By Amanda Moses
Over the past 20 years K-Pop, a form of popular music originating from South Korea, and Asian musicians as a whole, have taken mainstream media by storm breaking numerous Billboard Music and Guinness Records. In light of May being Asian American Pacific Islander Month (AAPI), the Spring Creek Sun has cultivated a list of K-pop groups and Asian artists who’ve broken through barriers, blazing a trail for younger artists to follow in their footsteps.
BTS, an acronym for Bangtan Sonyeondan or “Beyond the Scene,” debuted in 2013 and has become a global sensation, selling out concerts with its seven members: RM, Jin, SUGA, J-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook. They have broken record after record both as a boyband and in their solo careers. The Guinness Book of World Records reports that they are the most streamed group of all time on Spotify with over 16.3 billion streams in April, they have the most followers for a group on Instagram with 73+ million followers as of April, the most Twitter engagement of all time in 2017 with the most followers from a Korean account, and they became the first Korean group to reach number one on Billboard Album 200 chart for their album Love Yourself: Tear (it also broke the highest pre-order number and spent over 27 weeks on the chart).
Remarkably enough even through their solo careers they’ve topped the music industry (they had to take a temporary break as each member enlists in the Korean military for their required three years of services). In March, Jimin became the first Korean solo artist to make it to the top Billboard 100 chart reaching the number one spot in the United States and the first soloists to sell over 1 million copies in a day. In December 2022, RM broke the record for his album Indigo making it the biggest debut for a K-Pop soloists on Spotify, and Suga’s album Agust D D-Day released on April 21st and set the record for a rapper with the highest all-time first day sales in the world after more than one million records were sold.
BLACKPINK is a South Korean female group with four members: Lisa, Jisoo, Jennie, and Rosé, and are considered one of the most popular girl bands in the world. They have also made many notable record-breaking accomplishments such as being the first K-Pop girl group to perform at Coachella in 2019, their music video “How you like that” is noted on the Guinness records for most YouTube views in 24 hours (in three categories: content video, music video, and by a K-Pop group) with 88.63 million (beating BTS’ “Boy with Luv”). BLACKPINK is the most followed female group on Spotify as well as the most streamed on this platform (8,880,030,049 individual streams) and has the most YouTube subscribers.
Stray Kids, a South Korean Band with eight members: Bang Chan (the leader), Felix, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Seugmin, and I.N who broke into the scene after making it through a reality show (also called stray Kids) in 2017 with JYP Entertainment. This year during their world tour, Stray broke the record for most tickets sold by a K-Pop boy band in Australia. The band has two albums that made it to the Number One spot on the Billboard 200 list.
Jackson Wang on April 22nd became the first Chinese artist to take the mainstage at Coachella. Wang, born in Hong Kong, is a man of many talents working as a rapper, singer, dancer, record producer, fashion designer, and music video director. Formerly a member of the boy band GOT7, Wang came in at number 15 on Billboard 200 with his solo album, ‘Magic Man.’ Represented by 88rising, the label company became the first with an official performance slot showcasing eight artists in an 80-minute set “Head in the Clouds” featuring the first Indonesian solo performances by Rich Brian and NIKI.
