Culture Feature

BTS Makes Being a Korean-American Adoptee (a Little) Easier

On a typical day, I'm BTS-fatigued, but I can no longer feel annoyed with this Korean wave in American pop culture.

D-Crunch Backstage

By Nadeem Rahimi (Shutterstock)

The 7-member K-pop band's latest single, "Butter," has broken world records this past week, and I still don't want to have kids.

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Music Features

History of Kpop: The Rise of the Boy Band (H.O.T. and Sechs Kies)

In the mid-1990s, South Korean record labels injected the burgeoning new genre of K-pop with the first generation of "idol" boy groups – charismatic teens who helped build a global audience in the pre-Youtube era

Kpop was born in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a hybrid of Korean 트로트 trot, American hip hop, and Eurodance.

And as the decade continued, a certain template emerged: The tunes were catchy, the pop stars were unbelievably photogenic, and the performances were half athletic showmanship and half poetic-rage-feels that Koreans call 한 han.

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Culture Feature

BTS Speak Out Against Anti-Asian Hate, Share Their Experiences

The K-Pop stars are using their platform to contribute to a broader conversation on the discrimination that breeds hate crimes.

BTS arrives at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Jan. 26, 2020.

Jordan Strauss/AP/Shutterstock

K-Pop sensation BTS have added their voices to the concern around a recent spike in anti-Asian hate crimes in the US and elsewhere.

On Tuesday the band — who, along with their management company, donated $1 million to Black Lives Matter last summer — took to Twitter with the hashtags #StopAsianHate and #StopAAPIHate, sharing a message of unity and anti-discrimination, expressing "grief and anger" over violence and lives lost, and recounting some of their own experiences of anti-Asian racism.

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Music Features

History of Kpop Boy Bands: The Early 1990s

Many Kpop fans have heard of first-generation boy groups like H.O.T. and Sechs Kies. But even they stand on the shoulders of the 1980s and early 1990s boy groups that literally created Kpop as we know it today

When TIME Magazine awarded BTS the title of Entertainer of the Year 2020, no one was surprised.

For the past two years, BTS has dominated in a way the world hasn't seen since The Beatles. Perhaps it even seemed that BTS came out of the void, perfectly formed, an Adam given the spark of life by the God of all-that-is-swoon-worthy in pop music.

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Music Features

Good News for BTS ARMY — BTS Doesn't Have to Join the Army (Yet)

The newly passed "BTS Law" allows K-pop stars to defer mandatory military service.

Boyband BTS recognized for developing Korea's national culture

This week South Korea's National Assembly passed a law that is sure to have BTS ARMY cheering them on.

Generally speaking, all South Korean men are required to spend at least 18 months enlisted in the military, with the final cut-off for entry at age 28. But the new legislation — informally referred to as "The BTS Law" — will allow K-pop stars who meet certain requirements to defer until the age of 30.

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New Releases

Should BTS's YouTube Record for "Dynamite" Even Count?

BTS ARMY made sure the new single broke records—whether it was the group's best song or not.

BTS arrives at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Jan. 26, 2020. The South Korean boy band BTS HAS won a leading four awards including best song for "Dynamite" and best group at the MTV Europe Music Awards while Lady Gaga took home the best artist prizeMTV EMAs, Los Angeles, United States - 27 Jan 2020

Photo by Jordan Strauss/AP/Shutterstock

In April of last year, sensational K-pop girl band Blackpink broke a major YouTube record with the premiere of their music video for "Kill This Love."

The video garnered nearly 57 million views in its first 24 hours, narrowly edging out the record Ariana Grande had set several months earlier with her cringeworthy ex-smearing anthem "Thank U, Next."

But less than a week later, Blackpink's record was thoroughly smashed by the slightly more sensational K-pop boy band BTS with the video for their single "Boy With Love," featuring Halsey. The record that had taken more than 14 years of YouTube's slow, incremental growth to set, was—in a matter of days—surpassed by a wide margin.

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