Global music act, for real, this is BTS. And of course, the band is finally back on the charts with their latest album ARIRANG, shattering the records the world’s Billboard 200 has ever achieved.
They had their first four straight weeks in the Top 3 on the Billboard chart for K-pop in its first record year, which was the most comprehensive all-time number one as rock artists in the genre on a global scale. And that success says not only about just how big BTS is still in the world, it also emphasises their far-reaching influence throughout the world.
But if you could set every single record at least as broken as the top of the Billboard charts, ARIRANG’s extended time on the charts certainly makes it a really good launch, but also it creates an impetus for you to check out. First on the charts with the big one, the album put an incredible face on its own on an empty street and stayed there for a few weeks.
Others credit a slew of strong streaming trends, a steady stream of physical records and digital downloads and the continued backing of BTS’s international group, ARMY. For fans worldwide, the milestone has garnered social media attention from fans around the world as fans have shared hashtags and quick celebrations of triumph and joy.
That record from ARMY isn’t just a log of where they stand in the charts; it’s also a declaration of K-pop’s continuing international hegemony as a major player in the global music ecosystem. The ARIRANG albums represent an amalgamation of traditional Korean songs with some sound elements of modern pop, hip-hop and electronic music.
So this collab also has an audience for all types of popular songs and a larger BTS brand for being in the front line of the action in a cultural understanding space, with whom it’s possible to find even more visionary thinking with more BTS forward thinking. Critics celebrated the album as an art performance, a production genius.
And sure, some people have said at the end of each release that BTS expanded beyond it, but they were still planted, so-called, a bit different, a fact that the balance is also, perhaps, the elusive fact that has kept them from finding global acclaim so far. The albums’ best sales on the Billboard 200 chart by consumer measures have now become among the fiercest and most potent music charts on earth.
Not that you penetrate the Top 3 (which is a hard slog from the start), and 4 weeks (and more in general) in there is impressive for an album made in a language other than English. The new album from BTS will only cement their reign as king over the K-pop kingpin of the new kingdom once more. And each time they have made history together.
They have broken music records and broken records, dominated the charts, a track record that gets a loyal, global following over the charts and never fail to create a big thing, and it's ARIRANG that adds a new song after ARIRANG already has a huge pile to pull from the very rich pile. Industry insiders are also concerned about how long the album will remain on the charts, with fans continuing to cry out for an energetic, celebratory party scene.
If ARIRANG gets this rhythm right, it could indeed go on to set records over the next several weeks. But the success is not only a testament to the universality of BTS’s resonance; it’s also a wider bit of pride for the K-pop industry and a new page for regional cultural habits to boot.
