This thread is incredibly amusing because it implies that kpop fans have never weaponized "western/intl popularity" as the Gold Standard of success as late as 2016-17 before BTS blew up. And please spare me the dramatics, we know this is about BTS. https://twitter.com/kyungthots/status/1037069452989353985

I remember hearing things about SNSD's YouTube award back in 2013 when I was barely in touch with kpop fandoms and on FB. EXO's unbeaten sales at home and abroad were making waves in 2015 on Twitter. The fans always touted this as something that made them intrinsically Superior.

Even when BTS were about to break into the Hot100 we had people arguing about which band had paved the way for them before people decided to settle on it being Wonder Girls, even though Nobody was literally released a decade earlier? Did that stop their fandom from claiming it?

Let's talk about SM artists, OP. The entire agency has been "exporting" kpop to the west since H.O.T. in the 1990s. They "exported" TVXQ to Japan, in a completely hostile environment, and left them until they went mainstream in there. Oh, does that not count as intl validation?

Then...what about YG attempting to debut CL in the west? What about him hyping BP's YouTube records - something that only Western fandom really, seems to care about? What about their collab with Dua Lipa? Blinks aren't proud of it, right?? They won't hold it over others, right?

BoA was releasing albums in Japan before some idols today had even been born. You think her fans don't constantly bring that up as an example of her achievements? I find it very strange that you focused on America, too - it's almost like there's one (1) artist who blew up there.

Hey, I could almost go back and check all the tweets in 2016 from vicious fans laughing at people who dared to believe BTS would ever win a daesang without any real international relevance - because "real" was China and Japan. America wasn't an option until they made it one.

Let's talk about industry corruption. We've had several instances of industries handing out rookie awards to popular groups, skipping over ones who deserved a chance - because their home fanbases weren't big enough, because they weren't privileged, bc they didn't sell.

Are you really surprised that people are focusing on ~WESTERN~ awards which seem to be considering fair votes instead of every single krn award show that has been sketchy throughout your fandom experience???

Are you really implying that it's "racist" even though people are rooting for KOREAN groups? Of course an international fan would want their favorites to be popular in their home country. How the fuck you got "racist" and "inferior" from that is unfathomable to me.

And it's not like every single other kpop group hasn't joined the bandwagon, like Korean media itself isn't going wild about kpop's sudden rise in popularity in the west spearheaded by BTS - like they aren't the ones giving it relevance too.

Suddenly your words feel...flat.

It's not like SM's managers aren't tweeting in English, making new accounts, actively trying to increase their groups' intl fanbases instead of focusing on Pure Korean promos. It's a good thing. It means people are opening up to kpop. That mentality isn't even remotely racist.

Instead of yelling about how considering a corrupt award show trash is racist Maybe start thinking about how kpop regularly appropriates other cultures and is antiblack and how it can be stopped. You know, actual racism.

People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.