BTS

BTS, a major export of South Korean popular culture, a band that in itself constitutes around half a percent of the country's entire economy, a motivator for hundreds of thousands of people to start learning Korean.

I started learning Korean because of BTS.

This is when music becomes a game changer for a whole nation. While states can adopt different kinds of strategies to gain influence outside their borders, the most effective of all may possibly be through soft influence like cuisine, architecture, beauty, films, music, pop stars, and their fandoms. And South Korea has been doing so much of it that the Oxford dictionary even coined a term for it: Halu, which refers to the increase in global popularity of South Korean culture.

It's no wonder so many people around the world have caught the Korean wave. How you from the extraordinary hit Gangnam Style, which became the first YouTube video to achieve 1 billion views, to the roaring success of television series Squid Game, the list goes on with the global phenomenon of BTS arguably being by non-taught.

Foreign, although the band released their first album in 2013, they were able to perform their first Asian concert outside of Korea the next year, and then their catchy lyrics broke into international music markets.

BTS's influence became more tangible as more people started learning Korean because of their love for the band. Reports indicate that over 300,000 kids have learned Korean with BTS, were sold in 30 different countries in one single year, not to mention the other online sources that offer Korean language courses inspired by BTS.

The K-pop band did not only play a role in shaping the country's perception and taking Korean contemporary culture global, but it is also a major contributor to South Korea's economy. The band's popularity has led to higher sales of Korean goods and services. BTS generates 5 billion dollars of revenue annually through their album sales, concert tickets, and social media. Its YouTube channel alone is set to generate up to 2 million dollars a month. And when the band announced they were taking a break last June, the share price of the agency that manages them went into free fall and lost over a billion dollars in market value.

Their fans say their songs hit close to home and tackle issues that they as young people can relate to, like mental health, individualism, troubles of school-aged youth, and the journey towards self-love.

BTS's philanthropic campaigns have also boosted the band's popularity. The band has partnered with UNICEF since 2017 to help end violence and promote self-esteem and well-being through the Love Myself campaign. They donated one million dollars to the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 and asked their fans to match their donation and became advocates for sustainable development and climate action.

Moreover, the boy band, seven members, were designated as special presidential envoys for future generations and Korean culture. BTS's members have given speeches across the world. They were also at the White House, where they addressed racism against Asians during the pandemic.

Last August, the K-Pop group became the most viewed YouTube music artist in history, overtaking Justin Bieber with more than 26 billion views across all their official channels.

However, there are concerns about the dark side of the K-pop industry and its influence on youth. These concerns range from mental health issues to harsh diets some of the band's members had to go through in order to appear handsome and skinny. It's also said that the band's members have to go through years of intensive training, which causes them an enormous amount of stress.