"True Leap of K-pop Genre Marked by International Success Over the Past 5 Years"
"Makes Us Imagine the Music Missed Due to Language Barriers"
The group BTS was selected as the representative pop star of last year.
On the 7th (Korean time), Billboard USA released a list titled 'THE GREATEST POP STAR BY YEAR: 1981-2020' on its homepage. It selected one pop star each year from 1981 to last year who had the greatest influence.
BTS crowned the final year, 2020. Billboard stated, "K-pop was not a mainstream pop genre known beyond Psy's 'Gangnam Style' and groups like 2NE1 and Girls' Generation just a few years ago," and added, "BTS has marked a true leap for this genre through international success over the past five years." They noted, "It cannot be overlooked that they are the first Asian artists to stand shoulder to shoulder with English-speaking superstars," and said, "Although non-English songs are categorized as 'foreign,' the American public finds it hard to deny BTS's status as top superstars and that K-pop deserves a higher place in mainstream music." They further commented, "Listening to BTS's music painfully makes us imagine all the music that could have become pop classics but was missed simply due to language barriers."
In August last year, BTS became the first Korean artists to top the Billboard 'Hot 100' with their English single 'Dynamite.' In October, they featured on the remix version of Josh 685 and Jason Derulo's 'Savage Love,' achieving the same feat. By November, with 'Life Goes On,' they had topped the 'Hot 100' three times in just over three months. This was the first record in 42 years since the Australian rock band Bee Gees consecutively hit the charts with three songs from the movie 'Saturday Night Fever' OST (How Deep Is Your Love, Staying Alive, Night Fever) from December 1977 to March 1978.
Billboard explained, "Success on the charts is an essential factor, but pop stardom involves many intangible elements that cannot be judged solely on any arithmetic combination," and described the 'Greatest Pop Star by Year' list as "an answer to the question, 'Could one have gone through the year without having an opinion about this artist?'" They viewed that BTS has established a solid foundation in the US beyond just a strong fandom.
The list includes many top English-speaking stars. Among them are Blondie (1981), John Mellencamp (1982), Michael Jackson (1983), Prince (1984), Madonna (1985, 1989), Whitney Houston (1986), Bon Jovi (1987), George Michael (1988), Janet Jackson (1990, 1993), Mariah Carey (1991), Nirvana (1992), Boyz II Men (1994), TLC (1995), Alanis Morissette (1996), Puff Daddy (1997), Backstreet Boys (1998), Britney Spears (1999), NSYNC (2000), Jennifer Lopez (2001), Eminem (2002), Beyonc? (2003, 2014), Usher (2004), Kanye West (2005), Justin Timberlake (2006), Rihanna (2007, 2012), Lil Wayne (2008), Lady Gaga (2009), Katy Perry (2010), Adele (2011), Miley Cyrus (2013), Taylor Swift (2015), Justin Bieber (2016), Ed Sheeran (2017), Drake (2018), and Ariana Grande (2019).
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
