BTS, Korean pop titans who conquered the West
PARIS: Paris'southward Stade de France stadium is packed. The crowd is a ocean of screaming teenagers in sporty hoodies, colourful rabbit ears and - as it starts to rain - plastic ponchos.
In a puff of smoke, BTS bursts onto the stage from behind 2 behemothic inflatable leopards. Dressed in white suits, they jump around to pumping hit Dionysus, to the delight of fans clutching smartphones and flashing earth balls.
It's a suitably dramatic entrance for the vii-piece Due south Korean boy band, whose world tour, Beloved Yourself: Speak Yourself came to Paris for two nights belatedly last week, subsequently a string of sold-out shows in Los Angeles, Chicago and London's iconic Wembley Stadium.
While the music manufacture has seen its fair share of male child bands over the years, from The Jackson 5 to One Direction, BTS - curt for Bangtan Sonyeondan, which translates as Impenetrable Boy Scouts - is the beginning K-pop group to top charts in the United states of america and Britain.
"BTS has captivated pop fans in the W in a way that no other Asian band has ever done before," Ben Beaumont-Thomas, music editor of Great britain's The Guardian newspaper, told AFP.
"Access (to international music) is so instantaneous and the squeamishness around not-English lyrics is starting to erode."
The band'due south success has been credited with a smash in South Korean consumer exports, such as clothes, cosmetics and foodstuffs, also as a hike in visitor numbers to the country.
The group's close human relationship with fans, flooding social media with selfies, videos and tweets in Korean and English, has helped to spawn a global post-obit of millions of fans the songsters telephone call their "army".
The band sings predominantly in Korean, merely that doesn't end fans singing forth - songs are peppered with phrases in English language and their YouTube videos accept translations.
"Their music brings joy to our daily lives. I like the messages they communicate in their songs -- they sing most everything from depression to family and bullying," said Philae, a French 22-year-old car industry worker at one of the Paris shows who declined to give her full proper noun.
"GLOBAL Culture"
In Paris, the Korean septet sang and danced their manner through 22 tracks, showing off their meticulous choreography in pop anthems like Non Today, earlier one of the members, J-Promise, took the spotlight with his aggressive rapping in Korean to Trivia: Just Dance.
Another of the band'south members, Jimin, one of the youngest, serenaded the crowd with R&B ballad, Serendipity, with the faintest smile or flick of his pilus eliciting squeals of delight from adoring fans.
Their hit unmarried Boy With Luv broke the YouTube record for the nigh views in 24 hours, with 74.6 million hits when it was released in April.
Beaumont-Thomas linked the group's appeal in the Westward to streaming apps like Spotify and Deezer, which let music fans to discover performers from around the globe.
"Immature people today, peculiarly through social media and streaming, experience like they're office of a global culture," he said.
"BTS already have a massive fan base in Asia, so fans (in the W) feel like they're part of something. At that place'south a existent sense of identity."
South Korean performers like Blackpink and Psy, whose hit Gangnam Style in 2022 became the first video to tiptop a billion views on YouTube, take already broken into Western markets in recent years.
But BTS is "a very exceptional case", Dong Sun-hwa, entertainment reporter at The Korea Times, told AFP.
"They're very accessible. Other K-pop bands keep physical and emotional distance from their followers."
BTS' popularity does not seem to have been affected by recent sex activity scandals involving some of the South Korean K-pop industry'due south other stars.
High-profile cases have included singer Seungri from popular boy band BIGBANG, who is accused of arranging sex services for potential investors and rich clients at a nightclub he co-owns. He denies the allegations.
And vocalist-songwriter Jung Joon-young has admitted to filming himself having sex and sharing the footage without his partners' consent.
SELF-ACCEPTANCE
While their onstage personas seem almost drawing-like at times - during ane prepare in Paris they wandered around an inflatable obstruction course belongings glittery pink microphones - their songs about self-credence take struck a chord with teens.
In September, the band's lead vocalist RM made a spoken communication to the United Nations in New York about how music allowed him to overcome worries about "what other people thought of me", and beginning to "love myself, little past little".
The floppy-haired musicians, whose ages range from 21 to 26 and who often sport earrings and lipstick, appeal to a generation that feels comfy with the idea of fluid gender identity, said Samantha Lifson, writer at Seoul-based popular civilisation magazine, K-Soul.
"In some of their earlier work, they had a sexier image, but they went from that portrayal of potent masculinity to a softer look," she told AFP, calculation: "I definitely think younger music listeners are looking for that kind of comfort."
Baran Masifi, 24, who travelled from Germany to meet the band perform in Paris, said she found their music "really catchy, just it has a lot of meaning, likewise. They talk well-nigh real life - things like mental health and school."
Lucie, thirteen, from Nancy in northeast France, who attended 1 of the Paris concerts with her male parent, said: "They encourage people to love themselves."
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/world/bts-korean-pop-titans-who-conquered-west-226231
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