BTS named Time's 'Entertainer of the Year'

Although the boy band BTS is from Korea and most of their hits are sung in Korean, the wildly popular K-pop group is impacting Asian America.

Time writes: "For 28-year-old Nicole Santero, who is Asian American, their success in the U.S. is also a triumph of representation: 'I never really saw people like myself on such a mainstream stage,' Santero says. She’s writing her doctoral dissertation on the culture of BTS fandom, and she runs a popular Twitter account that analyzes and shares BTS data. 

“Anytime I’m awake, I’m doing something related to BTS,” she says. “This is a deeper kind of love.”

Even in this time of Covid-19 when concerts have been cancelled and large gatherings are discouraged, the group was able to introduce its first song performed in English, "Dynamite," which sprung into Billboard's No. 1. BTS' album containing the hit did the same. It was the first time in Billboard history that a group's song and album reached the No. 1 status in the same week.

Unless you've been living under a rock the last two years, you should know the members of BTS are: Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jungkook.

BTS's fans, dubbed the Army, sing along with the group -- in Korean -- even though they can't speak a word of Korean. They have followed and supported the seven-members' groups social activism. When the group gave $1-million to Black Lives Matter, Army followed suit matching their idols.

When Donald Trump insisted in holding a rally in Tulsa, OK, the Army reserved thousands of tickets under fake names making it seem like Trump would fill the arena venue to capacity only to have less than a third of his supporters showed up.

“There are times when I’m still taken aback by all the unimaginable things that are happening,” BTS member Suga tells TIME later. “But I ask myself, Who’s going to do this, if not us?”

It is hard to deny the effect the group has on young female teens. The young men -- all in their mid-20s, with their dance choreography, mops of hair in various colors, slim physiques is creating a new image for Asian American men, who have long suffered under the stereotype of the asexual, neutered Asian man.

Shedding the novelty aspect of an Asian group breaking through the American music scene, BTS has broken through the racial barriers In an industry dominated by American gatekeepers.

"@bts_twt isn’t just the biggest K-pop act on the charts. They’ve become the biggest band in the world—full stop. Between releasing multiple albums and breaking every type of record in 2020, BTS ascended to the zenith of pop stardo," tweeted Time.