As humans, we are allowed to have our own likes and dislikes, and just because something is popular at the time does not mean everyone will agree with it.
However, when a publication like The Guardian publishes an obviously biased and bordering on being racist piece against the backdrop of giving an album review, then one has to wonder what exactly is going on.
Recently, The Guardian’s head rock and pop critic Alexis Petridis reviewed K-Pop band BTS’ (Bangtan Sonyeondan) latest LP Love Yourself: Tear.
While the actual review was no more than a paragraph, the entire article was littered with preconceived judgement and bias against anything k-pop without delving into what exactly the album really was about.
Not only did the critic stereotype BTS and their fans, but he also seemed to have generalized the normal audience too.
Let us take a look at some of the problem areas in this ‘review’ if it can be called that:
1. Internal prejudice of the author:
The way the entire review was worded is extremely unprofessional and drips of the inherent prejudice and bias that the author seemingly has against k-pop and its various facets.
Underhandedly mocking the English titles of BTS’ songs, pointing out the stereotypes of k-pop industry, pointing out how the fans don’t understand the language but still sing-along to it and attributing most of BTS’ success to their social media outreach.
And the line, “you do wonder how much it has to do with the music” seems to single-handedly present that the author does not consider this music.
Also words like ‘weird’, ‘different’, ‘alien’ show exactly what the author thinks about k-pop and as a result BTS.
This automatically makes the review biased and not objective keeping it limited to just the music.
2. Factually incorrect:
The article also seems to be factually incorrect in a few places, the most obvious being when the author said, “43 minutes of music available in five different CD editions.”
There are only 4 versions and not 5.
It also seems that the author spent absolutely no time at all trying to research or look up the meaning behind the songs like Anpanman that references to the Japanese comic character who is apparently a superhero who doesn’t look like the conventional hero. His body is more on the round side, with chubby cheeks, but his determination to help people out is what sets him apart.
Likewise, Paradise that the author so callously called a ho-hum R&B track is actually about how it’s alright to live without a dream. In today’s competitive society, having a dream and working towards it is all we are taught. But the song talks about how it is perfectly fine even if you don’t have any particular dream and want to live life normally.
Read More: Why K-Pop Is More Than Feminine Male Artists, Big Lips And Weird Lyrics
3. Generalising The Fandom
Over and over the author seems to be generalizing the fandom of BTS by alluding they are obsessive, over-interfering, and will blindly follow BTS’s every single command.
He also seems to be not realizing how connected the world today is when he says
“The reasons traditionally given for BTS’s success back home – their lyrics are, by K-pop’s germ-free standards, pretty raffish and controversial – don’t hold here: you can’t imagine British teenagers are that desperate to hear youthful criticism of societal conventions in South Korea.”
This automatically assumes that, one a British teenager must be a simpleton willing to live in a bubble and not be aware of what is happening around their world. And second that only teenagers would be a fan of BTS when in fact this has been proven wrong again and again that the BTS fandom’s demographic surpasses age, gender, ethnicity, religion, and culture.
Also, the author seems to be assuming that BTS songs are location-centric, when that is not at all the case. This point is ethically wrong, since you cannot just say that someone in Britain is not going to give a damn about such issues in Korea when in fact the truth is they are happening everywhere.
Topics like teenage depression, suicide, and other such problems are global issues and he saying otherwise is socially and ethically wrong.
As per a Washington Post article, teenage depression went up by 33% between the years 2010 to 2015 while teen suicide attempts increased by 23%. The more horrifying number would be the 31% increase in suicides committed by people in the age group of 13 to 18-year-olds.
Globally also, as per a WHO report, there has been an increase of 18.4% from 2005 to 2015 of people living in depression, which amounts to almost 322 million people.
In India the teenage depression rate as released by WHO showed that about 1 in 4 kids would be suffering from depression in the age bracket of 13-15 and the estimated suicide rate per 1 lac people in India within the age group of 15-29 was an alarming 35.5%.
Even in the UK itself, the depression and anxiety rate have risen by almost 70% in the past 25 years which is not exactly a healthy number.
Issues like teenage depression and suicide are a global phenomenon and not just limited to Korea. So it’s not a matter of where the kid is sitting, whether in Britain, India, US or South Korea or understanding what the Korean crowd is going through.
That is where songs like 2! 3! basically inspire people through lyrics that say if you face something difficult, it’s okay, close your eyes and count till 3 and then you walk ahead. It’s like an anthem that they wrote for their fans. It also encourages support and empathy by asking the other to take their hand and laugh instead of being sad.
Their songs and concepts are unique in how universal they are which is what brings middle-aged men, women in their 20s and 10-year-old kids to become a fan of BTS.
Their collaboration with UNICEF on the ‘Love Myself’ anti-violence campaign itself gives their Love Yourself album a global perspective so you cannot just say that a kid sitting in Britain doesn’t give a damn to what is happening in Korea.
Today if Taylor Swift or Charlie Puth are a global phenomenon it’s because it was very easy for them considering America is a superpower and their reach is much higher.
But coming from South Korea, that too while being a small K-pop group initially and then becoming a global phenomenon is not easy and points to how there definitely has to be something more than their social media presence and neon hair colours to their success.
This level of widespread effect cannot be achieved if they are not talking about something that people are able to relate to.
Have to say that such an extremely unprofessional and racist review from a publication like the Guardian was certainly not expected.
Having been an avid reader of the publication I assumed they had better standards than allowing an album review that does not even go in-depth on the various aspects of the songs or music.
Again, to clarify this is not due to the review being unflattering, and frankly, I would have respected the author more if he had gone into detail as to why exactly the album was not good enough. Taking a look at the various genres the albums has, the lyrics, the composition, there were a multitude of areas that the review could have talked about.
However, the review was more of a biased rhetoric and demeaning the fandom and the band and just a small amount was the actual review of the album.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: The Guardian, Billboard, DNA India
Other Recommendations:
http://edtimes.in/2017/11/k-pop-fever-taking-india-storm/
I was very surprised too by how narcissistic the article is. I was looking forward to read a critical review of the album from a musicality point of view but not a degradation of a music culture that clearly he has no idea about.
Coming from someone who has previously donated to Guardian readership I am completely put off by the writing and wish I can take my money back. I think it was a cowardly move too on Guardian side to close their comments section premmaturely. I am for one is certainly not going to subscribe to the magazine any longer. It used to be my go to read but not anymore.
I am not a huge BTS fan either. Their music isn’t something I really enjoy, but the article was indeed extremely callously written and sounded prejudiced. I get that you can have an opinion, but the written piece sounded vague and uninterested. #unprofessional
Thank you for this.
Thank you very much for calling out professionally such horrible behavior that was straight up racist and xenophobic (and a bit white-centric, a bit too much to be homesy) coming from a big news outlet. I do hope the writer either apologizes, owns up to his mistake or refrains from getting near BTS in the future. Clearly this person lacks empathy and can’t see beyond the language what is uniting so much people from all over the world (a lot who previously didn’t like/weren’t interested in Korean music) to give so much love to seven boys with a dream
Thank you very much, again! You made this 26 (yes guardian, TWENTY SIX) year old vet happy
Gracias por escribir esta nota, es refrescante ver que un periodista/reportero hace su trabajo bien, sin prejuicios y sólo con hechos y bases. Desafortunadamente cuando se trata de BTS (o música no en inglés) muchas personas cierran su mente, y al sumarle la palabra KPOP aún más, los catalogan como “idols marionetas” sin saber que ellos escriben y producen sus discos; encasillándolos solamente como los 1D de Corea.
Gracias.
THE DEMOGRAPHICS ARE SWITCHED UP THOUGH, please correct :)
Gray one is BTS and yellow is Wanna One.
It was right tho?
In the picture of the demographics you said the yellow part it bts, but that’s incorrect – actually, they grey part is bts :)
Thank you for this ! A lot of us fans were bummed out by such an unprofessional review from a well known publication like The Guardian. We were waiting eagerly for it but got slapped with xenophobia , ignorance and stereotypes. Thank you for calling it out .
Thanks..
Thank you for this article!! You put effort doing research and finding translations lf the song and this is very appreciated! Keep up the good work!
What an excellent article, articulating my own dissatisfaction with the article very well.
Most frustrating (cos I’m the center of my own universe) is being condescendingly referred to as a typical teen brainless K-pop follower when I’m an early 50’s Australian professional whose other major music preferences are Dire Straits, Massive Attack, Paul Oakenfold and Cold Play… musicians whose lyrics I often cannot understand. Yes, I do make extra efforts to read lyric translations for BTS music, but that came long after I was hooked on their music and choreographic performance.
Thank u for point out the racist author of The Guardisn n pin point his problematic views because of biased. Purple u for this^^
YES GURL
DAMN PROUD OF THIS ARTICLE, DESERVES MORE APPRAISE!!
SMASH EM WITH FACTS FAM
Chirali UR DOIN AMAZING SWEETIE
Thanx from an Indian ARMY
Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I was thoroughly confused with that article and wondered why it was put under as an article rather than on a personal blog considering it was mostly him whining.
There will be people who will like the album and there will be people who will not, and either way is fine. The most important thing we ask is that you at least give their music a listen with an open mind.
Note: Lyric videos and translations exist! And our fandom certainly delivers in providing english translations for all their songs!
It’s 2018 and people are still so close-minded. Thank you for this article
These shows how ill morally they were raised I mean like ok I respect people’s opinion but these is not a opinion I wanna respect. Why people or they or anyone have so many problems with BTS. Nothing much to say I mean it’s 21st century but people are still so narrow mind with everything.
Just an advice: people you will like BTS’s music or song or lyrics if you listen it without any prejudice and without any racism. Thank you.
thank you for this!! I was surprised the article itself was even published, it’s loaded with bias
Thank you for calling out prejudice and racist take that Guardians article had! If that article had proper, educated critique in it we would have taken it as it is… Professional opinion. But that wasn’t even an opinion it was demeaning and ugly. You almost expect it to be written by some stan on twitter who hates anything that isn’t standard white pop. Also i would advise all the future reviewers looking into bts to actually take time and research where they came from, their message, lyrics… You can’t just overlook this huge part of their music and just disinterestedly listen to some beats and write an article about it.
Thank you for defending bts and army!! It’s really hard seeing people assume things about bts and the relationship Armys have with them. There’s more to bts than just their looks and their fanbase. I hope these locals will come to understand that.
The guy who wrote the article sounded like he watched one of these youtube ‘THE TRUTH BEHIND KPOP-CONSPIRACY THEORY’ videos, listened to the album on 2x speed and then wrote the ‘review.’ Seriously, the blatant racism, stereotyping and using incorrect information makes me wonder who he bribed to be listed as the ‘top’ critic.
That’s is what I call article worth reading. Thank you for saying things what I wanted to say about that review, but couldn’t put in actual sentences. ☺
Thank you. Didn’t expect from The Guardian such a low quality articles, but it seems like recently The Guardian behaves weirdly not only about BTS, but about other topics as well.
Thanks for that. I, woman, mother, 29 years old, Latin American, I am part of the BTS fans! This critic did not even try to know the meaning of the songs. They talk about important issues around the world, not just in Korea. It’s very sad to read this. They worked hard and their work should not be treated so superficially.
Thank you for standing by us. Thank you for pulling through for us. Thank you for writing this.
Thank you for this! I wanted to comment on the original article, but unfortunately The Guardian closed down discussion. It’s so hilarious (not) to me that even some otherwise very intellectual people can’t see nor see pass their own West-centric bias. The racism and orientalism in that “review” was infuriating. How the f*ck do you review an album without knowing what the songs are about, or what BTS has consistently tried to do through their music from debut? Or try to ridicule ARMY’s preorders of LY Tear like it’s blind devotion and not trust in the consistent quality of their music, and desire to support the artist we love? It’s obvious that the album wasn’t taken as real music to that reviewer – just an amusing little thing done by some Asian boys from wherever who are unfathomably popular for no reason other than capturing rabid teenage girls’ vapid obsession. Why bother researching or using critical thinking skills to understand their success when you can fall back on stereotypes?
For background, I’m a long-time BTS fan and a native English speaker with an intermediate-advanced level of Korean understanding. I’ve been immersed in this world of K-pop for 10 years now, so I’ve seen it all. My academic background is in English writing and linguistics, and I’m a writer/editor by training. All of this to say I pay pretty close attention to words and meanings in analysis, and I’m usually pretty sensitive to words myself. But the backlash around this Guardian piece is just proving how immature a large part of the fandom is.
1. Just because you don’t agree with a review, doesn’t mean it’s wrong or that the author is racist.
2. Literally every article is biased. This one included. It is impossible to remove bias 100%, because that’s just how humans are.
3. You are over exaggerating a lot here
– “underhandedly mocking the English titles of BTS’ songs” Nowhere in the Guardian article did the author do this. The author writes, “as mysterious as some of BTS’s translated song titles: Blanket Kick, Spine Breaker, Dimple and the thought-provoking War of Hormone.” He’s literally just calling the titles “mysterious.” And to an English native speaker, THEY ARE. English natives don’t know what a blanket kick or spine breaker is. War of Hormone is really awkward in English, there’s no way around it. There’s nothing wrong with pointing out that translated titles are a little odd in English. That is to be expected from translated titles. As someone who plays with languages a lot, I see no issue here.
– “pointing out stereotypes of k-pop industry” There’s nothing wrong with bringing up truths of the industry. It’s not that they’re just stereotypes: those slave contracts are REAL. While they aren’t forced on every group, we know they exist and that the industry has a dark side. There’s literally nothing wrong with pointing that out.
– “pointing out how fans don’t understand the language but still sing-along to it” Again, what’s the point here? It’s curious to people outside the bubble why others would want to listen to/sing along with music they don’t understand on a regular basis. I definitely grew up with questions like that, and people weren’t even asking me that maliciously most of the time. Lots of people don’t understand that, and that’s just the truth of the matter. The author made no claims about this, whether it was good or bad, etc.
– “attributing most of BTS’ success to their social media outreach” The author of the Guardian piece literally writes “The question of how this has happened is easily answered. No other genre has so successfully harnessed the power of fans on social media to spread the word. BTS were the most tweeted-about celebrities in 2017.” You are construing that to mean that the author is attributing all of their success to only that. I see that nowhere in the Guardian article. The author mentions it as a reason as to why this happened, and it’s true. Without social media, BTS would not have spread the way they did. K-pop in general would not have been able to reach as many people. I remember what it was like 10 years ago, before social media made it so easy.
– “And the line, “you do wonder how much it has to do with the music” seems to single-handedly present that the author does not consider this music.” This is simply you projecting YOUR assumptions on the author. Did the author say he doesn’t consider it music? No. Also, you seem to be misreading the line. The author is wondering how much of this phenomenon has to do with the actual music. I don’t know how you read that sentence as “this isn’t music.” I really don’t get your point here, I really think you just misread it.
– the point about using words like “weird” “strange” or “alien”: First, you are taking these words out of context, they aren’t nearly as bad in context. Weird and strange do not always have a negative connotation in English. Something “weird” or “strange” can be that way because it’s intriguing. Alien is the only word I will agree with that should have had better wording. The point the author was making was that some of our customs in K-pop are “alien” to the Western world but the sound of their album is not “alien” to American/British ears. This is all true, but the word could have easily been substituted for “foreign.” That doesn’t make it racist, just means the author was trying to express an idea and didn’t really choose the best words for it.
4. Your points about factual inaccuracies: you mention the part about there being 4 versions not 5, which of course we all know is true, but this is a minor misstep that could have occurred by the author looking up the album and seeing 5 different types of listings. Since this is so minor, I don’t think it worth it to complain, so I’m leaving this one be.
Your other points under this category have nothing to do with fact. You’re talking about the reviewer not looking up lyrics and a song not being “ho-hum” because of its message. The reviewer wasn’t talking about the lyrics when he called it “ho-hum.” He’s just talking about the sound, which to me is true. It’s not very unique sound-wise. But all of that is subjective anyway. It would be nice if reviewers looked up lyrics, but that’s not absolutely necessary for reviewing music—you can review just the sound.
5. The points about generalizing the fandom. It’s true the article is generalizing to an extent, but there’s a reason why generalizations are the way they are. They’re usually largely true. If you look at it objectively from the outside, the fandom DOES come off as obsessive. There’s really no way around that. While many of us may not be, there are so many who are. This is one of the reasons that older fans like myself have quite a bit of criticism for the fandom internally. I mean, selling 1.4 million copies of an album (since many people buy all 4 versions) before that album has even been released is really insane from the outside. Even from the inside, it’s pretty insane. That really does lend itself as evidence to the idea that it doesn’t really matter if the contents are good or not, fans have already decided it’s worth buying. While I do this for BTS, I could never imagine doing it for any other artist, because there’d be no guarantee I’m going to even want the album when it comes out.
The generalization about British teenagers and socially conscious lyrics is also pretty standard from the outside. It’s definitely true that most teenagers aren’t going to be concerned with socially conscious lyrics for countries halfway around the world. The general public itself isn’t even typically into songs with socially conscious lyrics from their own countries, much less foreign ones. The point the author is making is that it’s an OUTLIER situation, not a normal thing. And this is true. It’s still largely true that young people and the general public are not going to be interested in socially conscious lyrics from South Korea. The author is not saying they CAN’T be, but that it’s unlikely. And it is. It’s more likely they won’t be interested. That doesn’t mean that teenagers are simpletons. But this is the reality of the situation. Some people will be interested in it at any age. But a majority will not be. I literally see this every day.
Much like you feel you can’t take the Guardian article seriously because your perceived assumptions, I am unable to take your article seriously because its hyperbolic exaggerations and personal bias.
You stated many facts. But missed the main point. Their language translated to English or the English they speak is not awkward. That’s how they speak. That’s what they were taught. It’s like an American telling a Britisher that they don’t understand their slang and thus their English sounds weird. So fucking dumb. At the end, English is just a language. Anyone can speak it however they want. And the OBSESSIVE fandom thing…are you even a kpop fan. It’s called team work and appreciating the people we look up to. It’s not a cult it’s a family. Respect it or leave. And write these pathetic excuses for a fuck up somewhere else.
Haven’t you noticed that a lot of the backlash against the Guardian review is from POC? It’s because we’re more racially and culturally sensitive to West-centric bias and the West’s tendency to discredit, exotize, and belittle art, literature, and in this case – music – from countries that aren’t Euro or Euro in origin. This is especially true for Asian countries, who are constantly labeled as backwards, irrational, and inferior culturally. How many people wave Kpop off as completely manufactured and the idols are ‘robots’ when the truth is, so many Kpop artists work WITHIN these industry confines and limitations and still manage to flourish creatively?
Just because you’re a Kpop fan and know Korean and spent, idk, two years teaching the holy language English somewhere doesn’t mean you’re one of us, and you certainly prove that you aren’t attune to the cultural and racial prejudices underlying the West’s journalism with this stupid rant. The FACT is this: the Guardian review spent more time sensationalizing, ridiculing, and puzzling over what surrounds BTS’s success, why they’re successful, et cetera (analysis which is done crudely and without wisdom) – everything but the ACTUAL MUSIC. I don’t know in what respectable music critic circle where an album review that neglects to examine the damn lyrics at all meaningfully would not be scrutinized. Did the guy even bother to look up the translations? Lyrics are pretty important to a song, in my humble opinion! So instead of pulling out the “armys/fandoms are so immature!” and “armys can’t take criticism bleh!” card, like, shut up and listen to what’s being said…
Also: stick with unpacking white male lit classics with your English and Linguistic degrees and leave the sociological and political call-outs to those who know what they’re talking about, okay? The words weird, strange, and alien has historically been used in orientalist contexts again and again, ffs.
Ummm…I think it’s a complicated one this. I will list a few points that I can see set this article in context.
1. Alex Petridis is a music critic for the Guardian. For those not in the know, this means that this guy has to be the most uber cool, trendy and right on of musical fans. And above all else he has to be a musical snob. It would be hard wired in his DNA to loathe manufactured pop music. This would include Justin Beeber and One Direction, so that wouldn’t be personal to K-pop. This guy would love David Bowie and Radiohead and Joy Division and comes from a tradition in the UK of basically saying that the best of post war music is shared between us and the US. So is he being racist in this sense? He would for example, I am sure, prefer John Coltrane, the Black American jazz musician to Eddy Wally, the white Belgium singer. I’d imagine that he has shut down mentally about K-pop years ago, stuck his fingers in his ears and refuses to listen to the music anymore.
2. The Guardian, which portrays itself as liberal and inclusive in reality has the usual left leaning bias, ie. it treats everyone equally, just some more equally than others. Why is this? Well for example would Petridis have written this article if the group in question were Muslim or Black? No he wouldn’t. And why wouldn’t he? Because to the left leaning middle class liberal, blacks and Muslims are more deserving than Koreans. I would imagine there is an inherent dislike of such an Americanized country. An inherent dislike of such a capitalist country as South Korea. An inherent dislike of such a successful country as South Korea. The liberal has more difficulty patting a South Korean on the head and patronising them. Had Kpop come out of Cambodia or Vietnam, maybe he’d have been more positive.
I imagine his world is the young trendy multicultural world of the middle class intellectual in London. He’d work with lots of liberal Brits, know black guys and Americans and lots of Europeans, and Jewish people, but East Asians? You know what, probably not. And why? Because in the UK East Asians have not integrated into mainstream culture. There are very few in journalism, politics, writing, music, and therefore Petridis doesn’t understand K-pop, it is a world he doesn’t inhabit. This lack of integration is definitely down to orientalism and racism, but it is also down to the East Asian community’s tendency to keep its head down and be model citizens. The wider community then thinks everything is fine and tends to ignore them. Other immigrant groups have tended to be better at standing up for themselves.
I think things are getting better, but the UK isn’t the US, which has of course a far bigger East Asian community and would therefore be further along the road in these things.
3. I imagine he feels a bit threatened. He is after all part of the music establishment. Britain has seen itself at the pinnacle of popular music for decades, and I’m sure that we are not always as keen as we should be at embracing change, or the change that means that the British music industry isn’t as powerful as it once was and will need to share the limelight more.
4. We all like to be the centre of attention, and it’s clear he doesn’t like the fact that BTS don’t sing in English. I imagine he thinks it’s a snub and he is reacting against it. What he doesn’t get is that people around the world don’t care about that. Why should they have to sing in English?
I don’t really know the point of Petridis reviewing BTS. He’s already made his mind up, but ultimately, k-pop fans shouldn’t care what a snobbish established music critic thinks.
Hi Rae,
Thank you for your reply and bringing my attention on how I can misconstrued Petridis’ article in the first place. I am aware, not being British myself, that there is a general sarcasm in British people point of view, that I could never really get. The word sar’chasm’ described me well! Your point however strongly leaned towards the fact that people who misunderstood his writing do not have a grasp of his version of the English language. I’m afraid I don’t really buy your argument. I could pick the negative undermining tone sprinkled throughout the articles and I am a native English speaker. The thing that irks me the most is that Petridis used his position as ‘top’ music critic in an acclaimed magazine/ news hub to faultfind a music culture in which he seemed to know very little about. I would have appreciated a critic of the music album because I do think he knows a bit more about the pop and hip hop music scenes than I do, but not a thoughtless ramble like that. He is entitle to his prejudice, but he picked a wrong platform to air it.
This 46 yr old, thanks you! I read that article in The Guardian, and it was very disppointing, to say the least. I am so glad you took the time out to actually research. The boys music that touches on everyday problems, that are relatable worldwide, rather you’re young or old is what made me become a fan.
this review made me tear up. ever since bts’s album dropped ive seen countless derogatory and xenophobic remarks coming from news sites and fans of western artists alike- whether it be small remarks such as “what are asian boys doing here? they dont even speak english” to horrific slurs such as c**nks, dog eaters, and callig the boys “the cleaning crew” or “janitors”. thank you so much for this article. it always breaks my heart to see critics and reviewers to not even TRY to look at the lyrics, which are so incredible and meanginful. the reason we’re fans of BTS isn’t because of their looks or ‘neon’ hair. they aren’t a novelty. we’re fans because of their passion and hard work, because all seven of them had to shared a single cramped dorm room for years. their songs deal with anxiety, suicide, depression, and finding hope in a world that seems all too dark to bear. we love them for their social activism, big hearts, and their love for each other. bts isn’t here because of ARMY- ARMY is here because of bts. again, thank you so much for writing this. people like you deserve a raise.
Thank you so much for this we love you!!
Thank you so much for this!
foi o artigo mais sensato que já li sobre BTS, você realmente pesquisou sobre os meninos e explicou tudo muito bem, muito obrigada!
e explicou tudo muito bem** kjkk
Why they didn’t hire one of the hundreds of Korean speaking journalists and music critics currently in the UK I can’t fathom. Although i’m not in agreement with certain points made in this article, having read the gaurdian article and detected the micro-agression as well, I thank you for pointing it out!
Well I am a 56 yr old African American female and I am 100 percent army. I agree w ur article. BTS music has a strong message that cross racial generational gender lines. These guys worked hard while naysayers didn’t think they would last.
Elon musk said yesterday “who do you think owns the media” . Bts is a threat to the western record labels so they have to change the way you look at BTS.
.the UK in particular has a diiferent idea of what good music is. At the top of their pyramid are the Beatles (yawn) and pipe music so you are going to get resistance……too baf resistance will be futile in this case LOL.