In my opinion 2020 was the greatest year of KPop since that year led to KPop finally breaking out from the cage, and it began to roam around the world.
2024 was the worst year, but that will be discussed in another post.
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2020 was when the covid lockdowns began and concerts around the world ceased.
It seemed that KPop was going to die as well.
2020 had few hit songs. Only three songs, Zico's Any Song, The Owner of Edam Entertainment's Eight and BTS' Dynamite became hits. (OSTs and songs released through shows , like that song from Yoojaesuk, Rain and Lee Hyori, do not count.)
Zico's Any Song, the Melon yearly #1, was a hit but Zico is not someone who is really influencing KPop.
With covid the foreign promotion schedules of all acts basically ceased, and not losing any opportunity, the Owner of Edam Entertainment offered to work with a member of BTS, and Suga foolishly obliged.
It almost undermined KPop to the point of no return.
The Owner of Edam Entertainment , who always planned to undermine Kpop whenever she could, saw a golden opportunity to take over Kpop outright and kill it.
Suga, whose actions eventually led all of BTS to be dragged to the military and lose its global domination forever, obliged, mostly to give El Capitxn, a Hybe producer who was mostly known for singing a line in "Friday", when the then-owner of Edam Entertainment was not an owner yet.
The Owner of Edam Entertainment had profited immensely during the 2014 ferry incident and her Flower Bookmark, a remake of older songs, led her to the top again , people forgetting her most famous photograph with a fish.
She judged that in 2020, when everyone was stuck at home, she would be able to retake the initiative of Kpop decisively, ending it and returning the ancient regime of ballads and only-for-Korea songs.
It seemed the attempt to end Kpop by the Owner of Edam Entertainment, who took the traditional approach of her typical slower, sleepy song to tackle the era of lockdowns, was succeeding until Dynamite was released in Aug 2020.
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Dynamite was a truly revolutionary song.
When everyone was kinda passive because of the lockdowns BTS's song gave energy and hope, and no matter what other people might say, Dynamite was the top song in the world in 2020, and probably the most influential song of Kpop history because it conquered the world and also it did not use a single word of Korean, opening the road for all-English songs in KPop and ending the relevance of the Owner of Edam Entertainment who is incapable of writing English lyrics.
With Dynamite conquering the world, the Owner of Edam Entertainment had to scrap the plans to release another single in the autumn which would have put her back to the control seat of Korean Pop if Dynamite had not been released.
What could have been the greatest tragedy of KPop turned into the greatest triumph of KPop history.
The Owner of Edam Entertainment was outsmarted by the Owner of Hybe Entertainment.
And, KPop was no longer a local fad but a global genre of music, influencing billions of people.
If that does not make 2020 the greatest year of Kpop, what will?
It was like Hannibal's battle of Cannae, or Napoleon's battle of Austrelitz, which ended the 800 years old Holy Roman Empire.
BTS' domination of the world impressed the entire world, except the Owner of Edam Entertainment but she was now a footnote as BTS became the top act of the entire globe. The Owner of Edam Entertainment did not give up , but at that time she, along with virtually all artists not named BTS, were entering the back burner, and everyone in the world talked about BTS until about the middle of 2022.
