A first for K-pop
> South Korean band BTS breaks new ground by winning the best social artiste prize at the Billboard Music Awards
K-POP band BTS beat competition from the likes of Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez to win the top social artiste prize at this year’s Billboard Music Awards on May 21. The seven-member group from South Korea, referred to as Bangtan Sonyeondan in Korean, or Bangtan Boys/ Bulletproof Boy Scouts in English, made its US red carpet debut at the event, and later became the first K-pop group to win a Billboard Music Award.
In their acceptance speech, BTS members said they were honoured at the win, and wanted to share it with their fans around the world.
“We still can’t believe that we’re standing here on this stage at the Billboard Music Awards,” they said through a translator. “It’s so great to see all the artistes we admire. To be in this category with such great artistes, we’re just really honoured.
“And most importantly, this award belongs to all the people around the world that shine their love and light on us by the millions and make BTS proud. Please remember what we say, love yourself.”
BTS’s music – infused with R&B, hip hop and rap, along with sociallyconscious lyrical themes of anti-bullying and mental health – has helped the boys rack up 9.7 million followers on social media, with their YouTube videos racking up an average of around 100 million views each.
BTS topped Billboard’s Social 50 chart this year for 25 weeks since it first hit the No.1 spot in October 2016, becoming the highest-ranking K-pop group on the Billboard 200 around the same time with its album, Wings.
Billboard described the success of the band’s recent title track, Spring Day, which reached No.15 on the Billboard ‘Bubbling Under 100’ chart, as “unprecedented given K-pop’s history on Billboard’s singles charts”.
Over the past four years, BTS has released several EPs, two Japanese albums, and three Korean.
While the boys currently have no plans to release any music in English, the group has performed sold-out shows in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.
Industry experts have suggested that the growing number of K-pop acts touring in the US is down to South Korea’s diplomatic spat with China.
Ellen Kong, the CEO of Elf Asia, a Hong Kong-based promotion company specialising in K-pop, said the impact of THAAD – China’s opposition to the US- backed missile shield that is now housed in South Korea – had been “substantial”.
“It’s meant China is no longer a viable market for K-pop touring acts,” she told CNN.
Paul Han, co-founder of K-pop gossip site allkpop.com which has 10 million monthly readers, added: “Around eight years ago or so, it was very rare for Kpop artistes to tour in the US, but now, it has become quite common.”
Seven K-pop concert tours took place in the US in 2013, rising to 14 over the next two years, and then to 20 in 2016.
So far, this year, there have been 14 in 2017 alone, CNN reports, including one by G-Dragon, a member of the popular K-pop group Big Bang. – The Independent