KPop's two greatest acts, SNSD and BTS, have the dubious distinction of having been bested by the same person, namely Lee Jieun, born May 16, 1993 (actually during the T'ang Dynasty, but), who did not venture out of Asia until this year.
IU's defeat of SNSD, its first defeat since it became dominant, in Dec 9, 2011 (yes, I remember the date to this day)
SNSD was in Singapore for some event, after releasing the shit-B version of its repackage with the song Taxi Taxi, an already well known song. At that time SONEs were pushing some other song which i do not remember, but Kim Youngmin, who was running SM at that time (Lee Sooman was running around for some trouble) wanted to push boy acts and decided to take SNSD down.
He even allowed Super Junior's Donghae and Eunhyuk (who would be associated with IU the year after for something I am not going to repeat), to promote when SNSD was winning and defeated Wonder Girls decisively!
Her defeat of SNSD showed its vulnerability, and that led to a bunch of things, and now Lee Jieun still rules the domestic market while SNSD has become a vague memory.
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IU - Autumn Morning. No views since it doesn't even have a music video.
This perf, made 4 days after release, is the closest thing to a MV - 1 million views
There are no music in this perf since it was released, without any warning. There are some drama around this - IU's intended title was a song originally sung by the late Kim Kwangsuk, but just before her Flower Bookmark II was released there was a big controversy about his death , which to this day has never really been resolved.
As a result she had to take that song, later released as a music video without creating profits, and had to delay the release of the album.
However, she decided to take the gamble , and she released Autumn Morning on the morning BTS was about to release DNA.
Autumn Morning defeated DNA in the Melon Chart, making IU the last singer to defeat BTS before its world conquest began!
it denied BTS, who never had won a day at Melon Hot 100 (at that time spotify, etc were not accessible to Kpop acts), a win there, something it only got in 2018 with Fake Love.
It also had a very deep impression on BTS members - no matter how big they might get, they cannot defeat IU, at least domestically.
The last meeting of IU and BTS as a group, Christmas, 2017
IU is in a dominant position, having defeated BTS, and knowing who is the boss.
Without this battle, I don't think BTS would be stuck in Korea. It would be performing, while Lee Jieun would have left singing after demand on her songs plummetted, instead of bossing around Kpop, of which she is NOT a part of, even now.
IU
defeated
BTS
just
with
what
she
was
holding
on the hand
at the moment.
It taught BTS that no matter how far they would go, no matter how many kingdoms they conquer, there was an enemy back home they could NOT defeat.
