[Yonhap Photo]
BTS, a young K-pop boy band, is rewriting the history of South Korea's music industry as it captured the hearts of international fans with a ballistic level of choreography combined with powerful hip-hop music.
The "BTS fever" is not something similar to that of a one-hit-wonder because the fandom has been created slowly through social media. Unlike other K-pop bands, BTS is now strongly supported by a trans-continental army of devoted fans.
"I did not know why BTS was so popular but when I saw MVs, I was out of my mind! Now I understand why my friends are so obsessed," a YouTuber nicknamed "Katerina" wrote on the group's YouTube channel.
The potential of K-pop was already proven by Psy, who united the world under his global hit song "Gangnam Style" and became the first K-pop artist to be placed in the top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100 chart. However, many other K-pop artists targeting the global market have been unsuccessful.
"BTS is now regarded as the king among young idol fans and dominates social media," Kim Kyo-suk, a pop-culture critic in Seoul, told Aju News, adding the group has used social media wisely to build its image and gain fandom abroad.
The group has "carefully and strategically" tapped a new market by communicating actively with a fan club called "ARMY" through its official blog, YouTube and Twitter, Kim said. "No other K-pop bands have done so."
Since its debut, members have tried to maintain a good manner and react sincerely to fans. "Such attitudes are nothing new in South Korea, but it's something new for overseas fans," Kim said. "Their strategy has worked to build up a sincere, hardworking image backed by beautiful songs and performances."
Big Hit Entertainment CEO Bang Shi-hyuk, who created BTS, attributed the success of his boys to a "sincere" campaign aimed at conveying true messages that transcended language barriers. "K-pop is an unfamiliar genre, but I think we're able to get familiar with (hip-hop) music," Bang said. "I think it is working as a means to transcend the language barriers."
Fans and critics agree the ballistic level of choreography would be some sort of a culture shock for foreign fans who were amazed at BTS members carrying out hard performances while rapping and singing live. "BTS did not go through a fuss trying to write lyrics in English for foreign fans who are eager to learn and memorize the lyrics in Korean," Kim said.
At overseas concerts, fans are commonly singing along and follow the entire words in Korean, a scene rarely seen at the concerts of other popular boy groups such as EXO and BIGBANG.
In February 2016, BTS was crowned by Forbes as the "Most Retweeted Artist on Twitter". According to the American business magazine, BTS tweets were shared 5,393,500 times in January 2016, beating American hip-hop singer Kanye West by about 1.6 million retweets. Because fans talked about BTS so frequently, Twitter created the BTS emoji, a dedicated symbol to describe a person, group or a thing.
The boys have also impressed Netizens with "BANGTAN BOMB", a series of short YouTube video clips highlighting their ordinary social life and backstage footages. For four years, about 400 BANGTAN BOMB videos have been created, many of them viewed millions of times.
"BTS has diligently carried out promotions through its YouTube channel, and it was very successful," Kim said, adding the first response came from Latin American teenagers, with the fever spreading to other parts of the world.
Finally, Americans, who are the mainstream consumers in the global music scene, fell in love with the group. But it was not only the YouTube gig which pulled the group to its current position. Many fans adore a perfect mixture of the group's music, powerful performance, realistic lyrics and fantastic dance.
"Their music is based on hip-hop, one of the most popular genres in the world. However, their song is very Korean with fascinating choreography," Kim said.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
