BTS is the Driving Force of the K-Pop Market, According to the Korea Music Content Association
According to a representative of the Korea Music Content Association, BTS had great influence on the growth of the K-Pop market!
Keep on reading to know more.
BTS is the Driving Force of the K-Pop Market, According to the Korea Music Content Association
According to a survey that was conducted by one of South Korea's major music chart, Gaon, the domestic music market has been booming since the time an artist recorded more than one million album copies sold back in 2016 - the year BTS made their mark.
According to Gaon Chart's survey, back in the 2000s, even the best artists at the time had only sold less than 200,000 album copies. However, as the K-Pop industry grew rapidly throughout the years, album sales began to see a huge increase.
By 2020, album sales by numerous artists have increase more than 10 times as compared to 10 years ago.
Choi Kwang Ho, who is the secretary-general of the Korea Music Contents Association (KMCA), explained that the artist who has driven the K-Pop market is BTS, whose career started seeing success three years after they made their official debut in 2013.
"In 2017, BTS' album 'Love Yourself: Her' had sold close to 1.5 million album copies, eventually opening the era of selling more than a million albums. Since then, every year that they release an album, they break records and record incredible sale figures," Choi Kwang Ho said.
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In addition, Choi Kwang Ho also added that these moves by BTS will lead the K-Pop market in terms of albums, and the album sales of the top 30 artists who recorded the most album sales annually will also increase at a similar rate.
"GOT7, who ranked No. 30 in 2020, sold over 340,000 album copies for 'Breath of Love: Last Piece.' If this album had been released back in 2020, it would have ranked number one. That's a decent amount of sales," Choi Kwang Ho continued.
According to reports, the K-Pop market created a huge trickle-down effect through BTS. Through them, the awareness of other K-Pop groups and singers have increased globally.
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In addition, the sales figures of K-Pop artists who are active at the same time as the seven-member group have also increased.
The Korea Music Content Association also mentioned BTS' pending military enlistment. "The reason why the Association and the music industry have strongly insisted on the benefits of BTS' military service is because of this influence that BTS has on the K-Pop music market," they said.
BTS Enlistment Becomes a Hot Debate
Since 2020, there has been a debate regarding BTS' mandatory military enlistment, such as whether or not they will be exempted. Especially since the government had passed an amendment on the Military Service Act, which allows pop culture artists who have received cultural merits from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to postpone their military duties until the age of 30 - with approval from the Minister.
Based on the current amendment, BTS is the only eligible artist who can postpone their military enlistment, as they were awarded the Hwagwan Order of Cultural Merit back in 2018.
BTS at the 76th United Nations General Assembly
As BTS alone is worth an estimated $5 billion USD to South Korea's economy annually, the seven members' enlistment can pose huge decrease in the country's gross domestic product.
While the government seems to be pushing to delay the group's enlistment, and netizens criticizing both the group and the government for such, the members themselves have stated that they are ready to serve and fulfill their duties whenever called.
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KpopStarz owns this article.
Written by Robyn Joan
