Last year, BTS became the first all-South Korean act to top the Billboard Hot 100 with the effervescent funk groove and beyond-contagious K-pop sensibilitiesof their first English-language single, “Dynamite.”
And that was just the first of three chart-topping entries on that U.S. singles chart in 2020.
Next, they turned up singing in Korean on a chart-topping remix of “Savage Love” by New Zealand DJ/producer Jawsh 685 and American R&B singer Jason Derulo. Then came “Life Goes On,” the first primarily Korean-language song to top the Hot 100.
Now, they've droppedtheir second English-language single, “Butter,” which should have no trouble making good on the momentum that’s established BTS as major players in the K-pop revolution that’s taken the world by storm in recent years.
That revolution didn’t happen overnight, of course.
That's not how revolutions work.
It's taken decades to achieve the sort of world domination K-pop is enjoying at the moment, with new artists grabbing headlines every day.
The same week BTS dropped "Butter,"members of PlayM Boys rebranding themselves as Just B competed for attention with the news that GFriend had disbanded.
It's easy to see and/or hear how it got to this. Few genres have fully embraced the euphoric potential of pop music with the unabashed dedication to delivering that sugar rush on which this type of music thrives as K-pop.
In its more infectious moments, it's a technicolor hook explosion on 11 or what NPR once called"a maximalist dreamland"of "constant stimulation."
K-pop makes most Western pop stars seem like they're not even trying.
With BTS about to blow up even bigger, here’s a look back at a handful ofkey moments on the road to K-pop being what a recent eight-part YouTube documentary series on the genre calls a $10 billion industry.
Who started K-pop?
There's a long tradition of pop music in Korea, from Trot, a form of folk music whose name is derived from the English word foxtrot, to rock acts like the Key Boys, whose Yardbirds-style rockers played well to American GIs in the '60s.
ButSeo Taiji and Boys are often credited with modernizing the contemporary music scene of South Korea with their breakthrough single "Nan Arayo (I Know)."Rapping and singing in Korean over new jack swing beats and turntable scratchingin an energetic,choreographed video, they clearly paved the way for modern K-pop. Their success with teenagers inspired theKorean music industry to shift its focus to pop that would play well to that age group.
In the YouTube documentary "K-pop Evolution," producer Hong Jong Ho says, "Korean pop music is divided into 'before' and 'after' the debut of Seo Taiji and Boys."
The modern era of K-pop
Formed in 1996, the boy band H.O.T. iscredited with usheringin the age of modern K-pop idol culture, in which members of a pop group are assembled by a company, in this case SM Entertainment, and marketed to teenagers.
Their namestandsfor Highfive of Teenagers.
According to the book"K-Pop: Korea's Musical Explosion," SM Entertainment'sLee Soo-manpolled high school students on what they wanted from a pop group. That information was then used to hand-selectthe members of the group, who then went through rigorous training to achieve their full potential as teen idols.
A year after the launch of SM Entertainment, H.O.T. became the hottest name in K-pop thanks to the contagious bubblegum appeal of 1996's hip-hop-flavored "Candy."
Billboard says they're "typically identified as the first formal K-pop boy band."
Thatsuccess led to another wave of K-pop idol groups, including S.E.S., a group initially assembled by the folks at SM Entertainment as a female counterpart to H.O.T.
The same year H.O.T. broke through with "Candy,"Yang Hyun-suk ofSeo Taiji & Boys formedYG Entertainment. A year later,Park Jin-younglaunched JYP Entertainment.
BTS' label, Big Hit Music, came much later, launched in 2005 by Bang Si-hyuk. Thanks in large part to the international success the label has enjoyed with BTS, it recently purchased the management company that handles Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande.
K-pop makes its first appearance in Billboard
The term K-pop made its first appearance in the pages of Billboard magazine in 1999 in an article onSouth Korea lessening restrictions on Japanese acts performing in the country.Kim Chang-Hwan, a producer, is quoted as saying,"The rock-oriented J-pop scene is not what melody-oriented K-pop listeners are asking for."
Except he didn't really call it that.
Looking back in 2019 on thearticle he'd done as Billboard's South Korea correspondent, Cho Hyun-jin explained that Kim had used the Korean term gayo and that he and an editor were brainstorming ideas for something that sounded a bit more accessible.
“Personally, I didn't hear the term ‘K-pop’ before," Cho recalled. "It might have been used. I read some articles when I was working on my pieces that the word ‘K-pop’ was used by the music industry insiders. But to tell the truth, I never heard it personally.”
What is K-pop?
Obviously, K-pop means Korean pop music, but the term is more fluid than that.
When Cho started using the termhe soon found himself applying it to any pop act out ofSouth Korea, a usage that lingers.
But to many, it applies specifically toK-pop idol culture. As Cho explained in Billboard,"I guess the term ‘K-pop’ really started to define the agency-produced or managed idol bands, or sometimes solo acts."
What are K-pop stans?
Among the key factors in spreading the gospel of K-pop across the universe has been the intense devotion of the fans – or stans (in reference to the Eminem obsessed-fan anthem, “Stan”) – of individual K-pop groups.
BTS’ fandom is called "A.R.M.Y," an acronym for "Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth.” Blackpink’s fandom name is Blink.
In addition to singing the praises of their favorite K-pop idols, K-pop stans became a force on Twitter last year after flooding anti-Black Lives Matter hashtags with videos and photos of their favorite K-pop acts to undermine the racists’ efforts at spreading the hate.
They also earned a shout-out in a tweet from U.S. RepAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez and joining TikTok users in requesting tickets to former President Trump’s Tulsa rally with no intention of going, which resulted in a disappointing turnout.
A new generation of 21st century K-pop Idols
A new generation of K-pop idols emerged in the early 2000s, led by TVXQ, a boy band whose name roughly translates to Rising Gods of the East, andBoA, a solo artist often called the Queen of K-pop.
With SM Entertainment's support, both acts are credited with expanding the audience base for South Korean music. BoA wasthe first K-pop artist to top the Japanese music charts, followed by TVXQ, who won Album of the year atSouth Korea's Golden Disc Awardsin2006 and 2008 for the nation's biggest-sellingalbums of those years.
Fueled by social media and the popularity of K-pop music videos on YouTube, the KoreanWave, or Hallyu, as it's known, quickly expanded fromEast andSoutheast Asiato all corners of the globe.
Other artists that have played a key role in expanding K-pop's global impact inthe 21st century include the solo singer Rain, who played to 40,000 fans at a sold-out concert in Beijing,and the groups Super Junior, BIGBANG, Wonder Girls, SHINee, 2NE1 and SuperM, a K-pop supergroup whose first release topped Billboard's album chart.
'Gangnam Style'
The first South Korean pop act to go viral in the States was PSY, whosemusic video for "Gangnam Style" was the first to reach one billion views on YouTube, a threshold it hit in December 2012 (a year after K-pop became the first country-specific genre with its own YouTube channel).
A wildly entertaining video whose popularity is based at least in part on the infectious energy with which the singer throws himself into his goofy dance moves, "Gangnam Style" has since passed the 4 billion mark onYouTube.
It also topped the charts in more than 30 countries, hitting No. 2 in the U.S., becoming sucha massive mainstream cultural phenomenonMadonna invited the singer to join her and her backup dancers in a mashup of her own song, "Give it 2 Me," and"Gangnam Style" atMadison Square Garden.
Two subsequent singles put PSYback in the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 — "Gentleman," which broke a YouTube record for how fast it hit 1 billion views, and "Hangover," featuring Snoop Dogg.
Girls' Generation, EXO and Blackpink
Girls' Generation, Billboard's pickin 2017for top K-pop girl group of the past decade, rose to fame in 2009 on the strength of a sugar-coated electropop single called "Gee." That song went on to be named the most popular single of the decade by the South Korean online music service Melon.
Another massive boy band, EXO, had the biggest-selling South Korean album five years in a row, from 2013 to 2017.
When that streak ended, it gave way to three straight years of BTS at No. 1, they dropped their biggest-selling album yet, 2018's "Don't Mess Up My Tempo," which became the third K-pop album to go Top 40 on the Billboard album chart, following BTS and Blackpink.
A South Korean girl group formed by YG Entertainment in 2016, Blackpink has enjoyed the most US success of any K-pop girl group.
They became the highest-charting female Korean act on Billboard's Hot 100 when they peaked at No. 13 with 2020's"Ice Cream," a seductive dance track with guest vocals by Selena Gomez. And that was Blackpink's thirdTop 40 entry on that US chart, following "Kill This Love" and "How You Like That."
Blackpink also hadthe highest-charting entry by a female Korean act on Billboard's album chart with "The Album," whichbecame the first Korean girl group album to sell more than one million copies.
Is BTS the most popular group on the planet?
Lastyear, BTS was declared "the most popular group on the planet" by Maria Sherman,author of "Larger Than Life: A History of Boy Bands from NKOTB to BTS," in an article she wrote for NPR, pointing to the billions they bring in each year to South Korea.
Rolling Stone threw its support behind that theory in its latest issue with the cover story headline "BTS: The Nonstop Triumphs of the World's Biggest Band."
Consider the following firsts.
In 2017, they becamethe first K-pop performers to take home a Billboard Music Award and the first to perform at theAmerican Music Awards.
The following year, they were the first K-pop artists to play a U.S. stadium and the first group to top theBillboard album chart with "Love Yourself: Tear."
They've since returned to No. 1 with fourreleases— the "Love Yourself: Answer" compilation,the "Map of the Soul: Persona"EPand the full-length albums "Map of the Soul: 7" (the biggest-selling South Korean album of all time)and "Be."
In the midst of all those chart successes, they rang in 2020 with a New Year's Eve performance in Times Square that was seen by a television audience of more than 1 billion people.
At last count, BTS had seven of the Top 10 biggest-selling South Korean albums of all time, including all three of the top positions. The other three albums in the Top 10 — by Kim Gun-mo, Lee Moon-sae andShin Seung-hun— predated the K-pop explosion.
And when you think about it, they're just getting started.
Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.
Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.
