The year was 1964 when an English boyband called The Beatles made their TV debut and changed the world forever, especially the music industry. More than 50 years later, another boy group is doing it again. Meet BTS, a South Korean, 7-member boy band from Seoul.
Image from Grammy.com
The group has already sold millions of albums. They also have millions of views on YouTube. Before 2020, they had stadium shows worldwide. All sold out.
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If you're still not a believer and think this is just another boyband that captured the hearts of teenagers and millennials, get this. It is estimated that BTS added $3.6 Billion per year to the economy of South Korea. If you're still not impressed, they also added $1 more Billion in consumer exports. South Korea calls their megastars IDOLS. They are the reason why 1 in every 14 tourists visit the country in 2017. BTS even partnered with Visit Seoul on their tourism campaign.
It is estimated that if BTS can maintain its popularity, it can generate $37 Billion for South Korea over the next decade. But as a K-Pop fan, I can tell you there are a lot of K-Pop groups in South Korea, and even the most successful groups don't break out around the world, and America like BTS did. So the question is, "How did BTS break the mold in South Korea to reach the top of the charts in the United States?"
Is BTS an Overnight Success?
A resounding NO is the answer to that question. In fact, the group had their debut in 2013. Unless you were already a K-Pop fan, you probably only heard of BTS in recent years. The name BTS came from a Korean expression Bangtan Sonyeondan, which translates to Bulletproof Boy Scouts. BTS is also a nod to "Behind The Scenes," which shows how connected that group is to their loyal fandom, collectively known as the ARMY.
What is KPOP?
It's short for Korean Popular Music. They blend together elements of pop, hip hop, electronic, rock, r&b, and rap. It's a very cool music genre. I love it. K-Pop can be traced back from the early 90's and rose to popularity in the 2000s. It is now a $5 billion global industry.
A typical K-Pop group will have their foothold in South Korea and then the rest of Asia before attempting to expand globally. These travels abroad is not very good for the group. It takes away their spotlight in South Korea, which is precious, and another K-Pop group can sweep in. Also, in the past 30 years, K-Pop Idols depended very much on traditional or linnear TV.
The BTS Origin Story
BTS signed to South Korean entertainment company Big Hit Entertainment, are now HYBE Labels or HYBE Corporation. Big Hit conducted the auditions that brought the group together. BTS and other groups trained and refined their singing and dancing for several years before they debut. At this stage, they are called a trainees. These companies set-up training facilities. It's not unusual that a trainee trains for 4-5 years, maybe even more, before they debut. They live and sleep together in these facilities. It's almost like high school or college for them, especially since these trainees got accepted in auditions as kids and teenagers. Not everyone gets to debut, and not every group that debut succeeds. Many groups disband after just a few years.
2 BTS members, Jimin and V, came from the Korean Arts High School in Seoul, a private school with many idols as alumni. However, this school closed in February 2019, unable to keep up with new and stricter laws. There are other performing art schools in South Korea, sometimes called K-Pop schools. It is where they practice, polish, and perfect their dance and vocal skills. The BTS boys came from cities and towns around South Korea through a series of auditions in 2010 and 2011.
Big Hit Entertainment on the Brink of Bankruptcy?
Big Hit Entertainment was at the brink of bankruptcy in 2007. Their financials only turned around with BTS. In 2018, the company profits rose 97% from the prior year, pulling in $57 million. Revenue rose 132% from 2017 to 2018, while the company's net income rose 105% year-over-year.
(BTS) How Did They Do It?
Instead of going first to the traditional model of TV variety and music shows, they reached out to their global fandom DIRECTLY through social media. In contrast to every other K-Pop group, BTS gained popularity globally first, before they became known in South Korea.
Credit to Big Hit. They gave BTS full-control of their social media. They were encouraged to livestream practices and their daily lives. The company realized that the Korean Wave, including K-Pop, K-Beauty, K-Drama, Korean Movies, and Food, became a worldwide trend because of social media. In recent years, Millennials and now Gen-Z spent a massive amount on time in social. Hundresds of millions of views has been consumed, especially on YouTube. Many believe this was the driving force in the Korean Wave.
None of the band members have individual social media accounts in the beginning. They have one band account. That means their audience concentrated in one account per platform. As of June 2023, BTS has 43 million followers on Twitter, 73 million on Instagram, and 75 million subscribers on YouTube.
The Army fanbase is not in any single country or region. It's global. That is a major factor to the success of the group. Big Hit even allowed them to create their own solo music.
BTS Reality Show
BTS first arrived in America in 2014. They were part of a South Korean reality tv show titled "BTS: American Hustle Life" that aired on the South Korean network. The show centers around the band living in LA, adjusting to Western culture, life, and learning rap music from seasoned veterans Warren G. and Coolio.
Later that year, BTS became the youngest artist to perform at Los Angeles K-Con, an annual festival that features the biggest K-Pop Idols. This 2014 K-Con performance garnered a lot of attention for BTS. In 2017, they won their first Billboard Music Award for Top Social Artist. The nominees here are artists that fans engage with the most on social media. This win was a complete shock to the US media BTS beating superstar nominees including Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, and Justin Bieber.
Social media and reality tv showed how ordinary the daily lives of BTS are. Despite being idols, they're not that much different from us. The BTS Army watched this every day. They found out how REAL the boys are, and that is a big part of how they gained this level of popularity.
Success Takes Talent, Hard Work, Smart Work, and an
Awesome Music Label Behind You
No amount of publicity and social media can make them as popular as they are without talent. BTS got notoriety for their show-stopping music, choreography, and highly stylized music videos. In May 2019 at Metlife Stadium in New Jersey, around 100,000 of the BTS Army showed up to see them perform, with ticket prices ranging from $55 to $250. It was two shows and sales reached over $14 million. Earlier that month at Soldier Field in Chicago, 88,000 of the BTS Army showed up with the same ticket price range. They also did two performances pulling in $13.3 million.
Let's compare that to Taylor Swift who also played at Soldier Field. 105,000 of her fans showed up with a ticket price ranging from $50 to $900. It was also two performances pulling in $14.5 million. Taylor also performed at Metlife with 165,000 fans in the same ticket price range. It was 3 performances with total sales of $22 million.
BTS First Platinum and First Gold Album
BTS got their first platinum certification in 2018 for the song Mic Drop and their first gold album for Love Yourself Answer. This album debuted at number #1 on the Billboard 200 Chart. It was the best-selling album EVER on the South Korea Gaon Album Chart.
The Music of this Generation
While many artists sing about love and a broken heart, BTS sings about identity, confidence, and loving yourself. It is socially conscious music. It is the music of this generation. This message is very important because the K-Pop industry had been mired in scandal in recent years.
In early 2019, some prominent K-Pop idols got named in an online group sharing sexually explicit videos of women filmed without their knowledge or consent. There are also allegations of rape, sex trade, illegal drug sales, and others, to the point that some BTS Army in Korea does not want to label them as K-Pop anymore. They felt that BTS was more than that, bigger than that. BTS partnered with UNICEF to campaign against violence towards children and teens globally.
Breaking Records / Breaking Grounds
BTS was the first K-Pop group to perform on Saturday Night Live. Their album titled Be debuted atop the US Billboard 200 with 177,000 sales, becoming their fifth number-one album in the U.S. BTS became the fastest group to earn five number-one albums since The Beatles.
BTS also became the first group to have two chart-topping albums in the USA in 2020, and the second act overall following YoungBoy Never Broke Again. The lead single "Life Goes On" debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100 with 150,000 downloads and 14.9 million U.S. streams. This is the 3rd number-one song of BTS following "Dynamite" and "Savage Love (Laxed Siren Beat) remix".
Other K-Pop groups target mainly Southeast Asia and China; BTS targeted the US market directly. The group had collaborated with music superstars in America, including Nicki Minaj, Ed Sheeran, Halsey, and Steve Aoki.
BTS is not just taking the music industry by storm. Toys, apparel, and cosmetic brands are all partnering with BTS, taking benefit from their global audience. BTS also partnered with big brands like Coca-Cola, Puma, Converse, and Hyundai. They also collaborated with Funko with a set of 7 Funko Pops.
According to Funko CEO Brian Mariotti, they found out BTS is leading in all social media engagement, ahead of even Game of Thrones and Marvel at the height of their success. Even they were surprised. They had a toy fair where the most shared toy on social media was the BTS Funko, beating out everybody. Almost everything that has some notoriety in pop culture has a Funko Pop. They also saw the diversity in the demographic of the K-Pop fan, as well as how K-Pop merch is successful in both online and in-person retailers, especially the BTS brand.
BTS Music
The group has been prolific in releasing new music. They have released six studio albums and six EPs since 2014. BTS is the only band since The Beatles to hit 3 number one albums in less than a year.
The Biggest Boyband in the World Joins the Military
BTS started enlisting in the South Korean military in December 2022. This policy is called conscription. It requires all able bodied men in South Korea to serve in its military for at least 18 months. BTS announced a hiatus until 2025 in a "dinner party" YouTube video in June 2022. The band framed, or in my opinion, re-branded their break to focus on solo pursuits. The following day, investors dumped stocks of HYBE Label. They lost $1.7 billion of market cap in the first hour of trading. They really are the billion-dollar boyband.
As the group's oldest member Jin nears the age of conscription, there has been a conversation about exemption for BTS in recent years. Three days before Jin's 28th birthday, there was a revision in South Korea's Military Service Act. The "BTS Law" adjusted the age for military service of K-Pop singers from 28 to 30 years old.
Last October 2022, Big Hit/Hybe confirmed via Twitter that each BTS member would complete their mandatory military service. Jin started his service in December 2022.
BTS Military Service Impact on South Korea's Economy
The impact of BTS's military service goes beyond upset ARMY. It will have more economic consequences on top of the $1.7 billion that Hybe lost in stocks after the announcement. Physical and digital music revenue calculations show that BTS is the number #1 recording artist in 2020 and 2021. They have dozans of sold-out shows, Grammy nominations, and four tracks in the Billboard Top 10 Bestselling U.S. Digital Hits.
The success of BTS brought prosperity to the culture, economy, and industry of South Korea. It is known as the "BTS Effect." After Dynamite topped the Billboard Top 100 List, the Korean Culture and Tourism Institute found that they generated 8,000 jobs $439 million revenue for the South Korean economy. In 2019, a Hyundai research institute reported that BTS generated $3.9 billion in economic value yearly. That's 0.3% of the country's total GDP. $3.9 billion revenue is equivalent to 35 mid-sized companies.
South Korea tourism ranks among the top 60 countries worldwide. BTS brings in hundreds of thousands of tourists to South Korea each year. In 2017, 1 in every 13 visit said BTS was the reason for their travel.
The Future of BTS
The success of BTS and their influence moving forward remains to be seen. But all hope is not lost for the BTS ARMY. In a parliamentary session last August 2022, South Korea's Defense Minister said there is a way to give them the opportunity to practice and leave the country anytime if they have overseas concerts. For now, we the BTS ARMY have to rely on their 9 studio albums and 42 singles to keep us entertained.
Sources: CNBC, Wall Street Journal, YouTube
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