Not surprised by BTS, just can't wait to see their numbers after this year.
Also, I've been saying for yeaaaars, that SM needs to make another TVXQ style group (and NOT f them over this time). Not identical of course, just something like them but a little more modern for today; even a tiny bit edgier lyrically. Wishful thinking.
Based on a Superstar (not Star, local Star, small yet influential artist) that had to deal with a lot of prejudice to get where they are to be a world star, only maybe Rihanna, Michael Jackson, & BTS fit that profile in their prime (I'm excluded people that blew up AFTER they are less active or died).
Snitch?? Stalker vibes??
Yup, it's weird, really weird behavior that gets applauded in this kpop community. I love hip hop but don't care for Drake too much. Now what would I look like spying on Drake fans then running and telling (screenshots) to Kendrick and Cole fans some of the controversial things they do for him, 😂. It is WEIRDO behavior. Stop the madness, your looking crazy out here. As a whole, kpop fans need to stop it.
With UMG fighting to get BTS from another label just for a wide ass marketing & distribution deal, their last release being so long ago (+ MOTS 7 being at almost 5 mil), and their growth in followers/streams in the past 2 years being wild; I'm going to go ahead and not be conservative and say 6-6.5 million is actually possible (something I thought was crazy 4 years ago). I may sound nuts to you but think about this, they outsold Adele in CD sales in 2021 and never released a full album, wth? Of course everything I am saying is only if they don't do the BE rollout. I'd be shocked if they did.
I think Blinks can take BP past that 2.5 -3 mil mark, crazy but I do. It's been a looooong time since the last full release and I didn't see them not growing in fan base since then. Quite the opposite. The anticipation has to be up there which I think will lead to preparation to move units. I like how their fans moved with their last release. Great job.
So, am I the only one that thinks Aespa will do 1 mill? The hype around them has been so crazy with amazingly increasing streaming numbers I really would be surprised if they didn't at least by the end of the year. SM would really have to be the one to screw that up not the fans.
See I don't get this logic. I've had an account since 2013 and stopped messing with it in 2019 cuz I couldn't figure it out after the update. I hated it! Now I'm back (only because of BTS) and my god its worse!
If they are playing dumb then I'd say, KEEP GOING; then maybe Instagram will see one of their most famous users having issues and make some changes.
Unpopular Opinion: While I loved their collab before, I may have to pass on this (if true). I don't do posthumous albums because I find them creepy as hell (and a bit exploitive on the part of the record label of the deceased artist) . I'm getting creeped out just by his fans demanding people other than Juice wrld work on his album this long after he has been gone.
Display MoreThis is the weirdest thing I have noticed these few months I have been checking on kpop stuff and korean music in general. It is very low on variety, especially when it comes to subversive music genres like rock, metal and political hiphop (for a better word).
I live in Athens, Greece, and the variety of music here is just stupefying, ranging from moden trap and rap, to eurodance and EDM in general, to rock and metal and punk (Greece has always ranked high in per capita number of bands), to jazz, soul and rnb, and then to a dozen local genres unique to greece, the balkans or mediterranean countries. And this is Greece of only 10 million people, not a country in the size of France, or Germany or the UK or Japan.
Do you have any suggestions why this is for SK? I personally have two hypothesis. 1) the crackdown of subversive/political music in the 80s by the political establishment and the government and 2) the fact that koreans don't seem to grasp the ethos that is carried within genres like rock, metal, punk, jazz, rap and hiphop etc.
---------
PS: What I mean about number 2. For example, low bap is a greek subgenre of hiphop/rap music. It was developed by the youths in the areas around the shipyards in Piraeus and Perama in the late 80s- early 90s. These are working class areas which faced a complete economic collapse in the 80s when the shipyards were shut down, thus they turned to a very political, very anti-establishment type of raw, unfiltered rap music to express their frustration. While it does not carry the racial elements of american political rap, the anti-establishment, hyper political and in your face ethos was definitely carried on in the low bap scene. Bands & artists from the genre have never shied away from expressing political opinions or calling out politicians by name. I have not met anything similar to that in korean rap I have come across so far, mainstream or otherwise.
Fascinating history you gave (would love to see documentaries on it) but I think you should also look into the history of Korea's music scene.
Exp: You're wrong about Kpop: A Video Essay
P.S there is a LOT of indie music there but Kpop fans much like western Pop fans only care about the charts so they don't talk about it. And I started out as a Khiphop fan back in like 2007(though I dabbled in kpop since 2001) because it had the essence of 90s Hip Hop here in America though I think it was a little more underground than popular Korea.
Radical thought... maybe, just maybe you don't have to be a BTS fan to like 1 or 2 of their songs. Crazy right. I'm not a Taylor Swift fan but I stream Mirror Ball a lot. Why? I like the song. A few years ago I wasn't a Bruno Mars fan but for some reason I was playing Treasure every morning while NEVER listening to the album it was on. Why? I loved waking up to that track.
This is what a lot of one hit & two hit wonders build their careers off of (Though BTS has more hits), LMAO.
I see VIPs comments like people comparing 8-track tape sales to CD sales. Just odd. And yes, I was present for Big Bang(still a fan). Hell, I been present since Rain.
Display MoreAre you saying that because of BTS Kpop is now mainstream and no longer a fandom only thing anymore and that it's generally accepted by the GP in the US?
Does their music get radio plays because of their fandom or because of the US GP?
For as long as their achievements are because of their large fandom regardless of how huge they are, Kpop still has a long way to go before it gets generally accepted because it's in Korean and by Koreans which comes with a lot of racism.
There's hope and there has always been hope, with every new US debut comes more attention to Kpop and a brick falling off the huge thick wall standing in the way. And that's where Kpop in the US stands.
So please don't @me again because clearly we see things differently and I didn't write that article, I only shared it.
2) How are you going to write all of this asking me a question in your first sentence, and then say in your last sentence, "Don't at me again."
3) Why do you sound like you are taking this personal like I talked about your mother or something?
I don't think the first acts before BTS closed the door for other acts to promote in the US but they made it clear on what to expect because even before BTS, many idols staged shows in the US that sold out. They never stopped and BTS is one of those idols.
I didn't say the "acts" closed the door. I said the US music industry closed the door behind them. No, they SLAMMED the door closed behind them. Then BTS came and kicked the door off the hinges. Having a show in the US does not= having an impact in the US music business. Any artist can (and have before being signed) come he and play a show, ANYONE.
But they be allowed in the building UMG to negotiate? Will they be played on the radio? Nominated for awards? I don't think people understand what that means in the west.
Display MoreNYLON: How K-Pop Took Over The America: A Timeline.
https://www.nylon.com/entertai…-of-k-pop-rise-in-america
In brief, this is how Kpop spread to the US and the West from the beginning.
1. BoA, Rain and Se7en 2006 -2009
I had no idea that Rain and Se7en made US debuts.
2. Girls' Generation 2009 - 2011
3. Wonder Girls 2009 - 2012
5. KCON, Kpop concerts, Fashion 2012 - 2019
2ne1 and Bigbang being the first major players in solo US shows and first boy group to chart on billboard 200.
Meanwhile Gdragon introduced the whole Kpop idols and fashion thing with channel and today we have lots of Kpop idol designer brands endorsers. Fashion lovers got introduced to Kpop.
6. Twitter and YouTube 2010 - present.
Especially fan translators of all kinds of different idols' content.
7. BTS 2006 - present
8. Black Pink 2016 - 2021
9. HYBE, Nct and the future 2021
Each act above opened doors to the success and spread of Kpop as they attracted/attract fans in all that they did/do in the US.
Display MoreNYLON: How K-Pop Took Over The America: A Timeline.
https://www.nylon.com/entertai…-of-k-pop-rise-in-america
In brief, this is how Kpop spread to the US and the West from the beginning.
1. BoA, Rain and Se7en 2006 -2009
I had no idea that Rain and Se7en made US debuts.
2. Girls' Generation 2009 - 2011
3. Wonder Girls 2009 - 2012
4. Psy 2012
5. KCON, Kpop concerts, Fashion 2012 - 2019
2ne1 and Bigbang being the first major players in solo US shows and first boy group to chart on billboard 200.
Meanwhile Gdragon introduced the whole Kpop idols and fashion thing with channel and today we have lots of Kpop idol designer brands endorsers. Fashion lovers got introduced to Kpop.
6. Twitter and YouTube 2010 - present.
Especially fan translators of all kinds of different idols' content.
7. BTS 2006 - present
8. Black Pink 2016 - 2021
9. HYBE, Nct and the future 2021
Each act above opened doors to the success and spread of Kpop as they attracted/attract fans in all that they did/do in the US.
The first Korean artists I heard was Rain. My sister had his CD playing in her car. She got it from a friend who heard it playing from a shop in NY's China town. Then I saw (not sure the order) Se7en feat Lil Kim (Girls) & The Wonder Girls (Nobody). I later saw Wonder Girls on The Wendy Williams show.
Next I saw the videos for Super Junior (Sorry Sorry) and Girls Generation (as they were called back then) GG. Saw SNSD on David Letterman much later (Think it was The Boys they were promoting) Kind of blew my mind to see so many people in a group. But I still did not fully get into K-pop.
I watched K-rap. Always watched Tiger JK & Tasha (loved songs like Black Happiness). Then one Saturday the YouTube algorithm decided to recommend to me Big Bang performing I think it was 4 songs in a concert. I watched it, and loved it. It was the gateway into the rabbit hole that lead to me becoming a 2NE1 fan & being curious about the hole industry.
I saw Psy's video when it dropped. Watched it and went about my business. 48 hrs later it went wild in US mainstream.
I've said all of this to say that I was present in the West for most of that timeline and I can tell you 2 things:
1) The industry was WAY more aware than the average "Western" citizen about K-pop artists coming here. Wonder Girls moved with Akon. Psy with Scooter Braun. Hell, even Will I Am had 2NE1 record an album (that oddly disappeared) + their MTV Iggy performance/award. Nothing stuck. And I saw people on THIS forum drag those artists for NOT making it in the West (all except SNSD; who their fans constantly claim never officially debuted here).
2) Wonder Girls had a minor hit while Psy had a major hit. Still no one could tell you anything about them. They couldn't remember Wonder Girls name & said they all looked alike (I know, problematic) yet some knew the dance to Nobody; and they knew Psy but thought he was Chinese or Japanese.
BTS is the FIRST artists I've seen be known as Koreans who sing, dance, (Rolling Stone now discussing their writing & producing) and sell records to a point where they cannot be removed from the western music conversation as a one & done joke. Where they are seen as competition; AND with fans who are a bit feared.
And yes, the door IS left open behind BTS (the way it was NOT left open after those other acts came) for more of K-pop to enter the Western industry. And it shows by how many companies in the West are attempting to put something out in the coming years that has to do with Korean artists. But I do think other K-pop stars have the potential to rise in the West.
Absolutely. BTS/ Big Hit has changed the game forever. They pretty much did what Death Row Records was supposed to do back in the 90s.
Few labels came close, like Def Jam, but never got put in the position that BTS is in. They pretty much have the keys to the music game.
In the music industry, a lot of folks like to play follow the leader and BTS is the leader now.
This is a theory I'd like to hear more about. What Def Jam & Death Row have in common? My mind tends to relate it more to the 1958 - 62 American music scene.
compare the beatles to a kpop act, then kpop fans wonder why people consider them idiots
The Beatles were not only a "boy group" but in 1962 England they were called an "Idol group" (funny how K-pop now uses this word). And many bands were put together back then (where do you think Ringo came from?), styled to a T (that mop top hair + suits came from their manager) with many them not even playing on their own albums (see: Session musicians for Beatles & Beach Boys) yet made great memorable music!!!
And they have said multiple times that their singing style on their first few albums was an attempt to mimic Motown "girl groups". You know the very company & their artists that have "Influenced" J-pop & K-pop all these years later.
Fun fact: Paul McCartney said he watched BTS go through what they (The Beatles) went through.
I know you will probably argue for the sake of arguing (DON'T YOU COMPARE=missing the point/misdirect) but I thought it was important for anyone who doesn't know this to not take what you wrote as fact without researching. Sources: The Wrecking Crew, George Martin, Bernard Purdie, Brian Epstein, etc.
Back on OP's point: The Industry is already copying their marketing. And those that are not copying are asking K-pop companies to make them a BTS. No those are NOT their exact words but its obvious as hell they see that IFPI list and want some of that coin.
You'd be crazy not to think that everyone in the western & eastern music industry is not trying to study just how ONE Korean singing pop group is selling everything from vinyls in the US (#1 music market in the world) to revitalizing dying magazine sales (NOT teen mags) and helping with TV ratings + social media engagement. And why editors are whispering about their fear of ARMY?
Again, they primarily... sing... in... Korean<- this will go into history books. Hell they are already in Guinness.
