Today’s music landscape is a singles driven market. Singers, performers, musicians are doing very well when their singles are played frequently on streaming music services as well as social and digital media platforms. This process has even out paced music downloads as the premiere way through which fans connect to the music.
One of BTS’ music videos has set a record for reaching 1 billion views on YouTube with their single “ Boy With Luv (Feat. Halsey}”, the song has already hit 1.2 billion views and is growing very quickly on the YouTube platform. It will be interesting to see how this song will continue to play out on Spotify and other popular music streaming services. The song is from the groups sixth album entitled Map of the Soul. They received this milestone by Thursday morning at 9:48 a.m. according to the group’s agency, Bit Hit Music
“Boy With Luv” was released for radio and streaming services in 2019 where it made its debut at number eight on Billboard. It has mostly been in the top ten on the charts ever since. This is great news for K-pop fans for several reasons: it shows that BTS is making music their fans want to hear and their singles from all of their albums debut highly on the charts including their first single on their latest album “Dynamite” which debuted at number one, BTS became the first K-pop group to be nominated for a Grammy Award with music from their latest album, K-pop is taking over the charts in much the same way as The Beatles did in the 60s and Michael Jackson in the 90s-their audience started to grow in South Korea but at this point in their careers they have a global fanbase from around the world that loves their creations and performances, most importantly-BTS is opening the door for other K-pop groups to breakthrough in markets outside of South Korea. An interesting sidenote is that “Boy With Luv” debuted at number eight and stayed at number eight for eight consecutive weeks. BTS is the first group since The Beatles to earn three number ones in less than a year with their songs “Mikrokosmos”, “Make It Right feat. Ed Sheeran” and “Dynamite”.
BTS now has three music videos that have been watched more than a billion times. Its 2018 release “DNA” has earned 1.2 billion views, “Dynamite” recently broke 1 billion views and of course the success of their hit single “Boy With Luv”
BTS’ global success is a positive thing for other artists and patrons of the arts. One day when K-pop fans reflect on the musical genre years from now, they will understand that BTS are pioneers of K-pop who developed a blueprint for other South Korean artists to follow throughout their careers. Having only one or a couple performers and groups with a global K-pop fanbase isn’t enough, there is a demand from fans all over the world to hear as much new K-pop music that can be played, including both singles and albums. K-pop is a global phenomenon that is only going to increase throughout this new decade, and BTS is responsible for showing other K-pop artist what can be achieved through music and performance.
