Good to see you, K-POP million seller

As the retro fever replied to the drama “Reply 1988” in 2016, record players have returned to the household appliances sections at department stores. A turn table has become a home decoration item that not only plays music with CDs and USBs, but also brings memories with analog-style retro sensibility.

The method of consuming music for the general public has already changed. The general trend for listening to music is to do it via streaming and downloading, which caused the traditional music market to shrink. According to “Digital Music Report 2016” by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the profits of digital music have surpassed the profits of physical music albums for the first time. Songs are mainly released in the form of singles, making the new million seller albums rare. Against the backdrop, Korean idol boyband BTS has been writing a new history. Their new album “Love Yourself 承-Her” with 11 new songs hit 1.2 million sales in 13 days after its release. The new record high has been made for the first time since Korean male group g.o.d.’s 4th album in 2001.

BTS, who is renowned for their amazing talents in singing, dancing, lyric writing and composing, has built the overseas fandom before building the Korean fandom. Since they debuted under a small agency with no brand powers, they were even called “a poor idol boyband with poor background,” but they have overcome their disadvantages with differentiated strategies. To target the worldwide market, the boy group has tirelessly promoted their work via social network services, such as YouTube. Especially, their popularity in the United States is explosive. They have won “Top Social Artist Award” at the Billboard Music Awards 2017, and have been selected by The New York Times as the only Asian singers in “America’s Favorite Artists.”

“Wanna One,” one of the most popular idol boybands in Korea, will release their new album on Nov. 13, predicting the birth of one more K-POP million seller. Since their debut through “Produce 101 Season 2,” the boyband had a flamboyant debut concert in August, ranked No. 1 in music charts of six largest music web sites in Korea, and remained at the top of the chart in a music show on TV for 15 times. As no debut album of an idol group has become a million seller yet, Wanna One’s new album draws even more attention. This reporter is from an older generation who cannot distinguish the faces and music of BTS and Wanna One, but thankful for the idol groups for soaring high into the world, even with poor backgrounds and chaotic Korean society around them.