BTS is OFFICIALLY BIGGER Than Bruno Mars & Katy Perry

BTS is officially ranked 19th on the greatest pop stars of the 21st century list by Billboard. Should they be that high or should they be higher? Recognized for breaking barriers in K-pop and boy bands while inspiring a global community through messages of positivity, love, and connection. Coming in at number 19, we've got BTS. Whoa, so this is Billboard ranking and not Next Shark, not some Asian site. This is Billboard. Whites. Whites. A lot of whites voted for this. Now, David, who did they rank above? All right, let's take a look, Andrew. 50 Cent. Are you surprised they even considered 50 Cent? Pop star? Come on, guys. He got shot nine times, guys. Alicia Keys, Billie Eilish. I was kind of shocked about that one. Cardi B. I didn't know she was a pop star. Carrie Underwood. I thought she was a country star. Chris Brown. I'm surprised he wasn't on the list, but let's be honest, we know why he's not on the list. He should probably be higher, but yeah. Christina Aguilera. She didn't have a hit since 06. Number 25, Andrew. This was controversial. Some people, I don't want to say who they were. Some people were mad at this. They ranked over Katy Perry, Ed Sheeran, Bad Bonnie, One Direction, Lil Wayne at 21. I didn't know Lil Wayne was a pop star either. Number 20, Andrew. This guy's had some massive, massive hits. Bruno Mars. Number 19, we've got BTS, but above BTS, Andrew, and the BTS army was a little bit mad about this, Andrew, because they haven't revealed everybody, was The Weeknd. Wow, guys. Above Katy Perry, One Direction, Ed, Bad Bonnie. Is that a little high for The Weeknd? I don't know. He's like a R&B guy. If you're adding in rappers as well, that means Drake's somewhere on the list up there. Anyways, guys, basically, this list is including pretty much any artist that had a pop hit in the 21st century. These are some huge names. For BTS to be ranked even at 19 is pretty high, but I think there's an argument that they should be higher. I guess we're going to talk about, David, the five impacts that BTS had, especially from an Asian guy perspective or an Asian-American perspective, at least, because I think that they're ranking heavily on impact, not just on views, right? Not just on number one hits, but- And I also do think they're going off time based on the Billboard Global 100, though. Right. How long have they been on the Billboard charts? Let's take a look at their number one songs, Andrew. Dynamite, Savage Love, Life Goes On, Butter, Permission to Dance, My Universe. Also, albums, Love Yourself, Love Yourself, Map of the Soul, Map of the Soul 7, B, and Proof. Yeah, and I want to say one other metric that they pointed out and another reason why BTS is so high is because they were saying how when they all went to have solo careers, people still checked out their solo careers. There's a lot of boy bands out there, even NSYNC, where really none of them, except Justin Timberlake, had a significant solo career. JC Chavez had one track. Not significant, man. No, you're right. The other people basically flopped as solo artists. Real quick, I just want to talk about how I interfaced with BTS over the past couple years, Andrew, because I don't fit into the typical ARMY demographic. However, I do remember, Andrew, J-Hope from BTS did a song with J-Cole, and J-Cole actually gave him a super good verse. Usually, American rappers give overseas artists very mid-tier verses. He gave him a super good verse, and here's J-Hope dancing at Delancey Street and Bowery Train Stop. Oh, a person with no connection. Andrew, this is BTS with President Biden for Stop Asian Hate. They did a music video at the White House, too. Not only that, Andrew, they're the first Asian artists to ever have a McDonald's celebrity meal. They debuted in America, not just the Asia market. Oh, yeah, man. By the way, Andrew, recently, RM, just this past week, released a song with Megan The Stallion, Andrew, where he said, yeah, me and Megan on the way for Asian man, we paved the way, and that's been generating some pros and cons lately on the internet from some people being mad, saying, hey, RM, why are you guys so cocky now? Well, hey, man, they are at the top of the world. They are number 19 for a pop artist. So, I guess, David, let's get into the list of why we think BTS is so significant. There's five main reasons why, and then we'll talk about what the comment section said, and maybe if our personal lives were affected by BTS, could that be? Hey, guys, make sure you like, subscribe, turn on your notifications, check out Smile Live Sauce on Amazon right now. Number one, Andrew, BTS broke so many barriers for Asian artists, whether they were Asian-American or from Asia-Asian, just phenotypically Asian, Andrew, in the Anglosphere. Billboard is based in America. American people, Andrew, are famous for not liking cultures that aren't basically American. Right, yeah. I mean, listen, guys, BTS, a bunch of Asian guys, some people are going to say that they look alike or they have similar hairstyles. Regardless, they are all very Asian-looking, undeniably Asian. Not even all of them are fluent in English. Yeah. Only RM is really very, very fluent, right? Yeah, and at the end of the day, it's not really about if every American down the street, like our neighbors, care about BTS. It's actually because they're just a global icon. They're globally killing it. Right. And do you feel like Bad Bunny is big for Spanish music? However, if you looked at Bad Bunny, Ricky Martin and Selena and J-Lo, Jennifer Lopez, had broken it for the Spanish market prior. Yeah, and guys, of course, there was K-pop groups before BTS. We understand that. There was girl groups and Wonder Girls. I mean, Blackpink, is Blackpink on this list? Would Blackpink be above? I doubt it. I think Blackpink is below BTS. Because this is a Billboard Anglosphere list. Honestly, 19 is pretty high for an Asian act, right? Yeah. But yeah, I doubt that Blackpink is higher than BTS. So they're probably not, I guess. Yeah. I mean, basically, long story short, Asians almost never get in the pop list. Yeah. I don't think they ever have. Actually, maybe since like way, way, way back in the day with Sukiyaki. Yeah. Point number two, David, BTS has really just exposed what an Asian guy is to a bunch of young fans across the world. And now those people have an image of an Asian man or an Asian person that is so different than generations before. So this is like representation. And this is like, what I'm saying is like, you know, when they do concerts in Mexico, or they did it in Brazil, UAE, France, Sweden. Hundreds of thousands of people showing up. Tens of thousands, at least, if not 50,000, whatever, 40. These are gigantic concerts. When would you have thought that a group of Asian men would be packing out a stadium of like 25, 30,000 people? Yeah. I mean, I guess the only thing that had penetrated those markets and was popular with Asian man was Goku with Dragon Ball Z, but that is not real. Right. And we're talking about, these are people who are coming to a concert to dance to the music. David, you know, the music that people dance to is very, very important. That affects how people feel about them. So when you're out in UAE and BTS is selling out concerts in UAE, in Sweden. Whoever is the snake charmer is, the Maracas touch the chakras. Yeah. Yeah. And it just influences them from a young age. And now our representation of an Asian person is so different. Yeah. Point number three, Andrew, inspiring other Asians to, on how they should view themselves. Yeah. And I think that this is not to overlook, oh, just the impact to non-Asians. Oh, non-Asians. What do non-Asians think about Asians? What do Asians think about Asians? You know, sometimes like when you're growing up in the West or anywhere, even you just like informed by the media to set the ceiling for yourself. Right. Yeah. And I want to be honest, David, not every Asian guy or Asian person feels like BTS affected their life super positively. Right. And that's okay. I don't think every person has to agree that, oh, BTS changed my life because I don't even know. Do you think BTS changed your life? Because you may have a more pop star silhouette than myself. I think more K-dramas affected me, if anything, of how maybe perhaps women may perceive Asian men. I think K-dramas affected the average Asian man more, but BTS are global stars because less people look like pop stars. Pop stars, they look like they have crazy styles. For the younger community, though, you don't know because you're not living the life of a... I'm not a young boy. I don't know. But you know, I'll tell you this. I think it's just inspiring because I know that when you see breakthrough artists that come from a similar culture or look like you, it's very inspiring because you're like, oh, people like me can do it. And you can't hit a target that you don't realistically feel like you can aim at if you're not ambitious enough. Point number four, Andrew, people follow all of their solo careers, which doesn't always happen. Like we said, Andrew, you've got Jungkook, RM, Suga, J-Hope, Jin, and Jimin, and V. David, these are the names of the members that people actually know. I'm just saying BTS might be the only one of the few groups that people actually know the names of the members, and they're not even the biggest fans. I think I said Suga wrong. It's Suga. Suga, yeah. I'm not even the biggest fan of BTS, right? I don't bump their music all the time, obviously, but I even can name off the top of my head pretty much all the members. Yeah, I think RM always stood out to me because I could actually listen to his interviews, and his voice is really deep. It's like, yeah, we paved the way for Asia, RM. And then you got Jungkook coming out there being real edgy with the denim jacket. Did that inspire you to craft your aesthetic for funkook? Funkook? Point number five, Andrew. Everything coming out of BTS was almost always positive. Very little negative things, maybe a few mishaps here or there, but nothing degenerate. Obviously, nothing like Seungri from 2PM. Oh my goodness, yeah. Obviously, no big scandals, you know? Just a couple like IG stories of some controversy. The Frank Ocean song from RM, right? Yeah, I mean, yeah, I don't really... Nothing really... Guys, they have been so positive, and this is why they rank that high, because they are really... Whether it's by design, you can say, oh, well, that's what is in their contract. They have to be positive. I think they're all nice people at their heart. They've only done positive things. They've tried to represent the best they could. Whether or not they are representing for your exact type of Asian or silhouette of Asian, or obviously, we all know very few Asian guys actually look like them in real life, but I'm saying the fact is they have always spread a positive message, which you cannot say for almost any other artist on that list. Right, they almost became like... I don't want to say like... I was going to say a religion or like a cult following, but it's not to that level, but I will say this. Point number... I'm just going to add this extra point, because I just thought of this. The army, the ability to organize people and mobilize them for different initiatives and things like that online is like unparalleled from any pop star prior. Yeah, and you're right, and I think that... Oftentimes, they're doing good things, right? No, it's usually all good for the most part. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if they've ever called their fans to do something bad. They never have. So I think we have to take all these into consideration and just be like, yo, BTS has been a positive force. Again, I know there's Asian guys out there who are like, oh, BTS... We're going to get into that. Let's take a look at the comments section. Somebody said, IMO, they deserve to be higher on that list. Their ability to claw out a space with the music, media, and arts has done a generation's work for inclusivity. BTS truly paved the way. Somebody else, I believe she's from Indonesia, said, why 19? White supremacy again, huh? And basically, I think that this is so crazy, Andrew, because people understand the world through the things that they're into, right? So for the first time, Andrew, the army, they're seeing their number one people that they love with all these billboard hits, but them sometimes not getting recognition or getting racism from like Western VJs, whether it was... You know what I mean? And not specifically America, but any Western country, right? So it's actually like a vehicle for people to understand like their place in the world because you have this Asian pop group trying to break into the Anglosphere that typically has rejected or not been fully into Asian things. So I think that that's what's fascinating about it. Somebody said, girls' generation should be there. Would you put it up there, Andrew? No, BTS is bigger. Okay. And this guy, let's go to your address, your comment, Andrew. Somebody said, also number one in making Asian men look less masculine. I know some people feel this way and we gotta address it because we're Asian guys. And I think that of anybody, Asian guys are gonna think this way because obviously the Asian guys who want to look masculine, who are like, oh, why do we have these skinny, flowy hair, like kind of like soft, like Asian guys representing us. And I'm like, that's not the only representation we have, but yes, I could see some guys feel this way, right? Right. I would say this, man. I think even guys from Korea could agree with you that K-pop is feminine, but they would just be like, yeah, but there's also more other guys that I could look at. Do you know what I'm saying? I'm saying if you're only looking at BTS as your only source of representation, I guess, and you're wrapping up all your expectations for every facet of your life into that, that seems kind of ridiculous. You got physical 100, just go look at that then. Yeah, also guys, I mean, no single pop group can make Asian guys look feminine if Asian guys look as feminine. You know, I'm not saying Asian guys look feminine. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying if they do and they look like them, then that's the reality. It's like, don't look like them then. No one's going to look at David, like no, you know, no offense here. No offense. I don't know if that many people look at you and be like, hey, are you part of BTS? I am offended. Like no one's going to like, and if let's say you're like, hey, I don't look the same way as BTS. It doesn't fully affect you because you don't look like them. Right, right. I look more like almost a mini version of that one big Korean dude from Marvel, Ma Dong-suk or whatever his name was. You mean the Badland Hunters on Netflix? The guy that... The huge guy with the huge head. You mean the Korean guy who does martial arts? He's a boxer and stuff? I don't know. Anyways. You would know better than me. I forgot. Anyway, guys, let me just get into my takeaways, man. I'll just say this. I think a shout out to BTS, man. For them to break the English speaking world is crazy. And for them to have their global fan base and bring that global fan base into the English speaking world, even though most of their songs are primarily in Korean, it's a huge accomplishment of the past 25 years. Yeah. And hey, guys, my takeaway is like, hey, if you feel like BTS makes you feel less masculine, then you must not be masculine. But isn't Jungkook a little bit more masculine? I feel like as his solo career developed, it was the most conventionally masculine. Yeah. It's one of those things where I feel like because they're popular, that they don't really affect you that negatively, I guess is my argument. My argument is that because they're a positive celebrity and they're famous for doing something good, that even if you don't relate to them or you think you're different than them, that it doesn't affect you and it doesn't change and hold you back on how the things you can do in life. Right. And also there's these great, if you want something that's like less pop, there's like these Korean R&B artists, Thama, Gemini. They're super good right now. Like, yeah, it's great. I don't even understand what they're saying, but it's just great music. Yeah, there's not only BTS out there and there's also K-dramas, there's C-dramas. I think, maybe, David, this is another video that K-dramas and C-dramas do more for the average Asian guy than pop music does. Yeah. But I think that if you were in elementary school or something like that, maybe for sure it would be BTS. Hey, guys, we gave our reasons. You give your reasons down below, man. Let us know. I mean, how impactful was BTS? Their career is not even over yet and they're already at 19. Who knows? No, they're coming out of the army now because they all had to go in to do mandatory military service for two years. So now they're one by one coming out. They back and went through training. You know what I would love to see? I'd love to see them come back, take over the global game again. But yeah, now they've got all the weapons training, the hand-to-hand combat training. Maybe make it a little bit more because they're all actually hip-hop dancers and rappers at their core. So let's bring even more of that in. Oh, what if they kind of come back BTS hard? That J-Hope, J-Hope song is really good, man. It is. It is good. All right, guys, let us know what you think in the comments down below. And until next time, we out. Peace.