Relive the days of Korea as Korean pop culture becomes more and more mainstream in the West. Sheet mask did it ever become popular? — everyone started to calm down. This grace period lasted him from 2017 to around 2019. I was finally free to do whatever I wanted, like chasing chickens around a French monastery or writing a murder mystery about the Chartreuse.
Then BTS.
In April 2019, the month BTS released their album Map of the Soul: Persona, first group since the Beatles To have 3 No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 chart in 12 months. Suddenly people wanted me to talk only about BTS. Not just BTS, specifically, BTS members were basically golems created by the South Korean government for public diplomatic purposes.
BTS has nearly 70 million followers on Instagram. People wanted to know if these millions were real or bots. What is a mysterious group of self-proclaimed superfans? BTS (Maybe it’s an acronym for “Adorable Representative MC of Youth”, or maybe it’s not)? Why do some members have 500,000 paying dues and literally have cards? Who is recruiting them?
After Donald Trump held a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma in June 2020, conspiracy theories exploded into a frenzy. Join forces to monopolize the ticket, leave a vacant seat at the gathering. It might have worked: A Florida politician tweeted that the incident was “foreign propaganda,” he said, calling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a K-pop agent (what are they?) , and his BTS (“big time socialist) of the “collusion” to “undermine” Trump. That’s when I realized the huge cultural influence of BTS. You are nothing in America until someone calls you a socialist.
it gets better.Rumors circulated last year that McDonald’s new BTS meal had something to do with it sex traffickingthat’s because the chicken nuggets were shaped like video game characters.
The existence of rumors that I helped brought me grief. At least more true than before December 13th. As military conscripts, BTS members will actually serve the South Korean government. And maybe I can finally find the peace I’ve been looking for.
Unnie Hong (@euny) is the author of Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation Conquers the World Through Pop Culture.
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