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| K-pop boy band BTS / Courtesy of Big Hit Entertainment |
Some entertainment companies try to emulate them as they rock globe
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Before May, some Koreans were doubtful about the global success of the K-pop boy band BTS.
While many were convinced BTS is indeed a global sensation, there were some who half-believed they had that kind of clout in the global music industry.
Underneath their skepticism lies skepticism about the durability of the boy band as Koreans witnessed the short-lived popularity of Psy who once rocked the world with his "Gangnam Style" music video as it had gone viral for some time.
Psy became the first Korean singer to reach the Billboard Hot 100 chart. "Gangnam Style" stayed at No. 2 there for seven consecutive weeks in 2012. But his follow-ups failed to meet the expectations from global fans and gradually Psy has faded away.
Psy's one-off popularity has prompted music fans here to wonder how people can be so sure that BTS would turn out differently.
The all-Korean boy band, however, swept away such suspicion about their potential.
BTS won the Billboard Top Social Artist Award on May 20 for the second time in a row and became the first K-pop group to win the fan-voted prize twice.
About a week later, they rewrote K-pop history again. Their third album "Love Yourself: Tear" topped the Billboard Top 200 album chart, becoming the first K-pop group to rise to the top on the U.S. mainstream chart.
They are unstoppable. On Wednesday, days after their epic triumph on the U.S. chart, BTS made the Billboard Hot chart top 10 with their song "Fake Love." The boy band extended their record. Their song "MIC Drop" reached the Billboard Hot chart top 28 in December.
Their dreams have come true one after the other.
BTS' global success, meanwhile, has gone far beyond their self-satisfaction.
The Big Hit Entertainment group's unprecedented, fearless upward march in the U.S. mainstream market has inspired other K-pop singers to imitate them. One of the local entertainment companies reportedly launched a task force to emulate BTS.
According to experts, there are several factors that made the Korean boy band break through the U.S. mainstream market.
For one, their songs are about universal topics young adults all across the world are dealing with and some of them stand up against the social hierarchy.
Growing pains, social issues and criticism against hierarchical social orders, which once were considered taboo for Korean music, are some of the themes of their songs. Some of their songs were inspired by literary works such as Haruki Murakami's dystopian fiction "1Q84" and Ursula Le Guin's short story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas."
Such topics helped fans relate with the singers.
Building intimacy with fans is another factor that made BTS popular among fans all across the globe. Like other K-pop singers, BTS members are active social media users. They update every detail of their lives on their Twitter and YouTube accounts. The way they meet fans, however, is different from other K-pop acts.
While many K-pop singers try to be seen as attractive and chic and thus put on layers of thick make-up and high-end fashion before they expose themselves to fans, BTS members are humble and try to be real and genuine and don't behave as if they are superstars.
While some entertainment companies are trying to model their bands on BTS, others are not so enthusiastic about transplanting their success formula with their K-pop bands.
"There's no doubt that the global success of BTS is a good thing for other K-pop groups because they can ride the popularity of K-pop," a publicist working at one of the big three entertainment companies said on condition of anonymity. "But I think it's not a good idea to try to simply emulate or imitate them. We do have our own system in place to train our singers, so we will continue to follow our own path, while not relying on the BTS way. This is because each singer has his or her unique merit and I think there's no one-size-fits-all type of model."
BTS has changed the K-pop scene and their influence on the local entertainment industry is real. An increase of singer-songwriters among K-pop singers is one of the impacts BTS has made. K-pop singers were once perceived as "performers" who simply sing songs composed by songwriters and follow the dance made by choreography experts.
After BTS, however, an increasing number of singers write their songs or participate in the production of their music one way or another. As a result K-pop has transformed into a music genre having its own traits as singers perform diverse songs that strike a chord with their fans.
