downtown".
That is the equivalent of Lee Jieun's Through the Night winning #1 at Hot 100 now.
With this, the R&B faction launched an offensive, putting "My Girl" by the Temptation and "Stop in the Name of Love" by Diana Ross topped the Hot 100.
Beatles fought back with "Eight Days a Week" at Hot 100 #1.
However, three British acts, now long forgotten, decided the fate of the British Invasion.
I'm Telling You Now - Freddie and the Dreamers
The Game of Love - Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders
Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter - Herman's Hermits
I don't know how popular these acts were in Britain at that time, but that would be like NCT Dream, Stray Kids, and txt winning #1s at the Billboard Hot 100.
With three British acts not named Beatles winning #1s at Hot 100, the game was over.
Beatles had two more #1s at Hot 100, Ticket to Ride and Help!, and other acts like Rolling Stones also landed.
With the confidence gained by this success, Beatles concluded 1965 with a Paul McCartney solo song, "Yesterday". It says Beatles since at that time it was not common for a member of a group to release a solo song while still being with the group, but it is a Paul McCartney solo.
Beatles had put 9, Nine, songs at #1 in Billboard Hot 100, plus 1 solo song at there, in the space of less than two full years.
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2021 was the year of Miracles for Hybe.
BTS had 3 songs at #1 in Billboard 100. (At here collabo songs are considered to be Hybe songs) for 12 total weeks.
In addition, Justin Bieber , at that time a Hybe act, had 1 week at that position ,and a Kid Laroi, also a Hybe act, and Bieber spent 7 weeks at that position.
So, Hybe acts spent 20 weeks out of 52 , almost 5 months,at #1 in Billboard Hot 100.
The domination was so great that a local singer, IU, became the #9 most awarded singer of the year, since BTS took 162 awards , two times that of the Weeknd, the runner up who took out 81. However the people adding up the awards did enter the Korean awards, which are much more liberally given, to inflate BTS' numbers so IU was included even though every single one of her awards was won in Korea.
However, other KPop acts failed to follow BTS' lead and penetrate #1s.
In 2022 Bang made a lot of stupid choices which I won't retell.
Korea , by then, consisted a whooping 5% of the entire market share of BTS, and the clientele which followed BTS would not have given a shit if BTS jumped Korea.
The biggest reason of KPop's decline is the surprising failure of txt to go anywhere.
People , including Bang , would have expected that txt would at least have won a couple #1s at Billboard Hot 100, rise big enough to do stadium concerts, etc, but it fell short. One of its producers is an El Capitxn, best known for singing a line in IU's Friday (and that led to his participation in the song production of "Eight", about which I will talk about later). which might be why txt is much less impressive than expected.
However, other companies were way less aggressive as well, going for easier money in Japan rather than establishing an unbreakable stranglehold in USA (and by corollary the West).
Hybe's defeat of the R&B/rap faction was decisive - it has not been able to rise again.
However that did not lead to a permanent presence of Kpop in the West, but instead led to the resurgence of Pop and Country music in there, and with the likely return of Donald Trump in the autumn, the Country faction will get stronger , probably becoming the most formidable foe which will await BTS in 2026.
