South Korean and world renowned K-pop boy group BTS recently in an interview with Billboard rejected the online allegations over chart manipulations made by the latter itself.
BTS’ songs on Billboard
The group’s recent releases “Butter” and “Permission to Dance” collectively maintained its position atop Billboard’s Hot 100 main singles for over 10 weeks this summer. This was due to the overwhelming physical album sales and digital downloads.
However, on the other hand, most of the Hot 100 songs typically depend on streaming and radio airplay for the majority of their weighted points.
According to the cover story of the latest Billboard Magazine released Thursday (U.S. time), fans of few singers such as Olivia Rodrigo and Dua Lipa recently claimed that the massive purchase of albums by BTS’ global fandom – Army, is behind the chart-topping performance of their songs. Hence calling it “cheating” precisely.
In response to this issue, group member and leader RM mentioned –
“It’s a fair question”. “But if there is a conversation inside Billboard about what being No. 1 should represent, then it’s up to them to change the rules and make streaming weigh more in the rankings.”
He also mentioned that BTS and its highly loyal fans have become the “target” in the U.S. pop scene because his band is from Korea.
He continued by saying –
“Slamming us or our fans for getting to No. 1 with physical sales and downloads, I don’t know if that’s right”. “It just feels like we’re easy targets because we’re a boy band, a K-pop act, and we have this high fan loyalty.“
The U.S magazine also quoted the chief of BTS‘ management agency, Big Hit Music, saying that he understands the response from the U.S. mainstream music industry to the septet’s success.
Shin Young-Jae, president of BTS‘ label, Big Hit Music says
“I get that there are market developments (related to BTS) that are head-scratchers for some people”. “But I don’t believe the U.S. market is one that can be handily topped by downloads alone. We think the songs’ impact was shown in many ways, and we are proud of that achievement.“
He further mentioned, “I don’t think we could ever be part of the mainstream in the U.S., and I don’t want that either”. “Our ultimate goal is to do a massive stadium tour there. That’s it.”
BTS mentioned that their goal is not to represent U.S. pop music or to be fully accepted as a member of the mainstream community. However, it wishes to stand where they are as an “outlier” and perform for as many fans as possible around the world.
NEWS SOURCE – YONHAP NEWS AGENCY, BILLBOARD MAGAZINE
