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Does K-pop's global rise owe EVERYTHING to BTS? KMCA certainly thinks so

KMCA reports that BTS' sales records have paved the way for other groups to become million sellers

It is an obvious fact that K-pop group BTS is one of the biggest boy bands in the world. At the moment, BTS is the only K-pop group to have been nominated for multiple titles on International award shows like the VMAs, AMAs, BBMAs as well as the only act over the last decade to be nominated for a Grammy Award. BTS has also been dominating YouTube views section, where the group continues to break their previous records as fans help the group exceed their ‘fastest number of views’ with each of their new releases.

BTS has been dominating domestic as well as international charts including Billboard’s main chart, ‘Billboard’s Hot 100’ chart. The best-selling album in all of South Korea as of 2021 is ‘Map of the Soul: 7’ by BTS. The studio album was released in February 2020 and it became the best-selling album in South Korea of all time, with over 4.1 million copies sold in less than a month of its announcement.

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BTS recorded as the Top Sellers

Following these achievements from BTS, the Korea Music Contents Association (KMCA) stated that the K-pop Artists’ Album market has grown up to more than 10 times over the last ten years all thanks to the contribution by BTS. The association said that according to a survey conducted by the most popular South Korean sales representative chart, the ‘Gaon Chart’, artists from the early 2000s found it impossible to sell 200,000 albums in their career.

However, as the K-pop industry keeps growing rapidly, the 2020s saw the number of album sales from K-pop artists increase exponentially in the last ten years. Choi Gwangho, the secretary-general of KMCA, said that the driving force behind this groundbreaking sales record is BTS. The group debuted in the year 2016 and from the offset heralded a best-selling album ‘Wings’ that recorded 750,000 copies sold out after its release.

Million-sellers BTS

Following that, BTS only saw an upward graph with the album ‘Love Yourself: Her’; it recorded 1.5 million copies, making it their first million-seller and paving the way to the era of million sellers. BTS has been unstoppable ever since. The association reported that BTS’ contemporaries and friends GOT7 ranked among the Top 30 best-selling artists for their album ‘Breath of Love: Last Piece’ that was released in 2020.

The album from GOT7 sold 340,000 unit. The statistics from KMCA state that GOT7 would have ranked at number 1 had they sold the same number in the year 2010. In simple terms, KMCA reported that BTS has raised the stakes and sold millions of albums over the last six years and have begun to monopolize the K-pop sales market and have pioneered a fresh new market to help boost the sales of other K-pop artists who have been active at the same time as BTS.

Fans agree that 'BTS Paved The Way'

Fans who read the reports from Korea Music Contents Association talked about it on Twitter. One fan said, "Bts paved the way. Antis won’t accept this just because they dislike the boys. No, the 2nd generations didn’t pave the way although they did a lot for kpop. Just accept it. Even the locals would agree that they never heard or knew anything about kpop (besides PSY) until bts."

One more fan said, "NOTHING CAN CHANGE THE FACT THAT BTS PAVED THE WAY AND THE NUMBER 1 ARTIST OF THE WORLD RIGHTNOW!" Another fan said, "The difference is BTS literally broke their backs for some of ya faves to enter into western charts. Ya have to understand BTS PAVED THE WAY if you want your favs to get Grammy go ahead but good luck on doing that with all them weirdos that decide who gets nominated."

One fan said, "EVEN THIS PICTURE SAYS THAT BTS PAVED THE WAY FOR KPOP. BTS DEBUTED IN A SMALL COMPANY,WORKED HARD AND PAVED THE WAY FOR OTHER KPOP GROUPS (I'M NOT TELLING THAT OTHER KPOP GP WORKED LESS. THEY ALSO WORKED HARD) BTS MAKES IT EASY AND NO ONE PAVED THEIR OWN WAY. ACCEPT IT OR SHUTUP." One fan plainly stated, "Can we all agree bts paved the way."