BTS’ popularity abroad marks generational shift in K-pop
SEOUL: K-pop band BTS has been creating waves overseas lately with its “Mic Drop” which entered the Hot 100 Hit list on US Billboard’s mainchart at 28th.
The song “Mic Drop” from the band’s “Love Yourself: Her” album was remixed by Steve Aoki and features hip-hop artist Designer.
This follows the boy band’s American television debut at the American Music Awards show in November. The band has also appeared on top popular television shows including “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live”.
Coincidentally on the same day, CEO Bang Si-hyuk of Big Hit Entertainment received the Presidential Citation award for his contributions in promoting Korean content, and BTS and their music overseas.
The only precedent prior to BTS’s track was top Korean pop star Psy, who shot up to No. 2 for seven weeks with “Gangnam Style” in 2012. At the band’s current pace, it seems all but headed to break Psy’s record.
Other K-pop groups are also excelling overseas, including TWICE and EXO. But BTS has virtually topped the reigning boy band scale worldwide mainly in the largest US market, marking a generational shift in K-pop.
Top K-pop bands such as EXO are flying high in other parts of the world. On Tuesday, EXO seized the top spot on Japanese record retailer Tower Records’ top 10 imported albums for “The War”. Hot in pursuit of EXO are new boy bands Wanna One, and Pentagon among others.
On the girl band side, JYP Entertainment’s TWICE and SM Entertainment’s Red Velvet, are two front-runners. The frontrunner girl bands for years _ Girls’ Generation and Sistar _ have all but dispersed and are engaging in individual activities.
The band TWICE has reignited interest in “hallyu” in the Japanese market. TWICE grabbed the spotlight for its debut best-of album “#TWICE” released in June. The nine-girl band will appear on NHK’s New Year’s Eve music show, “The Red and White Song Battle” this year. Prior to TWICE, BOA, TVXQ, KARA and Girls’ Generation have appeared on the show.
Its agency said Tuesday that TWICE will also take part in Asahi TV’s “Music Station Live 2017” show on Dec 22. JYP Entertainment PR official said that the popularity of TWICE and other JYP artists in the Japanese charts may well be attributed to the systematic knocking on the Japanese pop market since 2011 with its boy band 2PM.
The five-member girl band Red Velvet, which recently released its second studio album “Perfect Velvet”, is enjoying popularity with such hit singles as “Peek-A-Boo” on the charts.
BTS, Wanna One, TWICE and Red Velvet also graced the stages at the MAMA in Japan concert and the MAMA Awards held in Hong Kong.
The active moves of these bands comes as fresh news to the K-pop scene which, while domestically robust suffered an impact during the past year or so after ties between Korea and China turned chilly in the wake of Seoul’s installation of a US THAAD anti-missile system.
The resurgence of K-pop worldwide may well be attributed to active social media. Twitter said Tuesday that BTS’s social media account, @BTS_twt, was the most re-tweeted account this year. At second and 9th place respectively were K-pop band Seventeen’s @pledis+17 and MonstaX’s @OfficialMonstaX.