BTS / Korea Times file photo



Their success is consumer-driven phenomenon



By Kang Hyun-kyung



Boy band BTS is making an unprecedented splash in the unforgiving U.S. market, riding high on their massive, enthusiastic global fandom and their music identity that thrills teens around the world.



The seven-member group has drawn attention from the U.S. mainstream media after they topped famous U.S. artists, including Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez, to win the Top Social Artist Award at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards, May 21. They have since performed on several mainstream TV shows.



TV show host Ellen DeGeneres hinted that the Korean band's success in the U.S. mainstream market is a fan-driven phenomenon. "Millions, millions of you demanded we book our next guests, the South Korean boy band BTS," she said during her daytime show, Nov. 27, while introducing the K-pop group to her audience.



Jimmy Kimmel, host of Jimmy Kimmel Live, was in disbelief about the Korean boy band's enormous popularity. BTS performed outside the studio of his show in November. During a chat with his studio audience between segments, he said he didn't know about the group before his show invited them. He said he was surprised at seeing so many kids camped outside the studio in line to get tickets for the band's concert there.



His audience, mostly younger people, however, was very familiar with the boy band and other K-pop groups. When he asked if seven are too many for a boy band, one person in the audience, who introduced herself as an attorney having passed the bar exam a couple of days previously, said there were other Korean boy bands that have even more than seven. She mentioned the K-pop group Super Junior which has 13 members, and cited other Korean boy bands such as EXO having more than seven members.



Many media outlets in Korea also remained bewildered while watching American fans chant the band's name during performances in the United States. BTS has broken several records. It was the first K-pop group to perform at the American Music Awards. It was the first Korean band to enter the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with "Mic Drop." BTS is also the first Korean group to reach over 11 million followers on Twitter.



Many are wondering how such an unprecedented phenomenon could happen so quickly while the vast majority of the public didn't even feel the tremor.



Stephanie Choi, an ethnomusicologist and a doctoral student at the University of California at Santa Barbara, said music fans today are not what they used to be. They are well-organized and active consumers and their systematic support for their idols is one of the key reasons behind BTS's stunning success in the United States.



"Nowadays Western audiences do not have to wait for MTV to air their favorite singers' performances," she said in an email message to The Korea Times. "Fans just go online and watch BTS's performances on YouTube, chat with them on V Live and look at the members' photos on Twitter. American media would not have recognized BTS's popularity first if BTS didn't get 300 million votes at the Billboard Music Awards."



Fans not only enjoy the music and performances of their favorite singers but also try to influence TV stations to feature their idols.



BTS fans, better known as ARMY which stands for Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth, show music fans have transformed from silent supporters to activist-like consumers trying to make their voices heard. They translate content from the Korean group so fans who don't understand Korean can understand what BTS songs are about. As shown on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, those fans even put pressure on mainstream television companies to feature their favorite singers.



BTS were successfully able to build intimacy with their global fans through social media. The members are savvy social media users and post photos and video streams showing their daily lives and their pets. They are interactive with their fans.



"Through Twitter, V Live, YouTube and official fan club page, BTS members are in touch with their fans on a daily basis and talk about their hobbies, food preferences, pets and fashion styles," Choi said. "It would be a rare event for American artists to share their private lives, although Korean entertainers are used to showing their bedrooms on a daily basis to the audience. The Korean entertainment industry provides a new type of intimacy to American audiences."



BTS songs struck a chord with younger people who were raised in a different culture as the group sings about universal topics such as mental health, anxiety about their uncertain future and the growing pains of teenagers who are stressed out over pressure from their parents to succeed.



By addressing such common issues, their songs have been able to bring global fans together.

The group's stage performance, of course, is one of the things attracting fans. One of the BTS fans on Jimmy Kimmel's show said she likes the boy band because their songs are great and they dance well.

