In the aftermath of BLACKPINK's first-ever full-length album "THE ALBUM" success, the South Korean girl band has been dubbed as the world's biggest pop group in Bloomberg's "Pop Star Power Rankings."  

On Tuesday, Nov. 10, Bloomberg announced the top 25 singers who will make their 'Pop Star Power Rankings'. Beating out big names such as Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber, BLACKPINK was selected as the world's most popular group for the month of October.

To determine who ranks at number one, Bloomberg looks into three-months of gross revenues from live shows, 30-day ticket sales for live shows, four-week album sales, four-week digital song streams, 30-day total interactions on Instagram, and four-week YouTube views. For this month, live show categories were not included due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

BLACKPINK topped all categories. The K-pop girl group is the most popular act on YouTube and garnered more than one billion views on their videos in October. They are also the second-most popular act on Spotify. "THE ALBUM" was one of the top 1 best-sellers in the United States. All of this solidified BLACKPINK as the biggest music act in the world. 

BLACKPINK consists of talented girls who can dance and sing with strong charisma in camera. Member Jisoo has also expanded and gone into acting. The members all get along as well, making them more relatable. On top of that, the members are multilingual. As a group, they can speak Korean, English, Japanese, Thai, and basic Mandarin. This allows them to have a more global appeal. 

BLACKPINK had established a growing fan base in the United States in recent years, and the girls show no sign of slowing down their expansion in the West. For their new album, the girls of BLACKPINK collaborated with both Selena Gomez and Cardi B. Prior to the release of their album, they collaborated with Lady Gaga for her album. 

K-pop group BTS also made the rankings, sitting at number ten on the list. BTS is known as the group to have broken through in the Western market. While other groups such as BIGBANG and Girls' Generation opened the door for K-pop in the West, many fans agreed that BTS had ultimately paved the path for their juniors. 

In just 21 months, BTS scored four #1 albums in the United States, making them the fastest group to do so since The Beatles. Their success allowed them to tour in sold-out venues across the United States, Europe, and Asia. They have even hosted late-night shows in English.

Their success has inspired many other Korean acts to pursue success in the States. Following BTS's monumental rise in popularity in the West, K-pop acts Red Velvet, Oh My Girl, Sunmi, and Tiffany Young all toured the United States.

In the West, musicians that sing in English have become famous. Musicians who sing in Spanish have also started topping the charts in the West. It took a while for Asian artists to find their footing in the West, but are now finally to break into the market thanks to the rising K-pop groups.

Congratulations to both BLACKPINK and BTS!

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Written by Alexa L.