[STEREOGUM] Superstar K-Pop Boy Band BTS Launch Their American Invasion

[Hyooga]

 

 

The best way to judge a boy band’s potency is the intensity of the screaming throng that accompanies its every move. That was true in the 1960s, when the mop-top-era Beatles incited widespread hysteria, and it was true again at the turn of the millennium, when Backstreet Boys and NSYNC became the faces of a similarly boisterous and pervasive movement. It’s been a constant throughout modern history, spanning from the Bay City Rollers to Menudo, from New Edition to New Kids On The Block. It’s hard to take a boy band seriously as a cultural entity if they can safely travel from point A to point B without being accosted by a deafening mob of enthusiastic fans.

 

In the wake of One Direction’s breakup last year, many new boy bands — Miami’s CNCO, UK’s New Hope Club, dueling Hollywood upstarts Why Don’t We and PRETTYMUCH — have been angling to become the next youth-culture phenomenon. They’re all doing pretty well for themselves, particularly CNCO, a Latin pop combo founded on the reality show La Banda. But each one was fighting a losing battle from the start because the next youth-culture phenomenon was already well underway. It just wasn’t playing out on US soil until recently.

 

Perhaps now is not the time to joke about a “Korean invasion,†but that’s what BTS — the singing, dancing, rapping Seoul sensation also known as Bangtan Boys — have been staging this month on American TV. BTS is short for Beyond The Scene, and the seven-man ensemble’s popularity indeed extends well outside the boundaries of the K-pop community that birthed them. So does their music, which applies a freewheeling, omnivorous approach to pop, a stark contrast to the restrictive, retrograde NSYNC impressions that define most of their Western counterparts. Whereas PRETTYMUCH and Why Don’t We are largely stuck in the past, BTS look and sound like the past rocketing into the future, which may be why they’re ruling the present.

 

Two weeks ago Jin, Jimin, J-Hope, Jungkook, Suga, V, and Rap Monster (yes, Rap Monster) made their US television debut at the American Music Awards, where they were greeted by all the ecstatic fanfare you’d expect from a legitimately massive boy band. (Throats were shredded; tears were shed.) Their heavily choreographed, obviously lip-synced performance was a rare flash of excitement at an otherwise dour event. Since then, BTS have played Kimmel. They’ve played Ellen. Their appearance on Corden, hotly anticipated for weeks, is finally airing tonight. All of these broadcasts are being promoted as major events, with each talk show devoting multiple segments to BTS and their horde of passionate fans. This procession of competing Beatles-on-Sullivan moments feels like the US entertainment industry scrambling to recognize what has been true for a while now: BTS are one of the biggest pop groups in the world, if not the biggest outright.

 

They are, at the very least, the biggest on social media. BTS boast more than 10 million Twitter followers, 6.9 million Instagram followers, 5.4 million Facebook likes, and 5.2 million YouTube subscribers, plus more than a million followers on Chinese social network Weibo and 675K on Korean site Fancafe. Just last week they set a Guinness World Record for most Twitter engagements â€” which means they’re not merely the most liked and retweeted musical act on Twitter, they’re the most liked and retweeted account on Twitter. Each tweet averages 252,200; by comparison, Harry Styles averages 165,473.

 

This massive online presence won BTS a Billboard Music Award earlier this year for Top Social Artist, and the resulting acceptance speech was repurposed as an interlude on the group’s latest EP, Love Yourself: Her, which recently became the first K-pop release to reach the top 10 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Scrappy and lo-fi, the acceptance-speech interlude is as much of an outlier on the album as BTS were at the AMAs. The project’s other eight tracks are sparkling and vivacious examples of modern pop music, seamlessly darting between subgenres and languages (mostly Korean, with some English). Collectively they present BTS as a group that could easily catch on in a US radio climate that made room for predominantly Spanish “Despacito†this year.

 

Love Yourself: Her begins with “Intro: Serendipity,†a better Justin Bieber single than anything Bieber himself has released in the interim since his Purpose album. It casts breathy singing against misty keyboard sounds and gradually intensifying digital low end, working its way to a floaty denouement infused with piano and acoustic guitar. That leads into “DNA†— the first K-pop single to crack Billboard’s Hot 100 â€” which initiates with whistling, staccato guitar strums, and a four-on-the-floor beat and ultimately finds space for aggro rapping and aggressive EDM drops. If this all sounds like a nightmare clusterfuck worthy of Black Eyed Peas or LMFAO, well, it doesn’t not sound like Black Eyed Peas and LMFAO, but BTS and producer Pdogg execute the tune with such brazen enthusiasm that it’s difficult not to get swept up in maximalist euphoria right along with them. And anyhow, there’s a place for such unrestrained ebullient corniness; “I Gotta Feeling†and “Party Rock Anthem†might have annoyed you at their height, but see how much you mind next time the DJ drops one of them at a wedding.

 

Speaking of disreputable yet quasi-irresistible MOR monoliths, the Chainsmokers’ Drew Taggart worked on “Best Of Me,†and it shows in the track’s lukewarm, EDM-tinted soft-rock posture. In this case the results are not nearly as winsome. The quality picks up again on the bouncy synth-pop cascade “Dimple†and the loose, funky, midtempo “Pied Piper.†Yet the EP truly peaks with its last three tracks, where the balance shifts from rap-informed pop to pop-minded rap. On the tensely jittery “MIC Drop,†the hip-swinging “Go Go,†and the squelchy boom-bap throwback “Outro: Her,†BTS never cease sounding like a boy band even as they lean liberally into hip-hop. This, as opposed to the cautious and muted appropriations of the Lou Pearlman era, is one of the most obvious ways BTS and K-pop forebears like BigBang have evolved the concept of the boy band. It’s a big reason BTS are so much more fun than their peers from this hemisphere, and it makes me want to see them catch on here in the States.

 

BTS don’t need to infiltrate American pop culture to succeed. On a global scale they are already a runaway success story. Although that success happens to include a fervent core of US fans — BTS remain the only artist who had to bring their own security service to Billboard’s New York office in the year since Stereogum moved in — K-pop bands do not live and die by the US market. How exciting would it be, though, if this Korean teen-idol party patrol came along and shook up not just a top-40 landscape in stasis but our very concept of what a boy band can be?

 

https://www.stereogum.com/1972840/superstar-k-pop-boy-band-bts-launch-their-american-invasion/franchises/the-week-in-pop/

[hella]

I loved this though it's still really annoying that the performance's audio was so fucked up on airing that everyone thinks they were lipsyncing.

[flashfox]

they about to be the richest, omg slay

[Loonathehoe]

Their heavily choreographed, obviously lip-synced performance was a rare flash of excitement at an otherwise dour event

 

EX FUCKING CUSE ME? This gotta be a joke. Their voices were clear as fuck

[nixsi]

Whoa the thread has negs  some users are salty~~

[BTS PAVED THE WAY]

What's with the negs?   Saltiness is strong here

[Smile Hoya]

Interesting read. 

 

"— BTS remain the only artist who had to bring their own security service to Billboard’s New York office in the year since Stereogum moved in —"

 

lol

[caipirinhas]

This is a terrible (and shady) article

[RUNCH RANDA]

What's with the negs?   Saltiness is strong here

I didn't neg but I guess some people are frustrated by this part

"Their heavily choreographed, obviously lip-synced performance was a rare flash of excitement at an otherwise dour event."

[Akpheart]

I didn't neg but I guess some people are frustrated by this part

"Their heavily choreographed, obviously lip-synced performance was a rare flash of excitement at an otherwise dour event."

There were negs on comments that had nothing to do with that. I reported it.

[MissBlack]

[Hyooga]

This is a terrible (and shady) article

 

It's a great intro to the boys to the uninitiated though. But you're right, they shaded everyone mentioned in the article (not just BTS).

 

I personally liked the recognition of how distinct their sound is & how they developed their fandom without the mainstream noticing. By the time people took notice, they were already too big and loud. 

[RUNCH RANDA]

There were negs on comments that had nothing to do with that. I reported it.

smh

People can be so immature

[caipirinhas]

anyway the only good thing is that the author acknowledges the superiority of Outro: Her

[RiseLikeACrowTit]

 

 

BTS don’t need to infiltrate American pop culture to succeed. On a global scale they are already a runaway success story. Although that success happens to include a fervent core of US fans — BTS remain the only artist who had to bring their own security service to Billboard’s New York office in the year since Stereogum moved in — K-pop bands do not live and die by the US market. How exciting would it be, though, if this Korean teen-idol party patrol came along and shook up not just a top-40 landscape in stasis but our very concept of what a boy band can be?

 

 

This is what americans need to understand!, they graced you with their presence, but they could had landed in any part of the globe and have the same or more success

[BTS PAVED THE WAY]

I didn't neg but I guess some people are frustrated by this part

"Their heavily choreographed, obviously lip-synced performance was a rare flash of excitement at an otherwise dour event."

Nope the negs are on every replies too.

[JihyoStoleMyHeartAYAYAY]

I loved this though it's still really annoying that the performance's audio was so fucked up on airing that everyone thinks they were lipsyncing.

[Winter Bear]

Their heavily choreographed, obviously lip-synced performance was a rare flash of excitement at an otherwise dour event

 

EX FUCKING CUSE ME? This gotta be a joke. Their voices were clear as fuck

This but annoyed me but the article is redeemed by this -

 

"On a global scale they are already a runaway success story. Although that success happens to include a fervent core of US fans — BTS remain the only artist who had to bring their own security service to Billboard’s New York office in the year since Stereogum moved in — K-pop bands do not live and die by the US market. "

[luckyKuroba]

Lol! The writer is a fckin troll. How do I know?

They didnt even bother to change Rap Monster to RM. I'm howling. Like with a quick google search to BTS' wiki, it doesn't even say Rap Monster anywhere.

 

Ang that lipsyncing nonsense again.

I'm done.

[tomorrow]

The article is kinda 50/50, like the music analysis is good and it is quite well-researched. On the other hand, the author opinion clearly degrading / patronizing on BTS and KPOP in general. They clearly think that non-western music is under them and all kpop idol is strictly for teenager only........smh

[no_advisor]

I appreciate this article

Although it has some inaccuracies (lip-sync?!DA FAC , wo da fac is rap monster? I only know RM, the mother of shades to american artists lol)

 

I like their analysis of the album (they should have listen to sea ugh ), they also have a good grasp of the impact BTS is having in the world (How they used "BTS don’t need to infiltrate American pop culture to succeed. On a global scale they are already a runaway success story. Although that success happens to include a fervent core of US fans"  ) so on point  

It's an ok article to BTS newbies or GP who don't want to listen to them because of prejudice!

edit: 

[Jamoneitor]

The article has some good points but overall I dislike the way it was written, the author sounds... too condescending :-/. Idk the expression.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using OneHallyu

[HB23]

this shady article doesn't deserve a thread lmao

[BeTaS]

I don’t know why you guys upvoted this shit. Lip syncing?? Excuse me...

[diminie]

There's a lot going on on this article, positive and negative.

 

The autor has some good points and other interesting ones, but also bad ones. I appreciate it for what it is, a review and critic, but I wish it wasn't written in such a shady way.

 

Anyways. BTS are the world's new favorite boyband and an absolute global phenomenom, I agree with that.