K-Pop group BTS' popularity is getting bigger in the U.S., where the band has recently made it to the Billboard 200, at number 171, outselling the YouTube king PSY.
The seven-member act BTS has released their latest album "The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Pt. 2" last Nov. 30, and according to Billboard, it has already sold 5,000 copies. The numbers cover traditional album sales, track-equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming-equivalent albums (SEA) which Billboard uses to generate the weekly charts of most popular albums.
Further to the Billboard report, the new album of BTS starts at rank 98 on Monday on Top Current Albums, a ranking of best-selling albums (all genre) based on sales data. Billboard added that BTS ranking in the top 200 is a notable achievement because for the first time, another K-Pop group -- that is not under the two biggest record labels in South Korea, YG Entertainment or SM Entertainment -- has made it to the charts. BTS is under BigHit Entertainment.
Fuse TV has the same sentiment that BTS achievement in the U.S. is significant. "Here is an act that does not sing in English and did not promote their album at all in America cracking the chart. In today's music industry, it's not a guarantee for English-speaking artists with a huge amount of hype and press to chart on the Billboard 200," the outlet wrote, "so the boy band must be connecting with U.S. audiences in a unique way."
"A big part of that connection could be the band's unapologetic exploration of social topics, and challenging societal norms that most K-pop acts choose not to approach," Fuse TV further said.
Meanwhile, PSY has also released a new album on Dec. 1 but did not make to the Billboard 200. Back in 2011, his "Gangnam Style" reached as high as number 2 in the chart.
